Sentientism | "Veterinarians are merchants of doubt for animal ag" - Dr. Crystal Heath of @ourhonor7010 Ep: 142 @Sentientism | Uploaded January 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Crystal (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/dr-crystal-heath) is a veterinary practitioner, a journalist and an activist. She is the co-founder of Our Honor @ourhonor7010, a charity aiming to create an organized network of veterinary professionals who are able to challenge unethical institutionalised systems and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalised.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
- "I'd love for these sorts of conversations to be had in #veterinary schools"
- "Should all vets maybe adopt a #Sentientism philosophy?"
03:21 Crystal's Intro
- "A veterinarian who kind of recently joined the animal rights movement"
- "This movement has kind of taken over my whole life"
- Full-time veterinary practice & founding Our Honor
- Empowering vets to "speak their conscience & confront systems of violence"
- Countering bullying & retaliation
- Compassionate Bay working on Californian legislation compassionatebay.org
- The California fur ban & global impact
- "It's quite astonishing - the resistance in the veterinary community to animal rights"
- The founding of veterinary practice in animal exploitation
- "They actively keep out anybody with an animal rights agenda from entering the profession"
06:36 What's Real?
- Growing up in an agnostic family on a farm
- Celebrating Christmas
- "What are you, Christian or Jewish?... like those were the only two options"
- Asking what happens when chicks die... "their soul goes to heaven"
- Young people's encounters with death "shocking & terrifying" "but I don't have that same sense of trauma from it... they're being released from this faulty body"
- "I have a very scientific mindset"
- Reading the Bible... being fascinated
- Arguing about organ donation
- Weddings: "the wife had to obey & submit... that didn't seem like something I could jump on board with"
- @ellendegeneres #ellendegeneres coming out & being attacked by religious homophobes
- Religion: maintaining hierarchy & power structures vs. people treating each other better
- "What if agnostics & atheists organised themselves - would they end up trying to oppress others?"
- "There are some big unanswered questions... why am I here... where does consciousness come from? Once you die, lights out... really?"
- "...consciousness is a supernatural thing? I don't know"
- Ontological & methodological / epistemological #naturalism
- "All models are wrong but some are useful"
- Sentience vs. consciousness
- #panpsychism "maybe... even an electron has a vanishingly simple #microconsciousness "... "we're all made up of sub-units of consciousness & within ourselves we have multiple consciousnesses" @EmersonGreen & Luke Roelofs episodes youtu.be/HsmKX34M1Vs
- "I think masses of humans have a consciousness"
- The #combinationproblem in panpsychism
- Eric Schwitzgebel's "If Materialism is True, the USA is Probably Conscious"
- Quantum physics & consciousness?
35:46 What Matters?
- "Whatever it is, wherever it is, sentience matters"
- "For the best interests of all species"
- "I am kind of like one of those people who thinks plants matter... the best thing is not to feed them to billions of animals who are suffering"
- Our Matt Johnson @DirectActionEverywhere episode youtu.be/niiBZVatbcY
- "How do I not harm others?"
- Egoism, relativism, nihilism "forms of ethics that have abandoned morality"
- Happiness vs. interests? "I felt like interests was the better thing to go for"
- Do thermostats have interests? "I'm drawing a line at the thermostat... but plants have an interest"
47:07 Who Matters?
- #Anthropocentrism
- The USA #4H animal farming programe "They make kids raise animals for slaughter... millions & millions of kids are involved" & #FutureFarmersOfAmerica
- Raising #dairy goats "I learned... if my goat had a baby & that baby was a boy then I had to send them to slaughter"... "I said no - my goats were pets after that"
- Riding horses #dressage. Being told by an instructor "There's the noble class & the food producing class. Man's job is to subdue nature & turn it into something beautiful"
- #Colonialism
- "We [humans] can recognise the suffering of others... we can heal the suffering of others"
- Intra-species non-human animal compassion
58:26 How Can We Make a Better World?
