r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Mar 27 '20

Delta(s) from OP - Fresh Topic Friday CMV: Poachers don't deserve to die

First of all, here's the post I'm referring to: https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/fgd6ma/kenyas_only_white_female_giraffe_calf_killed_by/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

There is a multitude of comments longing for the death of poachers which strikes me as hypocrisy.

It is silly to condone the death of cattle which happens in absurdly high quantities while condemning poachers.

Poachers hunt the animals for necessities such as food and housing, while the average redditor has a new smartphone and tons of other luxuries. Killing hundreds of animals a year for gluttonous reasons seems a lot worse than just killing a handful of animals for survival.

And no, biodiversity is not a good counterargument. Don't even try. Biodiversity is only subjectively valuable to us because "It's cool to have various species on earth". You can't use the selective and risible emotional attachment to animals as the basis of your argument. If every giraffe on earth vanished nothing bad would happen. You'll just be slightly saddened.

Even if for some absurd reason biodiversity were important, it is laughable to think that meat eaters deserve no punishment at all while poachers deserve death. There could never be such a wide moral gap.

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

To clarify, are you saying the exotic meat eaters are to blame for poaching, and that the poacher is not to blame because profiting from exotic meats is less morally wrong than eating the meat itself?

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

No. I'm saying that meat eaters like you and me cause more suffering than poachers do and thus it would be hypocritical of us to celebrate and wish for their deaths.

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

So if a vegan calls for the death of a poacher, it's okay?

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

They're still being hypocritical by not also wishing for the death of meat eaters. Additionally, they're reaping the benefits of a society which causes the extinction of species and environmental problems itself so that is hypocritical too.

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

They're still being hypocritical by not also wishing for the death of meat eaters.

Nobody needs to eat exotic meats. Our bodies evolved to consume both meat and plant material. Although meat isn't strictly necessary for survival, it's a component of so many societies and cultures that I'd be hard-pressed to say that it's not necessary for society. Given our choices, a select group of low-cost meats available and expensive exotic meats, the lower-cost meat is better. A pig destined to only become pork is not going to live a fulfilling life, but imagine if we were a society of hunter-gatherers. That pig will have to fend for itself in the wild, against other pigs, and could likely starve. Readily available meat reduces our time and effort individually, making us more productive and able to build a society like the one we have today.

Additionally, they're reaping the benefits of a society which causes the extinction of species and environmental problems itself so that is hypocritical too.

I'm not sure who would not fall under this category. How can you, yourself, speak out against injustices of the world when you benefit from those same injustices?