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      "body": "Congratulations @chiweenie! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@chiweenie/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@chiweenie) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=chiweenie)_</sub>\n\n\n**Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:**\n<table><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-community-has-lost-an-epic-member-farewell-woflhart\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQWnM36SWCPGn98nY83M1ArgweMz5fnovQEp2E4FiDdug/Wolfhart_header.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-community-has-lost-an-epic-member-farewell-woflhart\">The Steem community has lost an epic member! Farewell @woflhart!</a></td></tr></table>\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "In my <a href=\"https://steemit.com/philosophy/@chiweenie/re-optimistic-nihilism\">last post</a> I talked to my camera to attempt to express some of my thoughts.  Well, I think I can take away a lesson from that experiment:  speaking aloud can be more expedient and spontaneous than writing, but for me, it is probably better suited for a stream-of-consciousness type exploration on a topic rather than a well-articulated message... With writing it is possible to go back and change a couple words, re-order some sentences, correct some reasoning, etc. to make something clear.  I can't really get that level of precision with spontaneous speaking... and I feel strongly that the topic of my last post warrants some precision, and I didn't do a very good job explaining my thoughts.  Hence this follow-up.\n\nThis video, “<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14\">Optimistic Nihilism</a>”, comes across to me as a sales pitch.   A sales pitch for a product they are selling: a prepackaged worldview, obstensibly based on reason and science and rationality.  With such a basis, of course, you don't have to reflect too much on its validity... it's science!  It has added convenience in that it doesn't burden you with any moral obligations.  And its a trendy label to boot..  It gives you membership in a hip, easily identifiable in-group.\n\nThe sales pitch comes in two parts.  The first part appeals to the intellect of a certain demographic.  He talks about science stuff, like our place within vast galaxy clusters, big numbers we \"can't possibly comprehend\", life coming from non-life “for some reason.”  There seems to be a deliberate, repeated air of dispassion around the mysteries -  a “don't know, don't care” kind of attitude.  (I'd guess the purpose is to appeal to the target demographic: maybe hip youngsters that think that awe & wonder are uncool?)\n\nNow, in describing the scientific discoveries, the narrator inserts a message, implicitly stated as fact, that the entirety of everything is ultimately meaningless.  He implies that it is a natural, factual conclusion drawn from the knowledge provided to us by science.  (This is terribly incorrect as I will address later)  That quietly stated “fact” is the basis for the problem that you are facing: existential dread.  That problem needs a solution.  And we have one: Optimistic Nihilism.  \n\nThe second part of the pitch I see as “here's all the cool stuff you get if you subscribe to Optimistic Nihilism.”  (Of course, we don't have to even mention that it's a hip, smart label you tan tell all your friends about... much cooler than “atheist” or “agnostic”, and certainly MUCH cooler than “christian” or “buddhist”.)  Throughout this second part describing of the selling points for this product, it seems it more or less amounts to an attitude: “ultimate meaninglessness ain't all that bad if you look at it the right way”.  From what I surmise, the “optimistic” portion of it boils down to this:\n(a) Life is short so I may as well enjoy it.\n(b) Bad stuff we did disappears with the heat death of the universe.  So... we don't need to worry about that stuff so much.\n(c) Ultimate meaninglessness liberates one to determine one's own meaning/purpose.\n\n\n<b>Re: (a) Life is short so I may as well enjoy it.</b>\n I can't say I really disagree with the general idea... we absolutely do need to appreciate the present moment, and be mindful of the limited time we have.  (However, I won't get into my problem with how his calculation/visualization - based solely around an individual lifespan duration – neglects to ascribe any value to the greater life structures that we are a part of)  BUT: I would suggest that the the attention focused on quantifying the entirety of your existence in terms of number of years of life is a way to deliberately convey urgency; urgency that you need this worldview they're selling.  A sense of urgency is a useful tool for the salesperson.\n\n<b>Re: (b) Bad stuff we did ultimately disappears so we don't need to worry about it</b> \nThis is frightens me, and one major reason I feel compelled to write all these paragraphs and make an ass out of myself on a youtube video.  This thing is just supposed to be this innocent “optimistic” outlook on things, founded on science, and therefore perfectly rational.  However, within this worldview, it is perfectly justifiable to say personal responsibility doesn't matter, and your impact on the lives around you doesn't matter.  Murder is okay, because ultimately it doesn't matter.  