Dubious Altruist
Comments9
This Daily Show 'bit' will not surely increase concerns and donations for shrimp. People are unlikely to believe that the shrimp welfare project is even real.
Chieng: So you decided to dedicate all your time and money into saving the lives of shrimp...
Zorrilla: Not quite. We're actually working to reduce the suffering when they die...
Chieng: So after all your work is done, they still die?
Zorrilla: Yes, less painfully.
Chieng: How did you make this even stupider?
Chieng has made an excellent and arguably bulletproof observation with his rhetorical question.
Even if the numbers of shrimp being killed is larger than fish, chickens, cows, pigs, the idea that skipping over the effort to prevent their death and focusing on reducing their suffering when they die does not have any merit.
The simple thought experiment is: you are a shrimp. A human with a dollar is nearby. Do you, as a shrimp, want the person to spend that dollar on possibly preventing your death? Or do you, as a shrimp, want that person to instead spend that dollar to possibly make you suffer less when you die?
What we have here is that the person who cares is making and funding a machine for not preventing death, but rather, funding a machine to reduce suffering before an inevitable death.
What am I missing, @Andres Jimenez Zorrilla 🔸 ?
Zachary,
Actually, in a word...Hinduism.
78% of India is Hindu, which explains why 40% of Indians are vegetarian.
And yes, that brings (some) ethical differences.
India's reasons for being highly vegetarian are not going to be easily transferrable to other countries.
Nor would that be desirable...India is the world's largest consumer of dairy, and the world's second largest consumer of eggs.
Egg Consumption by Country 2026
This is an excellent idea. People respond to free, and there will be some non-zero percentage of people for whom the habit of eating plant-based will stick, and possibly fully embrace the ethics of veganism.
Some feedback:
1) free food for a month is expensive and may attract people simply looking for free food
2) it may be somewhat effective or as effective to offer a discount for a month (e.g. 25% or 50%)
3) any effort should have some kind of commitment to abstain from animal food for the duration of the month
4) any effort should have some video tutorials to help people know what their options are, and how to prepare simple meals
5) any effort should also include dining at local vegan restaurants
6) any effort should also include interaction with other vegans, both for social support as well as to help with the transition
Next steps: definitely DONT drop it!
Do a pilot. Start with one household near you and self fund it if you can. Put a flyer up, and frame it as primarily a health or environmental thing. Stay in close contact with the household electronically, by phone, and in person. You'll learn so much about how it could play out and it will help you scale. If the household does not want to see the month through, go to the next household which has responded to your flyer.
There may be no 'clear way forward' but what does 'tentative steps possibly forward' look like?
Is it a list of all the advocacy efforts, along with their funding, expected outcomes, and historical performance?
Is it a place where efforts can be put in a tournament and be pitted against each other to eventually come up with a list ranked by estimated effectiveness?