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Singer's argument isn't going to attract much of a response even in the best case. I think it comes off as lazy.
It's not a new issue. I'm sure there has been plenty written on it before. If Singer had done the obvious reading then he should be presenting the common counter arguments and rebutting them. He's not doing that, so he's either hiding them or hasn't done his homework.
He's got to at least make a cursory comment about zoonotic disease risks to be taken seriously.
Twitter's format does favour quick emotional responses so it's not really a good format for a charged discussion.
I don't think Singer was lazy in the least, and he has a sufficient body of literature out there for anyone who wishes to find proof of effort outside of a tweet. I guess that's one of the perks of being a renowned philosopher/ethicist, not having to repeat yourself that is.
He'd certainly recoil with horror given my interpretation of the fact that for most moralities, it's inconsistent to decry bestiality but endorse meat eating, but we both agree it's an inconsistency worth resolving, even if in polar opposite ways.
Really? You think that would appease everyone?
Very well, let's pretend he suggested that people fucking animals wear a condom. Problem solved, or at least solved to the same extent as things like animal husbandry or keeping pets still contribute to zoonotic disease, and vanishingly few condemn them on those grounds.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I sincerely doubt that if Singer had amended his statement to endorse only bestiality where prophylaxis was used, you'd be swayed one jot more than you were..
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I mean, between 'every person who want to have sex with animals owning one animal in their home to have sex with' vs 'the entire global factory farming and livestock industry in all it forms', I'm gonna guess that the latter produces many orders of magnitude more zoonotic disease risk.
Sometimes an objection being common doesn't mean it's good, and I don't think every objection deserves a mention every time you talk about something.
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