I was on the bus coming home from school. I'd shared a seat with this girl on a few other occasions when the bus was packed. I happened to mention not eating meat in passing (I can't even remember why now) and she seemed to get really annoyed, instantly, and completely abandoned our previous conversation to rant about how veganism is stupid and not needed and she'd lived on a farm her whole life and ... well you know how it goes. Anyway, here's what I remember of the conversation ... not word for word, obviously, but pretty close!
Her: What the hell made you want to do it anyway?
Me: Because I don't believe it's ethically justifyable to exploit animals.
Her: But we need it to survive.
Me: I'm alive, aren't I?
Her: .... Well ... if we didn't eat animals, they'd be over-populated.
Me: No, because if we didn't eat animals, we wouldn't breed them for the purpose or eating them and there'd be no over-population.
Her: Well ... let me think.
Me: Besides, it's not like the animals are ours to own.
Her: You have a heap of pets though!
Me: I don't "own" my animals, they're part of my family. I love them.
Her: But you still control what they can do.
Me: It's the same with parents and their children.
Her: They eventually get free-will though.
Me: Not always. Special children don't.
Her: But that's not-
Me (I cut in loudly): Would you eat a special kid?!
... so the rest of the bus heard that last bit and laughed a bit, then I had to get off the bus. I don't usually let it get to me but this infuriated me - those arguments are so old, and it takes 10 minutes on Google (or in your own mind, for shit's sake!) to figure out why animal exploitation is wrong.
Anyway ... that's my rant. I don't know if people usually do this ... I'd do it in my blog, but not a lot of people who read it would understand.
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