Rape doesn't matter – all parties are going to eventually die anyway.  Same goes for torture, domestic abuse, pedophilia, genocide, slavery, etc.  If none of this matters in the logical mind of an optimistic nihilist, then what of the emotional mind?  Any remotely decent human being would have an emotional response tells us OF COURSE rape and murder and genocide and slavery are bad... they DO matter, but... well... my RATIONAL nihilism says really they don't ultimately... That is an uncomfortable contradiction to carry around in one's mind, and needs some heavy duty suppressing and/or rationalizing.  Any kind of suppression and rationalization like that takes <i>so much</i> energy and causes so much misery, and can do wonders to one's mental health over time.  Even worse when the “it all doesn't matter anyway” eventually boils down to raw, bitter cynicism.  If one's life becomes miserable enough – maybe experiencing a deep tragedy or series of tragedies, or gaining deeper awareness of / connection to the crisis that all of humanity is in - someone with the \"it all doesn't matter anyway\" core belief could easily resort to taking cynical pleasure in global destruction.  And the more people with that attitude on our planet the worse off we all are.\n\n\n<b>Finally, Re:(c) Ultimate meaninglessness liberates one to determine one's own meaning/purpose </b>\n\nOf course, he didn't use these words “find meaning”, but basically that's what all that “play video games” and “build a galactic empire” and “bonus points” stuff was about.  But the way I worded the summation exposes the contradiction: if you exercise your liberty granted by this worldview/philosophy they're selling and manage to find meaning or purpose in your life, can you really call yourself a nihilist anymore?  You can tell me you believe in “nothing” but the fact that you have found a reason to live your life and experience joy implies that you have some deeper belief, at the very least some unconscious belief in your own existence.  \n\nYou could say “no, the universe doesn't have any meaning; any meaning is merely an illusion created in our minds!”  But our minds are apparently created from the matter of the universe, and are necessarily a part of this universe.  Therefore any meaning created in our minds is necessarily a part of the universe we live in. \n\nMatter in the universe → brain → mind → meaning.\n\nNow, you have to possess a mind in order to hold this belief: “the universe has no meaning.”  In order for you to hold that belief, the concept has to have meaning in that mind.  But, as we surmised above, that mind is part of this universe – the universe that you're saying has no meaning.  \n\nOne can't properly state that the universe has no meaning if the statement itself has meaning in the mind of the one stating it.\n\nThat takes us back to the fundamental assumptions in the video; ones that may have led to these contradictions.  Recall the quietly-stated assumption in the first part of the video:  because science has unraveled so many mysteries about the physical universe, our natural conclusion is ultimate meaninglessness.  This is the narrative I heard: “We used to have misconceptions about how the physical world works, and when we did, we mistakenly held beliefs that there was some meaning to it all.  But now, thanks to science, we know the universe is really big, everything started in a big bang, and it will ultimately end in a massive heat death.  Therefore, no meaning.”  \n\nIf there is one thing that I want to get across in this essay it is this: <b>The statement that science has shown us that there is no meaning is completely and utterly false. </b>\n\nThe reason the statement may be believable, I think, comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what science is.  Science is an amazing tool humans have come up with to measure and make predictions and explanations for the world around us.  Our forebearers built and refined it over generations, and as a result we are privy to amazingly precise abstract models of the physical universe on small and large scales.  We can trace the emergence of life from a big bang to matter and energy to planets to amino acids to DNA to single-celled organisms, up to plants and animals and ecosystems and brains.  We have great insight into the machinery of how the world around us behaves.  But when it comes to the “why”, the best we can do with science is follow an endless chain of cause and effect that never seems to answer the question at the deepest level.  “Why” is something innately nonphysical, and outside the scope of physical sciences.  The temptation is to dismiss the question as “meaningless” since there is this inherent endless chain that can't seem to be resolved by strict scientific method.  However, such dismissal is a dire mistake, as really what we are seeing is a limitation of the scientific method in creating a full picture of the reality in which we live.  <b>Science is not the end-all be-all of our existence.</b>\n\nWe humans have a tendency to overestimate our knowledge and confidence about something if we have a name or a label for it.  Science allows us to observe patterns in the physical world, organize and classify those patterns and apply names and labels to them.  But just because we have a name or a label for something doesn't mean we've grasped a full understanding of it.  