Down the Post-Vegan Rabbit Hole

I fell into one of those Internet rabbit holes today and ended up reading this article, The Vegans Have Landed. Its author, Rhys Southan, is a former vegan who now writes critical philosophical treatises on the underpinnings of the vegan worldview. I feel as though I would have to read a lot more, at least some Peter Singer, to make any claims on the value of Southan's arguments, but his writing is fun and challenging.

The article has what may be the best illustration I've seen in a while:


Salad by Till Nowak

Following a scenario from Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals, Southan describes the idea of a superior alien species invading Earth to turn humans into a food crop. Safran Foer's purpose in creating the scenario was to build empathy for animals, so that we might extend the Golden Rule to them.

But Southan points out that the aliens wouldn't have to eat us to harm us -- they could do it by habitat destruction.

Depending on how much land was required for the vegan alien cities to accommodate all their alien vegan restaurants, alien anarchist bookstores and alien warehouse lofts, the vegan aliens might or might not set aside some land for humans to live on. 

And there's more in the full essay, which appeared in a web-based magazine called Aeon.