Good morning, John!
Let's have this conversation. I feel like
I've recently decided I just
wanna have lots of really tough
conversations on VlogBrothers. Let's, let's take these...
let's face it head on! John, I have a problem. And its name
is meat. Let's get this out of the way, there's definitely
some conflict going on between, uh, the vegetarians,
vegans of the world, and the rest
of the world. I'm gonna talk about why I think that is in this
video and I'm gonna start with the fact that vegetarians
are....right. Yes,
animals raised for food do not have nice
lives and even if they did they would still
be killed in the prime of their lives so that
I could have a tasty snack. Yes, the amount of
food eaten by animals who will
later be eaten is massive. And so as
more people eat meat, more land has to be put
under cultivation. Yes, livestock contribute
massively to climate change and are a primary
reason for deforestation. And, yes, most
people don't need to eat meat to be healthy.
And there are reasons both ways, like more than a
billion people make at least some of
their living from livestock. You don't wanna
take all of those peoples' livelihoods away all at once.
But as the global population grows as the
global economy grows, it is very difficult
to argue that vegetarianism is not
a good thing. Basically, the important
thing here is vegetarianism allows more
people to have more food with less impact.
It's good. And so, when someone
tells me that I should be a vegetarian or leaves a
comment on a video asking me how do I
justify eating meat, I have no
recourse but to say that they are right and that
I am wrong, but that I will continue
eating meat because I'm the kind
of person who has a hard time controlling
myself, and it's hard
enough not to eat a half a bag of
Oreos for breakfast. Now my personal willpower
aside, there's a fundamental conflict going on here.
I live in a society where eating meat is normal
and being a vegetarian is not. It's Montana,
you guys, like, there are places in America
where vegetarianism is very normal; this is
not one of them. But there's a difference between acting in accordance
with society's expectations, which will
very rarely get you criticised
and is definitely the easy thing to do,
and actually living in a way that is
best for the future
and for people and for all of the
organisms on the planet. And that's the reality
of meat-eating. It is a thing that I don't
need to do, but I do,
despite the fact that it makes the world worse
for current animals and future
people. This is a big one for our society,
but there are lots of examples of this, like
I've always found it a little bit immoral
that I spend money on things
that are not necessary like Coca-
Cola, and flying to San Francisco,
and that fifth ticket to The Force
Awakens, when there are people dying of
preventable diseases. I do those things
instead of giving that money to Save the Children for the
same reasons that I eat meat: because it's easier,
it's simpler, I like them,
and I'm not perfect. But it's also more than that,
like, acting in accordance with
society, to a certain extent,
isn't just the easy thing to do,
it's also, kinda, the only
thing to do. I've experienced this, you can only
do so much breaking with culture
before you become extremely
uncomfortable. It's very hard to
find self-worth, it's very hard
to find connection... Like imagine
if every time I saw someone buy a
Coca-Cola, I, like, mumbled under my breath,
like, "You know, there are people dying of preventable
diseases." I would not have a lot of friends.
So why are people annoyed by vegetarians? Because
they have the audacity to work extremely
hard to live in accordance with their values.
And because those values conflict
with the values of society at
large. People don't want to be told that the way that they live
their lives and the things that they enjoy
are making the world less good; especially
when you got other stuff
to worry about. But look, as frustrating
as I'm sure both sides can
find this at times, this cultural conflict is
not a bad thing. I honestly believe that we're on our
way to a better, brighter future, and 200 years
from now, people will think it's
ridiculous that we ate meat
the way that we do. There's no reason not to
appreciate vegetarians for working very
hard to live in accordance with their values, and I
completely understand their desire to convert
me and other people to their cause, to
have us eat less or no meat,
so I am thankful for you, all of you people
who tell me to not eat meat. And, yet,
I am going to continue eating
less, but not no meat,
because it's easier,
it's simple, I like it,
and I'm not perfect. John,
I'll see you on Tuesday.