Today I’m discussing spirituality and veganism. It’s a subject I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time but the recent video from Sophia Esperanza about why she’s no longer vegan gave me the final push to discuss my thoughts on this issue. I strongly believe that tying in whimsical and often anti-science beliefs with veganism is not a positive thing for veganism or the animals. In this video I explain why. Do let me know your thoughts below! 🌺 Get 20% off Wild deodorant by using the code EDTHUNDER through this link: bit.ly/edthunderwild 🌱 Make my work possible by becoming a supporter (thank you!): earthlinged.org/support
Indeed, Mr. Edward “Winters” Gaunt’s understanding of metaethics is beyond reproach, which explains why he condones the MURDER of poor, innocent humans before they have the opportunity to even see the light of day. 👶 The fact that he repeatedly asserts that “humans are animals” shows what an abject hypocrite is that MURDEROUS sinner. 😩 Furthermore, it is debatable whether Ed is truly vegan in his outlook, since he recently stated on the national television programme, GBNews, that he believes we ought NOT ban animal agriculture! “I’m not even saying that we should ban meat, dairy and eggs right now”. Mr. Ed Gaunt, So-called “VEGAN” activist. 😐 th-cam.com/video/Sl5GpxLXnuI/w-d-xo.html Go to the 8:15 mark.
Please ……could you debunk some video from Niko Rittenau….( he tells now everybody to eat animal products to get animal specific nutrients and that grass fed beef is environmental friendly and kills less animals than a vegan diet etc etc….It seems that he goes again the content of your book authored together
@@happyhealthylife4ever do you want to say that Niko Rittenau, as one of the co-authors of the book, is now an ex-vegan who promotes exactly the opposite of what veganism promotes?
There is nothing ethical about destroying habitats, causing global warming by destroying the soil, and murdering untold millions of birds, insects, and rodents by stealing pesticides and then running a thresher through the temporary homes that those birds and rodents have made from your evil plant farm.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
How to become a spiritual ex-vegan: - Look for a sign (can be anything, like a 2 for 1 discount in the supermarket) - Follow the sign and pay for plain animal abuse and murder - Put on your thickest vocal fry and film yourself performing some spiritual act like touching grass or licking your crystals - Tell yourself and your audience it's all ok because you're on a jOurNeY and you're the center of the universe
One of my former friends, a very spiritual hippie type person, told me she was no longer vegan because being vegan is “speciesist because it values animal lives above plants”. She claimed that plants deserve the same respect as animals so that’s why she went back to eating animal products. I said, “so you think mowing a lawn is equally as bad as hitting a dog with your car?” She said yes and refused to back down 💀 I decided she was either stupid or crazy and changed the subject. Needless to say, we are no longer friends
She thinks the animals that she’s eating are living off just air or what? If you want to be a “plant rights activist” (lol) The most effective step to take would be immediately excluding/boycotting animal products. Farmed animals consume way more plants than we do just to be fattened up so humans can kill them and eat them. What a sad compete misunderstanding of what the agriculture industry is. Huge bummer for her when she finds out the animals she eats are just eating tons and tons of plants 🤷♀️
Next time somebody tries to tell you that animals and plants are the same (and therefore ALL either want to die or all don't want to die) - there is one word... Tomato. Ask that person to name one animal that changes colour to signal to us that it's time for us to eat them. If you like - there are many other fruits that do this including several that have never seen the other side of the equator. It doesn't have to be a tomato. The whole reason why our eyes have evolved to see red is because we are fruit eaters. We may have these big canine teeth - but so do the vegan Gorillas and, in their case at least, it's all about communication.
love this. all fruits go thru a metamorphic process to signal us they're ready to be picked. and also the entire plant doesn't have to die. the fruits are given freely!@@batintheattic7293
She was both.. I really hope everyone who wants to eat meat and ignore the fact that they get tortured so much d!es. I don’t care about no oh don’t wish death. D3AD
"We care about these animals emotionally, because we know intellectually we should." As a hippie, thank you for calling out the pseudo-awake "spiritual" narcissists.
You know intellectually that you should feel what exact emotions for what exact animals for what exact reason? Do you have any idea wtf pesticides are?
I don't think it's the case for everyone that we care about things emotionally because we know we should. I get sad over inanimate objects breaking or "dying" and there isn't really logic behind that. 😅
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
“What I had been told, taught, screamed at” well there you go. I never needed convincing. The animal’s suffering was all I needed to stop contributing to their suffering. No matter what she says she was never in it for the animals if she had to be “yelled” at to stop eating them and their body fluids. I consider myself spiritual. These people are a sad and cringey disappointment.
Plants feel pain and are very aware of being killed. Plant agriculture depletes the soil, greatly reduces the ability for the soil to hold groundwater and greenhouse gasses. Plant agriculture destroys large areas of natural habitats, and both harvesting crops and spraying pesticides kills untold millions of birds and rodents.
Same. There doesn't need to be any convincing when you see what is happening to animals. I think that the person in the video could do it because it was popular at a time (to be vegan), without truly understanding what it is all about.
Bravo. Some of us simply abhor suffering. I know that if I hear (hearing is my most sensitive thing) suffering then I absolutely freak out. My family tried to exposure therapy my sensitivity out of me. It didn't work, at all. And I'm just about intelligent enough to follow this: Pain and fear makes me dangerously deranged (which is why, I think, my family decided to give up trying to make me 'normal') and creatures being consumed creates pain and fear. There is, I reckon, within Zen enlightenment this thing that we are all one and therefore we can twitch about using and consuming each other. That's a bit hard to argue with, actually, and if anybody ever argues this approach I'm in real trouble. However, should anybody ever try - I think I would then take a bite, out of my opponent, and my reply should be ultra clear and immediate. Are you okay with this? Did you feel that? Enlightenment has made you a special case? Go on - scream and cry. Anguish and pain is just the background noise of existence. All I can say is that I hate suffering and I'm incapable of carrying cognitive dissonance around with me. It hurts and it ***** with my head.
I'm a spiritual person, me being vegan will never change, nothing natural about inflicting suffering. When I saw her make that statement, it was just an eye roll for me.
I’m a vegan not because I have an overwhelming love for animals. I’m vegan because I hate cruelty, suffering, abuse, oppression, exploitation and injustice, and I try as much as possible to avoid these.
@pjarrow If you buy from the stores the vegetables and the branded packages doesn't make any difference to defend oppression and so on. In greenhouses and agriculture fields I ve been working there is a massacre of rodents, three times C02pp enhanced, and exploitation of bumblebees and tiny insects that being bred in laboratories to be shipped overseas.
please tell me you also do not use iphones and other tech devices because all the minerals used for their production are mined by exploited children in dire circumstances. How much do you really hate cruelty? Or are you vegan just so you can say you do...
I use second hand devices and havent changed my phone since iPhone 5 as well as laptop from 2009. I only consume limited organic meat (once a week, as I have Endometriosis & struggle absorbing iron due to gene mutation) & plain organic yoghurt for my gut issues. I would say I am a conscious consumer. There is a major difference between us though - I don't pretend to be holier than Thou and judge others unscrupulously just because i've made certain choices to be more healthy & ethical. @@pjarrow PS. I never suggested in any way i cared more than you - I am just pointing out your hypocrisy because it is inevitable that once you start judging people so harshly for their choices you end up being a hypocrite. Give it a rest already, not all non vegans are mindless, stupid, or uncaring, as you all seem to imply. And yes, you do imply that... i've read the comments on this video. Insanity.
She got the egg straight from the chicken coop, held the world’s perfect egg close to her crystals, had a spiritual feeling, so she peeled the egg and ate it. The crystals cooked the egg?
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
It's sad because "spirituality" isn't the enemy of veganism. Egoism, materialism, fame, and money disguised as spirituality are. I'd consider myself a very "spiritual" person, but it is part of what connects to my vegan lifestyle, not what takes me away from it.
yeah ,alot of spiritual people are also conspiracy ppl ,and let me tell ,conspiracies are the real enemy of veganism ,its sad because i follow them for 95% but most of them believe veganism is psyop pushed by the globalist's agenda's
It's not the video that's making them look bad though, it's what these people and types of people are doing and saying that speak for themselves, and make themselves look bad. Plenty of spiritual texts underline the overall goal of health & well-being pertaining to ALL life. (Not just humans). Spirituality isn't bad, but what some humans use their platform to spout, can definitely have a negative impact.@@purvaashada
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
I've seen this a million times. Spirituality is so broad and only requires one to interpret their own feelings. Anything can be spiritual. Sentientism is a much more accurate metric for an ethical vegan position than something as vague as spirituality.
Thank you for covering Sophia Esperanza. She’s always struck me as a self absorbed narcissist. The way she talks, while showing artistic shots, and show casing her body, while trying to explain why she now exploits animals is hilarious to me. I saw it coming 💀 and she’s just a joke to me. She claims to be an animal activist?
Most TH-camrs that find themselves interesting enough to be the center of all of their videos are narcissistic. Ed actually had a message and reason to make videos that isn’t just to show his appearance or to talk about himself.
the anti-speciesist tattoo while living a speciesist life really makes her point for all of us. Her message is, it's ok to go against the message of peace that inspires you to be a better person... clown world
i find many animal rights activists are in it for the clout and the intoxicating rush they get from it. they love to be deemed a hero. it attracts many narcissists.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
We are all culprits as victims of the societies we live in. But we have agency over some things and our personal consumption is the most powerful for effecting change on our environment. I’d even argue that our current societal crisis are a result of individuals not practicing control of their consumption. Not just of food but of anything that they partake in. And I understand. I’m a drug addict. But I’m making an effort and if we all did a little of that and helped eachother out we could go a long way.
Don’t censor the word ‘murder’. ‘Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.’ - Albus Dumbledore Further, it’s akin to non-vegans calling horrific practices by different names to nullify their impact.
Plant agriculture destroys mass swathes of natural habitats, wipes out entire species, and kills untold millions of birds and rodents with harvesting and spraying pesticides.
"murder" is the unjustified killing of a human. If killing a cow for food is murder, spraying pesticides is literally genocide and you should be tried like the nazis.
"The question we should ask ourselves is not 'What is MY truth?' but 'What is THE truth?'. We should all be sceptical about OUR truth; our truth might convince us to do terrible things or to believe in things that are absurd." SPOT ON, Ed!! Yes!!!
@@rosabscura being convinced that killing sentient beings for no reason but for taste is wrong, simply put, stop trying to muddy the waters on a very clear moral choice.
My yoga class ends with all the non-vegans nodding sagely, hands pressed together and namaste-ing each other. 🙄 🙄🙄 I wear a t-shirt that says "Namastop Hurting Animals".
@@biancat.1873 Yeah it unfortunately doesn't convey the rights-based meaning of veganism, but it's a clever play on namaste to make them think of the hypocrisy of their behaviour.
*Tough decision Meme* Someone gives you an egg: Option 1: Decline it and explain your ethical believes Option 2: Lick a crystal ball, eat the egg, throw your ethical believes out the window and publicly announce it to the internet
The lady missed an egg that morning and she finds it and all of a sudden the universe is speaking to her that she should eat eggs. And then it was the most DELICIOUS thing she's ever eaten in her life!? Please....
She was starved of necessary nutrients and when she ate a food full of necessary nutrients, her brain told her that it was amazing and she needed to eat more.
@@bobjohnson1633 No, it was because she thought it was some sort of holy egg and of course once she ate it, her brain told her "Yup, just as you suspected! Its a holy egg and therefore the best thing you ever ate".
nearly choked on my noodles - love you Ed, calling it out. This is such toxic crapola. Also climate change activists not making the connection is annoying.
Yes, plant agriculture causes climate change! It depletes the soil and reduces the ability of the soil to hold groundwater and greenhouse gasses. Farming ruminant animals increases their number, which restores the soil, brings back natural habits and we are supplied with their healthy animal protein and healthy saturated fats
@@bobjohnson1633what do you think the animals are eating? Eating vast amounts of plants in order to grow. Then only giving humans back 1/3 of what they ate in the first place. We are growing more plants and causing more erosion than we need to. Also saturated fat is not healthy.
@@bobjohnson1633 A couple of things: - 80% of total agricultural land use is directly for or driven by animal agriculture. This is about 40% of the total habitual land on earth. - The amount of land that could be freed up for other purposes if the world transitioned to more plant based would contribute vastly more to combating climate change than any form of regenerative animal agriculture. Instead of a large net increase of greenhouse gasses, it could become carbon sinks so a positive double whammy. - Large scale animal farming is largely damaging to the soil and does not restore it. There are regenerative practices where it can increase soil health, but even if we increased the efficiency of production it would still not even be close to a viable option to meet current global meat demands, which by the way is increasing. So it's just greenwashing. - If you want to actually be informed on agricultural land use and its effects ourworldindata.org/land-use is a great resource.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
This is one of your best videos ED, if not the best, from an epistemological perspective. Me, 50 years plant-based (vegan) and it was (by far) the best moral-ethical decision that I ever made.
Murdering millions of birds, rodents, and insects, all while destroying the soil and displacing millions of acres of natural habitats, committing literal genocide, was the most ethnical decision you've ever made? I'm guessing you are a serial child murderer if that's your level of morality
@@carstenaltena Actually no, I found it very easy from a personal perspective. I guess, IF one is living in a traditional "meat n potatoes" (Anglo Saxon) type cultural-society, then perhaps it would have been a lot more difficult back in the early 1970's...but in Israel (and the eastern Mediterranean) region in general it is far more naturally plant-based...with an abundance of wonderful, local, dishes that are vegan anyways. Even back then, vegetarianism was already quite popular and accepted by all age groups. Most of the Kibbutzim farming communities offered a full vegetarian meal menu in their community dining halls. So, migrating to a vegan diet was not actually a very big step. I had several Israeli fiends who were also vegan and very much against any form of animal exploitation, cruelty, etc. Including some members of my family back then. th-cam.com/video/-nqaWbeEpxM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=jZ6JcZUlJoWbFsJk It's really no surprise to me (today) that Tel Aviv is now the vegan capital of the world and that veganism has become totally mainstream, etc. 12% of the city identify as plant-based. th-cam.com/video/aWxfOGtACGY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Nj-gq3bWRTQ6sEa6 Plus, I travelled a lot back then, and places such as southern India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, and China, etc., also offered some incredible local plant based cuisines that have been around for centuries, or even millennia. I don't cook/eat "western" foods, per se...so I am not reliant upon these recent "vegan" alternative food products, and so forth. My wife and I (she has been plant based since 1967) predominantly make Cretan, Israel, and south Indian meals from scratch at home, so all the required ingredients, food sources, etc., are right there in any major supermarket these days. We even had soy milks, more than 40 years ago. I agree, that they weren't as good as they are today (of course) and the selection was rather small in comparison...but they were available.