It does allow us to package up a potentially complex collection of ideas into bite-sized communication nuggets.  However, it ALSO can tempt us to place items for which we have words into a kind of “now I know about that” mental bucket.  “Gravity” - makes stuff fall, put it in the bucket.  “DNA” - encodes life; pop it in the bucket.  “Evolution” - where life came from; toss that sucker in...  Since we can slap names and labels on so many physical phenomena, and it's fairly easy to teach and memorize vocabulary, we may be tempted to assert greater knowledge than we truly have.  But considering that each of these concepts is worthy of its own encyclopedia, how much of humanity's collective knowledge can really be known by any single individual?  What does it even mean when we say “WE know” something?\n\nInterestingly, slapping labels on “I know about that” buckets works for groups of people too: “christians” go in the “yeah they're dumb because they believe in jesus” bucket.  “vegans”, “SJWs” “feminists” go in the “they're self-righteous arrogant pricks” bucket.  “millennials” go in the “lazy entitled shits” bucket.  “trump supporters” go in the “racist deplorables” bucket, “liberals” and “leftys” in the “whackjob commie socialist, stay the fuck away from me” bucket. \n\nI think this concept – the concept of reducing people to labels -  is also playing an implicit role in what is going on with this video, and is partly why I'm so disturbed by it.\n\nI cannot understate the  importance of the “one of us” bucket: the “in” group.  These are the folks you agree with on most stuff.  You respect their opinion above all, and acceptance in that group is important on some level.  We've all got this kind of bucket... it's only natural.  But a big problem arises with it when you've invested too much of your identity with a group/tribe/label that you cannot be permitted to have an independent thought if it doesn't jibe with the group consensus.  Depending on the nature of the community, your individuality may melt away into the group.  The group quite probably has a leader or leaders that members look to for guidance on how to think or feel about a particular issue.  Organized religion has been a traditional way this structure occurs, but online communities have opened up new possibilities for tribalistic “groupthink”.\n\nAny number of political/religious/apolitical/areligious binding agents are subject to this, but specifically relevant to the discussion are some communities that are based around science, reason, skepticism.  Some labels that come to mind “new atheism”, “scientism”.  Some high-profile “leaders” that come to mind: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer,  Neil Degrasse Tyson, even Bill Maher to an extent.  One thing common to all of these people is that, if you're part of their in-group, you don't dare accept any sort of “spirituality” or “faith” or “god”.  Those are practically dirty words in those circles, and even entertaining the concept that they should have some role in your life may make you an outcast. (In fact, if someone even mentions god, you should promptly say something about “fairy tales”.)  The problem is that it is an undeniable fact that the concepts behind those words are a very real component of the reality we experience.  “Spirituality” is basically a word to describe greater purpose that serves to give life fulfillment, to keep you going.  “Faith” is a word for those beliefs that you hold as true, even if you can't prove them true.  “God” may be some kind of organizing principle or creative force underlying our undeniably mysterious existence.  Certainly I'm providing simplistic descriptions, but the point is that different religions and traditions have different ways incorporating and grappling with these fundamental concepts.  As individuals we have to grapple with them, whatever words we choose to use to describe them.  However, with “new atheism” or nihilism (optimistic or otherwise) or reductive materialism, they are outright rejected as meaningless, and worthless.  The need for meaning and spirituality are a sign of intellectual weakness.  But “we” are strong and intellectual, without need for such ridiculous notions.  Theists on the other hand are weak, intellectually inferior.  Us vs. them.  \n\nThe us vs. them mechanism, the “in-group” vs. “out-group”,  I believe, will ultimately be the downfall of our species if we continue at our current rate.  Technology won't save us, a political leader won't save us, extraterrestrials won't save us (probably not anyway)... the only thing that will save us is an increased self-awareness in our collective consciousness.  We need to wake up.  And the only way an increased awareness can come about collectively is if the individual minds gain a greater awareness of the whole.  But in-group/out-group fighting is detrimental to the development of this awareness, as is a “fuck it all anyway” nihilistic attitude spreading throughout the individual minds.\n\nSo, in conclusion, I obviously encourage the reader to reject identifying as an “Optimistic Nihilist”.  Please think about your core beliefs deeply, and don't rush to label yourself. Please reflect on and question all labels that we place on ourselves and each other, with a special awareness of those you consider part of your identity, and of those that make you despise someone.  