How Benthams Substack Helped Me Become Vegetarian

Saying something nice about Matthew

I used to be vegetarian a few years ago. I was also vegan for a bit. I stopped, mostly due to apathy. I never became unpersuaded of the ethical arguments against factory farming though.

Bentham's Bulldog

runs a Substack where he writes about many topics from perspectives I widely disagree with

• Arguments for Theism

• Utilitarianism

• Moral Realism

• Application of Bayes’s Theorem

• Edgy political hot-takes (edit: that I sometimes misunderstand)

That being said, I feel bad because I get so annoyed by Matthew (Bentham’s Bulldog) that sometimes it feels like all Im doing is criticising him.

Matthew is intelligent and he cares a lot about consistency in his arguments.

This past year he wrote a lot about The Shrimp Welfare Project here

The Best Charity Isn't What You Think

I don’t agree with the way Matthew thinks about these issues on the whole. I reject key commitments that would make something like supporting Shrimp Welfare or becoming Vegan the rational (tm) thing to do.

That being said, it’s not like all the points Matthew made were without value. He highlighted aspects of topics I hadn’t thought about, such as how farming practices for shrimp bring about needless suffering, and his writing brought to my attention problems I had pushed to the back of my mind.

This, combined with wider reflections, experiences and a desire to lower my blood pressure / cholesterol, led me to decide to stop buying animal products in most forms.

In this case then, insofar as Matthews goal was to stop people creating demand for animal products AND to raise awareness about easy wins ethically farming shrimp and how donating small amounts of money can reduce the pain experienced by them in that process he succeeded; even with an ardent critic.

If people want a very different perspective from my own, I recommend they read what he has to say about these topics.