129: ”We gotta make friends... that’s the path to liberation” - Matt Johnson - Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) - Sentientism

Matt is Press Coordinator and an investigator for Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). As part of his activism he has conducted animal farm investigations, been threatened with prison for rescuing farm animals from abuse and pranked NewsMax and FoxNews by posing as the CEO of Smithfield Foods – exposing to millions of viewers the damage their industry does to non-human animals, human animals and to the planet.

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

02:50 Matt's Intro

- DxE press & investigations

03:28 Eyes open to animals

- Deer hunting uncles. "Factory farms everywhere" in Iowa

- 4 yrs old "I don't want to eat animals"

- Family push back

- A religious family "God gave us animals for food"

- Being "a silent vegetarian" at school... in secret... feeling shame

- "Good friends of mine... through 13 yrs of grade school... never knew I was vegetarian"

- An aunt: "you're going to die if you don't eat animals"

- Uncles painting a dead deer's nose red for Xmas

- "These people around me are monstrous"

- The dissonance of "be kind" messages in kindergarten

10:24 What's Real?

- "In adulthood I'm not a religious person"

- New atheists, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris

- As a child: "The ethics smacked me in the face" (Problem of Evil)

- As an adult "facts & rationality"

- Jehovah's Witness dad... "I was hating the prospect of doing the door to door evangelising"

- Shunning. It's worse where the JW community has more power

- "#Freewill is an illusion" so "I don't... have any anger towards anybody"

- JW "We have will, we make choices, but they're not 'free'". Removing #retribution from the justice system? #MoralLuck

- An investigation "As cruel a practice as you can imagine" #VentilationShutDown... "The COO shows up ... I was straining my free will determinism in that moment"

- "Guilt & shame can be useful"

25:11 What & Who Matters?

- #Utilitarianism ?

- "High-minded philosophical ideals... often used to launder right-wing ideas"

- "Sorry humans... but I have to put my energy towards the 99.99%"

- #Offsetting & totalising utilitarianism

- Animal agri as a core case most ethical systems should reject

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

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.