These labels serve to divide us.  And our species is in crisis right now.  Between unprecedented environmental destruction and mass exploitation driven by a corporate oligarchy, and a psychopathic US empire drunk on power attacking and exploiting poor countries and injecting the globe with trillions of dollars of weapons and explosives, we cannot afford to fight with one another about stupid petty labels, nor can we afford to ignore and dismiss our shared crisis as \"meaningless because science\".  Vast forces are at work destroying our planet and our brethren, and at this point a healthy collective consciousness is all that can save us.  \n\n<hr>\n\nHere are a couple of videos that are at least peripherally related and super interesting:\n\n<a href=\"https://www.corbettreport.com/the-weaponization-of-science/ \">“The Weaponization of Science”</a> (13 min)  Great discussion from James Corbett about “scientism” in the context of its utility within political power (a different angle than how it came up in my discussion, but extremely releveant when he talks about science “proper” being “smeared out” to be this other thing that it really isn't...)\n\n<a href=\"https://youtu.be/4x2sJWmAnjY\"> “How Modern Reality Is Being Manufactured”</a> (~15 min) Fascinating discussion about how collective consciousness is being deliberately manipulated.",
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      "body": "Dude, it's not about calling you a statist or any stupid label.  Its about a contradiction in what you were advocating for, vs. what the stated goals are.  I read that you advocated for total public surveillance, and that total surveillance is OK so long as everyone has open access to the footage.  However, my gripe is that if not everyone wants total public surveillance, then you have to force it upon those who don't in order to achieve what you're advocating for.   And now you're \"moving the goalpost\", suddenly advocating for a private-only system, with restricted access, and then accusing me of building a straw man!",
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      "body": ">Your arguments aren't good enough to convince us.\n\nOK. Those of us who do want to set up cameras in private places for security, as we are, can continue to do so, and network with each other to provide access when crimes are created, allowing access to the areas cameras whent hey agree to join that network. No access is open for view without a crime existing in the area. That would be a restricted way of doing it that would still allow everyone to verify criminal reports.\n\n>Now, here's the question: in order to implement this, you're going to have to force it upon those of us who object. \n\nThat was your assumption. You think I'm a statist :P You made your own straw man and confused yourself. Peace.",
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      "body": "Thanks!  I look forward to your first blog post?",
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      "body": "thank you",
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      "body": "Correct. It's an assessment of your essay.  I believe if you submitted as a class assignment, it *might* get a passing grade in middle school or so.  It contains very weak reasoning and is obviously lazily researched - you just threw in links that just kinda sorta support your core argument (which i surmise to be \"vegetarians are stupid\"), without even understanding what they were about.  \n\nOf course, all these high-fives from folks saying in so many words \"yeah, vegetarians ARE stupid!\" have likely clouded your ability to see the lack of quality in your work.",
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      "permlink": "re-krnel-mass-camera-surveillance-can-take-down-statism-nuts-crazy-or-is-it-20170730t234955794z",
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      "body": "So the problem with mass surveillance is the fact that only some people (authority) have access to the surveillance footage; the solution to that problem involves (a) full video coverage of all public spaces, and (b) making the surveillance footage accessible to everyone, rather than just authority/state.\n\nSome people would be okay with the idea of being recorded anytime they go in public... the author of this article, several of the commenters for example.  They see the trade-off being acceptable.  However, there are those of us who don't see it as an acceptable trade-off, and do not wish to be recorded everywhere they go.  Your arguments aren't good enough to convince us.\n\nNow, here's the question: in order to implement this, you're going to have to force it upon those of us who object.  But I thought this was a solution to statist tyranny.  Wouldn't you say being forced into going along with something like this is a form of statist tyranny?",
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      "title": "Re: Optimistic Nihilism",
