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this video is a true story yesterday I
went to McDonald's to buy a drink but
the drink came with no plastic straw I
said to the cashier sorry does this come
with a straw
they said sorry we don't use plastic
straws why because McDonald's wants to
protect the environment so they banned
the use of plastic straw this surprised
me because I looked around and saw that
spoons are still made of plastic the
cover of that same drink was still made
of plastic and McDonald's were still
selling meat that is responsible for a
15% of greenhouse gas emissions
15% so why do they care so much about
plastic straws but not everything else
the answer to that turns out is called
selective
this is a problem that all humans suffer
from we selectively care about one thing
yet we do not care about another
for example plastic we hear about
plastic straws because we see a turtle
that was hurt by one but we don't care
about all the other plastic that tossed
the death of millions the same company
that wants to save Turtles is
responsible for the death of millions of
other animals every year
this is selective empathy in animals we
care about some animals but not others
when the Chinese eat dog meat many
Westerners were horrified yet the same
people go home and enjoy a nice beef
stick we feel empathy for a dog but we
don't feel it for a camp that's why a
slaughterhouse worker can kill thousands
of cows every day and go home to pet
their dog
humans all humans are created equal but
do we care about them equally some
humans we relate to more so we care
more this is selective empathy in action
is I am guilty of it I personally felt
devastated by the death of one
journalist by Saudi Arabia but I didn't
feel devastated by the death of
thousands of people right nearby in
Yemen why is that a single death is a
tragedy a million deaths is a statistic
this is a sad world and unfortunately
it's true as i sat there drinking my
McDonald's drink with no straw
surrounded by meat and more plastic I
couldn't help but ask myself do we
really care about plastic about animals
about humans or do we only care about
some plastic some animals and some
humans this is a question worth asking
no matter how uncomfortable it is to
answer saving one plastic straw is good
but caring about the actual problem is
even better
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