The Least Fractious Thoat

Well if you'd just

I am simply and passionately Done with people telling other people that what they do to survive is unethical.

The argument is always based in "alternatives" that not everyone has.

"Just eat plant-based foods:" because those are freely and cheaply available everywhere? Because grain, fruit, and vegetable farming isn't exploitative of sentient beings or the environment? Because you can overcome your allergies and aversions if you care enough about cows?

"Just get a better job:" because jobs that pay a living wage are just lying around for the taking? Because being trafficked is a choice? Because things like "eating" and "not dying of exposure" can wait until you convince someone to pay you for something you're not ashamed to do?

"Just don't give money to--" yeah, okay, sure. A handful of vast conglomerates own everything on earth. Even if you can live naked in a field eating nothing but organic native grasses (which, more power to you), you're still going to have to pay taxes to a corrupt government.

"No ethical consumption under capitalism" isn't an excuse. It's a fact. Everyone alive on this planet has to make moral compromises in order to live at all. Yes, some of those compromises are more defensible than others. That doesn't mean you get to tell strangers on the internet that they're bad people because they want to survive in a shitty world.

Am I saying you can't talk shit about internet strangers at all? Of course not. Things that are not crucial to anyone's survival include but are not limited to: inflicting pain for shits and giggles! Getting ChatGPT to write your term papers! Calling abuse survivors liars! Shitting in someone's Cheerios! Driving 90mph on a one-lane road at 3 am! Playing your music so loudly that the neighbor's house shakes! Arbitrarily declaring people subhuman based on their physical characteristics! Making your child feel bad about their weight! Travelling around the world for the sole purpose of killing large animals so you can prove your dominance! Wearing your underpants on your head! Cheering for someone's death! Leaving the toilet seat up! There are any number of reasons -- valid, invalid, profound, petty -- to criticize other people's behavior.

But "they're doing whatever they have to in order to live any kind of life" is not on the list.

#assholes #food #internet #politics