Documentarian Ryuij Chua is a vegan and as a good vegan, he wants you to know about it. His platform was the Wednesday edition of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Comedy Central where this great defender of fish condemned humanity for stereotyping animals and not viewing things “from the animal’s perspective.”
Noah gave credence to this view by declaring, “There’s no denying that it’s becoming unsustainable. It’s also terrible in the way that we treat animals, you know, we’re just trying to make the world a better place.”
Tying morality to dietary habits, Noah continued, “Now, many people will say ‘I can’t be vegan but I am a vegetarian,’ ‘I’m not that but I’m pescatarian and can I eat fish because I don’t like how everything else happens.’ but now you have come in and you’ve upended that whole thing because there are many people are like ‘Well, I’m good, I eat fish,’ and you’re like ‘well, you’re not as good as you think.’”
Chua insisted that “it’s not about judging people,” but “more about thinking being it from the animal’s perspective, so the reason that I’m vegan, is because I look at things from the animal perspective and I think to myself would I want to be in their shoes, right? Or in their fins.”
How does Chua put himself in a fish’s shoes? Did he ask the fish what it thinks of nature’s food chain?
The mere act of calling an animal an “it,” however, is offensive to Chua, “the fact that for a lot of these animals we stereotype them in ways where we think that, you know, we call animals in farms ‘livestock,’ where we almost look at them like a something, not as someone when in fact all of them, they can play and have families and build connections like just like dogs, cats, and other animals.”
The fact that some animals are carnivores is of no consequence for Chua, eating meat is animal cruelty defined, “I think people vastly underestimate the degree to which they suffer in these systems because obviously the industry is not going to, you know, kind of, broadcast that themselves. And the information is accessible but it’s also uncomfortable to face.”
Hopefully, Chua does not take his own advice against stereotyping animals if he ever comes into contact with a bear that does not have the same devotion to fish as he does.
This segment was sponsored by 4imprint.
Here is a transcript for the August 3 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
8/3/2022
11:31 PM ET
TREVOR NOAH: It’s interesting that you say that, because, like, you know, when we think about the world we are living in today there’s no denying that, you know, we have to change the ways we think about our food. There’s no denying that it’s becoming unsustainable. It’s also terrible in the way that we treat animals, you know, we’re just trying to make the world a better place.
RYUIJ CHUA: Yeah.
NOAH: Now, many people will say “I can’t be vegan but I am a vegetarian,” –
CHUA: Yeah. Sure.
NOAH: — some people say “I’m not that but I’m pescatarian—
CHUA: Sure.
NOAH: – and can I eat fish because I don’t like how everything else happens.”
CHUA: Sure.
NOAH: — but now you have come in and you’ve upended that whole thing because there are many people are like “Well, I’m good, I eat fish,” and “you’re like well, you’re not as good as you think.”
CHUA: Well, it’s not about judging people saying are you not as good as you think, it’s more about thinking being it from the animal’s perspective, so the reason that I’m vegan, is because I look at things from the animal perspective and I think to myself would I want to be in their shoes, right? Or in their fins—
NOAH: Okay.
CHUA: — as maybe—and the thing is that when you look at it that way, well, the things that we do to– I think we’re missing two things—
NOAH: Yes.
CHUA: — first is the fact that for a lot of these animals we stereotype them in ways where we think that, you know, we call animals in farms “livestock,”—
NOAH: Okay
CHUA: — where we almost look at them like a something, not as someone when in fact all of them, they can play and have families and build connections like just like dogs, cats, and other animals and the second thing is I think people vastly underestimate the degree to which they suffer in these systems because obviously the industry is not going to, you know, kind of, broadcast that themselves. And the information is accessible but it’s also uncomfortable to face. I think a lot of people, me myself included, for a long time just don’t know how much these animals suffer—
NOAH: Yeah.
CHUA: — and how many animals suffer.