@@kevztunes That is amazing, I wasn't aware about that! I should move haha. I'm in meat-dairy-egg-central (The Netherlands). Although more and more people around me try to eat less animal products in the last few years.
As a scientist and a buddhist, I fully agree. It's not about our subjective experience, it's about the victims. It's about the only reasonable position to have when you know other beings feel.
OK, so what about child s*x trafficking victims? Are they not victim enough for you that you have to go around judging people for eating eggs? A by product of raising a chicken. I wish I had a chicken, I'd be way more connected to the cycles of the earth. So what is the reasonable position on your phone parts being mined by children in Africa?
@@sadiemakesmesmile I'm not sure what you mean, but obviously I think child trafficking is wrong. Obviously it's wrong that children mine minerals for my cell phone. And regarding ethics and idealism, I've recently came to the conclusion that inevitably there is not a single answer we can give. So in veganism, yes, absolutely every being has an undeniable right to life and happiness. But, it's also true that people need to take gradual steps in order to reach their goals (such as being fully vegan). So there is obviously a contradiction here, and that's normal. It's perfectly normal to take baby steps, it's normal to have some concerns about nutrition, for instance.
@@maximratava2625 obviously I care about the human suffering in those products. The thing is that I can't do much about it, since clothing and electronics companies don't promote alternative cruelty-free products (though I have purchased organic clothing), while as for the question of animal suffering (and environmental sustainability and the sustainability of the health services), anyone can have a big impact being vegan. In any case, two wrongs don't make a right, it's impossible to argue against doing something right just because of some other wrong thing in society.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
I love Ed, too- and love his mind, and his ability to debate. However, what makes him incredible is not this- it is his alignment with his true nature, which is Love for all sentient beings. A robot can debate. Purity of heart (i.e, compassion) is what makes a great person, and a resonant force. The absurd hypocrites reveal themselves. ;)
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
I became a vegetarian in 1976. I was sure my diet was cruelty free to animals. We just didn't have the exposure to information like we do today. Awareness reveals what is right and what is wrong. Keep up the good work Ed! Millions of animals thank you!
@@_Beetcoin_ A few years ago with all the horrors of the dairy industry being revealed on youtube was quite a kick in the butt for me. I just figured cows were milked and then retired when done being milked. Dairy is actually a horrible part of the meat industry. I know many spiritual people and groups who refuse to accept how horrible dairy is while preaching their love for animals. The Indian culture is still deeply embedded with their love for dairy products. The Holy Cow pays the price with its head. Then there's the silk worms being boiled alive in their cocoons.
@@jsblastoff Strange indeed! As a Christian, I find myself with a guidebook which, following the change in Mankind's nature (end of Gen.3), is entirely non-vegan; from Cain & Abel to the final, passover meal of Jesus. Of course, no Christian has to eat "meat" but dietary experiments see me thriving as a WF omnivore. Genesis 9:1-3 (KJV) '1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.' Leviticus 11:1-3,9 (KJV) '1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall [may?] eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. 3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. 9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.' Matthew 15:11 (KJV) '11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.'
@@jsblastoff If 'the resolve to halt the cycle of reincarnation through relentless pursuit of truth and non-violence' (dharmacakra) were achieved, would that lead to eternal life on Earth?
Absolutly brilliant as always! Your arguments are spot on! Loved when you said “ You’re not freeing yourself by not being vegan, you’re just choosing to oppress someone else instead “.
THANK YOU for talking about this. I had been following Yoga GIrl for years and years, she was part of the reason I became vegan. And I was so incredibly disappointed when she just abandoned it all, with no real reason other than "some higher power told me to". And it's just BS. But there's a big trend going on right now amongst health influencers, for them veganism was only a diet and was super trendy up until 2022. The new healthy trend is to eat meat, so they follow. It was never about the animals.
Plant Chompes TH-cam channel is a great source of info on why the new trend is to eat meat - and how wrong it is. This recent episode is especially good: th-cam.com/video/nnyzuY-Xwe4/w-d-xo.html
"Nothing feels more liberating than living in your truth." That's a fancy way of saying: "It doesn't matter what happens to others, as long as it feels good to ME."
I fancy myself a normal human with a normal job - I’ve been vegan 10 years. Will never stop. These woo woo influencers make me cringe so hard and deeply disappoint me. Seeing their argument feels so clearly flawed and watching people go praise them for their bravery etc is hard. But thank you for the work you do and using your words to describe this better than I could. Us normal vegans without wild restrictions or a need for performing content appreciate your steadiness on our side.
Same. I’m your average joe with an average job and I have no problem with that whatsoever, I’ve been vegan for almost 8 years now and always will be, but these ex vegans, for the most part, are completely embarrassing.
9 years ago since I went vegan I always remember buddhist teaching 'if you want to end suffering, don't cause suffering first' (law of karma) however difficult that might be, I think that's an essence of spirituality and it includes compassion for all beings.
@@sadiemakesmesmile you can buy electronics second hand, and I highly recommend it. We didn’t create the society we live in, one where, for most people, if we don’t have access to electronics we would be unable to work and make a wage to stay alive. Obviously no person can fully get through life without causing harm. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fucking try though! This argument is so tired and lazy. If there’s a really easy way to avoid unnecessary exploitation (and I acknowledge that there isn’t always), then just fucking do it. This shit is exhausting. If your whole moral philosophy is “I can’t do everything perfectly in life so I’m going to cause as much pain as I possibly can” then you should go see a therapist and unpack that shit
@@sadiemakesmesmile that's a good point, it's the same reason I eat meat sometimes. We were raised in this culture, It's everywhere, the consensus is that it's normal, people encourage you to do it, and fewer alternatives exist. Not that I'm justified in using a phone or eating meat when I know what is behind the scenes. But at least I resist the urge 99.5% of the time, and my phone is a second hand 2016 model that still holds up well.
genuinly interested: if someone, let's say my mother always causes me suffering, and tells me I am annoying her, etc.. I then leave, thinking it's the best for BOTH of us, she then calls 100s of times, telling me, she is worrying so much abt me and why did I leave.. I then come back, it all starts again.. it seems WHATEVER I do (this was mere one of hundreds of examples), it causes her suffering in her view, so what to do?
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
I love how passionate you got towards the end. First time I’ve seen you express frustration openly. It was definitely warranted. Someone had to say it 👏🏻
With all of the millions of birds, rodents, and insects he kills every year with pesticides, harvesting fields, and wiping out natural habitats to grow more fields, I'm surprised he has any more hate and anger to share.
I use to work at a vegan cafe, where pretty much all of us were vegan, highly supportive of the movement, and relatively vocal in our small city. Every single person other than myself and my two buddies that worked there turned back. Similar ambiguous and abstract reasons were given, some borderline spiritual/intuitive, but from my perspective it was simply getting involved with the "locavore" community that did it. Without being part of this community it was very hard to have friends in more rural settings and very hard to own land and create their own food, which is also a very good thing to do in support of lowering suffering globally. So they all started to settle for some local backyard eggs, then a local goat, and then before you know it, whenever they are out and about they buy any vegetarian, sometimes even meat/fish based products. One of the more vocal vegans who switched positions would say how much better they felt after eating seafood, that is was healthy, yet upon reconnecting and meeting up the first 15 minutes was him complaining about his health. It was only hours later in our hang-out when the topic of veganism arose, followed by his consumption of oysters and fish, that he started to portray it as healthy and great, even though he both looked like and admitted that he is less healthy lately. This Sophie girl seems like she is part of a community, small, local, rural, etc. that is living vegetarian. I don't think it is God, or her intuition telling her to consume these products and then prompt others to do so in a totally different environment that isn't so "happy", it is most likely feelings of fear, insecurity, need for belonging, and need for stability that are pushing her to think this is the right solution just like pretty near all my friends/coworkers did in the face of joining small rural communities. Sacrificing the lives of animals for their own comfortable living situation, trying to balance the scales of "well it's local" vs "well it is not mutilating, caging and torturing innocent beings", as if the former is better. The issue with these local communities is that they have even more responsibility to be vegan and they don't see it: they OWN land, it is theirs, people and other beings DEPEND upon them, so if they don't create a framework for vegans to coexist, it is actually kinda terrible of them. We can justify anything in the name of God, but if we truly love God, then we love all of creation as much as possible. This means we are going to hurt as few animals and beings as possible. In the "alignment" of spirit, veganism is still the only logical choice. I research Eastern Spirituality, Religion and Philosophy as my life's work, and the primary realization from Sufism to Hinduism to Jainism to Buddhism to Daoism to Zen....is that it is all one infinite, seamless consciousness, filled and brimming with life, feeling and love, and is technically beyond all labels and conceptual limitation. This oneness of existence, beyond our beliefs about it, is what the spiritual paths are meant to help us realize and live. In this, intuition, feelings, high powers, are not actual things that exist, they are simply labels and concepts for what is infinite. Science, logic, rationality, plants, animals, and doing the dishes are all part of that same God, that same oneness. You cannot ignore them in favor of some illusory concept of "intuition or feeling". I do believe that some patterns could honestly be called intuition, however, I think most of the time we just call our biases and fears intuition. In the face of God, living a spiritual life, we cannot earnestly live in our harmful desires. We are harming the very thing we admire, adore, desire, proclaim, worship, follow, etc. by harming other life for our own gain or preference. That other life is the spirit, it is God, it is wholly and equally part of the "spiritual" world, and deserves to be treated as such.
Beautiful written and an Indepth soulful evaluation on the entirety of life and god's presence in all living things. Thank you for your inspiring clarity and transcendent wisdom with your open hearted and honest, sagaciousness awareness for divine love and connection to the souls of all creation.
Very interesting. I myself have become vegan (for the animals, obviously) recently, and what is being said about veganism by people like Ed resonate a lot. However, I do know a couple of people who claim to know all of this, yet decided at some point to start eating meat again. I wouldn't say they were fully vegan at any point, but they seem to know a bit about the ethics around eating meat, and what intrigued me is that they know about it, and then at one point revert to eating meat again. I myself cannot imagine doing that, though I did enjoy eating meat from a culinary perspective, and was absolutely clueless about the rest of it...(an observation about my way of looking at the world that I found rather alarming and problematic and am still trying to wrap my head around....). I cannot fathom how people can move away from this ethical stance....once you know, you know, right!? Thank you for sharing these insights, that helps a lot in trying to understand how this works....❤
The spiritualists remind me of Bob’s Burgers when Bob meets a cow and then feels guilty for eating and serving it in his restaurant. Then he has a vision of the cow telling Bob to eat him. Bob stops for a second and says something like, “Wait, aren’t you just my mind telling me what I want to hear?” 😂
I love how factually and calmy you explain things, Ed. In my experience, people who stop being vegans do so, because they don't put the animals at the centre of their life choice. If you're in it because you genuinely care about the suffering of animals and put them at the centre of your decision rather than your own wants, there is no other option but to live a vegan life. Listening to Sophia makes it clear that to her, it's about herself, what SHE wants. The animals are secondary to her. And to so many other people.
THANK YOU!!! This is probably the #1 most infuriating excuse I hear, from so called “spiritual” people who use their “spirituality, intuition, in touch with my ancestors, honoring Indigenous peoples of the Earth, my truth, eating animal products just feels right in my body, it’s my journey, Namaste”, co-opting “spiritual” speak to try to justify their own narcissism and consumption of animal products and thus selfish cruelty, such phony B.S. Great video. 👏👏👏💚💪
💯 not to mention they seem to treat ancient peoples/Indigenous peoples as a monolith and completely disregard completely different diets based on region/hemisphere Plus there's more and more evidence being discovered that ancient people didn't eat as much meat as previously thought.
As a lion would feed on me, I will feed on a deer and birds, the plants and insects will feed on my corpse, then the deers and birds will feed on the plants and insects. I am one with nature. You're a racist who thinks you're above all other flora and fauna.
When I walk the spiritual path (which the label has gotten out of hand), I do feel "evil" trying to bring me down. I was told compassion and love is the way to God (again a mis-used label), but I can feel myself getting angry and hateful, but I eventually bring myself back to homeostasis and compassion and understanding to the best of my ability. I have come to understand that everything is god. Everything - including suffering and death; however, I would never stop being vegan. period. BUT, I wonder if these "Spiritual" people really were on the right path, but evil got to them and put their influence on them. She looks very materialistic and perhaps she was still walking the path of the "devil" so to speak and that's why she regressed, like she got caught by "demons" or something that brought her back down, and is using to and her platform to brainwash the masses... I definitely feel like eating animals keeps everyone in a low vibration and it's hurting our growth and mother earth. I feel like there is an evil out there that doesn't want people to awaken. Going vegan is the first step in awakening. We are choosing love, over hate, love over fear, love over suffering, and the evil of the world doesn't want us to wake up to love.. okay- this sounds crazy haha! sorry! not sure how else to put it into words. lol... but veganism is the answer and something evil doesn't want us to walk that path. that's why algorithms stifle the vegan hashtag and vegan videos and the mainstream media always points out stories of when a vegan dies... it's assinine. .. stay true, vibe in love.
I've been waiting for a video like this! I'm in LA, surrounded by these types of people. Not a knock on spirituality in general, but when you hide behind it to push these logical and unethical inconsistencies, it takes the focus away from the true victims-- the animals.
I was out with a group of people a while back here in London and there was an American woman just off the plane, saying how nice it was to have a decent conversation at last. I said joshingly, 'You're easily pleased.' She: 'You don't understand. I'm from LA. Conversation there is like, "What's your star sign?"'
For me my spiritual beliefs actually reinforces me being a vegan. When I got ordained as a lay-Buddhist it added another dimension of why veganism is the way to go. In Zen-Buddhism you have the bodhisattva vow “I vow to liberate all sentient beings” and the very first of the 16 precepts I vowed to follow reads “I vow to appreciate all life and not kill” so that’s hard to misinterpret any other way
I was a vegan back in the early 90s and then became an ex- vegan, but I wasn’t like on social media or anything I just fell for the humane aspect of the animal industry and began eating only humanely raised animal products for a while. But then I had a surgery and I was out of work for a while and I saw Garry yurovskis best speech ever on TH-cam and I was instantly a vegan again. That was in 2015.
