Why I am not a vegan

[Monica]

If free will is a matter of response then the infringement only comes when the response is controlled and manipulated.

Not necessarily. Most people would agree that it's still a violation to rape a drugged or comatose person, even though they can't respond.

Do you think animals can be brainwashed and their responses manipulated?

Well brainwashing is usually done by the media. I really don't see the application in the case of animals. Animals are certainly manipulated, but it's more on a physical level. Brainwashing is when a person's natural free will is overpowered unfairly, through drugging them for example, as in the case of fluoride in the water and rampant use of medications, and repeated conditioning by the media.

Or is it that you see the 'limiting of choices' as being an infringement? That wouldn't make sense to me if free will is a function of response because if that is the case then it doesn't matter what act occurs towards an entity so long as that entity has the freedom to respond in whatever way it chooses, whether that be with pain, joy or anything else.

What it seems to me that various people are suggesting is that free will is more about the life conditions one has and their state of relative freedom of body and mind. This, however, appears to me to fit in to the first concept where free will is about desires rather than the second where free will is about response, so that's why I'm mentioning it.

Response doesn't have to be a physical action. Someone who is paralyzed and mute can't take any action at all, yet still has free will, regardless of whether s/he is able to act on his/her free will or not. To knowingly violate that person is still an infringement, a violation, maybe even more so, because the aggressor is taking unfair advantage of the disabled person.

...