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The "Backlash" to Plant-Based Meat Has a Sneaky, if Not Surprising, Explanation
(sentientmedia.org)
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
201 points (97.2% liked)
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I'm not sure that's a fair objection. In the video, he jumps directly to experts (feel free to prove bias from them). In his webpage, he cites fairly reasonable and unbiased sources.
I'm trying to read the rebuttal you linked, but it's fairly packed with ad hominems. This is most definitely the style of source I have a lot of trouble giving any reliability to beyond the core factuality. You would probably agree this rebuttal is **fiercely **biased? In fact, as he is a professional vegan debater, I would think both of us would want to stay miles away from any of his content. I would certainly avoid any professional arguer with a pro-meat bias in any analysis I make. Is that unreasonable? And of the arguments he makes, I've sorta been involved in discussions on many of them in the past and could fill a dozen pages of takes on those.
I think there's two ways we could go on this. Either, we could address the claims you think are most biased (and hope they are impactful), or we can address the claims you think are most impactful (and hope they are biased).
If we do the former, it's about discussing whether the there's enough to demonstrate that the author himself is biased; but I have to warn you that showing some of his informing sources are biased seems an untenable way to show he himself is biased... instead, it seems we'd want to find some factual evidence of bias. Whether you think that bias is willful-misleading (like the ad hominems in the rebuttal) or merely good-faith failure to adjust for bias would be up to you.
I think the latter might work better (though not quite what you offered) because if you can show the impactful parts of his video are biased (or just plain wrong), it doesn't matter if he's biased and the video would need to be discarded.
I'm ok with either, to be honest.
I agree that the site i linked is (probably) somewhat biased, but that does not matter at all in this context. There is nothing wrong with using data provided by biased people if you are aware of the bias and take it into account when using the data.
We need to scale this argument down though. I refuse to take an argument over text if we don't just laserfocus on the argument. If you have a problem with a source i put forth then just say that without adressing its claims and we can discuss if the source is acceptable before continuing.
If we start over where I should have started in the first place. What do I need to show to convince you that he's biased? (If you disagree with any prior statments in this comment lets start arguing those first. I don't want to have a multithreaded argument)
Is it really bias you would rather show, than inaccuracy? You sorta just pointed out from your source that bias should not entirely matter in the context of accuracy. But Ok, let me think.
Bias implies/requires prejudice or compromise. Obviously, if you could show me he is compromised and being paid for his videos by Big Ag, that would be an easy win. Otherwise, I think you'd need to show me that he is prejudiced against veganism (which, if I had to guess, probably needs to be from content outside of the video itself). I would take an argument that all his sources are biased, similarly. It might not show he himself is willfully biased, but that he "fell in with the wrong crowd" by picking sources that steered him in a biased way.
I picked bias because it was basically the first statement that i could remember that i disagreed with. No other real reason, I didn't want to pick a single point from the video since i didnt want to presume that you were on board with the entirety.
I looked at his substack and there over 50% 27/51 counted (just skimmed the borderline ones) were tied to highprotein/meat lifestyle or directly/indirectly anti-vegan. There were also a lot of masculinity/testosterone ones that i think are quite relevant, but I didn't count those. He clearly makes it a large part of his brand either way.
I think that's a fair point, but a tough one. Here's my problem with it. I've watched a lot of his stuff, and his videos on meat/vegan seem to be by far the most impactful. In fact, I have noticed an incredibly high impact rate on otherwise obscure people who publish content anywhere on the spectrum of that particular topic.
Maybe there is a prejudicial bias, but it seems at least as likely to me that he just started posting more content on that same topic as made him money/viewers. Note, I didn't say "conclusions that made money" because I think he'd have succeeded equally if his videos concluded the opposite.
But I also have a problem with likening high protein stuff with "meat lifestyle". Ketogenic diets are the single biggest explosion in health these days. I have a close friend who is a nutritionist who is obsessed with it. I had family go to dietary counselling and it's the first item on their list. You can't walk 5 feet without people talking about how it is salvation or suicide. But despite the fact that meat is almost a critical necessity to make it work, it's not a diet about meat. Further, I'd like to remind you that ketogenics (and not anti-veganism) are even more of an obsession with fitness/health extremists. I'm sure I totally telegraphed my next point. If you look at the other 50% of his content, a lot of it is exactly that.
I will say, if I had any red flags about him, they would come from his interviews with conservative personalities. I've noticed, unfortunately often, an uncomfortable correlation between conservativism and anti-veganism (I have become opposed to veganism, but am as far from a conservative as you can get). But I also try to keep political views, even ones I disagree with strongly, out of topics that don't directly seem related to them.