David is an activist & chief petitioner of the Yes On IP13 campaign (www.yesonip13.org & @yesonip13) which aims to outlaw the harming & killing of sentient animals in the US state of Oregon. That's without exceptions for animal agriculture, hunting, research or other forms of exploitation. Originally with a background in psychology & public health, David’s switch to activism began after bearing witness to pigs being killed in gas chambers.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:29 David's Intro
- Being new to activism
- IP13: Criminalising killing & breeding animals in the state of Oregon
- "We're asking for what we want"
- Linking the academic & the real world
04:03 What's Real?
- Culturally Jewish/Christian family branches
- Religion was just a label
- Having a Bar Mitzvah to "side with my mother... it made religion seem arbitrary to me"
- "They taught me how to read Hebrew but never taught me what I was saying"
- "It wasn't a worldview... it wasn't used to make sense of the world"
- "Sitcoms were more of a determinant of what's real"
- Meeting people who had done atheist & animal outreach
- "Free yourself from those harmful social norms!"
- UFOs, conspiracy theories & religion
- There's enough awesomeness in reality
- "I was angry when I learned that Santa wasn't real"
- Investigating Santa as a child w/a hidden camera
- Why do we lie to children about so many things?
- Homeopathy, "stop the steal", astrology, tea leaves...
- "Psychedelics made me more naturalistic & gave me the final push to go vegan as well"... connectedness
- Buddhism & Plum Village monks
- Talking to a flat earther
- The challenge of having enough, but not too much scepticism
- Epistemological & methodological naturalism
- "Pretend naturalism" (only considering evidence supporting what you already want to believe)
- What evidence would change your mind?
24:55 What (& Who) Matters?
- Intuitive ethics
- Vegetarian at 14 "I didn't want to eat animals"
- "'I'm not very much of an animal lover"
- "I thought that cows had to be milked" & eggs were "picked up like an easter egg hunt"
- Going vegan, then learning about dairy/eggs
- Watching Dominion then getting involved in activism
- "A baseline of avoiding violence"
- Compassion for victims vs. judging human actions...
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!
Thanks Graham.
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/messageCheese Challenge & Pescetarian Paradox - Maja Cullen, Devon Docherty, Carol Jasper - Sentientism 200
"Reductionism is well-named. It reduces what you can do." - Michael Levin - Sentientism 199
"We need to imagine a different world" - Emilia Leese - author and host of Think Like a Vegan - Sentientism 198
Hip Hop is Going Green - Keith Tucker of Hip Hop is Green - Sentientism 197
Nigerian Food Revolution - Hakeem Jimo of Veggie Victory and ProVeg Nigeria - Sentientism 196
Consciousness Live! - with skateboarding philosopher Richard Brown - Sentientism 195
A Truly Humane Education - Laura Chepner - The Vegan Society's Education Officer - Sentientism 194
Imagining Ethical Schools - Sentientism 193
Is Veganic the Future of Farming? "We grow plants using plants" - Jimmy Videle - Sentientism 192
Half-Earth Socialism - Troy Vettese - Sentientism 191
"Your Neighbour Kills Puppies" - Tom Harris - Activist, Artist & Author - Sentientism 190
"A new world of animal justice" - Sabine Brels of World Animal Justice - Sentientism 189
Talking to Humanists about Sentientism - Cross-post bonus from Podcast for Inquiry - Sentientism 188
"What if we saw ourselves as species diplomats?" - David Peña-Guzmán of Overthink and SFSU - Sentientism 187
Could animal farming be good for the animals? The Logic of the Larder - with Nick Pendergrast - Cross-post bonus episode from 3CR's Freedom of Species radio show and podcast - Sentientism 186
"If you combine rationality and compassion you have the essence" - Jonathan Leighton of OPIS - Sentientism 185
Is veganism a moral obligation? Ghostless Machine cross-post bonus - Sentientism 184
Don't underestimate your influence! - Chris Bryant of Bryant Research - Sentientism 183
160: "Mother Cow, Mother India" - Yamini Narayanan - International Development A/Prof - Sentientism
Waking Cosmos - a cross-post bonus episode - Sentientism 182
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