The Empire Strikes Again

 https://open.substack.com/pub/futuredude/p/the-empire-drops-the-mask-venezuela?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6qhhyz

The Poverty of Capitalism

 The Craziest Thing In The World Is That We Could End Poverty, But We Don’t – Caitlin Johnstone

(E&A) Giving animals their due: the argument from "marginal cases"

 05_Tanner.indd (environmentandsociety.org)

Two versions of the AMC:

Reductio ad absurdum version:

1. In order for an entity to acquire basic moral status – to matter morally, to be one toward whom we have direct moral duties -- it must possess capacity C (for example, language, or moral agency, or a complex sense of self, etc.).

2. Nonhuman animals do not possess C.

Therefore,

3. Nonhuman animals do not matter morally.

But,

4. Some humans (infants, young children, the mentally impaired, etc.) do not possess C.

Therefore,

5. Some humans do not matter morally.  (An “absurd” result.)

Formal contradiction version:

1. In order for an entity to acquire basic moral status – to matter morally, to be one toward whom we have direct moral duties -- it must possess capacity C (for example, language, or moral agency, or a complex sense of self, etc.).

2. Nonhuman animals do not possess C.

Therefore,

3. Nonhuman animals do not matter morally.

But,

4. Some humans (infants, young children, the mentally impaired, etc.) do not possess C, and

5. All humans matter morally.

Therefore,

6. It is not the case that, in order for an entity to acquire basic moral status – to matter morally, to be one toward whom we have direct moral duties -- it must possess capacity C (for example, language, or moral agency, or a complex sense of self, etc.).  (That is, (1) is false.)

(It may be, for example, that basic moral status accrues to those who can suffer, are sentient, or experience pleasure/pain)

Animal Agriculture & Climate Disruption

 If Animal Farming Were a Country, It Would Be the World’s Second-Largest Climate Polluter — Surpassing Even the U.S.

(CMI) Interspecific Genocide

The Fascist Ideology Behind Animal Exploitation

It's Time to End Humanity's Largest Act of Violence

(AP) What "is" is

The "is" of identity:

A cat is a mammal.

The "is" of simple predication:

The cat is on the mat.

The "is" of (Clintonian) existential predication:

There is no affair.

The "is" of moral judgment:

War is evil.

The "is" of artistic identification:

That upside-down tree is a work of art.

See also Sherri Irvin's critical commentary on Danto's "is of artistic identification/constitution."

Environmentalism and pacifism entail veganism

Environmentalism-veganism connection:

https://open.substack.com/pub/veganhorizon/p/environmentalist-and-not-vegan-are?

Non-violence/pacifism-veganism connection:

https://veganhorizon.substack.com/p/end-the-largest-act-of-violence