90: “We’re simply asking for what we want – to criminalise abuse & killing” – David Michelson of YesOnIP13 – Sentientist Conversation

We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.

SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcast | Website | Spotify | RSS

David is an activist & chief petitioner of the Yes On IP13 campaign (www.yesonip13.org & @yesonip13) which aims to outlaw the harming & killing of sentient animals in the US state of Oregon. That’s without exceptions for animal agriculture, hunting, research or other forms of exploitation. Originally with a background in psychology & public health, David’s switch to activism began after bearing witness to pigs being killed in gas chambers.

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 video of our conversation is here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:29 David’s Intro

– Being new to activism

– IP13: Criminalising killing & breeding animals in the state of Oregon

– “We’re asking for what we want”

– Linking the academic & the real world

04:03 What’s Real?

– Culturally Jewish/Christian family branches

– Religion was just a label

– Having a Bar Mitzvah to “side with my mother… it made religion seem arbitrary to me”

– “They taught me how to read Hebrew but never taught me what I was saying”

– “It wasn’t a worldview… it wasn’t used to make sense of the world”

– “Sitcoms were more of a determinant of what’s real”

– Meeting people who had done atheist & animal outreach

– “Free yourself from those harmful social norms!”

– UFOs, conspiracy theories & religion

– There’s enough awesomeness in reality

– “I was angry when I learned that Santa wasn’t real”

– Investigating Santa as a child w/a hidden camera

– Why do we lie to children about so many things?

– Homeopathy, “stop the steal”, astrology, tea leaves…

– “Psychedelics made me more naturalistic & gave me the final push to go vegan as well”… connectedness

– Buddhism & Plum Village monks

– Talking to a flat earther

– The challenge of having enough, but not too much scepticism

– Epistemological & methodological naturalism

– “Pretend naturalism” (only considering evidence supporting what you already want to believe)

– What evidence would change your mind?

24:55 What (& Who) Matters?

– Intuitive ethics

– Vegetarian at 14 “I didn’t want to eat animals”

– “‘I’m not very much of an animal lover”

– “I thought that cows had to be milked” & eggs were “picked up like an easter egg hunt”

– Going vegan, then learning about dairy/eggs

– Watching Dominion then getting involved in activism

– “A baseline of avoiding violence”

– Compassion for victims vs. judging human actions…

…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.