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Comment by intarga | Hacker News Reader

I'm not arguing for veganism here, but your reasoning seems very flawed.

If being born and raised for slaughter makes that slaughter justified, then would it be ok to kill and eat humans if they were born and raised for that purpose? This argument doesn't hold water.

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Humans and animals are not equal. It's simple as that.

According to our laws humans have some rights by just being a human. Some animals have rights only because humans like them. Cockroaches have no rights because humans don't like them. Bear which killed human have no rights and will be killed to prevent more deaths, because humans don't like him. Cute kitten have a lot of rights because people like him and will be angry if they find out that someone tortures that cute kitten. Nobody will be angry if some kid tortures cockroach. It'll be disgusting, but that's about it.

> Humans and animals are not equal. It's simple as that.

I don't disagree, but if that's the argument, then make that argument, instead of nonsense about being raised for slaughter.

> According to our laws humans have some rights by just being a human.

Being human means you can plan things out and recall the passage of time by sharing stories. Language and higher thought make us peculiar in that regard; they give us a past and a future, which is why you're destroying something if you end a human being's life early.

For a similar reason, we have rules against causing suffering that apply to animals that can suffer.

That situation could not occur, for several reasons: - You do not want other human to do that to you, so you do not do that to them. This is the same reason why murder is frowned upon in societies - Humans are animal, and you have a natural empathy towards other human beings. In addition, there would be sexual appetite for the captive, people falling in love etc. which would lead to very problematic situation - Humans seem very dangerous and inefficient to raise for food, they could rebel, and it takes foverer to get from a baby to an adult (comparing to a chicken for instance).

I'm pretty sure we would not farm cows if cows were as intelligent and threatening as us and took 15 years to become adult, we would just exterminate them because they would be a threat, or make a peace treaty, just like human societies do.

It's the not the nurture of the thing but the nature of the thing. It's not that the animal was raised to be slaughtered, but that it was "made" to be slaughtered, if you choose to believe that.

If I had to try to explain it, I think it's either people have internalized hierarchies about nature "hard wired" intuitively and/or also passed down by culture, where animals like livestock are "meant" to be food. I don't know nearly enough about anything to speculate on which if either is the case.

I'm not stating that as fact, or that it's a good thing, only that's what I've observed. Humanity seems to be predisposed to this kind of "you're made to do this", and it's definitely not always good or ethical.

But I don't think that it's "inconsistent", if that's what you believe. Unethical, maybe, but not inconsistent.

Obviously it wouldn't be okay to birth and raise humans for the sole purpose of consumption. That's why you don't see humans being raised for consumption.

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