Difference between revisions of "Gary Yourofsky"
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== Use of bad arguments == | == Use of bad arguments == | ||
| − | In his speeches Gary makes a lot of not very good arguments, and many of them are outlined in our [[Bad Arguments for | + | In his speeches Gary makes a lot of not very good arguments, and many of them are outlined in our [[Bad Arguments for veganism]] article. We're not going to retread that |
=== Gross-out arguments === | === Gross-out arguments === | ||
Gary seems particularly fond of using gross-out arguments, and he seems to be sold on the idea that they're actually compelling, rational arguments against consumption of animal products, despite the fact that what's gross is what's subjective, and just because it's gross that doesn't mean it's morally or even healthfully wrong. | Gary seems particularly fond of using gross-out arguments, and he seems to be sold on the idea that they're actually compelling, rational arguments against consumption of animal products, despite the fact that what's gross is what's subjective, and just because it's gross that doesn't mean it's morally or even healthfully wrong. | ||
Revision as of 16:15, 23 May 2021
Gary Yourofsky was (and in many ways still is) an immensely influential figure in the Vegan Community, and is credited with converting hundreds of thousands of people to Veganism. He initially started his activist career by engaging in acts of civil disobedience, however, he eventually abandoned this method of activism in favor of an education-based approach. He gave tens of thousands of students lectures across the United States, with some of them being recorded and becoming viral. His Georgia Tech speech is said to have converted 8% of Israel's population to veganism (from 5% to 13%), and this number doesn't even take into account all the others he's convinced all over the world (as his speeches have been translated into dozens of languages).
After his lectures became accessible to everyone, he stopped traveling the country to do lectures and did a quick stint on YouTube beginning in 2014 that helped people along with their Vegan journeys and countering typical anti-vegan arguments.
In 2017 he decided to retire from activism, citing his exhaustion with trying to get people to go vegan, combined with misanthropic views that ultimately burned him out. Despite this, his videos and essays are still available online, so despite his retirement, he is still influencing people to this day.
In 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he returned to YouTube to do a quick series of videos that were basically a collection of (unfunny) rants about why he hates everyone and why humans are the scum of the Earth and blah blah blah, typical r/im14andthisisdeep stuff. Somehow he managed to come back even more resentful and pissed off than he was before. He also did a video in response to the violence that happened on the Capitol Building but that video was taken down (likely due to him advocating violence against President Donald Trump). We'll dive into this all shortly.
While Yourofsky has done more for veganism than almost anyone else and has influenced many others to go into vegan activism, he is not without his share of faults... and there are many, many to list. While he has done so much for veganism, none of us here really consider him to be a particularly reliable source of information, especially when it comes to science and philosophy (frankly, he's kind of an idiot).
We can start with the good, but we really need to address the bad.
The Good
Effective Means of Activism
Promoting the purchase Vegan alternatives sold by non-vegan companies
The Maybe Bad
Holocaust Analogy
Opposition to animal Welfare Laws
The Bad
Anti-B12 Supplementation
I have no clue why Gary is against B12 supplementation; I'm guessing it has something to do with the desire for all the nutrients you need all come from "natural sources" or some hippie BS like that, but regardless it's an asinine position to hold, and an extremely dangerous and irresponsible idea to promote. The consensus on the matter is clear; Vegans MUST supplement with B12 in order to get an adequate amount. This isn't even up for debate at this point.
Gary insists that you only need 3 micrograms of B12 a day, and it is true that this is the RDA, it's an extremely low balling estimate. If you're only getting 3 micrograms (like from Silk soymilk) of B12 a day you are almost definitely deficient.
Gary also says just eat some dirty vegetables for B12, and this might be a decent source, but not everyone enjoys eating dirty vegetables. People have a hard enough time eating CLEAN vegetables FFS.
He also insists that your body makes all the B12 it needs (he can't really seem to make up his mind on whether or not you need to incorporate sources into your diet), but unless you're consuming your own excrement you ain't benefitting from that B12. No, enough with the nonsense Gary.
You wanna know what sources Gary cites to defend his position against B12 supplementation? He cited John McDougall, a quack he promotes the starch solution diet which is notoriously nutitionally inadequate, he cited a journalist (which can almost never be relied on for science), and most hilariously, he cited... NaturalNews. For those unaware, NaturalNews is a far-right and somehow New-Age anti-vax anti-science website that is probably the least reliable website on the internet (probably even less reliable than InfoWars).