@@dmoskha If you look up Gary Yourofski 'best speech ever' you'll find it. It's about 1 hour. Let us know what you think ❤ my husbabd and I watch it at least once a year
@@English_Rose4 lol I personally find people who are vegan aggressive and mentally disturbed, they don't stand against abortion of human babies but stand up for animals
Please don't ever change. You're our perfect spokesperson. With all the backlash we find ourselves up against, you are the emotional rejuvenation we need.
I'm beginning to feel like that, specially after meals, but the scientist in me tells me it's probably because after a year of whole plant based eating my gut flora has changed enough to only want to be fed plants. In a way, it's a connection with nature: the millions of bacterial cells living in my gut 😊
"Better to be a happy idiot than someone who knows the truth" - Michael Scott They're just on that whoo-whoo train. I'm a heathen and a vegan because of logic and reason, not emotions.
If you're using logic and reason to come to your conclusions, you're either extremely evil or extremely stupid. Plant agriculture destroys natural habitats, depletes the soil and it's ability to hold ground water and greenhouse gasses, which are necessary to all plant life and animal life that feeds on that plant life, leading directly to climate change and killing millions of animals every year.
Ed, the patience you have to explain stuff like this so calmly is mind-blowing. I hear any one of these people talk about how they quit and they sound delusional and self-absorbed. It sounds like they're trying to convince themselves out loud that they truly believe in the wacky stuff their "spirt" or "heart and mind" told them.
They were never Vegan for the animals…they ask sounds so selfish, heartless and ridiculous! Thank you Ed, you always know the right things to say, love you and everything you do for the Animals!🌱❤️
To be honest, my vegan path started years ago with a sort of a "spiritual awakening", or what I should call a (almost) sudden expansion of awareness. As an professional artist, a good comparison would be, how in a learning process one can notice over time that an image consists also of a shadows and not only a light, or how much of a depth there is between a different shades of gray. That being said, you're definitely right about how lots of people get lost in their own feelings and interpretations of a certain ideas. The so called "spiritual" culture that arose in the past decade or so, on the foundation of often ancient spiritual teachings, quickly became an usurper of itself. In my observation, especially TH-cam serves as a kind of an incubator of extremely narcissistic individuals, living in a bubble, who gain their followers on the basis of their attractive bodies and/or often coincidentally convenient ideas. Over the years, quite a number of my friends got inspired by an "urban gurus", who advised some crazy concepts, with expectedly poor results. Discernment is what I would call one of the fundamental spiritual principles - the thing is, everyone is on a different stage of their own awareness in life, and this will always cause misinterpretation by a whole lot of people. As counterintuitive it may seem, I personally aplaud every vegetarian I come across, as in my mostly carnivorous country (Poland), that's one person out of thousand (or more) I meet, and I feel it is somewhat closer to the "right" thing, than being entirely unconscious of ones own way of life. Even regarding the "plant-feelings" issue, I do recognize that it is a living matter and in itself deserves a respect. What is obvious to me though, it's not a type of a living matter directly comparable to any animal, therefore it requires a slightly different definition. I guess, ahiṃsā is the most universal way of looking at this, as it could be used as a synonym to veganism - to not cause needless harm to no thing AND to ourselves, which in process of elimination leaves plant-based living as a best solution. That is of course, if we do not take more than we require. All I can hope for a modern "spiritual culture" is that discernment will eventually spread based on clear awareness, and not opinion of people who talk with a nightsky stars, trip a bit too often or collect crystals for a living. To see things as they are.
I was just in a "spiritual" shop yesterday and *tried* to make myself look past the red flags to appreciate it as I live in a small rural community so getting a fairly explicitly pagan-esque store is... Unique and so I thought, refreshing. But here the dude working the counter, standing by their selection of "healing crystals" was going on about how he's "totally immune to covid" ever since he "got it naturally" and "covid seemed not as bad as the flu when I had it tbh!" and he's "never once" worried about getting it again or spreading it to others throughout the pandemic, and started trying to reassure this nurse in there that even though the main lady that started it is out sick he's "pretty sure" it's not the new covid variant, and that it "shouldn't be a problem at all to get a palm reading from her!" 🥴
Absolutely love this video. Let’s be honest here about these people’s motivations. They lost the fight. They weren’t able any longer to put the importance of reduced suffering ahead of their own selfish desires for taste. Spirituality is the disguise they’re using to try to make them not appear to be a hypocrite based off their previously stated views and actions. The real shame is that in order to disguise their hypocrisy, they feel the need to share it with their audiences, adding further still to the prospect of animal cruelty. A well made argument Ed, as always.
Totally agreed! I also believe that they have a never ending desire to go against the grain and stand out. Originally going vegan felt bold to them. Now it’s quitting veganism that feels edgy.
I don't know how someone can talk about love and positivity while paying for some else to kill innocent animals when we don't have too and have amazing plant based foods. These people really give spirituality and ancient traditions a really bad name. I am vegan and used my head and followed my heart. Being a whole foods vegan will benefit any spiritual practice.
millions of animals including small mammals, ground nesting birds and their eggs, reptiles, amphibians, worms, and insects are killed to protect and cultivate agricultural fields and orchards. eating only plants doesn't mean there is no impact on animals at all. and there's a lot more of the above than the large cuddly herd animals and poultry that gain the most attention.
I had an ayahuasca awakening and I'm into synchronicities and all that, but would never use it as an excuse to support animal suffering. You are spot on!
I guess what he's saying is that even the "leading with my heart" argument is rooted in ethics and logic, not in some vague spiritual nonsense like "being connected to nature means I should eat that cow".
your videos are the equivalent of journalistic essays - so poignant, well-researched and rethorically clear. thank you for building and using this skill you have for the animals
I literally went vegan after taking ayahuasca! It’s soo spiritual to not meat! You don’t consume their fears being in the slaughter house. I felt like my soul was so aligned being vegan after ayahuasca. Since then im 7 years vegan now!
I assume you ate no meat for two weeks before taking it? It is convention to do this, in respect of the Gods and vast intelligence of this concoction. We should all be vegan.
The thing is, Spirituality is wonderful. I consider myself very spiritual. It can lead you if you let it BUT your ego can lead you too. We need tools just like explorers,so as not to go astray. We need a strong moral principle. One of mine is: do the least harm/ cause the least suffering I can. Then we need rigour and rational thinking to check that we are not being egoically lead further from our principles. Spirituality never overrides logic in my experience. The universe is, by nature, ordered and logical! The order and logic certainly goes deeper and further than anything we can imagine but still it is there. Our minds are not set in opposition to our spirits. It is our spiritual nature to have a mind! 🥰🌻💛
I agree with the nauseating narcissism. Please enlighten us about 'real spirituality' and make sure to give a clear definition while defending the choices made to distinguish it from other definitions as well as the no-true-scotsman-fallacy...
They have no clue about anything! Farming animals has nothing to do with nature! It is the antithesis of nature, in fact! And, they wouldn’t know spirituality if it bit them in their asses! If anyone really wanted to be productive and actually help nature and the planet, then they would end all support of the animal agriculture industry worldwide effective immediately! The domestication and farming of animals is, was, and will always be wrong, and the root of all that is wrong in this world! Veganic permaculture and gardening methods, and plant-based nutrition and herbal medicine FTW! Plant trees, rehabilitate wildlife habitat, and eat plants!
“Self absorbed spirituality is an enemy for the animals.. “ brilliant - I’ve heard the similar narrative from friends, trying to justify their cruel habits- so thank you Ed for your wisdom on this subject
As a person who chose to become a vegan out of a combination of "spiritual woo woo" and science I still choose to remain Vegan out of "Love". As you stated, the science supports it as one of the best ways to not impact life negatively, so as someone who wants to l"ove my neighbour as I love myself". I will acknowledge the science that tell's me how to best do that. Thank you for sharing points that are valid and forgotten by many of us on spiritual journeys, hopefully some might learn and choose not to take offense, cause as "woo woo" as it may sound, we are all in this together and the least we can do, is not hurt each other (including animals).
I was seeing last night a video with one of the farmers that stopped sending cows to slaughter and sent them to sanctuary. He said the beginning of his awakening was transcendental meditation. It helped him feel a connection to the animals he cared for and he could no longer hurt them. That’s true spiritual awakening in my mind. He’s now a vegan farmer.
The problem with this is that someone could just as easily say that transcendental meditation led them to the conclusion that these animals were here to nourish them. Ed is making the point that veganism is based on actual science and logic. Be wary of pseudoscientific nonsense like ‘transcendental meditation’.
So he just murders millions of "pest" animals every year, instead of taking care of cattle like they are family until they are ready to be slaughtered? IDK wtf you people think happens to these animals in nature, but they either starve, freeze, or get killed and eaten by natural predators. The natural predators you people have almost made extinct.
@@robsengahay5614 nope it doesn't ,since if you put your own viewpoint on things ,then you haven't trancended yourself ,duh. Lot of people do however dabble in spiritual experiences ,but they make it all about themselves ,not about that other ,called universe, god ,world, cosmic, etc.
@@jensbekaert166 My first question would be how can anyone prove that they have transcended themselves? I can imagine that hallucinogenic drugs may make one feel that they have transcended themselves but almost certainly they have simply accessed thoughts within their own brains.
I worked in a metaphysical shop and it's chock full of spiritual narcissists. These are the worst. They fully believe they are somehow entitled to a burger from McDonald's but will turn around and drink kombucha and claim it's to cleanse their gut. 😂😂😂
I've once asked for pure citric acid in a 'organic' store. I was pointed to lemon extract. When I said that I was looking for a white crystalline substance, they said that was 'not natural'. I just laughed about them denying the FACT that the natural form of PURE citric acid is white CRYSTALLS. These science denying fools cannot even agree on whether they like crystals.
I’m vegan and spiritual, for me they go totally hand in hand and I see what Eds saying people do hide behind their spirituality which then in turn questions how spiritual they really are.
If a sentientist decides to kill and eat animals without necessity, they're no longer sentientist. This is objectively true given how the concept is defined. If a spiritual person decides to kill and eat animals without necessity, they can still be spiritual due to how vague the concept is. This means that spirituality is not inherently tied to veganism, but sentientism is. Be spiritual as much as you want, but using it as a foundation for an ethical position makes your position entirely dependent on your feelings and emotions. Which compared to a well defined concept like sentientism is very fragile in nature.
As we can see, to be abusive, even spiritual abusive, is a sense of entitlement, an attitute of arrogance and ignorance, which is bottomless. The only antidote is common sense. Thank you for this video and I'm grateful you finally spoke about this topic ❤
Ed you are a blessing to the movement! I'm so glad that the community can count on such an intelligent and compassionate human being, you are my bible and are helping me so much spreading the message in a reasonable and effective way. Lots of love from Italy ❤️
So, you have a religion based on plant agriculture for billions, which depletes the soil, removes its ability to hold ground water, necessary for all life in the vicinity, reduce it's ability to hold greenhouse gasses, causing climate change, destroying massive amounts of natural habitats, spraying pesticides to kill TRILLIONS of birds, rodents, and insects every year? That's your Bible? Rape the earth and genocide trillions while causing climate change?
This is something that's needed saying for such a long time. It reminds me of Hitch. "What has been asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence".
Wait, Yoga Girl, did I hear right? The chicken laid a hard boiled egg that she peeled and it wasn’t refrigerated and she just ate it cuz it was “there”?
I think she skipped over that probably the moment her daughter designated the egg for her she decided she would boil it when she got back. She already was looking for a sign and believed she found it.
19:06 EXACTLY! I’m so glad you made this point! It’s the message that people will follow and non vegans will continue to buy dairy, eggs, and honey because the animals are happy or we have a “synergistic” relationship with them. Thank you so much for saying this! It makes me so sad when vegans lose their way. They (ex-vegans) probably cause more damage to veganism than meat eaters.
I definitely believe they cause more damage than meat eaters. They almost always come out of it with some BS reasoning as to why they couldn’t or shouldn’t do it, and since they were once “vegan” their words carry more weight to anti-vegans. Basically they’re walking, talking anecdotes for the dangers of veganism.
All your videos take everything to higher levels. The usage of higher critical thinking is off the charts. An ability to break through this deceptiveness is your greatest gift and we all are moved by your intelligent reasoning to untwist it. My eyes have been so opened everytime. You can smash everyone's arguments with super impressive responses. Please keep going. Noone can deny grounded truth derived from the science.
Something significant that I see more often is the “I accept [that I’m doing something that I know is wrong.]” or “I accept the moral contradiction.” I consider myself a quite spiritual person, but never understood why people who call themselves “connected” with Mother Nature, didn’t make the connection and go vegan, when they’re able to. Connecting to our roots and our ancestors is important to me, that’s what I learned, and so are all sentient and non-sentient beings in this world. Is it so difficult to practice kindness? Does it take anything away from us? I don’t think so. Thanks for this video, Ed, very sad to see spirituality used as a facade for doing something so horrendous and needless, when one has the ability to not do it.
Pseudoscience is one of the worst enemies of veganism. A big part of carnism rests on it. I am also really tired of all the narcicism hidden behind pseudo-spirituality. Thank you for making this video, Ed. Was really fun to watch you debunk all their nonsense (and infuriating as well)!
"Pseudoscience" is often just a label employed by people who wish to disregarding scientific findings that don't comport with their prejudices and agendas. I'm wary of the cavalier use of that term by people with an ideological or political motivation. Too many things over the past few years that were labeled as "pseudoscience" have turned out to be true. I believe it is a mistake to view "Science" as THE foundation of "Veganism" as real scientific findings can shift over time and even be contradictory,. This comes as no surprise, as ... reality is complex. Basic empathy and compassion are not. They are simple.
⚠️ NEW LIFE GOAL ⚠️ …To live my entire life without upsetting EarthlingEd or this community. Love that we are keeping each other accountable, and honest to the real victims of this movement *THE ANIMALS*
Thanks Ed - Great explanation of the risks of both supernatural and ecocentric thinking. They often go together and risk warping our compassion for non-human and human animals alike. Interesting point that these ways of thinking are presented as humble ("I'm just playing my part in the circle of life!") but are often deeply egocentric ("the universe sent ME a message!") - leading people to disregard the perspectives, interests and needs of other sentient beings. I prefer a worldview committed to "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings" - i.e. @Sentientism. That seems a much more solid grounding for our beliefs/credences and for our ethics.
