You've presented good points here. Hemant Mehta made it clear that he knows (at least some of) the ethical arguments behind veganism. He also made it clear that he does not care about whether or not people eat meat (even though he knows the ethical reasons not to). Initially I thought that this was an example of hypocrisy (and therefore firm ground for criticism), but upon further examination I realize that there are some problems with this.brimstoneSalad wrote:I've seen the video and am mostly familiar with his views, but there are a couple problems:
1. He's basically espousing weak moral relativism, or indifference, and asking a question -- which is much different from making an argument against veganism. He's saying he doesn't know, and asking for replies.
Also, with regard to moral relativism, he does this sometimes with respect to religion too.
To best criticize him (rather than taking on relativism, which is not hard, but is harder to explain and communicate to an ignorant audience) we need to find a clear example of hypocrisy. Can you find some videos or written content by him that take a hard stance against immorality in some regard, rather than a "this is harmful to us" stance?
Or find some hard claims supporting moral relativism somewhere, in order to address that directly (the less ideal approach)?
Mr. Mehta has not stated whether or not he:
-cares about living in an ethical manner (in the hypothetical case that he agrees that animal use/consumption is unethical). I assume he does care about being ethical, but he did not explicitly state this in the video in question.
-agrees with the ethical arguments behind veganism (understanding and agreeing are two different things).
-would feel that people other than himself are obligated to be vegan (in the hypothetical case that he himself has concluded animal use/consumption to be unethical)
I agree with everything that you've said here. Unfortunately I have not yet found more; Mr. Mehta seems to avoid discussing animal ethics. I have only ever found that one video of his about vegetarianism. As far as I know this is his only video in which he utters the words "vegetarian" and "vegan."brimstoneSalad wrote:2. There's not really much content there. Again, it's mostly just questions. It's not usually nice to jump on somebody for asking an honest question (and I think that was an honest question).
He admitted animals suffer for food, he admitted it's healthier. And then he asked why on the moral or philosophical front.
Can you find more, where he has discussed this in other videos, comments, or articles? He seems to avoid the topic. With Matt Dillahunty, he avoids the topic too, but we had that gem to work with in the Atheist Experience show, where he made a number of actual irrational claims.
We could try to address this in another open letter, but we'd need more to go on.
Thanks again for your insight brimstoneSalad. I realize now that I was too eager to present my objections to this video by Mr. Mehta, seeing as how it did not have sufficient material for ample criticism. I'll do my best to be more discerning in the future. Rest assured I will let you know if I witness Mr. Mehta express more clearly his views on animal ethics.
