Incredible

I saw this graphic before, but then couldn't find it. Just amazing. Breakdown by state indicates some (but not a lot) effect of the electoral college - swing states show somewhat of a trend toward higher voter turnout. It is so unfortunate that everyone's vote doesn't count equally. 

But still, more eligible people don't vote than vote for any one candidate. 

 

Lincoln, Stevens, and Going Beyond Our Self

We finally watched the movie Lincoln, and found it amazingly relevant. The hero is clearly Thaddeus Stevens (played by Tommy Lee Jones, shown here). More than anyone, he had reason to preach no compromise on equality, demand full abolition of any and all discrimination, and insist on nothing less than full and total rights immediately. He clearly would have been justified in raging with hatred at the venomous racists in congress (even a century-and-a-half later, knowing history vindicates Thaddeus, it is difficult not to be outraged when watching a re-enactment of this long-past debate).

Yet Rep. Stevens didn’t give in to his understandable anger. Instead of being “true to himself” – justified and righteous, and on the losing side – he chose possible progress over personal purity, incremental advance over impotent anger.

This – progress over purity – is my hard-won mantra. I wish one of us had summarized it as well as Jonathan Safran Foer, who, in his interview with Vegan.com’s Erik Marcus, explained the two motivations for his book Eating Animals: 1. To be useful, not thorough; 2. To get new people to consider taking the first step, rather than demanding the last.

I was reminded of this on Facebook recently. Our friends at Compassion Over Killing have VegWeek, a positive, inviting / non-intimidating way to get new people interested in taking the first step. But in a FB post promoting VegWeek, all the self-centered fanatics came out of the woodwork: “Why just a week?? Be vegan forever!” “When you say ‘veg,’ you had better mean Vegan!!” Etc.

Of course, we all want our views and convictions to be validated, especially when in the minority. But the question is: Do we seek to justify our views / demand our position, or do we want to get as many people as possible to take a step that helps animals? We may, like Thaddeus Stevens, burn with righteous anger, but we can also recognize that to make real progress in reducing the suffering of others, we need to get past our fury and embrace effective, thoughtful, focused advocacy.

If we really care about the animals first and foremost, we can abolish our personal desires and demands. We can see past our rationalizations and focus instead on making real, practical progress for the animals who are suffering to death every day. To do so requires opening the hearts and minds of others – there is no way around it. And helping new people open their hearts and minds isn’t done by preaching and anger and "facts," but by compassion and understanding.

You and I have each other for support. Animals need us to be unwavering in our dedication to actually helping them as best we can.

From 2014. 

Writing Advice + More NZ South Island (3/4)

Have you received an email and thought, "This is too short to read"? Or, "Gee, I wish this was longer"? 

IOW: You should take your draft and shorten it. And then shorten it again. Email, web page, report, etc.

Also:

• No one cares about you except as you benefit them.
• Use bullet points.
• Read it out loud.
• Run it through an AI to summarize.

I don't mean you must use AI to write. Rather, use AI as an objective reader to see how well you are communicating. Ask what the AI takes away from your piece. Ask for harsh feedback.

Absolutely ignoring the first bullet point above, let's continue our trip through New Zealand's South Island (as always, click to see bigger):

Above Queenstown

We probably got over 1,000 flower pictures on this trip.
I'll save a few of those for other posts.

Lake Wakatipu (from Queenstown Botanic Gardens)

Link to two bonus Queenstown pictures of the most intensely fun two minutes of the trip.

A brutally beautiful landscape (cold and windy, too) between Queenstown and Wānaka.

Just an amazing landscape, and we had it all to ourselves.

Along a river near Wānaka.

The Wānaka tree.

A teaser for next week.

Animal Links

Professor Jeff Sebo had a nice, pragmatic interview with Russ Roberts on EconTalk. We've put his latest book, The Moral Circle on reserve at the library; based on his interview and other writings, we don't agree entirely, but worth a listen, IMO.
(I'm not sure Russ covered himself in glory in this; "I'm nice to my wife" doesn't seem the most profound reaction to the state of the world.)

A new One Step for Animals supporter recently blogged, "4 Lessons from History for Animal Advocacy." 

From the great Kenny Torrella: "A massive blind taste test fed people real and vegan meats. It revealed something surprising."

