this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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The cattle industry is horrid. Boycotting or avoiding leather goods is not the lever that will harm the industry. Using leather goods means less waste from the meat industry. Leather items are good
I'm not vegan, nor am I opposed to leather goods, but this doesn't make sense. You're assuming that leather is strictly a byproduct of the meat industry and given for free to leather suppliers. In reality, they sell the hides. In effect, leather subsidizes meat products by providing the meat industry with extra revenue.
Sure, they sell the hides to the leather industry, but that's just kind of convenient for them to do. If they couldn't sell the hides, they'd still be selling the meat. But the cattle industry could not get by on selling the hides without the meat.
Leather is simply small potatoes in comparison
If you disagreed with killing animals for meat to begin with, you'd find this a very bizarre statement. It's like saying we should use human teeth as a building material because it reduces waste from police violence.
That's a pretty good idea, anything that might take a bite out of the tooth fairy monopoly.
I'm looking for change in our systems, but I recognize that the system is far bigger than me or you. I'm not going to lose sleep living in the only system I have access to. But in the meantime, I will bother politicians hoping to change the system that way.
I don't think beating your wife should be legal, and I will bother politicians to chance the law. But while I'm waiting for that, of course I will continue to beat my wife. It's the way things are.
Apples to oranges. I'm not debating you anymore
How so? The system of patriarchy is beyond any one individual to solve. Yet I'm damn certain you believe every man should still do their best not to contribute. Why should the system of animal exploitation (and environmental destruction, while we're at it) be any different?
Is it because one of these requires actual work on your side? You are the one measuring the same thing by two different standards.
But you don't have to eat meat or wear leather, and the current system relies on supply and demand.