this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Silly vegoon, only the cute animals I didn't want to eat have feelings. The others are unfeeling slabs of meat that is magically created by wholesome farmers being folksy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A few coworkers refer to cows as giant dogs. Then they sell them to be butchered.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (38 children)

I don't eat meat, but the more we learn about plant intelligence, the less I can say with confidence that plants do not have their equivalents of things like pain and emotion. It doesn't help that we have great difficulty defining what emotion means.

But we know a lot about plants now that we thought were animal things. Grass "panics" or "screams" by sending out chemical signals when you cut it as a warning to others of its species that they are seriously injured and danger is coming. That's what the smell of fresh-cut grass is. Sure, calling it a panic or a scream is anthropomorphizing it, but it's kind of hard to describe it in other terms.

We also have learned about "mother trees," which will send resources to their offspring if the offspring let the mother tree know they are in desperate need of them. Which sounds very much like parenting in animal species. There's also lots of evidence that plants can learn from experiences and retain some sort of memory of them in some capacity.

Do I think plants have the same sort of sentience as animals and will I stop eating broccoli? Of course not. But I will still have to admit that at the end of the day, I might just be choosing to cause a different kingdom of life pain and suffering because it's far enough away from my species that I don't consider that to be pain and suffering.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (19 children)

If you're eating meat, then you're contributing to the death of all of those plants that had to feed the animals you're eating. Even if you grant plants sentience, veganism is still the more ethical option.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (13 children)

Is "more ethical" really enough if you accept that plants can suffer? You're still essentially saying one group of living things' suffering is acceptable to you. Isn't that like saying the holocaust of the Jews was bad, but the holocaust of the Roma at the same time was fine because there were fewer Roma than Jews? Does "less" matter when we're talking quantities so massive?

I don't think there are easy answers to any of these questions. Not if you want to approach them from an honest philosophical level.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Is "more ethical" really enough if you accept that plants can suffer

I don't accept that, but even if I did, you should still act to minimize suffering as much as possible.

Do you really believe that killing a plant is the same as killing an animal?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As someone who‘s allergic to an ungodly amount of vegetable oils, fruit and gluten: no.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Weird how every time veganism comes up everyone is suddenly deathly allergic to anything that doesn't scream when it dies

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

...every time veganism comes up...

You mean every time that a vegan uses whatever tenuous link to the current topic they can imagine exists to bring up veganism?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Post: animals have emotions

Comment: we shouldn't kill things with emotions

I dunno seems pretty related. And when we're feeling a lot of empathy for animals is probably the best time to think about these issues

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

Vegans complaining about other people needlessly injecting themselves into conversations is peak copium.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm deathly allergic to evangelism.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Cows are deathly allergic to knives

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Funny how you're still alive, seems there's no one being evangelical

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (16 children)

Stuff from milk, mushrooms and eggs don’t scream, so do a lot of salads and olive oil, even rice is silent.

And don’t start with those industrial cows that only get to live because of the milk. That stuff tastes like shit. Same with those chickens in cages.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I'm pretty sure, that both cow and calf are screaming when they are separated shortly after birth. Alnost like a mother and her baby have an emotional bond.

And even the smallest farm will absolutely kill them once they aren't profitable anymore, or they'd have an ever increasing population of animals.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Just don't try to force it on your pets.

Cats are obligate carnivores.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Believe me vegans put a lot more thought into nutrition than omni's do. Aside from that pet ownership is not vegan. The word "ownership" being operative. If you find yourself having to care for an animal then that's a different situation of course.

Here is some surface-level reading about caring for animals in a vegan way https://www.peta.org/living/animal-companions/caring-animal-companions/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Obligate carnivores in nature. Why do you care if a cat is fed with fortified plant bits vs fortified animal bits? Neither product exists in nature and the cat can live a healthy life on both. Also breeding cats to be pets is completely unnatural, so why are you fine with that?

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Man, mine go nuts being happy to see us.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Eh, we can leave our cats for a week with plenty of food, etc., and they're still thrilled when we return.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tax animal meat, put the proceeds into precision fermentation.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Really, just stop subsidizing the shit out of it.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

emotions yes. Like us, I don't have the capabilities to determine if their emotions are like ours.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They don't have emotions like us but they have emotions similar to ours.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (5 children)

How would you define like us vs similar to us?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Humans can have more complex emotions. We can be stressed about theoretical concepts that animals just are not equipped to understand. We can be excited by the prospect of future events.

Most animal emotions are immediate. They enjoy some food they eat, they find a nice warm spot to bask in, they see a predator and run away. Most animals lack the mental capacity to think beyond the immediate.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

My cat: I pissed three times on your stuff while you were away because fuck you and your shitty ‘healthy’ food

Same evening: cuddles? cuddles! cuddle me human, yes scratches behind the ears!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (10 children)

My cat has only one emotion: not giving a damn about me

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