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“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”  -Edward Everett Hale

Questions & Answers / Comments & Questions

[In this category of blog posts, I provide “Answers to Questions”…or I pose “Questions to Comments.” The quoted material will be actual, unedited statements directed toward me at one time or another.]

Feedlot – Dodge City, Kansas

#1…Fart In The Wind

This comment was directed at me:

“I don’t understand how anyone that is so self righteous about an ethical issue like this can continue to justify their existence in the world today. Clearly living in any part of the developed world you are contributing to the exploitation of humans and other animals without exception. Being a strict vegan hardly matters if you are worried about exploitation of living beings unless you give up all the other trappings of this modern world. If a vegan were to give it all up and live off the grid and subsist entirely on crops that grew with out aid of petro or animal fertilizer I could have some respect for their opinion and righteous indignation. Otherwise it’s just like a fart in the wind.”

My questions:

1.  Is it **self-righteous to:

• Speak on behalf of exploited animals?
• Bring awareness to animal exploitation?
• State that exploiting others unnecessarily is wrong?
• Verbalize how exploitation can be prevented/abolished?
• Question people with difficult, but important questions?
• Ask people to take reasonable, practical, tangible actions to help animals?
• Advocate for positive change?

2.  Is this person trying to make a case for why I should go back to consuming animals or why he shouldn’t have to go vegan?

3.  If I can’t prevent every single instance of human or animal exploitation “without exception,” then is it pointless to make an attempt?

4.  Should I kill myself or else stop being vegan?  (Because simply by living, I consume, I use resources, and I have a negative carbon footprint on the world.)

5.  Have I ever stated that going vegan means that vegans make a zero contribution to global human/animal exploitation?  (The answer is no.)

6.  Should I give up “all the other trappings” of this modern world or else stop being vegan?

7.  Would I really gain the respect of this person if I “gave it all up, lived off the grid and subsisted entirely on crops I grew without aid of petro or animal fertilizer?”

8.  Am I really stating an “opinion” when I point out the ways that animals are exploited…or when I state that animal-free alternatives do exist…or when I verbalize that animals would rather live than die if given the choice?

9.  Is this person saying that my words are like a fart in the wind or that my impact living as a vegan is like a fart in the wind?

10.  Speaking of farts…Is this person saying that farts in the wind are insignificant? What about the collective farts of all the dairy and beef cattle in the world? Are those farts impacting global climate change?  Are cow farts just “farts in the wind?”

11.  Should it matter to me if I gain the respect of someone who makes a comment such as this one?  What do you think of this person’s comment?

**Definition:  Self-righteousness (from Wikipedia)…

“Self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, sententiousness, a holier-than-thou attitudes) is a feeling of (usually) smug moral superiority derived from a sense that one’s beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person.

The term “self-righteous” is often considered derogatory particularly because self-righteous individuals are often thought to exhibit hypocrisy due to the belief that humans are imperfect and can therefore never be infallible.”