Don’t Tell Me What To Do

The following is intended to be a satire. It is an ironic look at some of the things people say when attempting to dismiss concerns about the ethics of using animals for personal gain. When these same statements are employed to defend other forms of unethical behavior, we can clearly see how absurd they really are.

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I don’t have any problem with your way of life. I respect your point of view. You are entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine.

Don’t get me wrong. I admire people with strong moral values. I just don’t like them being shoved down my throat.

I, for example, see nothing whatsoever wrong with slavery. Some people were born to serve others. It’s just the way it is. You don’t have to own anyone, if you don’t want to. I don’t take any issue with that. But don’t tell me that I can’t.

And don’t tell me that I shouldn’t hit my wife when I have to. I don’t tell you that you have to hit yours. It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. If you want to abstain from hitting women, that’s a personal choice. But don’t tell me that I should.

I live my life according to my own values. I understand that we all see things differently, and I embrace the diversity that makes people individual.

I’m sick of self-righteous people going on about things like how they think it’s wrong for adults to have sex with minors. You might think that children shouldn’t be forced into sexual submission, but that doesn’t mean I have to see it that way. What right do you have to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do? What’s so bad about nonconsensual sex anyway? Rape might be considered wrong by some, but that’s not the case for everyone. Non-rapists shouldn’t expect the rest of us to live according to their rules.

What business is it of yours?

So don’t tell me how to think, or what to eat, or what to wear, or how to live. Don’t attack me with your accusations about right and wrong, justice and injustice… Those concepts are open to interpretation, and no one has any right to assume moral authority over anyone else. Just do your own thing… Go about your life the way you think you should.

You believe that we ought to live without oppressing other animals. Great, good for you.

You believe that we shouldn’t breed sentient beings into existence for the purpose of exploiting them, and that it’s immoral to use violence to bend them to our will. You believe that branding and castration and mutilation of other body parts is inexcusable. You believe that it’s wrong to exploit the female reproductive system, to snatch newborn babies from crying mothers, and to slaughter infants with umbilical cords still attached. You believe that it’s a barbaric and foul practice to chew and swallow flesh and blood, and that skin ripped from the back of one should not be used to dress the body of another. You believe that these are archaic practices that wouldn’t exist in a truly civilized society.

You believe that 56 billion horrifying deaths every year is morally reprehensible, especially as this ongoing massacre occurs for no purpose other than to fulfill the human appetite for specific tastes and textures. You believe that one person’s desires and preferences shouldn’t override another’s basic moral rights.

I get it, I really do. And I respect that you live according to your principles. But you need to have respect for me. You can’t force your beliefs on others. No one is in any position to decide what’s right and wrong for the rest of us, so for God’s sake, please…

Don’t tell me what to do.