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What are you putting in your body?
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Dead, carcass, pain, suffering, fear.
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Can I have all of my vegans go into that pool of light?
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And my non-vegans in that pool of light.
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First statement:
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Taste plays a big factor in my eating choices.
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Yeah I mean that's a huge thing for me.
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I think it is one of my weaknesses actually.
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Butter, salt is one of my weaknesses.
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I Love food
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And I think my relationship with food actually deepened when I became vegan
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I don't think I've appreciated it as much as I did before I was vegan
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My name is Aubrey Davis and I have been vegetarian for 24 years
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and a vegan for 13 years.
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I believe that humans are the top of the food chain.
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Is a human at the same level of equivalence is like a fish? - Right.
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It's probably a big reason why I'm not vegan anymore.
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I didn't see that I had to see myself at a moral equivalent of a fish,
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and it gets into moral questions like, you know,
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"Why should we have a pet that's a dog, rather than eat the dog?"
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And I think the most important question is,
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"Why should I love my neighbor rather than eat my neighbor?"
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My name's Steve Micelski, I was a vegan for a year,
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I was a vegetarian for two years.
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I'm a meat-eater now, I've been so for over five years.
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I don't even see like what is like a food chain? You know what I'm saying?
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That's just some contract some guy made and put a little diagram
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and put us humans beings on the top so...
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I don't think it's a question of whether we're at the top,
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I think it's a question of,
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"What do you do with that if you have a more conscious energy than an animal
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what do you do with that power? Do you choose to take a life?
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or do you choose to live in love?
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I put a lot of thought into my meals.
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The way I support my body, and my health is extremely important.
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I don't find that I can function at my best.
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Either healthy, productive, emotionally stable, or intellectually capable
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unless I have a lot of proper nutrients in my diet.
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Six years ago I became vegan because I got sick
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I started to realize that my health was directly attached to what I ate
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since then my friends and family have supported me to feeling better
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And I'm better than I was before I got sick
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I don't really like, cook or anything
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so I don't really put too much thought into what I eat, I guess.
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I live a fast paced kind of like I'm working late night, so I'm waking up early,
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so sometimes it's easier to grab this quick, processed sandwich.
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I wish I planned my meals out more.
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I think I would be a lot... I would feel a lot better.
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I think it's really powerful, no matter what you're eating,
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to put your intentions into it, whether it's prayer, or invocation.
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And it's with such great power and presence,
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versus just, like, scarfing something down,
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but like can I just really be present with this meal, take my time,
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and chew it slowly.
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So, that's the first thing that I resonate with and what I choose to do.
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I would kill an animal.
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I think there'd be tons of contexts where I'd kill an animal,
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like if a lion's gonna go kill a baby, I'd probably kill an animal.
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I'd kill an animal to save a human life, and I get that vegans probably wouldn't do that.
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If I could do something to prevent killing them, besides eating them,
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like if I was protecting myself and we had to...and we had like...
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something that we could do to get that animal away, I would definitely try to not kill it.
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I mean, I feel like...
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But if it comes down to you or the animal, are you killing the animal?
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I would, I would.
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You know, they're gonna give up their life for the fish!
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Why is it always the extreme case when talking about would I kill an animal?
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--Exactly.--
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Like, if you were in a- this situation,...
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There aren't lions running around downtown LA.
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When I was in hiking, there's mountain lions that come and kill people.
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You've known that, right?
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and that's in Orange County, right?
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That's not in the jungle in Africa.
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But it's not an everyday situation of "Would you kill an animal?".
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But, but it's Orange County.
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Mountain lions have killed hikers, kids.
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Would you just let the kid die?
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We're hiking in the mountains and there's a mountain lion.
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I have to be aware of the fact that I am in mountain lion territory,
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and be like, "I am okay with the risk."
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Because to be honest, I'm not hiking with a gun.
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I have no way to defend my friend.
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You don't hike with a hiking pole?
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I mean, a hiking pole against a mountain lion?
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I don't think you're winning.
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I just wanna say, like, even if I did,
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and even if my "attempt" were to be successful,
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I would feel awful having killed the mountain lion.
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Your feelings, or your just foundation in for your beliefs?
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A hundred percent!
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Are human beings animals?
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- Yes.
- Sure
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Would you kill another human being to save another human being?
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Yes.
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What makes one person more valuable to another? Is it your relationship to that person?
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It would, yeah, it would probably be.
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So if, for example, I raise an animal in the wild,
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it's like an animal I've built a relationship with,
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and that animal now threatens the life of a human being
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and I don't know, but I've known that animal its entire life,
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what makes killing that animal as just cause okay
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as it goes to saving that life?
