Anonymous asked:

I'm completely with you on speciesism, and it's actually one of my biggest criticisms of EA. I simply do not think animal lives are worth as much as human ones, except in our attachment to specific animals. Reforming agribusiness is important to me inasmuch as its corruptions cause *human* suffering. The animals are an afterthought to me.
fierceawakening

I think animal suffering matters. (Though I am not a consequentialist and find the idea that suffering is the main moral concern bizarre.)

But I am baffled by the notion that when predators eat animals that is not “speciesism” and not morally culpable ACCORDING TO PEOPLE WHO APPEAL TO SUFFERING but when humans do, it is, and not just because agribusiness is horrible.

Whaaaaaa?

worldoptimization

I think when predators painfully kill and eat other animals, they’re not “morally culpable” in the sense that they’re not morally culpable of anything because they’re not capable of moral reasoning. I do think it’s bad (because suffering is bad) and we should try to stop it. I mean, right now I don’t think we know how to do that without messing up ecosystems and causing even more suffering, but it’s something we should be doing more research into.

Most EAs I know agree with me. (This may not be a representative sample of EAs in general.)

#effective altruism