Hi, Ioana! First of all, interesting points. You always articulate yourself so well, and I can tell you think a lot about what you want to say and how you want words to be taken. I’m glad that you are an open-minded young adult, much like myself, who is brave enough and interested enough to have these sorts of discussions. You’re an inspiration. <3

That being said, I am a vegan, and I disagree with your points about the shimmering, glamourous, but always elusive idea of Culture, as well as with the fleetingly phrased "the impact of these factory farms on our environment" (although I'm sure you didn't mean to be cursory or inattentive :-). ) I'm twenty, and in July I'll have been vegan for 2 years–I went vegan at your age, coincidentally. I consider myself an environmental vegan, but I think that environmental veganism bleeds into ethics, and not just for animals (I have always thought that going vegan only for the animals and nothing else, while noble, is a bit of a flimsy argument in the face of avid meat-eaters because the logic is that with artificial insemination, the number of animals able to be produced is virtually infinite), but for the people who produce these animals for our mindless consumption. And before that, there are the people who slave away, sometimes and often outside of their will so that these animals we treat so poorly and think so little of can be fattened, cooped up and slaughtered. Usually the people planting and harvesting and raising these animals are marginalized groups, and in many parts of the world, these marginalized groups are starving and get paid very little for all the work that gets put into our indulgences. You talk about taste and enjoyment, but is a fleeting taste, a blip of an experience that you admitted we don't often think deeply about, really worth so much labor from people, so much suffering and murder not just for the animals, but people? I think in first world countries like America, or in your case, Canada, it is so easy to not even think about it, but these people think about it and resent it, burn under the strain from their skin to their souls every single day of their lives.

Culture is an interesting construct. What is culture? You're interested in philosophical examination, and like any young and promising intellectual I can tell you like to be challenged and convinced of things, even if it requires the unravelling and re-examination of previous, carefully reasoned out thought patterns. But I — a person who loves to read classics and write on philosophy and paint and view other ancient people's work, and who deeply loves and appreciates aesthetics and beauty– don't quite buy the authenticity of "culture." What is it but what we make it out to be? It changes and morphs to the high-fashion of the time, and you know what critics of a bygone era will say? "Wow, that was a Golden Time!" even if it wasn't. The truth will be that it was a Golden Time for very specific people, but for everybody else, it was quite ordinary or sometimes it was a practice in drudgery. The culture we create has often been built on the backs of slaves and unwilling participants. The highlight reel is selected and played over and over again before our believing, starry eyes. But most of the world Then was much like ours Now. A gold-dusted masquerade of Puppets and Survivalists.

Which brings me to my next point (I swear I'm almost done, I wax poetic activist very rarely. I'm not much of a fighter of many battles, but I know you really are a good listener and will take what I'm saying with an open mind), that survivalist practices that most people call "self-interest" or appreciate as "putting ourselves first" are actually beneath our grandness as human beings. If we are the great and towering minds that we think we are, what are we doing trying to "survive" off the suffering of others (other humans, other sentient beings, our planet and thereby future generations, et cetera, et cetera). We are free to make decisions that don't necessarily benefit ourselves immediately but which could exponentially benefit the world in the long run. You've heard the arguments about "supply and demand." But this also applies to unfair labor and unfair treatment of our species as well as others. If corporations saw that enough people cared enough about the imbalances of power to significantly impact their profits, the world could change for the better. And not all at once, but slowly, bit by bit. And if only a few hundred families are helped, that is still an impact that can make all the difference. Culture then can be redefined. Written anew by people who aren't simply white and male, but inspired individuals of color and various socioeconomic backgrounds. I know this may seem to have traveled very far from the question of "to meat or not to meat," but if examined closely, it really hasn't.

And for the "do it for the animals" argument, because it does deserve a shoutout: If we are to value true beauty and harmony in the littlest things then we are more apt to value it in other people. It keeps us sensitive and less hypocritical, and I do like avoiding hypocrisy wherever possible. Sensitivity and empathy are what this world needs, I've realized for a long time now. It doesn't need more people to sing odes to civilizations long gone when our civilization is an industrialized, cheapened expression of even THAT former time's cheapened imitation of lost "culture." Soon there will be nothing but shadows and smoking ash heaps of what we once found Beautiful and Pure and Just–all gone, all forgotten as it was in truth, and nevermore to be recovered except in the dusty tomes of literature.

So why not make culture and history rather than reflect and recycle it?

Culture just seems a paltry answer to the reason for destruction, especially if that culture is an idea built on distortion.

Thanks for reading all this, if you did! Love your videos!

Sincerest warmth and best wishes,
Lexi