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I have a longer relationship with that animal.
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Why would I kill the animal before I'd save that person?
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Because it's about relationship.
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- You'd kill a person over an animal?
- Correct.
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Because I believe human beings are animals.
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And I see humans at a different level, but maybe
you value fish at the same level as a person.
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We see it very different.
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I do.
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It costs more than it should to eat healthy.
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It's more expensive to eat healthy. I don't think it's too expensive.
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Farmer's market is something that I'm trying to frequent more.
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But sometimes, you know, you can go spend $20 here and definitely not get as much.
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I definitely wanna see that,
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you know, maybe that'll encourage people to eat a little healthier
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If you can go grab that fresh fruit, those fresh veggies, for five, ten bucks. You know?
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I think our culture, as a society, is just ingrained towards like the fast food culture,
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which is cheap, and accessible.
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But now I think we have more of a established, like, medical basis on
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what's healthy and what's not healthy.
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And to get that content and have it be tasty as well, is expensive.
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I'm running in. I have so much to say!
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It does not cost more money to be vegan, that is a myth.
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It takes planning. Yes, the convenience is less.
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Can you grab a hamburger at McDonalds for sure, for 99 cents?
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But how much lentils can you buy? The issue is capitalism.
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Like, that is what's keeping us where we are.
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It's not that humans are smarter and they're gonna come up with this technology.
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The technology exists.
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It is there.
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We can feed so many people, it is capitalism and factory farming.
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And most of these companies that are selling us products that are, like, shitting food,
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they don't give a fuck about you.
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At all.
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Period.
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Someone's sitting on an island somewhere...
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...like, just stacking bread...all this fast food shit.
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And they're probably eating really healthy food, too.
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They're not eating any of that shit.
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You got certain neighborhoods, certain areas.
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You don't see the same fast food.
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You don't see the same restaurants.
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And it's all for a reason. They know. - Accessibility.
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I mean, yeah, that's a good point.
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It's like, they don't have...
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Why isn't there many health food stores in the hood?
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How come I can't like get an option...
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Why is there a liquor store everywhere?
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And it's true, it's like you have to...
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When you break it down, there's like, malicious intent.
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To de-harmonize and like, lower the vibration of certain people in certain areas.
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And it's like, that's a part of it too, so it's like, what am I contributing to?
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I'll say this; you know, when I was eleven years old,
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my father passed away from his second heart attack, he was diabetic,
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he was pissing out of a tube, I watched him deteriorate
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my youngest years of my life, for like years and years it was just deteriorate,
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taking pharmaceutical drugs and just kind of basically dying slowly.
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Because of what he chose to eat.
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To me, I'd rather spend an extra dollar and eat organic or something healthy now,
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and live longer, than try to cut corners
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when, you know, in the end...
--I'm with you. Like, make the choice now instead of later.
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Because my mom was same thing.
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She died, she was eating buckets of ice cream when she passed away.
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She died at 49 years old.
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--Now. Choose now.
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The more education that we can put out there just like stuff like this is beautiful
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that's what I was most anxious about is learning more of what I'm trying to step into.
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I don't know if I will ever give up chicken.
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I'm just gonna be honest with you. I don't know.
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I wanna eat a lot cleaner chicken.
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Do you guys have like 'cheat days' ever?
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Hell no.
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I am vegan, one hundred percent, at the front line, ethical reasons,
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always, always, always,
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and that's why I don't think, in 24 years, I've ever gone back.
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It was hard to try new things;
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things I didn't like, found tons of vegan food
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that I was like, "oh god, what the fuck are you people eating?"
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and then, simultaneously, realizing that there was options, you know?
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There's always choices.
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And it's always choices you make, like you said.
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You may never give up meat fully
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but it's like you're making a choice
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you're at least thinking for yourself
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and making a decision and, like, that's all you can ask people to do,
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is think for themselves.
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I really appreciate each and every one of y'all.
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Thank you all so much.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...
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I really appreciate y'all, thank you for coming out.
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What's up, guys? I am Amari, and I am Jason
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and Amari, I've got a question for you.
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You have a question for me.
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What do you like about Middle Ground?
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What I like about Middle Ground
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is seeing people come together
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and, like, realize that their labels are not the whole sum of their experience.
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--Like taking off the labels.
--Taking off the labels!
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--Throw them on the ground.
--Realize there's so much more than their labels.
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--That's right, I love that.
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Alright, well, tell us in the comments below
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why you love Middle Ground
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and if you've got a label that you wanna take off and throw on the ground,
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tell us that as well.
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We love you guys,
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as always, please subscribe, hit that like button,
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and we'll see you next time.