I'm not saying that extinguishing life, to some degree, isn't necessary. Nor am I saying that we don't derive nutrition from living things. I am saying that minimizing suffering is a morally good thing.
Some vegetarians only care about cute and fluffy life. But not all. And I don't see how what vegetarians care about is relevant to my view that we ought to minimize the harm done to life and eating fewer animal products and killing fewer animals is one way to do that.
Some vegans, maybe even most vegans, are just out to impress. But, once again, not all and, more importantly, I, again, don't see how this is relevant. Even if all vegans were stuck-up and only cared about SEEMING good rather than being good .... this wouldn't entail that practicing veganism genuinely doesn't minimize sufferng or isn't morally good.
I never suggested that strawberries themselves could be 'killed' or that all vegans are hypocrites. Are some hypocrites? Perhaps. If by that we mean that some vegans claim to care about all animals but some of them don't care about, say, insects.
I care about insects. But I understand that some insects are going to be harmed and that we can't avoid that. And that insects are going to be harmed when we farm crops. But this doesn't mean I don't think there is anything wrong, say, with killing a little black beetle that has wandered into your home if you could easily put it back outside. Sure, it will die eventually (or soon, from our POV, because its lifespan is short, from our POV .... but not from its POV) then that means it's going to suffer and die in either case. But it may find more water and food outside than in your home. Or you may wish to leave it alone, if there is more food for it in your home, and if it is tiny, harmless and it's a solitary creature that isn't going to cause an infestation that would make YOU suffer.
'Your argument is they are hypocrites for not rising perfectly to a do no harm lifestyle. '
No. My argument is that some, but not all, of them may be hypocrites by at least one definition of 'hypocrite' and that such vegans may be able to rise *closer to* not harming any life. I certainly wouldn't suggest that they, or anybody else, could rise to not harming any life at all. I would say that that couldn't be done and if we tried to achieve it we would end up harming ourselves (lack of nutrition, not protecting ourselves from dangerous animals, etc) and, thus, we wouldn't be following the principle of not harming life because we would be harming ourselves and we're life, too, and we have a duty to ourselves, too.
'This does not invalidate the decreased harm they do over the course of a lifetime by giving up consumption of animal products.'
I agree. And I am not aiming this at any vegans who wouldn't unnecessarily kill an insect. I am aiming at vegans who would. Vegans who think that insects don't count. I understand that we will have to kill insects to some degree. But this doesn't invalidate the principle that killing less insects unnecessarily isn't morally better than killing unnecessarily. Just as how, you rightly say, that minimizing consumption of animal products is still a good thing even if we can't avoid harming animals altogether, if we include, at least, animals like insects---it is also right to say that minimizing kills of insects is still a good thing even if we can't avoid killing them altogether.
'Ought' implies 'can' so I would never suggest that we ought to do the impossible. I would also not suggest that it's not okay to kill insects *when doing so is necessary in order to avoid harm to ourselves*. As, even if insects somehow feel as much pain and suffering as we do then it would at least cancel things out if we killed them .... since not killing them at all kills us (we at least need to eat plants in order to survive and eating plants will kill more insects) then AT LEAST it's morally neutral or indifferent in that particular case. And then the only motivations we are left with are non-moral motivations .... such as survival ... so we would understandably be left eating plants and killing insects.
But that's in that particular case. It doesn't mean it's not bad to unnecessarily kill insects when we can avoid it. It doesn't mean that when we have a choice between either letting a harmless non-pest insect out of our home or crushing that insect to death .... it doesn't mean that the former option in that case isn't morally superior.
'As for vegetarians who consume meat... Yeah, it's a little weird that they want to call themselves vegetarian, instead of just proclaiming being on a no red meat diet.'
I agree. But some people in some countries eat insects. And I would also think it would be a little weird for a vegan to eat insects and say it doesn't count and doesn't make them non-vegan because they personally believe that insects don't feel pain or suffer.
