Documentary: Earthlings

Miscellaneous General
1

http://www.watchearthlings.com/

I just watched most of this film, to be honest I had to fast forward through a few parts I found to be disturbing.

I am not a vegan or even a vegetarian. In fact I would admit that I am a “specieist” as this documentary calls it. I believe that animals and other life forms on this planet can be included in the realm of private property. I am not remorseful exactly for thinking that humans are superior, but at the same time I feel that most humans are quite empathetic with their fellow earthlings. So as usual, despite the raw footage this film uses, I find myself skeptical.

They try and get you at the start by saying that the first reaction to the truth is denial.

I won’t argue for animal cruelty as I find it extremely detestable, but I find myself with my free market leanings to be in a state of cognitive dissonance when presented this picture of what life is like for the hot dog I ate yesterday before it was a hot dog.

I am merely posting because I can’t find any sort of criticisms or peer reviewed research on the accuracy of this film. I worry it may just be an appeal to emotion through showing unique footage.

Has anyone seen this film? Does anyone have any sort of reaction, criticism, or thoughts on it?

P.S. It is my personal belief that Joaquin Phoenix (the narrator) played a great Johnny Cash but is a total disconnected celebrity d-bag (even despite his involvement in this film).

2

Wow, leftists in emotional denial, gotta love it!

Funny how they’re willing to call meat consumers “speceists” given they are speceists themselves, except by their own rather weak and arbitrary standards. I wonder if the many vegans and vegetarians who complain about animal “murder” as well as the pain inflicted on them would be willing to eat animals that had died naturally. Indeed I can’t actually think of much reason we should be prevented from eating people who have died anyway…I suppose there’s the grey area of whether the family or what not own the organs.

3

If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.

Have you ever seen Food, Inc. or The Future of Food? They both make me question the source of my food and wish I could afford to shop at local farms.

As fo Earthlings, I’ll take a gander at it.

4

So far, eh..

So I’m a speciesist, that I can live with,

is some of this not good, yeah- but again, this is in the current system, not an ideal one- I’ll say more once I watch it

EDIT: got to ~13.5 min, they say we are not superior, but yet we ahve to decide to spay/neuter? How does that logic work- we are together and not superior- so can’t control, but we MUST spay/neuter?

5

yeah i got that right away too. These animals deserve their freedoms except to procreate their species without our consent.

6

I’m a specie-ist, if only in my opposition to fiat currency. cymbal

Really, though, I consider animals to be property (if family members also), and while torture and cruelty are horrible actions, one may do what he will with his property.

The question, perhaps, is whether or not life, liberty, and property apply to other species, for it is, I believe, these rights that so define a human.

7

I will say this- the public school/neo-con parent brainwashing of violence, worked- I watched every last bit, and wasn’t grossed out..

I got to the food section- and I’d still eat beef, veal, pork.

I have no trouble, so far- is it great, no, but then again, this is ONLY the worst- there are other transports, where they have none of these issues- this is the worst they could find, not the industry standard (Sinclair anyone?)

The pork is definately the worse they could get, but hey- muckraking is fine…

The electrocution video looked old though… looked circa 1970s/80s.. but I wasn’t alive then, so..

Poultry:

60-90k per building- so that works out to how many per square ft? this is a meaningless number! it may have units and a number, but it is a meaningless unit, birds/sq.ft is better

(even with the vairous slaughterhouse pictures- I’m still gonna eat meat..)

Seafood:

Yep, no tragedy of the commons knowledge here..

Dolphins/Whales I feel sorry for, but there is some basic, underlying premisies they are ignoring.

Clothes:

Leather- not great, but again, was practices in Middle Ages w/o lots of capital goods any better?

Fur: okay, not 100% humane, but again- this is muckraking, and look at where they are filming- China, India

8

I’m a meat lover. I probably eat too much of it in my diet. But honestly, it is a matter of cognitive dissonance. I wouldn’t be able to stomach watching pigs get their throats slit or however that happens, but…In some way I don’t care when I sit down to eat it. It’s hypocritical kind of, so sue me

9

Animal cruelty is obviously immoral. Sociopaths who murder are more likely to torment animals, as well*. Animals, however, are not capable of having a verbal dispute so they just cannot have legal standing. It is conceivable that advocates willing to spend their own money to advocate on behalf of animals may alter the legal status of animals in a natural order. We could then speak of animals having rights.

I like to think of this issue in terms of the Wild West. It’s hard to imagine a decent citizen (say a character that Sam Elliot would play) just standing by while a sociopath mercilessly beat his dog for sheer pleasure and I can’t imagine anyone interfering if said decent citizen told the sociopath to beat it or get a dose of what he was giving to the dog. I am currently working on a theory of property founded on ethics and the fact that animal cruelty is clearly unethical suggests that it is not without property consequence.

Clayton -

*I don’t have any cites for this but I remember learning about this while learning about abnormal psychology in Psych 101

10

There was probably a time when life wasn’t detached from farming, and people weren’t so shocked that the meat they ate was from something that died.