@@7yu00 Spiritual people don't meditate assuming all of the consumption of the animals is now ok. Some not all spiritual people give gratitude for the nutrition they are receiving thru consuming animals. Spiritual people are often more Empathic than you thought was possible. They feel the pain of animals that exist in slaughter houses. Which is obviously 100% HORRIBLE. They promote regenerative agriculture and animals living free and happy until they are old. At this point we kill the animal corressing it and embracing it with love so it can feel why we are doing what we have to do to survive.
Well done, Ed! If someone has a good grasp of the fundamental understanding when they first choose a vegan lifestyle, it's important to consider why they went vegan in the first place. I would suggest that if everyone on this Earth had the thought: "If we wouldn't want to be subjected to suffering, exploitation, or harm ourselves, then we shouldn't impose these things on other sentient beings." This sharpest ethical perspective doesn't necessarily require religious teachings or divine guidance. Instead, it can be viewed as a natural extension of our basic sense of fairness and empathy, rooted in the understanding that all living beings, whether human or non-human, have the desire to live free from harm. For those people who appear in front of the camera and announce, "I QUIT VEGAN," it's possible that they might have been influenced by trends, peer pressure, or misinformation. Therefore, their initial motivation to go vegan may not have been firmly grounded in a strong commitment to principles of fairness and empathy toward all living beings. Keep the good work Ed Peace & Love be with you.
Huh, now that you mention it, was it even rationality that pushed Ed to go vegan? In his story, it seemed more about biting into a vein giving him a visceral reaction after having the dead chicken news story on his mind. But I might be mixing his stories up.
precisely! they lack those principles because the new age cult dictates that you may pick and choose your principles at will to support your spiritual identity.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
“This might not resonate with all of you…” Translation: “If you believed my theatre of concern, you will be disappointed…” “I’m okay with that…” Translation: “I have buried myself even more deeply in the defenses that characterize my personality disorder…” “It’s honestly so liberating…” Translation: “It’s anything BUT!”
Thank you for this discourse. I was unaware of the honey bee situation. I don't listen to influencers and I can't imagine anyone who practices something as profound and holistic as veganism leaving it over someone's else's 'spiritual' experience. Baffling. There's plenty of sound evidence for veganism for those who are serious, as you point out.
I've been vegan for 8 years and I'm also very spiritual. I feel such a soul deep connection to animals and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I continued to support their needless suffering.
I feel a much deeper connection with animals that I kill and eat. One day, I will return to the earth, feed plants and insects, and those plants and insects will then be eaten by the birds and ruminants that I now eat.
@@bobjohnson1633But there is no reason for you to kill animals. Humans have evolved past the need to hunt. I'm at peace knowing I can live my life without causing unnecessary harm. But that's just me. Humans were smart enough to create weapons which were used to slaughter animals. In the same breath, humans are smart enough to end the cycle of animal suffering and torture. The choices are there and I've made mine.
@@bobjohnson1633 surely you feel a deeper spiritual connection ,the only question is ,could that spiritual connection be labeled 'Godly' or 'satanic' ? I mean ,if you'd change the animals with humans it would be crystal clear how the connection would be labeled ,wouldn't it ?
I love this!! ❤My response was similar. I became vegan because of my spiritual awakening. Two years of meditating every night and a baby octopus in a sea aquarium changed my mind about eating fish (and I also stopped going to sea aquariums too)! Vegan since the summer of 2021 and will be forever.
A major milemarker along the road is but a stepping stone in our journey, it doesn't mean you've arrived back home,very good kme, 1st step- sound generates space which generates step 2 which is-its universal/ catholic science notwithstanding opinions of fallible creatures, irrefutable and undeniably so, something like when cock crowing the sun comes up, _ so he thought, but truth is its something else, , the assembly of sacred scientists attenuating synergetic inosculation of nature
Thank you Ed for your platform! This is an era of hypnosis, many people fill in the blanks/traumas/insecurities with mind creations to attract attention and start a movement. Veganism is love, compassion, respect but also understanding even those who oppose it and those who turn away. With this energy and of course by truly seeing the devastation caused around us by greed and attention seeking one better turn into minimalism and simplicity. Living whole by taking care of your body and mind, volunteering, giving and sharing with one’s in need, having fun and contributing to the community. ❤
Dear Ed, I deeply appreciate your work. It's very inspiring, especially because of the calm and compassionate way you debate with people coming from all paths of life. I've been vegan for 10 years now, and on a spiritual journey my whole life. These two aspects of my being go hand in hand in my case, as I believe there is no better way to be connected with Mother Nature, Spirit and all living beings than following a vegan lifestyle. Therefore I feel very sad when I see people using spirituality to justify animal abuse. I also believe that there is more to life than what we can experience rationally. I’ve been through several meditation and psychedelic retreats, and what happened to me was to simply deepen my connection with all there is. So I keep having a hard time buying into the idea that we are entitled to exploit or even kill anyone for our nourishment, when we do have the possibility to do otherwise.
THIS!! Thank you Ed!! I too am so tired of human animals and their holier than thou bs. With their Mother Earth/Universe/God excuse for having zero self control and so they revert to eating and/or using animals.
You kill 100* as many animals to have plant agriculture. You cause several fold more never to live because you destroy all of their habitats and destroy the soil. I'd rather kill my favorite animal, cattle, one time to live for a year, than to spray animal killing sprays and wipe out entire habitats just to have a fucking salad.
The majority of people who give up being Vegan don't make a video about it. This raises a red flag to me and the fact that these people are all talking like adverts for meat, eggs, fish, honey etc makes it clear that it's about money and nothing eles. These people are are being paid to do this. No mystery.
@mineamashion4100 I'm vegan and have been craving eggs and cheese lately. All sorts of arguments for adding them to my otherwise vegan diet crop up in my thinking. I realize they are spurious justifications for what I want. It has nothing to do with money. Perhaps the people making videos for leaving vegan diets are going through simply that: wanting more food they miss. Sadly, they publish their self-soothing justifications.
@@stefashaler8340 I missed the texture of eggs since going vegan but I recently started making my own vegan eggs from chickpeas & seasoning. there's tons of good recipes online and it really hit the spot for me and satisfied those cravings. Same with vegan cheese, you can make some really delicious alternatives. I just remind myself that dairy has a really distinct sour taste to it whenever I've had an intrusive craving pop in. The vegan options are far superior! :D
Pseudo spiritual people quoting pseudo science to justify their current pseudo thinking. When they finally grow up, I hope they recant their positions… Great post, Ed 😌🙏
Today I’m discussing spirituality and veganism. It’s a subject I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time but the recent video from Sophia Esperanza about why she’s no longer vegan gave me the final push to discuss my thoughts on this issue. I strongly believe that tying in whimsical and often anti-science beliefs with veganism is not a positive thing for veganism or the animals. In this video I explain why. Do let me know your thoughts below!
🌺 Get 20% off Wild deodorant by using the code EDTHUNDER through this link: bit.ly/edthunderwild
🌱 Make my work possible by becoming a supporter (thank you!): earthlinged.org/support
Indeed, Mr. Edward “Winters” Gaunt’s understanding of metaethics is beyond reproach, which explains why he condones the MURDER of poor, innocent humans before they have the opportunity to even see the light of day. 👶
The fact that he repeatedly asserts that “humans are animals” shows what an abject hypocrite is that MURDEROUS sinner. 😩
Furthermore, it is debatable whether Ed is truly vegan in his outlook, since he recently stated on the national television programme, GBNews, that he believes we ought NOT ban animal agriculture!
“I’m not even saying that we should ban meat, dairy and eggs right now”.
Mr. Ed Gaunt, So-called “VEGAN” activist. 😐
th-cam.com/video/Sl5GpxLXnuI/w-d-xo.html
Go to the 8:15 mark.
Yo Ed I know what you are doing buddy hahaha. It's Sad but I suppose you have to exist am I right 👁
it seems you didn't mind when spirituality led to veganism, but it obviously bothers you when the reality leads to ex-veganism
Please ……could you debunk some video from Niko Rittenau….( he tells now everybody to eat animal products to get animal specific nutrients and that grass fed beef is environmental friendly and kills less animals than a vegan diet etc etc….It seems that he goes again the content of your book authored together
@@happyhealthylife4ever do you want to say that Niko Rittenau, as one of the co-authors of the book, is now an ex-vegan who promotes exactly the opposite of what veganism promotes?
Easy to feel so "connected" to nature when you're not the one being farmed, tortured and eventually killed
Or getting your leg eaten off while you're trying to crawl away. Lol
🤍✌️☮️🖤
But why should we care about beings who would not give a fuck about you.
Hard to connect with such a big disconnect in society
Amen to that!
„Veganism is not a label for us, it is an ethical position for them.“
True! #veganforever ❤
There is nothing ethical about destroying habitats, causing global warming by destroying the soil, and murdering untold millions of birds, insects, and rodents by stealing pesticides and then running a thresher through the temporary homes that those birds and rodents have made from your evil plant farm.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
Veganism is a personal choice, and I choose to have deliiiiiiiiiiiiciouuuuuuuuus steak 🥩🥩
@@donolonisa5787
Congrats bud, that's what almost all people do😂🎉
@@tuteca Yes indeed, and it never stops 😉
How to become a spiritual ex-vegan:
- Look for a sign (can be anything, like a 2 for 1 discount in the supermarket)
- Follow the sign and pay for plain animal abuse and murder
- Put on your thickest vocal fry and film yourself performing some spiritual act like touching grass or licking your crystals
- Tell yourself and your audience it's all ok because you're on a jOurNeY and you're the center of the universe
It just simply doesn’t work without the vocal fry 😂
😂😂😂😭😭😭 vry accurate, i was thinking the same thing about vocal fry, drives me insane!
Hilarious 😂 you nailed it!
Or, Ex-Vegan Woo-Woo Checklist:
Journey
Transformation
Nourishing
Mother Earth
Spirituatily
Harmony
Energy
Healing
My truth
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I wish I could like this comment a million more times! so good
One of my former friends, a very spiritual hippie type person, told me she was no longer vegan because being vegan is “speciesist because it values animal lives above plants”. She claimed that plants deserve the same respect as animals so that’s why she went back to eating animal products. I said, “so you think mowing a lawn is equally as bad as hitting a dog with your car?” She said yes and refused to back down 💀 I decided she was either stupid or crazy and changed the subject. Needless to say, we are no longer friends
wow that is so bizarre
She thinks the animals that she’s eating are living off just air or what? If you want to be a “plant rights activist” (lol) The most effective step to take would be immediately excluding/boycotting animal products. Farmed animals consume way more plants than we do just to be fattened up so humans can kill them and eat them. What a sad compete misunderstanding of what the agriculture industry is. Huge bummer for her when she finds out the animals she eats are just eating tons and tons of plants 🤷♀️
Next time somebody tries to tell you that animals and plants are the same (and therefore ALL either want to die or all don't want to die) - there is one word... Tomato. Ask that person to name one animal that changes colour to signal to us that it's time for us to eat them. If you like - there are many other fruits that do this including several that have never seen the other side of the equator. It doesn't have to be a tomato. The whole reason why our eyes have evolved to see red is because we are fruit eaters. We may have these big canine teeth - but so do the vegan Gorillas and, in their case at least, it's all about communication.
love this. all fruits go thru a metamorphic process to signal us they're ready to be picked. and also the entire plant doesn't have to die. the fruits are given freely!@@batintheattic7293
She was both.. I really hope everyone who wants to eat meat and ignore the fact that they get tortured so much d!es. I don’t care about no oh don’t wish death. D3AD
"We care about these animals emotionally, because we know intellectually we should."
As a hippie, thank you for calling out the pseudo-awake "spiritual" narcissists.
You know intellectually that you should feel what exact emotions for what exact animals for what exact reason?
Do you have any idea wtf pesticides are?
@@bobjohnson1633In an ideal world pesticides would not be used. It's not an ideal world and we must grow crops for humanity.
I dated such a narcissist unfortunately...3 months done for me.
I don't think it's the case for everyone that we care about things emotionally because we know we should. I get sad over inanimate objects breaking or "dying" and there isn't really logic behind that. 😅
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
“What I had been told, taught, screamed at” well there you go. I never needed convincing. The animal’s suffering was all I needed to stop contributing to their suffering. No matter what she says she was never in it for the animals if she had to be “yelled” at to stop eating them and their body fluids.
I consider myself spiritual. These people are a sad and cringey disappointment.
Plants feel pain and are very aware of being killed.
Plant agriculture depletes the soil, greatly reduces the ability for the soil to hold groundwater and greenhouse gasses.
Plant agriculture destroys large areas of natural habitats, and both harvesting crops and spraying pesticides kills untold millions of birds and rodents.
agreed. same.
I never care about animals.
that's why I will never be a vegan ..
Same. There doesn't need to be any convincing when you see what is happening to animals. I think that the person in the video could do it because it was popular at a time (to be vegan), without truly understanding what it is all about.
Bravo. Some of us simply abhor suffering. I know that if I hear (hearing is my most sensitive thing) suffering then I absolutely freak out. My family tried to exposure therapy my sensitivity out of me. It didn't work, at all. And I'm just about intelligent enough to follow this: Pain and fear makes me dangerously deranged (which is why, I think, my family decided to give up trying to make me 'normal') and creatures being consumed creates pain and fear.
There is, I reckon, within Zen enlightenment this thing that we are all one and therefore we can twitch about using and consuming each other. That's a bit hard to argue with, actually, and if anybody ever argues this approach I'm in real trouble. However, should anybody ever try - I think I would then take a bite, out of my opponent, and my reply should be ultra clear and immediate. Are you okay with this? Did you feel that? Enlightenment has made you a special case? Go on - scream and cry. Anguish and pain is just the background noise of existence.
All I can say is that I hate suffering and I'm incapable of carrying cognitive dissonance around with me. It hurts and it ***** with my head.
I'm a spiritual person, me being vegan will never change, nothing natural about inflicting suffering. When I saw her make that statement, it was just an eye roll for me.
Same
Me too!
me 3! I became vegan because of nmy awakening!
me 4.
Me 5. Ed makes strong points here but spirituality and veganism slot together perfectly and always have
I’m a vegan not because I have an overwhelming love for animals. I’m vegan because I hate cruelty, suffering, abuse, oppression, exploitation and injustice, and I try as much as possible to avoid these.
@pjarrow If you buy from the stores the vegetables and the branded packages doesn't make any difference to defend oppression and so on.
