This is my advice to vegans.

and so when we have conversations with people at veganism I guess the imperative isn't to offload lots of information on to them because information can be heavy and sometimes isn't always productive III view these conversations is more been a way or a manner in which we can spark just a Fault in someone's head to make them question themselves and that's what's really wonderful about the Socratic method is because the onus is our new asking questions always asking questions it allows the person who's speaking tea to understand themselves better and understand how they feel better I fundamentally believe that veganism isn't isn't it's not it's not something you have to give someone right with the morals and philosophy freakin ism isn't it's something that someone has to be given there's so many just have to rediscover in themselves now we all hate animal cruelty I've never met anyone that Joy's animal cruelty even people that can make acts of cruelty to animals I've never met anyone that actually relishes in that I mean of course people do exist like that unfortunately but the vast majority of people are staunchly against animal cruelty and also staunchly against the destruction of our environment coincidentally or a surprise surprise and so that that's the foundation is there being against the suffering of non-human animals and of course humans as well and so if that's the the values that we preach and we live by always should live by then actually vegan ISM is it something new to sew on it's about rediscovering what they already know within themselves and that's where asking questions is so fundamental and so powerful because it allows someone to understand themselves better the things we were raised in cultures and their families were values and beliefs and moral systems are dictated to us and we don't really actually scrutinize or think through how we feel we just merely adopt what we've always done and what we're told is normal within the context of the cultures that were raised in which is really dangerous when you think about it because cultural practices and traditional practices are sometimes incredibly oppressive and horrendously archaic and transgressive you know a lot of this the progress we've made as a society is because we challenged preconceived norms and values and so veganism is exactly that it's challenging preconceived norms but we've never scrutinized that within ourselves which is why most of us live in this state of hypocrisy or cognitive that's right we're just to find something that goes against how we feel and what we preach cognitive dissonance really powerful psychological concept but the Socratic method is a great way of getting through that because people can understand themselves better like I see when we have these conversations it's almost like we're being that voice in someone's head you know that that kind of nagging voice we get that's always trying like trip us up and we're when we scrutinizing and it's like ask those difficult questions and sometimes we just want to ignore it well I see us as been the facilitator of that annoying little voice that you sometimes get in your head that won't shut up asking you difficult questions making you feel uncomfortable I think we probably all had that when we were on our way to veganism that bit where we we kind of knew we should do it right but kind of didn't want to but we just couldn't stop thinking about it and no matter what we said to ourselves that voice was still there telling us we should do it I had that where I was just like I really don't want to do it but this voice was like well you know you've got to you know and I was like come on and it was like no no no no I'm gonna stay here until you change so I think that's what we are that voice and so what people ask is stuff they never have to justify it and so what I mean but as people will say well you know I don't want to be vegan okay well why why and then have to say well you know other animals eat other animals I think well why does that make a difference and I think this this this this the simple word why is so wonderful because it really encourages people to actually think about the arguments that they're making people just use a hug units all the time whether ever having to actually rationalize it or explain the argument that they're using and so it was almost like that that kind of petulant child you know like Oh who's always asking a parent why why why and the parent is like for goodness sake I don't know okay just because and that's that thing we are like a petulant child is wants to keep why but why but why does this make a difference you know why does the fact that you know we've always done this make and make a difference that why encourages people to think deeper and deeper and deeper because the deeper they go the more illogical they actually become and so this asking questions is a wonderful form of just encouraging people to understand themselves and then get to know their moral code I guess deeper than it actually is five all right deeper than that actually is and so let me apply that like a practical sense what does that look like because what I think about before we were vegan I think like most probably were encouraged by documentaries maybe maybe videos online any studies but I think it wasn't like an overload of information that got us there I think office often it's that the subtleties in what we hear or what we see that encourages the change it's just the most obvious stuff not that the complexities of science that encourages us is sometimes the most basic stuff and so people will often justify things by saying we know humane slaughter is a great example right well you know I think it's okay to kill animal if it's done in a humane way and so we could say well you know that's not true because now an animal doesn't have to die and I think it's cruel then to do that but maybe a more effective thing to say would be like well what does humane mean to you because again we used we use these terms in these words and we use them so broadly and we have to get people to define what they mean by these words so ask well what does the word humane mean to you and then they'll probably saying like oh you know killing the animal would without pain or something you say well what about like an objective form like an objective definition you know what would the synonyms be what would you know if we opened a force or as' and we looked