To quote RationalWiki:
"On Wikipedia, NaturalNews is not merely a deprecated source, never to be used for anything ("There is a near-unanimous consensus that the site repeatedly publishes false or fabricated information, including a large number of conspiracy theories."), but actually on the spam blacklist. In short: If you cite NaturalNews on any matter whatsoever, you are almost certainly wrong as this website is so bad, so unreliable, and so dead-faced wrong that even other quacks think it's a quack site, a feat of stupid that truly takes talent."
Wikipedia literally calls NaturalNews a fake-news site BTW.
He's against supplementation and the Vitamin industry for some reason (it's honestly mind-boggling), but whatever.
Use of bad arguments
In his speeches Gary makes a lot of not very good arguments, and many of them are outlined in our Bad Arguments for veganism article. We're not going to retread that
Gross-out arguments
Gary seems particularly fond of using gross-out arguments, and he seems to be sold on the idea that they're actually compelling, rational arguments against consumption of animal products, despite the fact that what's gross is what's subjective, and just because it's gross that doesn't mean it's morally or even healthfully wrong.
He doesn't just end using gross-out arguments at animal products though; In some of his newer videos he talks about how humans are disgusting because a lot of us have certain fetishes (such as scat or urine fetishes), and seems so convinced that this is actually a good reason to why to hate humans. Seriously. It's almost like he has the mind of a first-grader.
None of this is even considering the fact that using gross-out arguments and framing them as compelling is the same damn reason so many religious bigots are homophobic (since, at least with male homosexual sex, it's often done through the anus). Also I'm not sure if Gary's aware of this but animals have fetishes too, and animals do things many people would consider gross (gorillas often eat their own feces for instance). But I guess it's fine when animals do it since they aren't humans?
Not acknowledging recidivism
Boycotting of Sweatshops
As counter-intuitive as it may be, buying from sweatshops is actually the ethical thing to do, as it supports developing economies and raises living standards for their citizens. Sweatshop jobs are the best jobs available to these people (in terms of pay and working conditions) and not buying from sweatshops causes these factories to go out of business, and thus forces the workers to find work on a farm (which is even worse than a sweatshop job) or more illicit jobs such as drug-dealing and prostitution.
Anyway, Gary makes a point about not buying from sweatshops and claims he only buys fair-trade goods. The reason why we're bringing this up is because really, even Gary should know better than this.
Refusing to eat with non-vegans
Condemning people going Vegan for Health Reasons
Losing his cool
Against Helper Animals
The Very Bad
Failure to recognize Moral Gradience
Alienating Views on Human Rights
Anti-GMO
This one is honestly pretty cringy.
When asked about his thoughts on GMO's, Gary's position is more or less an appeal to nature in the most embarrassing way possible. He says some stuff about how God designed food perfectly and we shouldn't interfere with it... Oh boy, where to begin.
Even if God did design fruits and vegetables, the ones you're eating are not how "God" designed them. Look up unmodified banana if you want an idea of what I'm on about. The plants you're eating are artificial; man-made. They're about as natural as the device you're using to read this on.
Almost all plant foods are selectively bred (not GM modified) versions of their original selves. You go to the produce section of your grocery store, probably over 90% of that is modified from its original version (again, not GM modified, mind you). While there is an argument to be made about how the selectively bred foods have less nutrition overall (as they've been bred for taste, not health), they haven't become poison, they're just slightly less nutritious (and they are tastier than their original versions; If them being tastier helps people eat more of them, they're probably healthier in that respect).
As for actually Genetically Modified Crops, they are perfectly safe to eat, and pose no health risk to anyone, and are a crucial tool towards sustainably feeding a growing global population. The fear-mongering on this is leading to more environmental destruction and greenhouse gas emissions (as GM crops are much more efficient than non-GM crops, and ESPECIALLY organic crops).
Gary has said in one of his speech Q&A's that he doesn't care if something's 'natural' or not, but this is highly doubtful, given all of this.
To make matters worse, he often says that animal agriculture is the root cause of world hunger (which is very likely isn't, though it does cause problems with food security), despite the fact that fear-mongering over GMO crops is probably a bigger cause; Wealthy countries have offered poorer ones food aid, but it's often turned down because it's genetically modified (again, thanks to promotion of fear-mongering around it), meaning food that would have fed their hungry population was rejected. This type of ignorant Western pseudoscience is making its way to the developing world and making citizens of these countries scared of technology that can save their lives. You'll see similar stuff like this with Nuclear Energy and Vaccinations.
