A family member pointed out this PETA tweet as an object of derision:
Just a reminder that tuna fish are individuals who didn’t want to die to be your sushi dinner.
— PETA (@peta) May 5, 2024
Heh. Are tuna fish “individuals” that shouldn’t be caught and eaten? That is an easy view to mock, as many did in comments on PETA’s tweet.
As commenters pointed out, tuna are predators. They eat smaller fish. But that is different, PETA says. The comments on PETA’s tuna post play out some interesting arguments.
PETA says that tuna can eat other fish because they need to do so, to survive. Whereas we, unlike tuna, can be vegetarians. In response to that, commenters pointed out evidence that plants, like fish, can feel pain. I am not sure I buy that, but PETA does.
PETA has an answer: sure, it is bad to eat plants, but if we humans are vegetarians, we eat only one-twelfth as many plants as if animals eat the plants, and then we eat the animals. So, if you assume that humans, animals and plants are all on a par, and concede that humans, like tuna, need to survive, the only option is for all of us to be vegetarians.
My point here–and I do have one, as Scott says–is that PETA’s position is entirely logical. Its reasoning is impeccable, if you assume that you, a fish, and a spear of asparagus are all on a moral par. On that assumption, we all need to get along, so we should only eat each other to the extent that is necessary for survival. Of course, if we humans were all vegetarians, it wouldn’t be great for domesticated animals. Whole species would die out.
But that isn’t the main point. The main point is that, whether or not you subscribe to the Judeo-Christian account in which God gave man dominion over other living things on Earth, humans from time immemorial have eaten plants and animals without worrying about whether pigs, fish or asparagus spears have some kind of equal moral standing–so that eating them is equivalent to cannibalism. Until very recently, like last year or the year before, such an idea would have been considered insane.
But that is where we are today. The modern Left espouses ideas that are not irrational if you start from completely nutso premises. Something to keep in mind.