      "body": "Well, I guess my steem-it blog is just me responding to things that get under my skin.  I saw <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14\">this video</a> on youtube and felt compelled to craft a response.  \n\nInstead of typing, i thought I'd experiment with the \"talk to the camera\" approach... more spontaneous but more rambly... I believe I manage to get my points across.\n\nMy main message is this: the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14\">referenced video</a> is a sales pitch for a pre-packaged belief system that grants the purchaser the license to live a life free of pesky morality.  All you need to do is slap this label on your brain and you're good to go.  Ostensibly it's rooted in science, so you don't have to worry about being challenged on the rationality of your belief system.\n\nAn interesting contradiction embedded in the philosophy is this (a) the foundation of the philosophy being based upon ultimate meaninglessness, and (b) the touted freedom that grants to the individual to seek out one's own meaning.  \n\nYes, in a free society, we should be free to seek out meaning and truth... in fact you could say that that very search can provide meaning in itself.  But once you've found some meaning or purpose - having exercised the supposed freedom that nihilism gives you - does it still count as nihilism?  It seems to cancel itself out....  ironically the term nihilism seems to lose any meaning in the context of this philosophy... that is, if you take the \"optimistic\" part of it to mean that you're free to enjoy meaning of your own choosing.\n\nI believe the term is being employed as a mechanism by which a certain demographic of young people can be sold a trendy pre-packaged belief system that creates minimal moral obligation, encourages complacency in the concern for others' suffering, and reinforces a sense of powerlessness in our ability to act collectively to change the world.  And that sense of powerlessness is very convenient for those in power who want to keep from having their power challenged.\n\nIn fact, here's why he kept talking about video games in the \"optimistic\" portion of the video: we should all bury our heads in trivialities that bring us immediate gratification.  Get sucked into the (intentionally addictive) fictional universes that video games provide, so we can stay comfortably distracted from the horrible shit our political and corporate leaders are doing.  Don't worry your pretty little head about the masses of the earth's population that is not privileged enough to have access to food, water, shelter, let alone video games.  You know, the brown ones we bomb because \"freedom\".  Also don't worry your pretty little head about the corporate greed causing accelerating climate change, the destruction of our environment from fracking, the pollution of our water supplies so we can run oil pipelines, the collective addiction we have to oil; and of course the SEVERE addiction our oligarchs have to perpetual warfare.  Instead, retreat into this hip, trendy belief system you can share with your friends and have great rationality \"cred\".\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHc2WDl1dKU",
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      "body": "A relevant documentary i forgot to link to:\nhttp://documentary-movie.com/earthlings/",
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      "author": "chiweenie",
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      "title": "Re: You Can't Be A Vegetarian",
      "body": "I read this post entitled “[you can't be a vegetarian](https://steemit.com/health/@kyriacos/you-can-t-be-a-vegetarian)”, and felt compelled to respond.  This post has very flawed reasoning, and flawed assumptions, and a basic misunderstanding about  what vegetarianism is, and an overall hostility toward vegetarians.  \n\nThe basic thesis is this: vegetarianism is an irrational, emotional mass-hysteria.  Due to the interconnected nature of the food chain, the many uses of animal products, and the notion that a plant can possibly feel pain, it is arrogant for someone to claim to be vegetarian.  Furthermore, moral arguments for vegetarianism are invalidated by the fact that in certain locations on earth (austrailia)  the loss of sentient life is greater in some measure when plowing land for farming instead of allowing cattle to graze on the natural vegetation.  \n\nA point-by-point refutation of this article would be pretty tedious, and I suspect limited in value.  I gathered from the comments that the actual intent of the article was to “stir the pot” in a sense... piss off the vegetarians, get the meat-eaters to high-five one another, enjoy a perceived intellectual superiority over vegetarians... standard tribalistic bullshit.  Apparently the author plans to do more like this - in all likelihood sloppily researched, hastily thrown together, lazily reasoned - to stir the pot and get upvotes and to get money.  This is what really pisses me off about the post, as it represents so much of what is wrong with our main-stream media: disingenuous, manipulative yet **profitable bullshit**.  Bill O'Reilly is a shining example of this, with all the hate he spews to appeal to and/or provoke certain demographics, reinforcing people's ignorant preconceptions and ideologies...  He spews out so much bullshit so constantly there'd be no way to keep up with constant point-by-point refutations.  I just hope the power of Steemit allows more reasoned, level-headed discussion to bubble to the top to help counteract the toxic effect of tribalistic groupthink...  \n\nAnyway, my intent in this response is not to participate in shit-slinging...  