- Watching @Sentientism instead of @RussellBrand @joerogan @TheChopraWell :)
... & much more!
#Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Crystal (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/dr-crystal-heath) is a veterinary practitioner, a journalist and an activist. She is the co-founder of Our Honor @ourhonor7010, a charity aiming to create an organized network of veterinary professionals who are able to challenge unethical institutionalised systems and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalised.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
- "I'd love for these sorts of conversations to be had in #veterinary schools"
- "Should all vets maybe adopt a #Sentientism philosophy?"
03:21 Crystal's Intro
- "A veterinarian who kind of recently joined the animal rights movement"
- "This movement has kind of taken over my whole life"
- Full-time veterinary practice & founding Our Honor
- Empowering vets to "speak their conscience & confront systems of violence"
- Countering bullying & retaliation
- Compassionate Bay working on Californian legislation compassionatebay.org
- The California fur ban & global impact
- "It's quite astonishing - the resistance in the veterinary community to animal rights"
- The founding of veterinary practice in animal exploitation
- "They actively keep out anybody with an animal rights agenda from entering the profession"
06:36 What's Real?
- Growing up in an agnostic family on a farm
- Celebrating Christmas
- "What are you, Christian or Jewish?... like those were the only two options"
- Asking what happens when chicks die... "their soul goes to heaven"
- Young people's encounters with death "shocking & terrifying" "but I don't have that same sense of trauma from it... they're being released from this faulty body"
- "I have a very scientific mindset"
- Reading the Bible... being fascinated
- Arguing about organ donation
- Weddings: "the wife had to obey & submit... that didn't seem like something I could jump on board with"
- @ellendegeneres #ellendegeneres coming out & being attacked by religious homophobes
- Religion: maintaining hierarchy & power structures vs. people treating each other better
- "What if agnostics & atheists organised themselves - would they end up trying to oppress others?"
- "There are some big unanswered questions... why am I here... where does consciousness come from? Once you die, lights out... really?"
- "...consciousness is a supernatural thing? I don't know"
- Ontological & methodological / epistemological #naturalism
- "All models are wrong but some are useful"
- Sentience vs. consciousness
- #panpsychism "maybe... even an electron has a vanishingly simple #microconsciousness "... "we're all made up of sub-units of consciousness & within ourselves we have multiple consciousnesses" @EmersonGreen & Luke Roelofs episodes youtu.be/HsmKX34M1Vs
- "I think masses of humans have a consciousness"
- The #combinationproblem in panpsychism
- Eric Schwitzgebel's "If Materialism is True, the USA is Probably Conscious"
- Quantum physics & consciousness?
35:46 What Matters?
- "Whatever it is, wherever it is, sentience matters"
- "For the best interests of all species"
- "I am kind of like one of those people who thinks plants matter... the best thing is not to feed them to billions of animals who are suffering"
- Our Matt Johnson @DirectActionEverywhere episode youtu.be/niiBZVatbcY
- "How do I not harm others?"
- Egoism, relativism, nihilism "forms of ethics that have abandoned morality"
- Happiness vs. interests? "I felt like interests was the better thing to go for"
- Do thermostats have interests? "I'm drawing a line at the thermostat... but plants have an interest"
47:07 Who Matters?
- #Anthropocentrism
- The USA #4H animal farming programe "They make kids raise animals for slaughter... millions & millions of kids are involved" & #FutureFarmersOfAmerica
- Raising #dairy goats "I learned... if my goat had a baby & that baby was a boy then I had to send them to slaughter"... "I said no - my goats were pets after that"
- Riding horses #dressage. Being told by an instructor "There's the noble class & the food producing class. Man's job is to subdue nature & turn it into something beautiful"
- #Colonialism
- "We [humans] can recognise the suffering of others... we can heal the suffering of others"
- Intra-species non-human animal compassion
58:26 How Can We Make a Better World?
- Watching @Sentientism instead of @RussellBrand @joerogan @TheChopraWell :)
... & much more!
#Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