In greenhouses and agriculture fields I ve been working there is a massacre of rodents, three times C02pp enhanced, and exploitation of bumblebees and tiny insects that being bred in laboratories to be shipped overseas.
so what are you doing about all the s*x trafficked kids???
please tell me you also do not use iphones and other tech devices because all the minerals used for their production are mined by exploited children in dire circumstances. How much do you really hate cruelty? Or are you vegan just so you can say you do...
@@sadiemakesmesmile You obviously use them and no doubt eat meat and dairy so don’t try to pretend you care more than I do.
I use second hand devices and havent changed my phone since iPhone 5 as well as laptop from 2009. I only consume limited organic meat (once a week, as I have Endometriosis & struggle absorbing iron due to gene mutation) & plain organic yoghurt for my gut issues. I would say I am a conscious consumer. There is a major difference between us though - I don't pretend to be holier than Thou and judge others unscrupulously just because i've made certain choices to be more healthy & ethical. @@pjarrow
PS. I never suggested in any way i cared more than you - I am just pointing out your hypocrisy because it is inevitable that once you start judging people so harshly for their choices you end up being a hypocrite. Give it a rest already, not all non vegans are mindless, stupid, or uncaring, as you all seem to imply. And yes, you do imply that... i've read the comments on this video. Insanity.
She got the egg straight from the chicken coop, held the world’s perfect egg close to her crystals, had a spiritual feeling, so she peeled the egg and ate it. The crystals cooked the egg?
probably the universe cooked and salted it for her🤣
I was wondering the same thing, she never mentioned cooking it. If raw egg tasted that good it surely must have been magical 😅
@@kasiapetruk6730 You just can't understand because your chakras aren't aligned.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
No, the egg was boiled by the heat coming off her freshly shat-out bullshit.
It's sad because "spirituality" isn't the enemy of veganism. Egoism, materialism, fame, and money disguised as spirituality are. I'd consider myself a very "spiritual" person, but it is part of what connects to my vegan lifestyle, not what takes me away from it.
yeah ,alot of spiritual people are also conspiracy ppl ,and let me tell ,conspiracies are the real enemy of veganism ,its sad because i follow them for 95% but most of them believe veganism is psyop pushed by the globalist's agenda's
EXACTLY. Very well put
Omg this!! You put this absolutely perfectly!! 🩷🩷
It's not the video that's making them look bad though, it's what these people and types of people are doing and saying that speak for themselves, and make themselves look bad. Plenty of spiritual texts underline the overall goal of health & well-being pertaining to ALL life. (Not just humans). Spirituality isn't bad, but what some humans use their platform to spout, can definitely have a negative impact.@@purvaashada
YES
This is new to me.
My spirituality reinforces my veganism.
My veganism reinforces my spirituality.
But my spirituality has usually centered on ethics.
Exactly this! 💯 ❤
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
Can't agree enough!
I bet you support abortion too and see no irony in that
I've seen this a million times. Spirituality is so broad and only requires one to interpret their own feelings. Anything can be spiritual. Sentientism is a much more accurate metric for an ethical vegan position than something as vague as spirituality.
"Veganism is not a label for us, it's an ethical position for them." - LOVE IT
Thank you for covering Sophia Esperanza. She’s always struck me as a self absorbed narcissist. The way she talks, while showing artistic shots, and show casing her body, while trying to explain why she now exploits animals is hilarious to me. I saw it coming 💀 and she’s just a joke to me. She claims to be an animal activist?
Most TH-camrs that find themselves interesting enough to be the center of all of their videos are narcissistic. Ed actually had a message and reason to make videos that isn’t just to show his appearance or to talk about himself.
@@bm.6349yep
the anti-speciesist tattoo while living a speciesist life really makes her point for all of us. Her message is, it's ok to go against the message of peace that inspires you to be a better person... clown world
Yeah she rubbed off phony to me for a while.
i find many animal rights activists are in it for the clout and the intoxicating rush they get from it. they love to be deemed a hero. it attracts many narcissists.
Never thought about how we romanticize nature because we only expose ourselves to the good side of it
Usually city people. Come live in the country. You will see what you're made of.
The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
One can not preach love and light while simultaneously funding the perpetual cycle of animal abuse and mvrder.
Hypocrisy at its finest
We are all culprits as victims of the societies we live in.
But we have agency over some things and our personal consumption is the most powerful for effecting change on our environment.
I’d even argue that our current societal crisis are a result of individuals not practicing control of their consumption. Not just of food but of anything that they partake in.
And I understand. I’m a drug addict.
But I’m making an effort and if we all did a little of that and helped eachother out we could go a long way.
@@somedudeinatunnel3102 I’m aware. I just don’t want my comment to get removed due to the use of certain words
Don’t censor the word ‘murder’.
‘Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.’ - Albus Dumbledore
Further, it’s akin to non-vegans calling horrific practices by different names to nullify their impact.
Plant agriculture destroys mass swathes of natural habitats, wipes out entire species, and kills untold millions of birds and rodents with harvesting and spraying pesticides.
"murder" is the unjustified killing of a human.
If killing a cow for food is murder, spraying pesticides is literally genocide and you should be tried like the nazis.
"The question we should ask ourselves is not 'What is MY truth?' but 'What is THE truth?'. We should all be sceptical about OUR truth; our truth might convince us to do terrible things or to believe in things that are absurd." SPOT ON, Ed!! Yes!!!
yeah, people are fighting for "their truth" so much they just want to bend reality and just be right all of the time. It's unbearable.
Yes.. but is “the” truth a real thing? Or a subjective conception by a small human mind?
@@rosabscura I'm all about that philosophical talk but I'm not harming animals for a meal.
@@rosabscura being convinced that killing sentient beings for no reason but for taste is wrong, simply put, stop trying to muddy the waters on a very clear moral choice.
I got so tired of going to a yoga studio where they all thought they were at a higher level than most and ate meat.
My yoga class ends with all the non-vegans nodding sagely, hands pressed together and namaste-ing each other. 🙄 🙄🙄 I wear a t-shirt that says "Namastop Hurting Animals".
@@vegancolleen Epic shirt! 💚🐾🌱
@@biancat.1873 Yeah it unfortunately doesn't convey the rights-based meaning of veganism, but it's a clever play on namaste to make them think of the hypocrisy of their behaviour.
"The divine in me eats the divine in you" 😆 🤣
@@vegancolleenI love that you do that! 😂
*Tough decision Meme*
Someone gives you an egg:
Option 1: Decline it and explain your ethical believes
Option 2: Lick a crystal ball, eat the egg, throw your ethical believes out the window and publicly announce it to the internet
Mm. That is quite the precise summary of this.
Mmmm crystals tho.
if I put everything in my mouth that landed on my lap...
😂😂😂
HAHAHA
The lady missed an egg that morning and she finds it and all of a sudden the universe is speaking to her that she should eat eggs. And then it was the most DELICIOUS thing she's ever eaten in her life!? Please....
She was starved of necessary nutrients and when she ate a food full of necessary nutrients, her brain told her that it was amazing and she needed to eat more.
@@bobjohnson1633 No, it was because she thought it was some sort of holy egg and of course once she ate it, her brain told her "Yup, just as you suspected! Its a holy egg and therefore the best thing you ever ate".
@@bobjohnson1633 No idea how she survived without the bad cholesterol and carcinogens
The egg could have been symbolism for her that she misunderstood and then brainwashed herself into believing she needed to eat it.
Yup, as I mentioned in my other comment to Ed, it's all auto-suggestion and placebo effect in order to reinforce what they want to do anyway.
Thank you Ed for calling out vile narcissism that promotes violence.
th-cam.com/video/P4Ego542N3g/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
I just watched (another) ex vegan video from a woman who was lead to the cult by EE. So happy people are waling up to this bullshit!
That’s exactly what this is. Narcissism.
Thank you for this wording!
@@Siegfried5846❤
nearly choked on my noodles - love you Ed, calling it out. This is such toxic crapola. Also climate change activists not making the connection is annoying.
Yes! I hope he makes a video addressing inconsistencies with climate change activists who aren’t vegan.
Yes, plant agriculture causes climate change! It depletes the soil and reduces the ability of the soil to hold groundwater and greenhouse gasses.
Farming ruminant animals increases their number, which restores the soil, brings back natural habits and we are supplied with their healthy animal protein and healthy saturated fats
@@bobjohnson1633what do you think the animals are eating?
Eating vast amounts of plants in order to grow. Then only giving humans back 1/3 of what they ate in the first place.
We are growing more plants and causing more erosion than we need to.
Also saturated fat is not healthy.
"healthy saturated fats"???????@@bobjohnson1633
@@bobjohnson1633 A couple of things:
- 80% of total agricultural land use is directly for or driven by animal agriculture. This is about 40% of the total habitual land on earth.
- The amount of land that could be freed up for other purposes if the world transitioned to more plant based would contribute vastly more to combating climate change than any form of regenerative animal agriculture. Instead of a large net increase of greenhouse gasses, it could become carbon sinks so a positive double whammy.
- Large scale animal farming is largely damaging to the soil and does not restore it. There are regenerative practices where it can increase soil health, but even if we increased the efficiency of production it would still not even be close to a viable option to meet current global meat demands, which by the way is increasing. So it's just greenwashing.
- If you want to actually be informed on agricultural land use and its effects ourworldindata.org/land-use is a great resource.
A vegetarian with an end speciesism tattoo is hilarious lmao 😂😂😂
Thanks for making the video and exposing those self centered A holes
She will probably get it covered up
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
@@ASMRyouVEGANyet probably not because she doesn’t view consuming animal secretions as exploitation. She thinks she’s honoring them 🙄
Veganism is attacking spirituality because of "pseudo" spirituality.
Leg of Lamb for dinner.
This is one of your best videos ED, if not the best, from an epistemological perspective.
Me, 50 years plant-based (vegan) and it was (by far) the best moral-ethical decision that I ever made.
Murdering millions of birds, rodents, and insects, all while destroying the soil and displacing millions of acres of natural habitats, committing literal genocide, was the most ethnical decision you've ever made? I'm guessing you are a serial child murderer if that's your level of morality
50 years! Amazing. Must have been hard in those first decades.
@@carstenaltena
Actually no, I found it very easy from a personal perspective.
I guess, IF one is living in a traditional "meat n potatoes" (Anglo Saxon) type cultural-society, then perhaps it would have been a lot more difficult back in the early 1970's...but in Israel (and the eastern Mediterranean) region in general it is far more naturally plant-based...with an abundance of wonderful, local, dishes that are vegan anyways.
Even back then, vegetarianism was already quite popular and accepted by all age groups. Most of the Kibbutzim farming communities offered a full vegetarian meal menu in their community dining halls. So, migrating to a vegan diet was not actually a very big step. I had several Israeli fiends who were also vegan and very much against any form of animal exploitation, cruelty, etc. Including some members of my family back then.
th-cam.com/video/-nqaWbeEpxM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=jZ6JcZUlJoWbFsJk
It's really no surprise to me (today) that Tel Aviv is now the vegan capital of the world and that veganism has become totally mainstream, etc. 12% of the city identify as plant-based.
th-cam.com/video/aWxfOGtACGY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Nj-gq3bWRTQ6sEa6
Plus, I travelled a lot back then, and places such as southern India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, and China, etc., also offered some incredible local plant based cuisines that have been around for centuries, or even millennia.
I don't cook/eat "western" foods, per se...so I am not reliant upon these recent "vegan" alternative food products, and so forth.
My wife and I (she has been plant based since 1967) predominantly make Cretan, Israel, and south Indian meals from scratch at home, so all the required ingredients, food sources, etc., are right there in any major supermarket these days.
We even had soy milks, more than 40 years ago. I agree, that they weren't as good as they are today (of course) and the selection was rather small in comparison...but they were available.
@@kevztunes That is amazing, I wasn't aware about that! I should move haha. I'm in meat-dairy-egg-central (The Netherlands). Although more and more people around me try to eat less animal products in the last few years.
As a scientist and a buddhist, I fully agree. It's not about our subjective experience, it's about the victims. It's about the only reasonable position to have when you know other beings feel.
OK, so what about child s*x trafficking victims? Are they not victim enough for you that you have to go around judging people for eating eggs? A by product of raising a chicken. I wish I had a chicken, I'd be way more connected to the cycles of the earth. So what is the reasonable position on your phone parts being mined by children in Africa?
@@sadiemakesmesmile I'm not sure what you mean, but obviously I think child trafficking is wrong. Obviously it's wrong that children mine minerals for my cell phone. And regarding ethics and idealism, I've recently came to the conclusion that inevitably there is not a single answer we can give. So in veganism, yes, absolutely every being has an undeniable right to life and happiness. But, it's also true that people need to take gradual steps in order to reach their goals (such as being fully vegan). So there is obviously a contradiction here, and that's normal. It's perfectly normal to take baby steps, it's normal to have some concerns about nutrition, for instance.
@@sadiemakesmesmile as if people can’t care about multiple issues??
what about the other products you consume such as clothes and electronics... you care about the human suffering involved in this products?
@@maximratava2625 obviously I care about the human suffering in those products. The thing is that I can't do much about it, since clothing and electronics companies don't promote alternative cruelty-free products (though I have purchased organic clothing), while as for the question of animal suffering (and environmental sustainability and the sustainability of the health services), anyone can have a big impact being vegan. In any case, two wrongs don't make a right, it's impossible to argue against doing something right just because of some other wrong thing in society.
You can't preach peace and love while slitting an innocents throat.
It’s not about peace and love to them, it’s about the universe revolving around them. As Ed said, it’s purely egotistical shite.
Animals are here for me, my taste comes first 😂
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
@@VeganSemihCyprus33
Long winded rant
@@rondarkman. you have my pity.
Objective, rational, and passionate. This is why I love Ed Winters.
Yes! You worded this perfectly.
I love Ed, too- and love his mind, and his ability to debate. However, what makes him incredible is not this- it is his alignment with his true nature, which is Love for all sentient beings. A robot can debate. Purity of heart (i.e, compassion) is what makes a great person, and a resonant force. The absurd hypocrites reveal themselves. ;)
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
@@VeganSemihCyprus33 Wow! Brilliantly expressed~*!
I became a vegetarian in 1976. I was sure my diet was cruelty free to animals. We just didn't have the exposure to information like we do today. Awareness reveals what is right and what is wrong. Keep up the good work Ed! Millions of animals thank you!
Exactly!!!
Congratulations on your discovery!!!
You became a vegetarian in 1976. When did you become a vegan?
