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Is it really “abstinence” if you’ve never desired or enjoyed alcohol, nicotine, chemical amusement aids, and meat? This is part of why I can never identify as a Straight Edger, even as I share their aversions. I can see a championing of self-denial in many SEers, a trait they share with and other moral crusaders. But just because some substance is widely available and promoted/celebrated as socially acceptable and desirable to consume doesn’t always or necessarily make not partaking in it some kind of self-denial. My own refusal to eat/wear animals and animal-derived products is an affirmation that my circle of compassion includes more sentient beings. It’s an expansion, not a restriction; acceptance, not abstinence.
Fully prepared for attempted skewerings by the anti-SE brigades.