The question of ethics is weighing hard on me, even normally rational people who talk about human rights etc turn off their ethical circuits when question of meat comes up .. I think this points to a deeper question of how rationalising can affect morality ..
Does average human consider their wants above ethics he seems to subscribe? , why is hypocricy not making many upset? Many won't consider themselves as beings who put only themselves above others, they cry out for morality, but when question of ethical boundaries they themselves cross, it becomes question of rationalisation.
One has to really ponder, did a slaver in the past (sad that its not that ancient) who cared about ethics of his fellows , rationalised away his slavery?
If people really thing about this in terms of past people rationalising stuff away, if they feel upset about that, maybe it will lead to them thinking about ethical problems they too rationalise away
No, people very frequently do see that things have downsides. Only idiots think in black and white of 'right' and 'wrong'. For example, you just commented on a site that requires electricity to operate. This usage induces electrical demand and you have therefore contributed to global warming and assisted in killing polar bears. Will you choose to kill more polar bears to respond to me, or do you think it's not that simplistic now?
>Workers on facebook are multimillionaires that are pretty happy about their life
There are tons of people that work at facebook that are not millionaires at all. Most hires at facebook today are making standard SV salaries that could be made working for other companies.
> When was the last time you thought about the animals
> that were killed in order for you to eat them.
This is a human trait, people do not see the wrong on the things you benefit from.
For example, did you ate beef or fish lately? When was the last time you thought about the animals that were killed in order for you to eat them. Have you seen the sacrifice of an animal needed for eating it. In Mongolia or Middle East nomads will sacrifice the animal in front of you before eating so you know what you eat is the best they have.
Imagine that cows were able to think like humans, and remember what you did to their veal. As a children I worked feeding cows and they are not as stupid as people believe, and they like horses have emotions and personalities like humans have.
When humans personally benefit from something it is very easy to just rationalize it. Humans rationalize everything.
Workers on facebook are multimillionaires that are pretty happy about their life becoming the new central intelligence of the World. They will rationalize it as a good thing focusing on this service being needed and useful for the world, as it is.
The problem is that even when the best of intentions, Governments, and secret services of countries want to use this service for nefarious purposes in the same way that if you centralize money in one place, some people want to take it by force if necessary, if you place too much personal information in some place, some people will want to take it for their own use.