@@_Beetcoin_ A few years ago with all the horrors of the dairy industry being revealed on youtube was quite a kick in the butt for me. I just figured cows were milked and then retired when done being milked. Dairy is actually a horrible part of the meat industry. I know many spiritual people and groups who refuse to accept how horrible dairy is while preaching their love for animals. The Indian culture is still deeply embedded with their love for dairy products. The Holy Cow pays the price with its head. Then there's the silk worms being boiled alive in their cocoons.
Ed, you're a legend sir. Thank you for all you do.
@@Soundoholics Thanks for your kind reply. 🙂
I feel a little attacked by “you can only glamorise nature because you are disconnected from it”. So I really need that reminder! Thank you
That woman talking about the egg and “the end of the end” of her being vegan made me cringe and feel secondhand embarrassment.
me too. And eggs taste like shit as well so wtf
@@toastsandwich2862not to mention the smell.
Same here. She sounds fake as hell. My intuition is declaring to me she has a lot of pent up anger
I know right? I'd think it could have been a great lesson for the child- to return the egg to the mother chicken, teach kindness.
@@yuvall7741what I automatically thought she meant by "this one's for momma" 🤷🏼♀️
I’d consider myself a spiritual gal. But I was a science loving gal first. I try to be logically and ethically consistent. So, I’m vegan.
Exactly. You consume pain and suffering, you become it.
Science told me that I was an omnivore. God told me that He never had a problem with that. Harmony!
Strange. God told me something different.
Ahimsa!
@@jsblastoff Strange indeed! As a Christian, I find myself with a guidebook which, following the change in Mankind's nature (end of Gen.3), is entirely non-vegan; from Cain & Abel to the final, passover meal of Jesus.
Of course, no Christian has to eat "meat" but dietary experiments see me thriving as a WF omnivore.
Genesis 9:1-3 (KJV)
'1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.'
Leviticus 11:1-3,9 (KJV)
'1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall [may?] eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.'
Matthew 15:11 (KJV)
'11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.'
@@jsblastoff If 'the resolve to halt the cycle of reincarnation through relentless pursuit of truth and non-violence' (dharmacakra) were achieved, would that lead to eternal life on Earth?
Absolutly brilliant as always! Your arguments are spot on! Loved when you said “ You’re not freeing yourself by not being vegan, you’re just choosing to oppress someone else instead “.
“I consider everything as food” wow watch out if you visit her.
Or if she has kids.
😂
😂
😂
THANK YOU for talking about this. I had been following Yoga GIrl for years and years, she was part of the reason I became vegan. And I was so incredibly disappointed when she just abandoned it all, with no real reason other than "some higher power told me to". And it's just BS. But there's a big trend going on right now amongst health influencers, for them veganism was only a diet and was super trendy up until 2022. The new healthy trend is to eat meat, so they follow. It was never about the animals.
Plant Chompes TH-cam channel is a great source of info on why the new trend is to eat meat - and how wrong it is. This recent episode is especially good: th-cam.com/video/nnyzuY-Xwe4/w-d-xo.html
For half of them it truly never was. So many people on carnivore diets are ex-“vegans”. Just sheeple following trends.
"Nothing feels more liberating than living in your truth."
That's a fancy way of saying: "It doesn't matter what happens to others, as long as it feels good to ME."
I fancy myself a normal human with a normal job - I’ve been vegan 10 years. Will never stop. These woo woo influencers make me cringe so hard and deeply disappoint me. Seeing their argument feels so clearly flawed and watching people go praise them for their bravery etc is hard. But thank you for the work you do and using your words to describe this better than I could. Us normal vegans without wild restrictions or a need for performing content appreciate your steadiness on our side.
He really is using an astounding platform for such an incredible cause.
Same. I’m your average joe with an average job and I have no problem with that whatsoever, I’ve been vegan for almost 8 years now and always will be, but these ex vegans, for the most part, are completely embarrassing.
Ed is so very articulate to put our feelings about these self proclaimed ex-"vegans" into words in the best way.
A "normal" job. Wtf dude.
@@Kalvis1
He could have been a worker in a slaughter house. Lol
9 years ago since I went vegan I always remember buddhist teaching 'if you want to end suffering, don't cause suffering first' (law of karma) however difficult that might be, I think that's an essence of spirituality and it includes compassion for all beings.
vegan food is better anyway. delicious! so it is not hard at all. just changing bad habits is the hard part. then it becomes easy.
So why are you causing young children to suffer mining minerals for your phone???
@@sadiemakesmesmile you can buy electronics second hand, and I highly recommend it. We didn’t create the society we live in, one where, for most people, if we don’t have access to electronics we would be unable to work and make a wage to stay alive. Obviously no person can fully get through life without causing harm. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fucking try though! This argument is so tired and lazy. If there’s a really easy way to avoid unnecessary exploitation (and I acknowledge that there isn’t always), then just fucking do it. This shit is exhausting. If your whole moral philosophy is “I can’t do everything perfectly in life so I’m going to cause as much pain as I possibly can” then you should go see a therapist and unpack that shit
@@sadiemakesmesmile that's a good point, it's the same reason I eat meat sometimes. We were raised in this culture, It's everywhere, the consensus is that it's normal, people encourage you to do it, and fewer alternatives exist. Not that I'm justified in using a phone or eating meat when I know what is behind the scenes. But at least I resist the urge 99.5% of the time, and my phone is a second hand 2016 model that still holds up well.
genuinly interested: if someone, let's say my mother always causes me suffering, and tells me I am annoying her, etc.. I then leave, thinking it's the best for BOTH of us, she then calls 100s of times, telling me, she is worrying so much abt me and why did I leave.. I then come back, it all starts again.. it seems WHATEVER I do (this was mere one of hundreds of examples), it causes her suffering in her view, so what to do?
It's gross when empathy and narcissism get mixed around.
They don't get mixed at all. Narcissism comes with a facade. Empathy is never felt by a narcissist. 'Cognitive empathy' is not empathy.
Word!
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
@@charlesgraham5550 Well explained.
Can you explain what you mean by cognitive empathy? I'm really interested but confused@@charlesgraham5550
I love how passionate you got towards the end. First time I’ve seen you express frustration openly. It was definitely warranted. Someone had to say it 👏🏻
With all of the millions of birds, rodents, and insects he kills every year with pesticides, harvesting fields, and wiping out natural habitats to grow more fields, I'm surprised he has any more hate and anger to share.
I use to work at a vegan cafe, where pretty much all of us were vegan, highly supportive of the movement, and relatively vocal in our small city. Every single person other than myself and my two buddies that worked there turned back. Similar ambiguous and abstract reasons were given, some borderline spiritual/intuitive, but from my perspective it was simply getting involved with the "locavore" community that did it. Without being part of this community it was very hard to have friends in more rural settings and very hard to own land and create their own food, which is also a very good thing to do in support of lowering suffering globally. So they all started to settle for some local backyard eggs, then a local goat, and then before you know it, whenever they are out and about they buy any vegetarian, sometimes even meat/fish based products. One of the more vocal vegans who switched positions would say how much better they felt after eating seafood, that is was healthy, yet upon reconnecting and meeting up the first 15 minutes was him complaining about his health. It was only hours later in our hang-out when the topic of veganism arose, followed by his consumption of oysters and fish, that he started to portray it as healthy and great, even though he both looked like and admitted that he is less healthy lately.
This Sophie girl seems like she is part of a community, small, local, rural, etc. that is living vegetarian. I don't think it is God, or her intuition telling her to consume these products and then prompt others to do so in a totally different environment that isn't so "happy", it is most likely feelings of fear, insecurity, need for belonging, and need for stability that are pushing her to think this is the right solution just like pretty near all my friends/coworkers did in the face of joining small rural communities. Sacrificing the lives of animals for their own comfortable living situation, trying to balance the scales of "well it's local" vs "well it is not mutilating, caging and torturing innocent beings", as if the former is better. The issue with these local communities is that they have even more responsibility to be vegan and they don't see it: they OWN land, it is theirs, people and other beings DEPEND upon them, so if they don't create a framework for vegans to coexist, it is actually kinda terrible of them.
We can justify anything in the name of God, but if we truly love God, then we love all of creation as much as possible. This means we are going to hurt as few animals and beings as possible. In the "alignment" of spirit, veganism is still the only logical choice.
I research Eastern Spirituality, Religion and Philosophy as my life's work, and the primary realization from Sufism to Hinduism to Jainism to Buddhism to Daoism to Zen....is that it is all one infinite, seamless consciousness, filled and brimming with life, feeling and love, and is technically beyond all labels and conceptual limitation. This oneness of existence, beyond our beliefs about it, is what the spiritual paths are meant to help us realize and live. In this, intuition, feelings, high powers, are not actual things that exist, they are simply labels and concepts for what is infinite. Science, logic, rationality, plants, animals, and doing the dishes are all part of that same God, that same oneness. You cannot ignore them in favor of some illusory concept of "intuition or feeling". I do believe that some patterns could honestly be called intuition, however, I think most of the time we just call our biases and fears intuition.
In the face of God, living a spiritual life, we cannot earnestly live in our harmful desires. We are harming the very thing we admire, adore, desire, proclaim, worship, follow, etc. by harming other life for our own gain or preference. That other life is the spirit, it is God, it is wholly and equally part of the "spiritual" world, and deserves to be treated as such.
Very well said
@@AuraSparks Thank you :)
There is no god
Beautiful written and an Indepth soulful evaluation on the entirety of life and god's presence in all living things. Thank you for your inspiring clarity and transcendent wisdom with your open hearted and honest, sagaciousness awareness for divine love and connection to the souls of all creation.
Very interesting. I myself have become vegan (for the animals, obviously) recently, and what is being said about veganism by people like Ed resonate a lot. However, I do know a couple of people who claim to know all of this, yet decided at some point to start eating meat again. I wouldn't say they were fully vegan at any point, but they seem to know a bit about the ethics around eating meat, and what intrigued me is that they know about it, and then at one point revert to eating meat again. I myself cannot imagine doing that, though I did enjoy eating meat from a culinary perspective, and was absolutely clueless about the rest of it...(an observation about my way of looking at the world that I found rather alarming and problematic and am still trying to wrap my head around....). I cannot fathom how people can move away from this ethical stance....once you know, you know, right!? Thank you for sharing these insights, that helps a lot in trying to understand how this works....❤
The spiritualists remind me of Bob’s Burgers when Bob meets a cow and then feels guilty for eating and serving it in his restaurant. Then he has a vision of the cow telling Bob to eat him. Bob stops for a second and says something like, “Wait, aren’t you just my mind telling me what I want to hear?” 😂
I love how factually and calmy you explain things, Ed. In my experience, people who stop being vegans do so, because they don't put the animals at the centre of their life choice. If you're in it because you genuinely care about the suffering of animals and put them at the centre of your decision rather than your own wants, there is no other option but to live a vegan life. Listening to Sophia makes it clear that to her, it's about herself, what SHE wants. The animals are secondary to her. And to so many other people.
THANK YOU!!! This is probably the #1 most infuriating excuse I hear, from so called “spiritual” people who use their “spirituality, intuition, in touch with my ancestors, honoring Indigenous peoples of the Earth, my truth, eating animal products just feels right in my body, it’s my journey, Namaste”, co-opting “spiritual” speak to
try to justify their own narcissism and consumption of animal products and thus selfish cruelty, such phony B.S.
Great video. 👏👏👏💚💪
💯 not to mention they seem to treat ancient peoples/Indigenous peoples as a monolith and completely disregard completely different diets based on region/hemisphere
Plus there's more and more evidence being discovered that ancient people didn't eat as much meat as previously thought.
yep @@mitsukitai2713
As a lion would feed on me, I will feed on a deer and birds, the plants and insects will feed on my corpse, then the deers and birds will feed on the plants and insects.
I am one with nature. You're a racist who thinks you're above all other flora and fauna.
When I walk the spiritual path (which the label has gotten out of hand), I do feel "evil" trying to bring me down. I was told compassion and love is the way to God (again a mis-used label), but I can feel myself getting angry and hateful, but I eventually bring myself back to homeostasis and compassion and understanding to the best of my ability. I have come to understand that everything is god. Everything - including suffering and death; however, I would never stop being vegan. period. BUT, I wonder if these "Spiritual" people really were on the right path, but evil got to them and put their influence on them. She looks very materialistic and perhaps she was still walking the path of the "devil" so to speak and that's why she regressed, like she got caught by "demons" or something that brought her back down, and is using to and her platform to brainwash the masses... I definitely feel like eating animals keeps everyone in a low vibration and it's hurting our growth and mother earth. I feel like there is an evil out there that doesn't want people to awaken. Going vegan is the first step in awakening. We are choosing love, over hate, love over fear, love over suffering, and the evil of the world doesn't want us to wake up to love.. okay- this sounds crazy haha! sorry! not sure how else to put it into words. lol... but veganism is the answer and something evil doesn't want us to walk that path. that's why algorithms stifle the vegan hashtag and vegan videos and the mainstream media always points out stories of when a vegan dies... it's assinine. .. stay true, vibe in love.
Sounds like the folks that advocate abortion. My body, my right... killing animals and killing babies, both just wrong. (Sorry, I had to say it)
I've been waiting for a video like this! I'm in LA, surrounded by these types of people. Not a knock on spirituality in general, but when you hide behind it to push these logical and unethical inconsistencies, it takes the focus away from the true victims-- the animals.
I was out with a group of people a while back here in London and there was an American woman just off the plane, saying how nice it was to have a decent conversation at last. I said joshingly, 'You're easily pleased.' She: 'You don't understand. I'm from LA. Conversation there is like, "What's your star sign?"'
For me my spiritual beliefs actually reinforces me being a vegan. When I got ordained as a lay-Buddhist it added another dimension of why veganism is the way to go. In Zen-Buddhism you have the bodhisattva vow “I vow to liberate all sentient beings” and the very first of the 16 precepts I vowed to follow reads “I vow to appreciate all life and not kill” so that’s hard to misinterpret any other way
🎯
Hello fellow Zen practitioner.
Is that why buddha ordered pig, his “favorite dish”, before falling ill from it and passing?
@@simoncastleton6420buddha married his cousin and died after eating his “favorite dish” (pig).
@@mightytaiger3000 starting the new year off on bullshit is crazy
I was a vegan back in the early 90s and then became an ex- vegan, but I wasn’t like on social media or anything I just fell for the humane aspect of the animal industry and began eating only humanely raised animal products for a while. But then I had a surgery and I was out of work for a while and I saw Garry yurovskis best speech ever on TH-cam and I was instantly a vegan again. That was in 2015.