for the words humane what other words would be there alongside it I don't care what compassion benevolent serve course in there nigo okay well then you know can we kill an animal in a compassion or benevolent way if they don't have to die and if they don't want to die I don't think anyone could could say that we could do that compassionately and you go well if it can't be compassionate can it be humane and it and it's this kind of a cycle of questioning that hopefully you get someone to be like well well no but then they've realized that within themselves and what I really like about this is people can't get angry at you then right because you're merely asking them and there are answering how they feel well they can't get angry at you because they've expressed how they feel and I think a lot of the time that anger and frustration people feel of vegans is when they feel like they're being judged firstly and also when they're when they feel like they're being told what to do and they're being told that they're bad people are told that they're living in it immoral way but that the beauty of asking some questions is we never actually tell them how we feel now of course in some conversations we're going to express ourselves a little bit and it's okay to to say something it's a little bit more factual base of a fact based but as asking as many questions as possible just it leads people to get into the conclusion in a way that they don't feel judged to do so because it's just something they've learned within themselves and another example you could say is no are you against animal cruelty you know everyone's going to say of course I'm against animal cruelty okay well to find out what cruelty means you know I think most people will say well you know it's inflicting harm unnecessarily you know that word unnecessarily is important and you go well is it necessary for us to kill animals in slaughterhouses and eat them I think we can all agree that it is and most people will say no somebody might say you have protein or iron and then you say what can you get protein from plants and nearly everyone is going to say yes and you go well if it's not a necessity then then surely to take the life of an animal for food is unnecessary as you've stipulated which therefore in your vision of the word cruelty means that it is an act of Cruelty which means that you're against animal cruelty but by your own admission you perpetuate systems that you define as being cruel to animals and that's a other some people that have cost right because that's my definition of cruelty and you've just applied that back to me I think that's really I like that I really like but it's not just about language of course because the Socratic language is Socratic dialogues by asking questions but it's also about body language and I think confidence is really important when we talk to people not being overly confident and cocky but having a form of confidence where we feel like we we grasp what we're talking about that's what I mean by that is how we perceive ourselves how we open ourselves up and so with we're really closed off and we're like you know got a hands clenched you know there's a very aggressive sign body language right and it creates like a lot of friction so we need to make sure that we're kind of open you know and if we open our arms of it suggests vulnerability and Trust and I think that's really important as well because the person was speaking to has to have an element of trust with us language is important I used to use lots of accusatory language I also have a problem where when I start to get angry my finger comes out I start pointing alright this is like my one thing like you can see it in some videos I start to get rattled right and then this fingers that I've got to like just curl it back in again right so maybe we all have these little behaviors that we do that suggests we're a bit on edge where's the finger so be careful with things like that but also be careful of language I used to use a lot of like use your doing this it's your fault you you know you're killing animals you you you but actually if we use words like we an hour rather than you in your it creates a sense of you know not isolation I'm not blaming but a sense of collective responsibility now of course we're holding the individual responsible but there's also a collective liability and so I wasn't well Regan I'm sure most of us weren't if you were that's wonderful but most us probably weren't and so at some point we were involved in those systems of violence and we were you know perpetuating what was happening to the animals and using we and our is kind of like a humbling way of accepting that responsibility but also shown that there isn't this tension you know this isn't this friction it's not we're not accusing you even though it is them doing it it's not just their fault there's a whole mechanism in place that's led up to this point so you know when we buy a little products we're responsible for what happens to animals in slaughterhouses you know we have a responsibility to look at our actions it is our fault what's happening to the planet and the animals you know not you and not your I think that that definitely goes a long way and I think with that body language aspect keeping somewhat calm is definitely fundamentals that know if someone's been you know slightly cheeky with you or slightly passive-aggressive it's okay to meet them a little bit right you don't have to get you know stay like meek and ultimately calm you can even press yourself a little bit but I think the general rule of thumb is to seem just very relaxed and become as much as we possibly can and sometimes we're gonna get angry sometimes we're going to get overly emotional sometimes we might not feel confident and comfortable and we might leave a conversation feeling frustrated but that's okay right they were not always going to be writing we're not always going to get perfect we can just keep learning and keep striving and keep going and so Socratic method ask questions lots and lots of questions help people understand how they actually feel why they feel this way make people rationalize and analyze their actions like they've never done before because they and give people the benefit of the doubt because people aren't bad because they do bad things you know so what isn't holy a bad person because they buy a lot more products so they hunter good and bad is so hard to define and good people do bad