Current Events > People who don't eat meat because it's wrong to kill animals

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm not against this concept. I think we should treat animals well.

But what about insects? They feel pain. They're conscious. But they're small, so I feel they get discriminated against. Sure, maybe people don't go out of their way to kill them, but simply not looking at the ground when you walk causes many unnecessary insect deaths. Should this be something we can improve upon? I also feel that driving and heavy machinery kill a lot of animals and insects as well.

Is it too much to ask to make these sacrifices to improve on the amount of animal lives we kill? Where do we draw the line on how much an animal life is worth and why?

YellowMustard69 posted...

They feel pain. They're conscious.

I doubt it.

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So it's more about the lives they live rather than the fact that they are killed? That makes sense.

I think its mostly honourable to be a vegetarian

Props to the ones that arent nu male cucks and still vegetarians
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and yet they eat fish *snicker*

Fish dont have souls

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^fishist

I doubt even fish* feel subjective pain like mammals do, so it's okay to eat fish from an ethical point of view.

*Not referring to all seafood like octopus, lobster, etc

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nfearurspecimn posted...

I doubt it.

Google it. It's debatable but that's where the research is heading.

insects are gonna die no matter what you do. also their level of consciousness isn't as complex as mammals, birds and even fish

I mean it isn't really hard to figure out. they want to avoid killing animals they don't need to

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but Kurt Cobain said it's okay to eat fish because fish don't have feelings

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There are insects that are completely invisible to the naked eye so unless you plan on never moving ever you're going to wind up killing some

People don't need to drive. We could ban vehicles and heavy machinery and live a totally different lifestyle.

YellowMustard69 posted...

People don't need to drive. We could ban vehicles and heavy machinery and live a totally different lifestyle.

there's a difference between killing stuff because you're trying to live in the modern world and killing stuff because you like how it tastes

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People's view points on this type of stuff are certainly not objective. I find it a lot easier to talk to people about my research on mice than I did on nonhuman primates.

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What about plants? They're living things too. The veggies just kill based on their convenience. Change my mind.

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ThyCorndog posted...

there's a difference between killing stuff because you're trying to live in the modern world and killing stuff because you like how it tastes

Good tasting food is part of the modern world, though.

JOSGABRIEL posted...

What about plants? They're living things too. The veggies just kill based on their convenience. Change my mind.

I actually agree. Life is life. We should not discriminate.

If I accidentally step on an ant because I didn't see it, that's not really the same thing as making a conscious decision to buy, cook, and eat meat as part of my regular diet. I'm not a vegetarian, but it's just not a good comparison.

And IIRC there are certain religions in which you are expected to sweep the ground in front of you so as to minimize loss of life

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Everyone eats insects actually. There's a reason our food has a certain amount of insect parts that's allowed by the FDA. Even with our best efforts and even if you clean and prepare your food properly, they're going to get in your belly. Little bug and spider bits yum!

Of course you can also eat insects deliberately and some offer more nutritional value than standard meat. Without the world destroying cow farts. Insect farts are smaller probably. Do insects fart?

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How is an insect conscious

I don't think you understand the nervous system

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JOSGABRIEL posted...

What about plants? They're living things too. The veggies just kill based on their convenience. Change my mind.

this. i hate when people think it's unethical to kill for food, and then go and kill something for food.

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if you eat animals you kill more plants than if you just ate plants

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You can eat fruits and vegetables from flowering plants (nonroot veggies).

Eating an apple doesn't kill the tree, in fact, it's good cause that's how they propagate.
Same with tomatoes

Coloradough posted...

How is an insect conscious

I don't think you understand the nervous system

I don't know. I'm sure one of us could post links to articles where this is discussed. I'm ill equipped to understand how brains work.

ThyCorndog posted...

if you eat animals you kill more plants than if you just ate plants

Which is why we should probably just eat dirt like Ren and Stimpy did in that one episode where they didn't have anything else to eat.

YellowMustard69 posted...

I don't know. I'm sure one of us could post links to articles where this is discussed. I'm ill equipped to understand how brains work.

A brain is a centralized cluster of nerves that controls everything in one place, a central nervous system

bugs don't have a centralized nervous system, they have small clusters all over their body. Their nervous system is spread out all over, it doesn't collect all information and "think" about it, the mini-brain in the legs just control the leg, the mini-brain in the antennae just process those signals etc.

Their ability to have a conscious mind is highly diminished. More like a computer than a mind

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This is like the honey debate among vegans

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nfearurspecimn posted...

I doubt it.

You doubt they feel pain or you doubt they are conscious? Because both of those are pretty self evident.

Edit: nevermind I thought that response was in regards to animals.

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

You doubt they feel pain or you doubt they are conscious? Because both of those are pretty self evident.

Subjectively? There's no implication that they FEEL the pain like we or our animal pals do. It might just be automatic instinct.

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nfearurspecimn posted...

Subjectively? There's no implication that they FEEL the pain like we or our animal pals do. It might just be automatic instinct.

Yea I thought your response was in regards to animals. I edited my post to reflect my mistake.

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I will say insect are definitely conscious though. Whether they feel pain the same way animals do is up for debate.

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Bees can be taught to play (mini) soccer.
And understand the concept of zero.

And here we are... smh

ufoivy posted...

I have always find it fascinating how the people that draw the line at not wanting to eat dead animals for ethic reasons are simultaneously pro-choice. If I am pro-choice (and I am) and perfectly fine with a random woman I have never met and have no personal connection to expulsing a fetus from her body for whatever reasons she has, why am I suddenly going to have a problem eating a steak, grilled chicken breast, or crispy bacon?

People are bias towards certain animal welfare because they are "cute."

It's why they'll scream about a puppy being aborted, but think nothing about squashing a spider.

while researching korean culture, i learned that are even stricter codes for the buddhist vegetarian monks. like they wont eat things from the onion family in some sects.

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ufoivy posted...

I have always find it fascinating how the people that draw the line at not wanting to eat dead animals for ethic reasons are simultaneously pro-choice. If I am pro-choice (and I am) and perfectly fine with a random woman I have never met and have no personal connection to expulsing a fetus from her body for whatever reasons she has, why am I suddenly going to have a problem eating a steak, grilled chicken breast, or crispy bacon?

Pro-choice doesn't mean pro-abortion, and unless they are actively trying to stop other people from eating meat I don't think their choice to be vegetarians is inconsistent with believing that people should have a right to choose

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It's just the food chain. If a higher predator shows up and eats humans, I better get good at surviving because otherwise I'm fresh meat.

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People are supposed to kill bugs. It's just common sense.
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I eat people

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Coloradough posted...

A brain is a centralized cluster of nerves that controls everything in one place, a central nervous system

bugs don't have a centralized nervous system, they have small clusters all over their body. Their nervous system is spread out all over, it doesn't collect all information and "think" about it, the mini-brain in the legs just control the leg, the mini-brain in the antennae just process those signals etc.

Their ability to have a conscious mind is highly diminished. More like a computer than a mind

This is pretty nonsensical tbh. No a priori reason to think distributed processing has anything to do with "consciousness". Not like the human brain isnt doing a shit ton of distributed processing, anyway.

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