Do you have a link to the speech you can share?
@@dmoskha th-cam.com/video/uxhL2lsgokY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NfZm6CN4q1wMAcAD
th-cam.com/video/U5hGQDLprA8/w-d-xo.html@@dmoskha
@@dmoskha If you look up Gary Yourofski 'best speech ever' you'll find it. It's about 1 hour. Let us know what you think ❤ my husbabd and I watch it at least once a year
You were never vegan. How could you have been? Veganism is centred on empathy for the animals, you cannot lose that to suit yourself
I am Vegan because I don't want animals harmed on my behalf, and I will never stop.
I will never stop eating these delicious things
never say never
@@iamchristiankasper
I will animals are here to serve me
@@rondarkman. oh I was talking to rookie. But well to you too. Saying never just shows naivety.
Well, plenty of wild animals are harmed on your behalf so that you can eat your plants.
“Spiritual” people who eat animals were always so confusing to me. Like you’re so “zen and chill” but you eat animals? Makes no sense
It makes pure sense, they don't have the same definition of ZEN as you
Zen and Chill to spiritual people is different than it is to you. It's that simple
yeah, to them it means murder.
I personally find people who eat Animals more aggressive and mentally disturbed ☯️
@@English_Rose4 lol I personally find people who are vegan aggressive and mentally disturbed, they don't stand against abortion of human babies but stand up for animals
Please don't ever change. You're our perfect spokesperson. With all the backlash we find ourselves up against, you are the emotional rejuvenation we need.
Thank you for calling the bs Ed!
yeah finally
Meh and yet still 8 billion are not vegan
Nothing spiritual takes place in a slaughterhouse.
Every single part of my heart and soul tells me to be vegan, as well as my head.
❤❤❤❤❤❤
I'm beginning to feel like that, specially after meals, but the scientist in me tells me it's probably because after a year of whole plant based eating my gut flora has changed enough to only want to be fed plants. In a way, it's a connection with nature: the millions of bacterial cells living in my gut 😊
"Better to be a happy idiot than someone who knows the truth" - Michael Scott
They're just on that whoo-whoo train.
I'm a heathen and a vegan because of logic and reason, not emotions.
Damn, that could have been such a nice poem, had you just ended on a word that rimes with reason.😅
Heathen Vegan has quite a ring to it 😂😎
@@ShutUpWesleyPoetry doesn’t have to rhyme.
If you're using logic and reason to come to your conclusions, you're either extremely evil or extremely stupid.
Plant agriculture destroys natural habitats, depletes the soil and it's ability to hold ground water and greenhouse gasses, which are necessary to all plant life and animal life that feeds on that plant life, leading directly to climate change and killing millions of animals every year.
I'm with you, except I don't conflate emotions and woo woo. I agree 'spirituality' is woo woo though.
Ed, the patience you have to explain stuff like this so calmly is mind-blowing. I hear any one of these people talk about how they quit and they sound delusional and self-absorbed. It sounds like they're trying to convince themselves out loud that they truly believe in the wacky stuff their "spirt" or "heart and mind" told them.
Go Habs go
As a man selling a book calmly pushes commonly held beliefs to the people that already believe them so he can sell a book.
They were never Vegan for the animals…they ask sounds so selfish, heartless and ridiculous!
Thank you Ed, you always know the right things to say, love you and everything you do for the Animals!🌱❤️
You have to wonder if they ever really were vegan. We only have their word for it.
Yet, Ed failed to prevent deliiiiiiiiiiiiciouuuuuuuuus Pork chops 🥩🥩 from appearing in my plate 🍽️
To be honest, my vegan path started years ago with a sort of a "spiritual awakening", or what I should call a (almost) sudden expansion of awareness. As an professional artist, a good comparison would be, how in a learning process one can notice over time that an image consists also of a shadows and not only a light, or how much of a depth there is between a different shades of gray.
That being said, you're definitely right about how lots of people get lost in their own feelings and interpretations of a certain ideas. The so called "spiritual" culture that arose in the past decade or so, on the foundation of often ancient spiritual teachings, quickly became an usurper of itself. In my observation, especially TH-cam serves as a kind of an incubator of extremely narcissistic individuals, living in a bubble, who gain their followers on the basis of their attractive bodies and/or often coincidentally convenient ideas. Over the years, quite a number of my friends got inspired by an "urban gurus", who advised some crazy concepts, with expectedly poor results.
Discernment is what I would call one of the fundamental spiritual principles - the thing is, everyone is on a different stage of their own awareness in life, and this will always cause misinterpretation by a whole lot of people. As counterintuitive it may seem, I personally aplaud every vegetarian I come across, as in my mostly carnivorous country (Poland), that's one person out of thousand (or more) I meet, and I feel it is somewhat closer to the "right" thing, than being entirely unconscious of ones own way of life.
Even regarding the "plant-feelings" issue, I do recognize that it is a living matter and in itself deserves a respect. What is obvious to me though, it's not a type of a living matter directly comparable to any animal, therefore it requires a slightly different definition. I guess, ahiṃsā is the most universal way of looking at this, as it could be used as a synonym to veganism - to not cause needless harm to no thing AND to ourselves, which in process of elimination leaves plant-based living as a best solution. That is of course, if we do not take more than we require.
All I can hope for a modern "spiritual culture" is that discernment will eventually spread based on clear awareness, and not opinion of people who talk with a nightsky stars, trip a bit too often or collect crystals for a living. To see things as they are.
You nailed this so damn hard. I've had it with the spiritual and holistic communities
Good Girl! 👌
Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱
@@ReverendDr.Thomas what do you think?
@@ninaacuna9540, I am patiently awaiting your response to my question, SLAVE. ☝🏼
I was just in a "spiritual" shop yesterday and *tried* to make myself look past the red flags to appreciate it as I live in a small rural community so getting a fairly explicitly pagan-esque store is... Unique and so I thought, refreshing. But here the dude working the counter, standing by their selection of "healing crystals" was going on about how he's "totally immune to covid" ever since he "got it naturally" and "covid seemed not as bad as the flu when I had it tbh!" and he's "never once" worried about getting it again or spreading it to others throughout the pandemic, and started trying to reassure this nurse in there that even though the main lady that started it is out sick he's "pretty sure" it's not the new covid variant, and that it "shouldn't be a problem at all to get a palm reading from her!"
🥴
me too bunch of hypocrites
Absolutely love this video. Let’s be honest here about these people’s motivations. They lost the fight. They weren’t able any longer to put the importance of reduced suffering ahead of their own selfish desires for taste. Spirituality is the disguise they’re using to try to make them not appear to be a hypocrite based off their previously stated views and actions. The real shame is that in order to disguise their hypocrisy, they feel the need to share it with their audiences, adding further still to the prospect of animal cruelty. A well made argument Ed, as always.
Is that why dinner plates 🍽️ across the globe are dominated by deliiiiiiiiiiiiciouuuuuuuuus meeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaattttttttttttt 😊
I think they were also interested in growing their "brands" by diversifying.
Not true
@@patrickdalton2424???? Please specify. Thank you.
Totally agreed! I also believe that they have a never ending desire to go against the grain and stand out. Originally going vegan felt bold to them. Now it’s quitting veganism that feels edgy.
I don't know how someone can talk about love and positivity while paying for some else to kill innocent animals when we don't have too and have amazing plant based foods. These people really give spirituality and ancient traditions a really bad name. I am vegan and used my head and followed my heart. Being a whole foods vegan will benefit any spiritual practice.
💯
millions of animals including small mammals, ground nesting birds and their eggs, reptiles, amphibians, worms, and insects are killed to protect and cultivate agricultural fields and orchards. eating only plants doesn't mean there is no impact on animals at all. and there's a lot more of the above than the large cuddly herd animals and poultry that gain the most attention.
her religions is herself. selfishness. and she is following the whims of her mind.
I had an ayahuasca awakening and I'm into synchronicities and all that, but would never use it as an excuse to support animal suffering. You are spot on!
the people who do that , you can see their egos smothering them, overpowering them, and they just let it happen.
I miss the days when people took psychedelics to have fun
@@Pluralofvinylisvinyls I don't think, in any time, ppl took ayahuasca for fun
@@kayholand_ especially not now, when you spend thousands of dollars to vomit while being supervised by a pseudo “shaman” for a McSpiritual experience
@@Pluralofvinylisvinylsthere’s a big difference between ayahuasca and shrooms lol
Yes! And wouldn't "leading with my heart" also mean employing respect, compassion and empathy for others?
Exactly
Yep. I eat the deer, plants eat me, deer eat the plants. Compassion.
You just genocide animals, destroy their habitats, and rape the earth.
I guess what he's saying is that even the "leading with my heart" argument is rooted in ethics and logic, not in some vague spiritual nonsense like "being connected to nature means I should eat that cow".
It's not about us, its about the animals who don't have a voice. We will NEVER stop for them.
Lol😂😂 get a grip
Well said Ed. I've never trusted a Vegan who's on a "Journey".
As Lifting Vegan Logic always says about these fools, “Journey jOuRnEy JoUrNeY”
Hahaha Sophie is funny she was an activist for make people aware and she stops by her self TOOO FUNNY!
I've never trusted a vegan. They live off of chemicals called "pesticides" and destroy as much natural habitat as possible.
@@vincentvinnie You’re right she is such a joke! 🤣🤣
your videos are the equivalent of journalistic essays - so poignant, well-researched and rethorically clear. thank you for building and using this skill you have for the animals
I agree! Ed is gifted with a talent to weave a narrative using his subject's own contradictions to expose their incredible hypocrisy.
I literally went vegan after taking ayahuasca! It’s soo spiritual to not meat! You don’t consume their fears being in the slaughter house. I felt like my soul was so aligned being vegan after ayahuasca. Since then im 7 years vegan now!
Getting tipsy made you vegan? It can unmake you too.
You sound like you were high when you wrote that
@@JungleJoeVNyou’ve no idea what ayahuasca is have you. It is a sacred plant transforms your life for the better.
I assume you ate no meat for two weeks before taking it? It is convention to do this, in respect of the Gods and vast intelligence of this concoction. We should all be vegan.
The thing is, Spirituality is wonderful. I consider myself very spiritual. It can lead you if you let it BUT your ego can lead you too. We need tools just like explorers,so as not to go astray. We need a strong moral principle. One of mine is: do the least harm/ cause the least suffering I can. Then we need rigour and rational thinking to check that we are not being egoically lead further from our principles. Spirituality never overrides logic in my experience. The universe is, by nature, ordered and logical! The order and logic certainly goes deeper and further than anything we can imagine but still it is there. Our minds are not set in opposition to our spirits. It is our spiritual nature to have a mind! 🥰🌻💛
The narcisism is nauseating, and they have no clue about real spirituality. Thank you for exposing this, Ed.
It is their narcissism that drives this. You are right.
I agree with the nauseating narcissism.
Please enlighten us about 'real spirituality' and make sure to give a clear definition while defending the choices made to distinguish it from other definitions as well as the no-true-scotsman-fallacy...
They have no clue about anything! Farming animals has nothing to do with nature! It is the antithesis of nature, in fact! And, they wouldn’t know spirituality if it bit them in their asses! If anyone really wanted to be productive and actually help nature and the planet, then they would end all support of the animal agriculture industry worldwide effective immediately! The domestication and farming of animals is, was, and will always be wrong, and the root of all that is wrong in this world! Veganic permaculture and gardening methods, and plant-based nutrition and herbal medicine FTW! Plant trees, rehabilitate wildlife habitat, and eat plants!
Any recommendations on vegan spiritual teachers? ✨🌱
@@iammnyxx spirituality is a contentless deepidy
“Self absorbed spirituality is an enemy for the animals.. “
brilliant - I’ve heard the similar narrative from friends, trying to justify their cruel habits- so thank you Ed for your wisdom on this subject
As a person who chose to become a vegan out of a combination of "spiritual woo woo" and science I still choose to remain Vegan out of "Love". As you stated, the science supports it as one of the best ways to not impact life negatively, so as someone who wants to l"ove my neighbour as I love myself". I will acknowledge the science that tell's me how to best do that. Thank you for sharing points that are valid and forgotten by many of us on spiritual journeys, hopefully some might learn and choose not to take offense, cause as "woo woo" as it may sound, we are all in this together and the least we can do, is not hurt each other (including animals).
I was seeing last night a video with one of the farmers that stopped sending cows to slaughter and sent them to sanctuary. He said the beginning of his awakening was transcendental meditation. It helped him feel a connection to the animals he cared for and he could no longer hurt them. That’s true spiritual awakening in my mind. He’s now a vegan farmer.
Was it one of Joey Carbstrong's video?
I loved that video ❤
The problem with this is that someone could just as easily say that transcendental meditation led them to the conclusion that these animals were here to nourish them. Ed is making the point that veganism is based on actual science and logic. Be wary of pseudoscientific nonsense like ‘transcendental meditation’.
So he just murders millions of "pest" animals every year, instead of taking care of cattle like they are family until they are ready to be slaughtered?
IDK wtf you people think happens to these animals in nature, but they either starve, freeze, or get killed and eaten by natural predators. The natural predators you people have almost made extinct.
@@robsengahay5614 nope it doesn't ,since if you put your own viewpoint on things ,then you haven't trancended yourself ,duh. Lot of people do however dabble in spiritual experiences ,but they make it all about themselves ,not about that other ,called universe, god ,world, cosmic, etc.
@@jensbekaert166 My first question would be how can anyone prove that they have transcended themselves? I can imagine that hallucinogenic drugs may make one feel that they have transcended themselves but almost certainly they have simply accessed thoughts within their own brains.
I worked in a metaphysical shop and it's chock full of spiritual narcissists. These are the worst. They fully believe they are somehow entitled to a burger from McDonald's but will turn around and drink kombucha and claim it's to cleanse their gut. 😂😂😂
😅
I've once asked for pure citric acid in a 'organic' store. I was pointed to lemon extract.
When I said that I was looking for a white crystalline substance, they said that was 'not natural'.
I just laughed about them denying the FACT that the natural form of PURE citric acid is white CRYSTALLS.
These science denying fools cannot even agree on whether they like crystals.
That’s so true 😅
They are entitled to a burger from McDonald's if they have the money to pay for it
I’m vegan and spiritual, for me they go totally hand in hand and I see what Eds saying people do hide behind their spirituality which then in turn questions how spiritual they really are.
If a sentientist decides to kill and eat animals without necessity, they're no longer sentientist. This is objectively true given how the concept is defined.
