I ran across someone’s supposedly persuasive list of 11 reasons not to consume dairy products. You’ll find the link below, if you want to check it out yourself, but, forgive me if wax sarcastic first.
Now, I’m not in favor of furthering any Dairy Council’s agenda. In fact, in my own day-to-day life, I’m not a huge fan of dairy. I don’t have a real problem with it, but I’m aware of the environmental pollution caused by dairies and, frankly, I think milk’s got a funky aftertaste, so I don’t drink it all that often. I’m neither pro-nor-anti-milk. But, as a health-conscious consumer, I figured, why not read the list and see if there’s something to be learned?
Well, the lesson I gleaned was this: if you can’t imagine how the general audience will react, you should never even attempt to persuade anyone. Granted, the author included some compelling-sounding reasons (albeit without links or references to back the claims), like, cows are given unhealthy feed laden with pesticides that could harm human health when their milk is consumed, and, because of processing, the milk can be harder than should be to digest… that sort of thing. Even unsubstantiated (because, an ambitious person could do their own research), I thought they were ideas worth taking into consideration.
But then, said author had to ruin it by including, as one of the 11 reasons: “Most dairy cows live in confined, inhumane conditions, never seeing the pastures of green grass they were intended to eat.”
Now, don’t mistake me, readers. I’m more in favor of animal rights than I’m comforable admitting. I believe firmly in treating animals humanely. My problem is this: the author is making that statement as if her audience cares. And most of them don’t. The milk-guzzling masses might actually pause for a moment if someone had evidence that they were harming their own health. But no one gives a tinker’s damn about cows, if they did we wouldn’t even be having such issues brought before us. But not only does no one care, putting that on the list diminishes whatever impact the other items might have had. Okay, sure, maybe feeling sorry for the poor cows is one more reason to feel good about not drinking milk… but it’s not a reason for which anyone’s going to stop.
And anyone who imagines otherwise – and actually puts the idea out there for public viewing – is an unfortunate simpleton. Getting the average person to care more about his own health? That’s a fierce challenge. Trying to get him to feel bad for cows? That’s a waste of time. (I’m not saying people shouldn’t care, I’m saying they’re just not going to.) But, while I’m being so critical, I’ll add that any argument meant to persuade should contain not only the reference to any medical of scientific claim, it should also contain the link to further reading. Like this: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Fr8v0/www.care2.com/greenliving/11-reasons-to-stop-eating-dairy.html/r:f
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How to Ruin a Persuasive Argument
I ran across someone’s supposedly persuasive list of 11 reasons not to consume dairy products. You’ll find the link below, if you want to check it out yourself, but, forgive me if wax sarcastic first.
Now, I’m not in favor of furthering any Dairy Council’s agenda. In fact, in my own day-to-day life, I’m not a huge fan of dairy. I don’t have a real problem with it, but I’m aware of the environmental pollution caused by dairies and, frankly, I think milk’s got a funky aftertaste, so I don’t drink it all that often. I’m neither pro-nor-anti-milk. But, as a health-conscious consumer, I figured, why not read the list and see if there’s something to be learned?
Well, the lesson I gleaned was this: if you can’t imagine how the general audience will react, you should never even attempt to persuade anyone. Granted, the author included some compelling-sounding reasons (albeit without links or references to back the claims), like, cows are given unhealthy feed laden with pesticides that could harm human health when their milk is consumed, and, because of processing, the milk can be harder than should be to digest… that sort of thing. Even unsubstantiated (because, an ambitious person could do their own research), I thought they were ideas worth taking into consideration.
But then, said author had to ruin it by including, as one of the 11 reasons: “Most dairy cows live in confined, inhumane conditions, never seeing the pastures of green grass they were intended to eat.”
Now, don’t mistake me, readers. I’m more in favor of animal rights than I’m comforable admitting. I believe firmly in treating animals humanely. My problem is this: the author is making that statement as if her audience cares. And most of them don’t. The milk-guzzling masses might actually pause for a moment if someone had evidence that they were harming their own health. But no one gives a tinker’s damn about cows, if they did we wouldn’t even be having such issues brought before us. But not only does no one care, putting that on the list diminishes whatever impact the other items might have had. Okay, sure, maybe feeling sorry for the poor cows is one more reason to feel good about not drinking milk… but it’s not a reason for which anyone’s going to stop.
And anyone who imagines otherwise – and actually puts the idea out there for public viewing – is an unfortunate simpleton. Getting the average person to care more about his own health? That’s a fierce challenge. Trying to get him to feel bad for cows? That’s a waste of time. (I’m not saying people shouldn’t care, I’m saying they’re just not going to.) But, while I’m being so critical, I’ll add that any argument meant to persuade should contain not only the reference to any medical of scientific claim, it should also contain the link to further reading. Like this: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Fr8v0/www.care2.com/greenliving/11-reasons-to-stop-eating-dairy.html/r:f
Tags: cows, milk, persuasion
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.