this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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Meat and dairy consumption are a big factor, but they're just symptoms of a larger problem, which is capitalism. Artificial scarcity makes people money, as do the meat and dairy industries. We should all be going after corporations and lobbyists, not individuals. Not that your comment came across as an attack, personal changes can be good, but they're a drop in the massive wasteful bucket, just like carbon emissions and single use plastics. Just a distraction from the real issue.
Continuing to eat animals does create a pretty big conflict of interest tho, it's a lot harder to be motivated to stop animal agriculture while you still use it. (Same can be said of fossil fuels, although outside the maga crowd it's less common for people to have such strong emotional attachments to them, and the alternatives are much less controversial. It's also a lot more feasible to stop eating animal products now than it is to stop using fossil fuels now)
If we "go after" corporations and lobbyists, the individuals who buy their products will defend them.
We can't effectively fight factory farming when meat eating individuals demand politicians protect their hamburgers.
We can't effectively fight Big Oil when individual drivers demand politicians give them cheap gas and wider roads.
We can't effectively fight plastic production when individual customers demand plastic straws and bags and disposable everything.
The idea that we can change capitalist society from the top down is a fiction designed to lull the individual consumer into a state of mindless consumption. You can keep driving and eating meat and throwing away bag after bag of plastic, without guilt, because they tell you your individual choices don't matter. You can continue living your unsustainable lifestyle and buying everything the capitalist machine sells, because you're voting for the right politicians, and that means you're doing your part.
Come on.