If a spiritual person decides to kill and eat animals without necessity, they can still be spiritual due to how vague the concept is. This means that spirituality is not inherently tied to veganism, but sentientism is.
Be spiritual as much as you want, but using it as a foundation for an ethical position makes your position entirely dependent on your feelings and emotions. Which compared to a well defined concept like sentientism is very fragile in nature.
Lamb chop for dinner. Doesn't get more spiritual than that. Dig?@@Luftgitarrenprofi
As we can see, to be abusive, even spiritual abusive, is a sense of entitlement, an attitute of arrogance and ignorance, which is bottomless. The only antidote is common sense. Thank you for this video and I'm grateful you finally spoke about this topic ❤
Ed you are a blessing to the movement! I'm so glad that the community can count on such an intelligent and compassionate human being, you are my bible and are helping me so much spreading the message in a reasonable and effective way. Lots of love from Italy ❤️
So, you have a religion based on plant agriculture for billions, which depletes the soil, removes its ability to hold ground water, necessary for all life in the vicinity, reduce it's ability to hold greenhouse gasses, causing climate change, destroying massive amounts of natural habitats, spraying pesticides to kill TRILLIONS of birds, rodents, and insects every year?
That's your Bible? Rape the earth and genocide trillions while causing climate change?
😂😂😂 my god
This is something that's needed saying for such a long time.
It reminds me of Hitch. "What has been asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence".
Thankful for you Ed and for this community, I love reading the comments here.. you guys are the best ✨
Lol my God
Wait, Yoga Girl, did I hear right? The chicken laid a hard boiled egg that she peeled and it wasn’t refrigerated and she just ate it cuz it was “there”?
Exactly my thoughts like did you just eat a raw egg??? She's lying.
I think she skipped over that probably the moment her daughter designated the egg for her she decided she would boil it when she got back. She already was looking for a sign and believed she found it.
Unless her altar has a built in stove, I think she manifested salmonella.
The cristals boiled it for her with the power of the universe
19:06 EXACTLY! I’m so glad you made this point! It’s the message that people will follow and non vegans will continue to buy dairy, eggs, and honey because the animals are happy or we have a “synergistic” relationship with them. Thank you so much for saying this! It makes me so sad when vegans lose their way. They (ex-vegans) probably cause more damage to veganism than meat eaters.
I definitely believe they cause more damage than meat eaters. They almost always come out of it with some BS reasoning as to why they couldn’t or shouldn’t do it, and since they were once “vegan” their words carry more weight to anti-vegans. Basically they’re walking, talking anecdotes for the dangers of veganism.
They do & you are right. I am so sick of these losers seriously…
All your videos take everything to higher levels. The usage of higher critical thinking is off the charts. An ability to break through this deceptiveness is your greatest gift and we all are moved by your intelligent reasoning to untwist it. My eyes have been so opened everytime. You can smash everyone's arguments with super impressive responses. Please keep going. Noone can deny grounded truth derived from the science.
Something significant that I see more often is the “I accept [that I’m doing something that I know is wrong.]” or “I accept the moral contradiction.” I consider myself a quite spiritual person, but never understood why people who call themselves “connected” with Mother Nature, didn’t make the connection and go vegan, when they’re able to. Connecting to our roots and our ancestors is important to me, that’s what I learned, and so are all sentient and non-sentient beings in this world. Is it so difficult to practice kindness? Does it take anything away from us? I don’t think so. Thanks for this video, Ed, very sad to see spirituality used as a facade for doing something so horrendous and needless, when one has the ability to not do it.
My favorite are the people who call themselves empaths but eat animals 🙄
@@ninaacuna9540Yupp. Or the “I love animals” but they actually just mean pets LOL. Cognitive dissonance is real
Pseudoscience is one of the worst enemies of veganism. A big part of carnism rests on it. I am also really tired of all the narcicism hidden behind pseudo-spirituality.
Thank you for making this video, Ed. Was really fun to watch you debunk all their nonsense (and infuriating as well)!
A moral stance based on reason will endure while one based on feelings will change.
and which science do you follow? Bill Gates' science?
"Pseudoscience" is often just a label employed by people who wish to disregarding scientific findings that don't comport with their prejudices and agendas. I'm wary of the cavalier use of that term by people with an ideological or political motivation. Too many things over the past few years that were labeled as "pseudoscience" have turned out to be true. I believe it is a mistake to view "Science" as THE foundation of "Veganism" as real scientific findings can shift over time and even be contradictory,. This comes as no surprise, as ... reality is complex. Basic empathy and compassion are not. They are simple.
⚠️ NEW LIFE GOAL ⚠️
…To live my entire life without upsetting EarthlingEd or this community. Love that we are keeping each other accountable, and honest to the real victims of this movement *THE ANIMALS*
Exactly!! 😌
Thanks Ed - Great explanation of the risks of both supernatural and ecocentric thinking. They often go together and risk warping our compassion for non-human and human animals alike. Interesting point that these ways of thinking are presented as humble ("I'm just playing my part in the circle of life!") but are often deeply egocentric ("the universe sent ME a message!") - leading people to disregard the perspectives, interests and needs of other sentient beings. I prefer a worldview committed to "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings" - i.e. @Sentientism. That seems a much more solid grounding for our beliefs/credences and for our ethics.
If anything, spirituality helped me to question my habits and become a vegan in the first place. But for many people it is just an excuse.
brb just need to mindfully pay for the slaughter of a chicken because i felt it was right in my soul ✌🏻 (it's okay i meditated afterwards)
Heh...
Haha WTF it's not that at all
@@ConsciousTruth68it is.
@@ConsciousTruth68What is it then?
@@7yu00 Spiritual people don't meditate assuming all of the consumption of the animals is now ok. Some not all spiritual people give gratitude for the nutrition they are receiving thru consuming animals. Spiritual people are often more Empathic than you thought was possible. They feel the pain of animals that exist in slaughter houses. Which is obviously 100% HORRIBLE. They promote regenerative agriculture and animals living free and happy until they are old. At this point we kill the animal corressing it and embracing it with love so it can feel why we are doing what we have to do to survive.
Well done, Ed! If someone has a good grasp of the fundamental understanding when they first choose a vegan lifestyle, it's important to consider why they went vegan in the first place. I would suggest that if everyone on this Earth had the thought: "If we wouldn't want to be subjected to suffering, exploitation, or harm ourselves, then we shouldn't impose these things on other sentient beings." This sharpest ethical perspective doesn't necessarily require religious teachings or divine guidance. Instead, it can be viewed as a natural extension of our basic sense of fairness and empathy, rooted in the understanding that all living beings, whether human or non-human, have the desire to live free from harm.
For those people who appear in front of the camera and announce, "I QUIT VEGAN," it's possible that they might have been influenced by trends, peer pressure, or misinformation. Therefore, their initial motivation to go vegan may not have been firmly grounded in a strong commitment to principles of fairness and empathy toward all living beings. Keep the good work Ed Peace & Love be with you.
Huh, now that you mention it, was it even rationality that pushed Ed to go vegan? In his story, it seemed more about biting into a vein giving him a visceral reaction after having the dead chicken news story on his mind. But I might be mixing his stories up.
precisely! they lack those principles because the new age cult dictates that you may pick and choose your principles at will to support your spiritual identity.
"Animal rights activists are useful in informing the section of the population who already sincerely despise exploitation; and more often than not, if they are not hypocrites, these people are also against the technological exploitation of nature and less anthropocentric. I am saying “sincerely despise exploitation”, because many people have weak internal moral compass and integrity, and they tend to pretend to be good people for selfish reasons and do “good deeds” to gain social status; these people would exploit others if the majority agrees with such exploitation but never admit it to themselves or others. They tend to have relative morality rather than absolute morality, and ultimately see morality as a competition game to gain acceptance by others rather than to ensure well-being of others. We might argue that this is because of the disintegration of communities and indigenous cultures leading to individualistic win-lose type competition based interactions (such as the modern economic, political and education systems) between humans taking over. Lose-lose and win-lose type interactions are more dominant in destabilized systems (e.g. technology vs nature) as they often lack real solutions that benefit both parties, especially in the long-term. We should realize that in a world where the exploitation of animals is seen as abhorrent, the exploitation of nature and wildlife should also be seen as so; such a world, if informed enough as this book intends to achieve, would be against technological progress. Many animal rights activists would be surprised to learn that the exploitation of nature is not necessary or even beneficial for human well-being because what we do to nature, we do to ourselves; but exploitation is necessary for the expansion of the technological civilization." from The Connections (2023) book by Semih Oguzcan [available for free on my channel]
“This might not resonate with all of you…”
Translation: “If you believed my theatre of concern, you will be disappointed…”
“I’m okay with that…”
Translation: “I have buried myself even more deeply in the defenses that characterize my personality disorder…”
“It’s honestly so liberating…”
Translation: “It’s anything BUT!”
I can't even watch Sofia's video without laughing. I run away from that type of spirituality long awhile ago and was the best decision ever.
Ed. You are something. Thank you. // From someone spiritual AND vegan with some self-distance
Thank you for this discourse. I was unaware of the honey bee situation. I don't listen to influencers and I can't imagine anyone who practices something as profound and holistic as veganism leaving it over someone's else's 'spiritual' experience. Baffling. There's plenty of sound evidence for veganism for those who are serious, as you point out.
I've been vegan for 8 years and I'm also very spiritual. I feel such a soul deep connection to animals and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I continued to support their needless suffering.
I feel a much deeper connection with animals that I kill and eat. One day, I will return to the earth, feed plants and insects, and those plants and insects will then be eaten by the birds and ruminants that I now eat.
@@bobjohnson1633But there is no reason for you to kill animals. Humans have evolved past the need to hunt. I'm at peace knowing I can live my life without causing unnecessary harm. But that's just me. Humans were smart enough to create weapons which were used to slaughter animals. In the same breath, humans are smart enough to end the cycle of animal suffering and torture. The choices are there and I've made mine.
@@bobjohnson1633 surely you feel a deeper spiritual connection ,the only question is ,could that spiritual connection be labeled 'Godly' or 'satanic' ? I mean ,if you'd change the animals with humans it would be crystal clear how the connection would be labeled ,wouldn't it ?
@@bobjohnson1633 cringey LARP
I feel connected to the delicious animals
The way you come across so calm. Goals.
My spiritual awakening began when I went vegan. ❤
I love this!! ❤My response was similar. I became vegan because of my spiritual awakening. Two years of meditating every night and a baby octopus in a sea aquarium changed my mind about eating fish (and I also stopped going to sea aquariums too)! Vegan since the summer of 2021 and will be forever.
Same!❤
Yup! Same! 48 years an atheist and bam! Hare Krishna!
@@stephenowens3687Hare Ram 💚
A major milemarker along the road is but a stepping stone in our journey, it doesn't mean you've arrived back home,very good kme, 1st step- sound generates space which generates step 2 which is-its universal/ catholic science notwithstanding opinions of fallible creatures, irrefutable and undeniably so, something like when cock crowing the sun comes up, _ so he thought, but truth is its something else, , the assembly of sacred scientists attenuating synergetic inosculation of nature
Thank you Ed for your platform!
This is an era of hypnosis, many people fill in the blanks/traumas/insecurities with mind creations to attract attention and start a movement. Veganism is love, compassion, respect but also understanding even those who oppose it and those who turn away. With this energy and of course by truly seeing the devastation caused around us by greed and attention seeking one better turn into minimalism and simplicity. Living whole by taking care of your body and mind, volunteering, giving and sharing with one’s in need, having fun and contributing to the community. ❤
Nothing kills more animals for food than veganism.
As always, thank you Ed for being an unshakable voice for reason within the community.
He really is. I am so so happy for all that he is and what he uses his knowledge and impeccable articulation for. We all support you Ed!!
😂😂😂😂 my god
Dear Ed, I deeply appreciate your work. It's very inspiring, especially because of the calm and compassionate way you debate with people coming from all paths of life. I've been vegan for 10 years now, and on a spiritual journey my whole life. These two aspects of my being go hand in hand in my case, as I believe there is no better way to be connected with Mother Nature, Spirit and all living beings than following a vegan lifestyle. Therefore I feel very sad when I see people using spirituality to justify animal abuse. I also believe that there is more to life than what we can experience rationally. I’ve been through several meditation and psychedelic retreats, and what happened to me was to simply deepen my connection with all there is. So I keep having a hard time buying into the idea that we are entitled to exploit or even kill anyone for our nourishment, when we do have the possibility to do otherwise.
THIS!! Thank you Ed!! I too am so tired of human animals and their holier than thou bs. With their Mother Earth/Universe/God excuse for having zero self control and so they revert to eating and/or using animals.
You kill 100* as many animals to have plant agriculture. You cause several fold more never to live because you destroy all of their habitats and destroy the soil.
I'd rather kill my favorite animal, cattle, one time to live for a year, than to spray animal killing sprays and wipe out entire habitats just to have a fucking salad.
The majority of people who give up being Vegan don't make a video about it. This raises a red flag to me and the fact that these people are all talking like adverts for meat, eggs, fish, honey etc makes it clear that it's about money and nothing eles. These people are are being paid to do this. No mystery.
I honestly think that's what happened with pissSheif.
On a video where a earth raping vegan is trying to sell you a book.
@mineamashion4100 I'm vegan and have been craving eggs and cheese lately. All sorts of arguments for adding them to my otherwise vegan diet crop up in my thinking. I realize they are spurious justifications for what I want. It has nothing to do with money. Perhaps the people making videos for leaving vegan diets are going through simply that: wanting more food they miss. Sadly, they publish their self-soothing justifications.
@@stefashaler8340how long have you been vegan for and have you tried the alternatives? Personally I like alternatives to dairy cheese better.
@@stefashaler8340 I missed the texture of eggs since going vegan but I recently started making my own vegan eggs from chickpeas & seasoning. there's tons of good recipes online and it really hit the spot for me and satisfied those cravings. Same with vegan cheese, you can make some really delicious alternatives. I just remind myself that dairy has a really distinct sour taste to it whenever I've had an intrusive craving pop in. The vegan options are far superior! :D
Pseudo spiritual people quoting pseudo science to justify their current pseudo thinking. When they finally grow up, I hope they recant their positions… Great post, Ed 😌🙏
Vegans think the 7 country study is actual science.
This man's debate topics around veganism are so varied and interesting.
Top notch ⭐️⭐️🌟⭐️⭐️
Spirituality is the best excuse for the ego to shine, without being noticed 😮 Good video, thank you for highlighting this ❤