I ask this in good faith, and I do not mean to bring about struggle sessions with this question (keep it civil, please :). I'm writing a sort of mini-essay on a certain topic (Edit: not anymore, I lost my writing appetite), and veganism fits into that topic (I'm keeping it vague because I'll probably post it here and I don't want to spoil the whole thing). If people are on the fence and others want to know more about what Veganism is and why they should consume in that way, I would be grateful if others more experienced and well-read on the subject could provide resources or counter-reasons. I feel like a lot of the things I believed before going vegan turned out to be misconceptions, and it doesn't hurt to be more educated on a subject, right?
Edit: I need to take a break from the internet again, if my brain wasn't fried already it is now (not anything any of you started, I brought this upon myself)
I'm rather confused.
This statement:
Are you saying this is what vegans believe or it's what you believe? I think eating all of those are bad things, period, and I'm a vegan. The statement you put before "the line that vegans draw around the animal kingdom is mostly arbitrary" makes it rather ambiguous though.
Not three same person, but the demarcation between what should be OK to eat, and what - not - they baked most sense to me, is the capacity to experience pain or emotions.
So I see no substantial moral difference between eating plants or invertebrates, for example - neither can feel harm.
That said, fish and chicken can experience pain or emotions the same as cows and pigs.
octopodes have capacity to feel pain and likely experience emotion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6K1kVUct24
OK. They have a brain to feel them with. If you're objecting to imprecise terminology here, I'll give you the point, but I don't think that affects my basic point any (I'm not a biologist, I meant insects and the like - though don't take that as definitive either; maybe someone knows an insect with a brain, too).
Insects also have brains. Some arachnids have the capacity for fairly complex cognition (e.g., the portia spider's hunting behaviors, jumping spiders communicate with eachother and in my opinion, engage in playful behavior).
The issue isn't with your terminology, but rather with what it reveals about the imprecision/inconsistency of your reasoning on these matters.
If you're going to draw a line at eating beings that can feel the harm done to them by eating, it might serve you to explore that boundary more thoroughly.
That phrase describes the lines I draw in my personal consumption of animals. I said previously that vegans don't eat animals.
Then that means that your lines are abitrary; not vegans' lines.