this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Asklemmy

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[โ€“] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

I feel like whatever the answer is, it has to be the same as "is eating mushrooms vegan?"

[โ€“] moistclump@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which side of the debate were you on, OP?

[โ€“] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

Both, but with a leaning towards 'not vegan'

[โ€“] PM_ME_FAT_ENBIES@lib.lgbt 3 points 1 year ago

ITT: people misunderstanding the difference between vegetarianism and veganism

Here's the quick version: Vegetarians don't eat animals. Vegans don't eat stuff made of animal suffering.

Fly traps are made of animal suffering.

[โ€“] anarchost@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Edit: thank you for all the thoughtful replies from the people who downvoted but left an explanation!

The more I think about this question, the more complexities it creates. I am not a vegan, so I can only guess what the average vegan would think...

  • If you eat a plant that causes harm to a living being like an insect, are you doing a moral good from a vegan perspective because you are reducing harm?
  • Would it be morally good for a vegan to use vegan means to prevent more harm to animals?
  • Would it be the ultimate moral good for vegans to hunt down every wild Venus flytrap and consume them?
  • What if the Venus flytrap only ate insects that significantly harmed animal or human populations by spreading diseases?
  • If vegans could alter the environment using non-vegan means, in such a way that bats stopped eating mosquitoes without upsetting the overall ecosystem, but these mosquitoes started spreading a terrible but non-deadly disease in humans, would it be moral for them to do so, or would it be immoral for them to avoid it?

Unfortunately, I don't know the calculus a vegan uses when placing value on the life of a human versus an animal, so the bat mosquito thing is entirely up in the air for me up in the air for me

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