Oops, you’re right, sorry I forgot UK gallons were even a thing because we don’t use them at all, everything is litres except beer and milk :p

Sorry, just saw your edit - I’m genuinely not working backwards from a conclusion, I’m trying to explore the issue with you, when you replied with your original terse comment I assumed I had touched a nerve so I backed off, but I’m genuinely not sure where I’m going wrong, if you can help me understand your position, I’d genuinely really appreciate it.

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Yeah, I’m against buying animals, like I said. I think there’s nothing wrong with adopting an animal with the intention of caring for and building a relationship with that animal, though, in the same way that one might adopt a child - what do you think about that?

Thanks for the quick and thoughtful reply, I appreciate it! I’m interested in discussing this further, I’ll reply inline, if I don’t mention something you may assume that I agree with you or that I’m happy to concede the point for the sake of discussion

If you can’t get what you want without an animal, then definitionally you need to exploit the animal to get what you want.

I disagree with that - for example, I think you’d agree that birdwatching isn’t exploitative, right? For me, exploitation is when you put your own needs/wants before the needs/wants of an animal. Just simply gaining some benefit from an interaction with an animal isn’t necessarily exploitative - though it certainly can be, and often is.

To your broader point, it sounds to me like you’re kind of scared of yourself, like you don’t trust your own abilities to discern right from wrong. I completely understand that perspective, because I have issues with feeling that way about myself sometimes too.

Your points about emotion clouding our judgment and not necessarily always putting the interests of the animal before our own is well made, but it kind of assumes that the staff at the animal shelter would be somehow more resistant to this issue. It’s like you’re offloading the ethical burden of having to make decisions for an animal’s wellbeing to someone else and assuming that they’ll handle it better than you will - an assumption which, frankly, is probably wrong.

I get the vibe that you want to live as closely aligned with your values as possible, which results in a kind of pathological avoidance of responsibility - we can’t get it wrong/make a mistake if we just choose not to take any action.

But the reality is that, as vegans, we’re far better than average at being able to provide a loving, caring home for animals than most. Shelters have limited space, staffing and resources, and while I agree from a utilitarian perspective that the money you’d spend on housing one animal would do more good if it was allocated to shelters, it doesn’t make the selfish choice inherently exploitative, I don’t think.

Anyways, not criticising you at all, I trust you know what’s best for you, but I’m still very skeptical that acting as a guardian for an animal is inherently non-vegan.

Technically, it could be copyright infringement, depending on the work, a fair use exemption might apply - for example a screenshot from a game would be less likely to be infringing compared to, say, a painting due to less of the copyrighted work being reproduced and the avatar not being a replacement for the original work (i.e. seeing the screenshot wouldn’t give you the same experience as playing the game)

In practice, I doubt very much anyone would ever actually even go so far as to send a cease and desist unless you were impersonating some brand or causing reputational damage.

Morally speaking, I think it’s absolutely fine! People have been using copyrighted works in their avatars and signatures (remember those?!) since dial-up was fast enough to cope with it. If someone asks you not to then you should respect that but otherwise I’d say go ahead!

Can you explain a bit about why you think being a caretaker/guardian for an animal, is inherently exploitative?

I would say that if you pay to buy an animal, that’s exploitative and harmful, but I don’t see the exploitation in, say, adopting a dog from an animal shelter - the dog is not harmed by that in any way, it is an improvement to the lives of the dog and the human, no? what am I missing?

(vegan btw)

the US mostly self sufficient with oil

Yes, but they aren’t completely isolated from changes in wholesale oil prices, if the price of oil goes up, the shale oil producers in the US are going to increase their prices too because they can, no?

I agree with everything else you wrote!

Ah yes, “mistake”, mmhm. I believe it.

Is it? Honestly I think it’s just astroturfed. The entire imperial core suddenly got obsessed with regulating the internet after young people started waking up to the realities of the genocide in gaza.

Thin end of the wedge. Authoritarianism and fascism comes little by little.

Basically, it’ll become a crime to sell a computer with a pre-installed operating system unless it supports an age assurance system.

Good, may they continue to fail upward until the AmeriKKKan Empire collapses

This is one of Iran’s main goals, IMO. They need to get the US to back down through domestic and diplomatic pressure. This war is already unpopular, but gas prices increasing will affect people who otherwise don’t give a shit about the morality of the situation, which is unfortunately quite a lot of US Americans. Hitting the wallet of the MAGA voter is fundamental.

It’s $6 a gallon in the UK, I think a good chunk of that is tax/duty tho.

Apparently this was friendly fire from Kuwait.

Sorry, but this is a stupid take. Humans can refuse to fire on a crowd of innocent people. Killbots cannot. The unquestioning loyalty is worth more than money can buy.

It’s not just to distract from the Epstein files, that’s a sweet little benefit of course, but it’s mainly just a continuation of the exact same US imperialism that has been ignored for nearly a century. They didn’t need Epstein files to invade Afghanistan, or Iraq, or any of the dozens of nations subjected to US interventionism. The Epstein class have been fucking all of us over for decades, they just enjoy it with kids more.

Trump isn’t the problem, he’s a symptom, US imperialism, capitalism, western chauvinism and nearly a century of liberalism led us here. We need to remove the ruling class from power, hold them accountable, restore justice, and create a new future, free from the corrupting influence of capitalism

It varies depending on the product, the profit margin on soda for example is often over 100%, other products such as milk would be negative (loss leaders), but in general, most non-junk food groceries usually have a single digit profit margin