I think it's important that we treat those with lesser intelligences than us with the exact same respect we would want to receive.

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About two weeks ago, I was having lunch with Annabelle, who has been a vegetarian since she was in 9th grade. She told me that her younger cousin wanted meat for a while, but her mom and dad told her she had to wait until she was 10 before making that decision. She's 6 now and has no interest in eating meat anymore, all because her parents started her off on a different default. This reinforced something critical: we are blank slates at birth; it's society that shapes us.

I looked at our food and then I looked at Annabelle and I asked her: "there's one thing that makes you objectively better than me. What is it?" She thought for a long while, but couldn't come up with anything. She saw us as equally good people, which is what I expected her to think, because she doesn't see the worst in people. Just like me. Then I told her the answer "I eat animals".