Whether or not you're vegan, whether or not
you listen to hip-hop music, this video has
a really simple message that you can put together
in 5 or 10 seconds. Styles P is vegan, Elon
Musk is not, Sam Harris is not, Richard Dawkins
is not. You may not recognize any of the names
I just threw out there. Who is Styles P? Styles
P is a rapper, he is a hip-hop artist, he
is an entertainer. He is also painfully honest
in interviews about his own criminal background:
a life spent being in and out of jail, a life
spent being involved with violence and negotiating
deals through lawyers to avoid spending too
much time in jail because of that violence.
I think if you watch any interview with him,
you'll get a sense of his level of education,
of the kind of background he comes out of,
and why he brings the type of energy he does
to his music and his career. Styles P is,
to say the least, an unpretentious guy. In
terms of the excuses people make for not being
vegan, or the reasons people give to (kind
of) reproach vegans for being privileged or
representing an unattainable goal for poor,
downtrodden, uneducated people, Styles P is
a really interesting counter-example. A couple
of years ago (about a year and a half ago
now, I think), I googled around for some interviews
with Styles P where he talked about being
vegan, and at that time (the interviews might
have been out of date already) he went through
a period, y'know, as he tells it, he went
through a period where he was in and out of
jail, he got out of jail, he tried being vegan,
at some point he slid back and he was just
eating turkey-meat, but no other kinds of
meat. He went through a process. And still
to this day he doesn't really shout out his
veganism. I did go around, just the other
week when I googled to update my knowledge
on this there were some current interviews
where he does say he is vegan. He owns a fruit-juice
shop in addition to being a recording artist
and he is vegan in his diet. I would assume
that, like most performers, he still wears
leather, that kind of thing, so he's not really
repping the vegan cause. However, that's not
the point of this video. A guy like Styles
P, with all the disadvantages his background
brings, one of the things he said, in terms
of his own path to being vegan was that he
was on a bus one time (in the middle of a
tour, y'know, performing music) and he looked
out of the bus and he saw the cows lined up
to get slaughtered, he just happened to get
a view, through a chain-link fence. And he
just thought, "That's not right". And he started
taking steps toward being vegetarian and vegan,
as I mentioned, he didn't do it overnight.
Look, if you've never heard who Styles P is,
my point is not that he's a genius. My point
is not that he's a natural community leader.
It's the opposite: he's exactly the type of
guy most people disrespect or have trouble
respecting, coming out of a really troubled
background. But he put the pieces together.
Maybe not perfectly, maybe not immediately,
but he went vegan, not just for his health,
not just to lift more weight or get thinner
or whatever it was. […] Looking out the
window of a tour bus with other things on
his mind, he happened to glimpse cows going
to the slaughter and he thought, "This isn't
right, there's something I can do about it,"
and he started to make a change. Richard Dawkins,
scientist with a PhD, author of many books
on many subjects, lifetime of research on
animal behavior, animal intelligence, lifetime
of making statements about animal cruelty,
not vegan, never even tried. Never even tried
to be vegetarian. The guy's done all these
interviews and made all these statements:
he encourages other people to be vegetarian
but he doesn't do it himself. Richard Dawkins,
people think this guy is a genius, and I don't
blame him for this, in terms of his public
life, he presents himself as a genius, he
presents himself as a community leader, as
a kind of atheist messiah in a lot of ways.
And that's cool. But he doesn't practice what
he preaches, y'know. And for a man in his
position, with his background, his education,
with his money, with his leisure, it's not
hard to be vegan. It's easier for him than
it is for Styles P. Think about Styles P getting
out of jail and trying to put himself back
on a vegan diet. Richard Dawkins doesn't have
it that hard. He's not in that struggle. Richard
Dawkins, I'm sure he's got his own struggle.
He's writing an autobiography in several volumes
these days. It's not that struggle. Sam Harris
is another would-be 21st century philosopher,
leader of public opinion, makes statements
on all kinds of ethical issues. I guess you
could say he presents himself as an ethical
philosopher in our times. And that's cool.
If you google for 5 seconds "Sam Harris Vegetarian",
one of the first results you're going to get
is Sam Harris on Youtube explaining how he
tried to be vegetarian but he failed because
he just didn't feel he was getting enough
protein. Sounds like an idiot. The simplest
explanation is that he really is an idiot.
You, Sam Harris, with your PhD and your career
and your life as an author and an intellectual,
you can't figure out a vegan diet? Styles
P has got it figured out, man. Styles P beat
that murder charge, beat that stabbing charge,
like, seriously, Styles P, you can look it
up, he's made public statements about this
whole criminal history, and all his court
cases; he doesn't even claim he's innocent.
Styles P got it figured out, man. Sam Harris,
you gave up, you couldn't even be vegetarian,
let alone vegan, because you couldn't figure
out how to get enough protein. Man, why didn't
you apply for a research grant? If you really
can't figure it out, you have access to research
facilities. You've got research assistants
who you can send to the library to look it
up for you. You don't even have to do it yourself,
you can delegate that task. Sam Harris can't
figure it out. Styles P's got it figured out.
Arright? 2015. Okay? Elon Musk, who is Elon
Musk. Elon Musk is not a millionaire, he is
a billionaire. His fortune is measured in
the hundreds of millions of dollars, Elon
Musk has paid more money in alimony settlements
to his ex-wives than most millionaires will
ever earn. This is a guy who spends tens of
millions and hundreds of millions. Not hating
on it. Good for you, Elon Musk. What's the
issue he's supposed to be a leader of public
opinion in? Again, people regard him as a
genius, and not without reason. Self-made
millionaire, inventor, entrepreneur, technologist.
[He's an] impressive man of learning, a captain
of industry. He's supposed to be a leader
on ecological issues, on global warming, on
environmental issues, on energy consumption…
I could paste in the still frame here, of
him taking questions from the audience and
someone asks him, "Yeah, y'know, you did all
this work on electrical cars, and these related
technologies, but isn't there something else
you could do to reduce your environmental
impact?" "Couldn't you change your diet?"
The question is kind of leading him on. He
says he tried being vegetarian, but he just
couldn't do it. Elon Musk, you've got hundreds
of millions to burn. Me, even when I have
money, I really don't like to waste money.
For me, like, it was very hard to be vegan
in Saskatchewan where, like, the only fruits
and vegetables you can get are imported from
Mexico at a very high price. So the cost of
a head of broccoli, compared to the… the
cost is really high and the quality is really
low, and I'm standing there looking at it,
and, y'know, I know what it was like to live
in places like Cambodia and Thailand where
fruit and vegetables are really cheap, of
course. It's just… you know… your heart
sinks at having to spend so much money to
have such a poor diet as a vegan when you
live in a place like Saskatchewan. It's tough.
Elon Musk, you're supposedly a genius, you
have hundreds of millions of dollars to burn,
and you live in California. And you can't
figure it out? You can figure out how to put
a man in space (he owns a private space-exploration
company, a space-transport company, orbit
company, whatever you want to say). You can
figure out how to mass-manufacture electrical
cars, and preach that as an environmental
cause. You can't figure it out? Hey, man,
Styles P got it figured out. Think about it.