Our friend (and not just because he supports One Step) Lewis turns his blog over to Martin Gould for "Five insights from farm animal economics." Most important take-away, IMO: Not everything you think helps animals actually does. As Kenny summarizes, "some of the most common anti-factory farming campaigns can actually worsen animal suffering."

Times are great, people are terrible

Re-reading Team of Rivals about Lincoln, and there are three take-aways:

1. People are terrible. Politicians, preachers, women, enraged that anyone would dare even question slavery. Openly beat a Senator and be celebrated all across the South. Obviously willing to kill and die to keep other humans as property.
2. George McClellan was truly, breathtakingly terrible. So many people died because of him. (Read Team - I'm underselling how awful he was.)
3. Death death death. Not in the war, just as the everyday norm. Wives, husbands, siblings, young parents, kids. The war was horrific, but so was everyday life.

Repeat from five years ago:

Anne and I are so grateful for modern medicine. Doctors saved my life when I was a toddler. They saved it again in 2014 and then in 2017. They do a lot more for me that I won't bother listing here.

A few years ago, I read a biography of George Washington. Martha Washington was born into a wealthy family and married a wealthy man as her first husband. She buried him and married another rich and powerful man (George). Yet with every possible advantage of the age, she buried every single one of her children, and every single one of her grandkids, too.

How effing horrible is that?

I know many people in every generation think they live in the worst possible time. But it really is hard to imagine what it would be like to have your spouse(s), kids, and grandkids likely to drop dead.

As mentioned in Losing, it wasn't long ago that merely being pregnant was as lethal as a breast cancer diagnosis is today. Tell me again how today is the worst? (For humans living in the developed world, of course. It is the worst for the median sentient creature.)

Milford Sound, New Zealand. 2/4

 

Milford Sound.
(Technically a fjord.)

Photobomber

Video of reaching the Tasman Sea.  
If you turn due west, you don't hit land until Argentina!

Video of arriving at this waterfall

The next morning; note the mountains - seem like greenscreen

(Plant-based cheese's travels continue!)

For any big John Green fans

Update on One Step for Animals

From here

One Step for Animals was founded in 2014. Last summer, donations started declining. This got worse in November. Besides our recurring donors and the donor who supports One Step's Spanish-language campaign, contributions have evaporated since January. This includes the largest sources of support from 2023 and 2024.

We understand. All the news - especially in the United States - is overwhelmingly horrible, pressing, and immediate.  

Whenever possible, please keep chickens in mind. All contributions will be doubled. 

There are several ways you can donate here. Contributions through the PayPal Fund have no fees taken out. 

Thank you for caring.

Save Our Planet

Happy 4/20. More

 

New Zealand's South Island 1 of 4

 

Rear view from our first Airbnb near Manipuri.
As far south as we've ever stayed. 
As always, click any picture for larger.

Good evening

This is pathetic compared to what is to come later...

The river where many Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed

LOTR hike (right by where we stayed)

Most of Fiordland National Park is totally inaccessible. 
So: Seaplane!

Holy Chicken!

Our Own Private Idaho Island

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman Endorses "Losing"

Switzerland

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2024 

Also: Peter Singer and Kasia de Lazari-Radek on what to learn from Danny's death

More

From 2022's Losing My Religions:

Why oh why do we think we can tell anyone that they can’t end their life in as painless a way possible? Who do we think we are? We let “any butt-reaming asshole” bring any number of new lives into existence, regardless of circumstance, regardless of how much the child will suffer. Yet we deny those same people the right to end their own life? Crazy.

Not that there aren’t issues. But we should deal with how we treat the elderly rather than denying individuals the ability to control their own life.

Let’s hope Switzerland’s death pods become a thing.

More on killing and suffering.

AI and Friendship and Chemicals

The last selfie we took Down Under.

Angela Chen's latest at Vox's Future Perfect is The rise of chatbot “friends.”

Interestingly, sex therapist Marianne Brandon gets to the heart of the matter (emphasis added):

[R]elationships are “just neurotransmitters” inside our brains.

“I have those neurotransmitters with my cat,” she told the Times. “Some people have them with God. It’s going to be happening with a chatbot. We can say it’s not a real human relationship. It’s not reciprocal. But those neurotransmitters are really the only thing that matters, in my mind.”

At this stage of my life, I most appreciate hearing what's going on with friends; an extra bonus if I'm able to be helpful, even just as an understanding ear.

That is just me and my brain chemicals. What works for others' brain chemicals is good - no judgment.