Labor exploitation isn't vegan. Vegans are doing the best they can, better than me.
Bacon vegans are the most nonsensical
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
40 points (65.9% liked)
Showerthoughts
37111 readers
808 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
We do the best we can to reduce harm and suffering.
Modern life is not vegan by nature, human infrastructure destroys animal habitats, human pollution is destroying the planet. Our species is responsible for the deaths of trillions of animals. Our existence is complicity.
Doing what I can to avoid consuming products of animal suffering is never going to be enough to counteract the majority of humans who revel in it. Especially as it's them who've built/control/condone the broken systems this world is running on and will be ending due to.
Oil is vegan, though.
It's made from the remains of dead plants.
Also, I'm not sure how vegans view corpses of animals.
Also, I'm not sure how vegans view corpses of animals.
Like a dead cow, chicken, or pig? Probably not favorably.
I'd argue the extraction, refinement and typical uses of petroleum oil are somewhat not-vegan.
Vegan has always been about doing the best you can in reducing the harm you do onto others and the environment as much your able to. Some vegans absolutely will refuse the use of petrol but most will see it as a current necessary evil they have to deal with and just reduce when able to in their current modern lives.
Non-vegans have a really hard time understanding veganism, huh?
It's like explaining free software to someone who only uses apple products.
people fucking love to do these gotchas against anyone for even fucking trying, don't they
well congrats, you did it, you convinced all of us to compromise on our principles
I love vegans because they're usually pretty normal people that have see front-and-center how collectively stupid most people are.
The majority of people are proud of their ignorance because it makes them fit in with others.
load more comments
(3 replies)
looool
how do you know if someone hates vegans?
don't worry they'll tell you
OMG I'm totally using this from now on. 😆
Interesting thought, but humans didn't harm the life that became fossil fuels, most of which came from plant matter anyway. I'm not in a position to unilaterally declare something vegan, but I'm pretty sure fossil fuels are vegan by default.
Sure, its use can harm animals. Still, I could kill a mouse with a cucumber, but it wouldn't change the fact that cucumbers are vegan.
Hmmm… but taking your argument to the opposite end; the normal consumption of a cucumber may not typically harm animals but I think there is an argument to be had that the normal consumption, and production, of fossil fuels typically does.
It's a common viewpoint among vegans that systems that depend on animal exploitation should be abolished. On the other hand, systems that contain animal exploitation should be improved.
I'll give two examples with human animals so it can be clear: Slavery? Should be abolished. People getting ran over and killed by cars? We should improve that.
The ones I always come back to are pollinator-dependent crops such as fruits and tree nuts. Wild and feral pollinators are not abundant enough to sustain the level of production we presently demand in these crops. Presumably, if more people were to become vegan then we would demand them even more.
From what I know, vegans oppose the transportation of pollinators for pollinating these crops. Yet it seems most vegans eat plenty of them (apples, peaches, plums, almonds, avocados, etc).
Wild and feral pollinators are not abundant enough to sustain the level of production we presently demand in these crops
and why might that bee??? 🔪🪿
Oh honey, I have no idea
Do those crops depend on transportation of pollinators? To me it seems like they don't.
By your own admission, there are natural pollinators. We can also manually pollinate them, which reinforces my point that systems that *contain* exploitation should be improved.
Can you give some real world examples of systems that contain animal exploitation that vegans would want to see improved? I'm not sure I completely follow that point.
Animal manure as fertilizer in farming. We can use fertilizers that don't depend on animals to be made.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Depends on whether you're talking about oil/gas or coal. The former is dead marine fauna, the latter is dead terrestrial flora.
Coal is from woody (containing lignin) plants. I think oil/gas is from algal mats.
This is like banning H₂O, NaCl and C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ from your life because "you don't like chemicals".
(Water, Salt and Sugar)
My sister had a freak out and told me she would never allow chemicals on her lawn. I said what about nitrogen?
NO FUCKING WAY
I followed up by asking her what she thinks our breathable atmosphere is made of, and what is captured by the rain and falls on her grass?
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN
I told her no, I don't, because when you just make up imaginary definitions for words, no one can ever know what you mean.
This is a pretty dumb hill to die on. If someone says "chemicals on their lawn" it's pretty clear they mean lawn treatment services.
You sound fun
Oil is actually primarily formed from algae, not dinosaurs, so it should qualify.
Coal is plant matter, so it also qualifies.
Even if it was dinosaurs, the dinosaurs weren't harvested, much less exploited, in any way. They died of natural causes. Hell, even if the aliens decided to farm them and we used what remained it still wouldn't be exploiting them since it's more akin to scavenging.
This is shifting blame. Fossil fuels are vegan in the sense of origin, however the harm done to the biosphere in using them is not vegan. Therefore a vegan using fossil fuels in a dependent society is to blame.
Sure. It's not the much higher percentage of people participating in this, it's the vegans. At least they're making attempts to change, unlike the rest of us.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I drive an EV and my electricity's 100% renewable.
Your move. :)
Any plastic in that EV?
Probably? I dunno.
The plastic (including polyester fabrics) in your car was most likely derived from petroleum. The car parts were most likely shipped around during manufacturing using combustion engine vehicles. The energy to cast those car parts, probably some of it comes from non renewables. The labour to build the car almost surely comes from other people who consume gas (for example to drive to the EV factory)
That "100%" renewable energy? The installation and maintenance of it was/is almost certainly done with large industrial equipment and vehicles burning fossil fuels. (Similar issue with production of parts).
Look, I'm not saying you aren't making positive choices by choosing renewable options. What I am saying is, while they are more renewable, they aren't truly 100% renewable when you factor everything involved in it. Fossil fuels are so pervasive in society, it's virtually impossible to both function in a modern society and not contribute to the consumption of fossil fuels.
Ugh.
Well, at least I can say I didn't buy new.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Vegan? Probably. But it is 100% Organic.
Actually 🤓, the refining process for many fossil fuel products requires the use of inorganic chemicals AND are proven to be hazardous to human health meaning they can’t even fit the US “Organic” certification. (Though I suppose the oil industry has enough money to ~~bribe~~ lobby the regulators)
Now if you meant “organic” strictly as in “the final product is a purely hydrocarbon compound” then you’re correct, assuming you’ve entirely distilled out any metals or other inorganic compounds of course.
If the baseline vegan precept is no animal products of any kind, then I would agree nobody is actually vegan
The commonly accepted definition is summarized by the Vegan Society:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
view more: next ›