Dec 15 2008
About Libertarian Vegan
My name is Gregory T. Janetka, and I am 26 years old. As the title shows, I am a libertarian (I prefer the term “classic liberal” but even fewer people know what that is than “libertarian”) and a vegan - both of which are very important to me.
It seems common sense to me that everyone should be allowed to live their lives exactly as they desire, as long as they do not injure the person or property of another. I do my best to create the least amount of harm that I can in this world, as we are drowning in plenty of suffering already.
To that end, one of the easiest ways to prevent suffering is to stop eating meat. There is simply no nutritional reason to consume the flesh of other creatures. While I certainly do not agree with most of Jeremy Bentham’s political views, I believe it got it perfect when he said of slaughtering animals - “The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but, ‘Can they suffer?’
It is my belief that you should be able to take part in every single part of the process that your food takes to get to your plate. Thus, for example, if you cannot raise a cow, kill it, butcher it and then cook it up, you should not eat it. If you can, well, go for it. But I think that would put you in an extremely small minority.
We must stop lying to ourselves.
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It comes to my attention that many do not necessarily see libertarianism and animal rights as compatible. I ask you to consider the following -
According to libertarian philosophy, violence and force are only to be used in cases of self-defense and survival. Slaughterhouses cannot exist without horrible violence and force. There certainly is little threat to your life from cows/chickens/pigs. These animals are killed everyday for us to eat, but we do not even pretend that they were slaughtered out of self-defense.
Survival then? It has been clearly showed that there is absolutely no nutritional need for humans to eat animals. The only nutrient that cannot be had in adequate amounts in a plant-based diet is B-12, yet a synthetic version, cyanocobalamin, is easily produced and found in most fortified foods.
All Libertarians know YOU CAN’T USE VIOLENCE OR FORCE JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT SOMETHING. End of story. Unless the animal dies naturally, then all meat comes from force and violence, and thus does not fit into the peaceful philosophy of libertarianism.