Rather, I would like provide some real information and perspective to help counteract the ignorance that seems to fuel  this kind of “anti-vegetarian” hate.  I don't intend to try and convert people, to try and make non-vegetarians feel bad,  or tell people they shouldn't eat meat.  Rather, I'd like to explain from my perspective what vegetarianism is, and why I choose it.\n\nFirst of all, a vegetarian is someone who chooses not to consume meat.  A vegan is someone who chooses not to consume animal products, which includes dairy, eggs, leather.  Different people have different reasons for choosing veganism/vegetarianism.  Some choose it for the health benefits and nothing else.  Some choose it for religious reasons.  Some choose it out of concern for animal welfare, some out of concern for the the impact on on the global ecosystem.  Some simply out of habit, or perhaps to be accepted within a group of friends.  I've heard of some teenagers doing it to be rebellious against their parents.  There are some people who are “mostly vegetarian” or “mostly vegan”, perhaps less concerned with purity of a particular status, or are transitioning. \n\nAny combination/permutation of these reasons/situations may be any given individual's reason for falling under the umbrella “vegetarian”.  Different people have different levels of passion about the underlying beliefs and reasoning.  So you can't really generalize about vegetarians (for example, assess the intelligence or morality of someone based on whether they claim the label).  And, equally importantly, no one vegetarian can speak for all others.  It's not a religion or a club, it's a label for a particular lifestyle choice.  \n\nPersonally, my primary reason for choosing veganism is out of moral obligation, and is an aspect of my own personal spirituality.  There is tremendous suffering occurring constantly at factory farms, on a scale that boggles the mind.  Billions upon billions of creatures condemned to a life of misery, pumped up on hormones and antibiotics, abused by frustrated workers, crammed into tiny cages.  At hatcheries, live baby chicks go by on conveyor belts and males are tossed either directly into a grinder or into a plastic bag to be suffocated.  It's horror movie grade mass killing.  And let's not even mention the human beings working in these places, and the trauma and PTSD from being exposed to those horrors on a daily basis. \n\nThese creatures we are killing are not that different from us.  Their ability to experience suffering is not really up for debate; the similarities between their nervous systems and ours, the DNA we share, similarities in brain structure, in behaviors, reaction to joy and pain... all indicate that they are close kin to us.  Yet we humans inflict awful things on these creatures.  Consuming the products that come from that system of exploitation means I am directly participating in and benefiting from that suffering. \n\n[![Cows experiencing joy](http://img.youtube.com/vi/uA8dAnlD51o/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA8dAnlD51o \"Cows coming out in the summer\")\n\nYou can make the argument that one person opting out isn't going to change the system.  And since meat tastes so good, why bother?  Well, here's why I brought up spirituality earlier.  There's kind of an underlying belief one would need to hold to be able to use that justification for eating meat.  That is: my actions don't matter.  That is a toxic core belief to have, and I choose to resist it, and choose to believe that my actions  do matter.  Some hard-core secularists/atheists/skeptics might criticize the notion of choosing a belief (one can't rightfully hold a belief w/out scientific evidence!) - however I think it is a fallacy to expect that all of one's beliefs can be scientifically proven... (yeah, that statement warrants a bit more discussion... maybe in another article.)\n\nAnyway, because I hold the belief that my actions do matter, and also hold the belief that what animals experience in factory farming is a horrifying atrocity, I need some way to reconcile those beliefs in order to achieve some semblance of sanity.  Maybe I could get out of it by believing that free will is just an illusion, and therefore I should just ride the neurological impulses that mechanically propel me through my life.  However that doesn't work for me... the reality of free-will is one of those beliefs that I can't choose not to hold.  To me it is self-evident. (I happen to think the illusion isn't free will, the illusion is the certainty with which we think we understand the physical world... but again, that's a whole nother discussion).  \n\nSo, that pretty much leaves me with one option: to opt out.  I can avoid having to justify my participating in what I see as atrocities by doing what is reasonably within my power to not benefit from them.  Of course, honestly identifying what is “reasonably within my power” can be quite a struggle... however, passing on certain foods and products is the *least* I can do, and turns out is actually a small price to pay for even a small amount some inner peace.   (and the health benefits of a plant-based diet are just icing on the cake)  Also worth noting: the whole “meat is delicious” feeling goes away.   After some time associating it with the misery and torture from which it comes, it's not hard to look at a steak and be pretty much as disgusted by the sight as if it were a barbecued human forearm.  (Not to be disgusting, but imagine how similar a rack of barbecued pork ribs on a plate would look to a rack of barbecued human child ribs... you can “yeah but” all day long, but the two are pretty much physiologically identical.)\n\nAnyway, There is my perspective on the subject.  I want to emphasize that I speak for myself.  Perhaps there are aspects of my reasoning that some other vegetarians would agree with, and yet other aspects that other vegetarians would disagree with.  Likewise, certain non-vegetarians would agree with certain aspects and disagree with others.  That's how human beings work – we've all got ideological lenses through which we see and interpret the world around us.  Those lenses are built  from experiences, observation, reasoning, core beliefs, community, and vary widely from individual to individual.  We have strong compulsions to draw lines between groups of people: establishing \"in\" groups and \"out\" groups: Us vs. the \"stupid christians\", us vs. the \"stupid liberals\", us vs. the \"illegals\", us vs. the \"stupid vegetarians\"...  it's all the same stupid tribalistic bullshit.   I believe we can evolve past it, and that the first step is to see those in the \"out\" group as fellow human beings and not simply labels.",
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      "body": "Steem is not built as file manager, and sharing keys would COMPROMISE platform seriously. There is no \"Reading Hash Password\". \n\nPublic - Posts are meant for everyone to see. Privacy comes to each user individually not between each other in blockchain. \n\nOr at least you should explain in more technical keys, because abrakadabra private key/post private album/share is just a magic, not a technical possibility of API yet. \n\nDo you know what are file permissions on hosting ? How you will manage permissions with encryption if you not encrypt entire file (then it's not image anymore and requires decoding to not be encrypter (base64) which is consider serious security flaw.\n\nMagento CMS because of it has hacks all the year and constantly needs to place some security patches/leaks.",
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      "body": "Steem is not built as file manager, and sharing keys would COMPROMISE platform seriously. There is no \"Reading Hash Password\". \n\nPublic - Posts are meant for everyone to see. Privacy comes to each user individually not between each other in blockchain. \n\nOr at least you should explain in more technical keys, because abrakadabra private key/post private album/share is just a magic, not a technical possibility of API yet. \n\nDo you know what are file permissions on hosting ? How you will manage permissions with encryption if you not encrypt entire file (then it's not image anymore and requires decoding to not be encrypter (base64) which is consider serious security flaw.\n\nMagento CMS because of it has hacks all the year and constantly needs to place some security patches/leaks.",
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      "body": "This is a very bad essay/rant/blog post.  You've clearly made it into an “us vs them” in your mind, and are trying to rally up anger in the vegetarians and a sense of prideful victory in the “fuck vegans” crowd.  (rewarded w/ steem to be sure) You make very poor arguments, and completely invalid sweeping assertions and assumptions... you draw ridiculous conclusions from your “references”...e.g. “plants are sentient and can also suffer” because a biochemical mechanism was observed that has similarities to mechanisms in our own bodies.  \n\nI'm with you on the whole interconnected nature of our planet, and the nonlinearity of the food chain and the evolutionary tree, our dependence on our plantlife kin...  However your overall thesis is deeply deeply flawed.",
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      "body": "\"you'll earn a fortune on these topics\"... nailed it @oldtimer  This shit is intellectually dishonest and lazy, and is meant to provoke  rather than provide insight or to contribute to valuable discussion.  This is actualy the problem with mainstream media like CNN, MSNBC... it's all about the dollars, not sound reporting/discussion.  You know rachel maddow makes $30,000  a day spouting propoganda about russia? There's insane money in bullshit and manipulation.",
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      "body": "Private albums are impossible because the platform is public?  I think you're mistaken.  A user could potentially post an album whose contents are encrypted.  Sharing the encryption key would be the means to grant access to the album.\n\nIf each user had a public/private key pair, and published the public one as part of their account profile, the key to view the album could be encrypted with public key of each user to whom access should be granted.  Those encrypted keys could be posted publicly for all to see, along with the encrypted album contents.\n\n(I hope my ignorance of steem isn't showing and there's not some obvious technical limitation i'm missing... I'm new to steem, but in principle this seems reasonable - i mean, if you can post pictures and text, why couldn't you post encrypted pictures and text?)",
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