When you hear plant based folk say they are ‘vegan for the animals,’ you may not be exactly sure what the hell that means. Well, this documentary here titled Earthlings perfectly sums up what that actually means, and why we do it for the animals. Earthlings points the camera directly at the truth most people don’t want to see or know about when it comes to factory farming, and the role animals have been given in our society. Full disclosure, parts of this film are hard to watch, but all that means is that the truth is hard to swallow once you really see and understand what is going on…nonetheless, wouldn’t you rather know the truth!
Think about this for a minute; lets say we humans finally have the technology for deep space exploration, and consequently we happen to discover another planet that does indeed harbor life. But the life found on the planet is not human like (at least what we consider human), instead it’s these oddly shaped life forms, some large (bigger than us), some small (can fit in your hand), some cute, some ugly, they make noises we can’t understand, they don’t speak our language, but they seem to have mothers, fathers, and siblings just like we do. Furthermore, you can see their emotions in their faces, they have eyes similar to ours, they have what we can tell are ears, mouths, noses, and legs and arms. Wouldn’t this be amazing to encounter and see!? Wouldn’t we just look at them in awe and be like ‘wow how freakin incredible are these creatures!’ Surely we would look at them with fascination, intrigue, and want to learn more about them!
Or would we just be like ‘eh, we don’t understand what they are saying, and they seem dumber then us, so lets just start enslaving them, killing them, skinning them, and eating them.’ Imagine if that really happened! Well, we here on earth have been conditioned to be ok with this, it has simply become part of our culture, customs, upbringing, and a societal norm…but why? Why is this the right way? If you take a step back, and pretend you were that space cadet who made that journey to the newly found planet where this new life was found, you would realize that this is exactly what happened here on earth. We have these amazing creatures on our very own planet that we GET to coexist with, and yet most of us have all become ok with the idea of killing millions of them, torturing them, experimenting on them, and of course eating them.
Wowza….what the hell happened right?! It’s simply a matter of a disconnect; people just don’t make the connection, or choose not to, that these beings [earthlings] are actually incredible sentient creatures – not merely just things, they have feelings!! It was only through conditioning that we humans have been brought to the point of seeing these earthlings as things that are ‘food’ to eat. For most, ignorance really is bliss, they might actually know the truth, but instead of confront the truth and make that connection, they simply continue on blissfully ignorant chowing down on whatever earthling tastes best to them.
You have been condition to think and see this here as a pet, that you love, and treat with respect:
You have been conditioned to see this as a thing called a cow, that we milk and eat (Mmm hamburger), that doesn’t have feelings or emotions, and that is merely just food:
You have been condition to see this as another thing called a pig, and that it is also incapable of any feelings or emotions…your conditioned response is Mmmmm bacon (clearly such a stark difference then a dog, no way these things have any emotions or feelings right?!):
Understand that these conditioned responses are simply due to what you have been thought; this is what you’ve know all your life, this is how you grew up, this is what your family and friends believe, this is what the mainstream public believes, and so you blindly continue on believing as such. People say, ‘well it’s part of our culture’ or ‘it’s part of their customs and tradition.’ Well, not too long ago here in the US slavery was part of our culture and customs. BUT does that make it OK? Does that make it RIGHT? A resounding HELL NO should be your response!!
Dare to think outside of your conditioned response and MAKE THE CONNECTION!! These creatures aren’t emotionless, feelingless, dumb things that are just commodities. These are all EARTHLINGS!!
Well, this documentary very effectively helps people make that connection; suspend all what you know for a moment, how you think of animals and food, and simply watch this film as a fellow earthling…dare to make a paradigm shift!
(You can watch this documentary online here, or you find it on Youtube, but fair warning the quality of the Youtube versions are pretty terrible)
More Than Just Kale 