things and bad people do good things and so we can't categorize someone as being wholly bad because they do bad things right I think that's really important remember that we used to be this person I used to use the free-range argument all the time I used to laugh and say bacon I used to be that person right no I'm not because I changed and I learned so remember the people they're not bad people we used to be like them and also remember that there's a whole system that is created these mindsets in people you know when someone walks past footage of pigs be killed me and they shot bacon right it's a terrible thing that they've done but there's a whole there's a whole system behind them that's pushed them to that point so that could be social pressure you know the expectation of eating meat to be masculine or showing little empathy to be masculine there's social stigma that they feel that they have though with their friends they want to perpetuate that and make themselves seem manly maybe they're actually upset by what they see and they don't want to admit that because that would seem weak in their eyes and so they overcompensate by trying to make it funny okay there's that there's also that cultural aspect this is where they're being raised there's also that family aspect of how they're raised maybe their families used to laugh at people so I think we have to see past the excuses that people use and try to understand and it's like when if you do like debating master classes I workshops in university or whatever often one of the things they'll get you to do is is debate the opposite of how you feel they debate the opposite to what you believe and that's a very uncomfortable thing because we don't want to debate in favor of killing animals or exploiting animals but that's actually a really powerful thing to do because by doing that we learn their arguments better we can also empathize with their arguments better not to agree with them but to understand them and if you're understanding them we can respond better and we can also stay more calm because we get the process and after these processes are on the surface very logical you know that whole like what would we do of all the animals if we went vegan that's actually really really logical you think about like you know if you've never explored the idea bull what would we do the animals logical on the surface but illogical when you think about the practicalities of it and I think that's what a lot of these excuses are seem logical on the surface to the people saying them but they just need to be given that backstory that you know the reasoning why is not logical and is nonsensical and they're okay I've talked for a while I said lots of different things the time has gone I ignored it parallel it's just like one minute I think people often when they feel guilty is when they say the most hurtful things because they want to they want to distance themselves from the guilt as much as possible and so I think that's what happens a lot of people as they say that and the reason they're saying that is because they know it's hurtful and they know that it is probably the most upsetting things they can say is well I just you know I love how it tastes but I think actually that one is an interesting one because a response would be well do you think I mean the taste or the enjoying us and then justifies what happens right you know I like how meat tastes too much together but what do you think that matter of it is it good enough reason to justify what happens to animals you know most people will be like no some people say yes right and if they say yes you just say well what you're actually saying therefore is that sensory pleasure justifies what we do to others right that's the moral justification you're making sensory pleasure taste is a sense I find it enjoyable the sensory pleasure and that really I think psychologically that belittles the argument a lot right it's sensory because it makes it seem so trivial which it is but also you say well if you're using sensory pleasure isn't is an argument didn't have to apply that to other scenarios like has to be applied somewhat you know you you big purchase leads you know to other environments you know do you say well dis sensory pleasure and more you justify notion most people are going to say no if they say no you go what they're there for taste isn't a good at justification if they say yes you go well okay can you name some other examples where an impressive feels sensory pleasure at the expense of a victim we can all think of them get them to say what they are and then you say what is that moral is that justified because of sensory pleasure no of course not okay so then then the jury pledged in their justification but just say just does the enjoying of something justify the consequences of it yeah I think unless you're that you even got a sociopathic friends or you've got disingenuous friends right sociopathic is a problem no but disingenuous isn't a problem you know people will be people will lie and be disingenuous all the time to justify something and so even if they say yes it does that their line you know they are and they just need to get them to but that again sometimes people are going to say something we don't want to hear sometimes people gonna get angry so most people are gonna try and belittle us blah blah but they're thinking about it and that's the important thing you know and even if it is someone that has it says that's thing to you oh I enjoy taste it too much it's come from a place where they're having to think about it so it's a good thing you know because you've raised the point or you've had a vegan option you've said oh look there's this new vegan product now behind whatever and they've said that but they've said that for a reason that's because they've had a fault and they'd probably try to suppress that force was all good it's all good mostly mostly it doesn't feel like it but it can be but just ask them right no does the enjoy with something just the fact that what happens and then if it does sensory pleasures the justification they're making which you can't you can't end up actually agreeing with if you take it further and further yeah good question [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Earthling Ed

Views: 164,950

Keywords: earthlinged, earthling ed, vegan, veganism, why, be, go, earthlings full movie, activism

Id: _4-WVa7LcY8

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020