this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
318 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37742 readers
500 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You've never seen any posts containing meat?

[–] marx2k@beehaw.org 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know, I really wish you were clearer in your OP so I wasn't dragged in to a vegans discussion

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh no you had to think about what happens to the animals you eat for a few seconds!

[–] marx2k@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't say I eat animals, chief.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Oh no you had to think about what happens to the animals ~~you~~ other people eat for a few seconds!

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eating animals isn't the problem, necessarily. It's how the animals are grown and raised like crops is the problem. I have a weird stance on this that looks very contradicting. Humans are animals, and we are engineered to include meat in our diets. However, I don't agree with how the majority of us access that meat.

I'm a strong believer in hunting for food, not sport. If you're going to eat an animal, you should work for it. And be thankful. Doesn't matter what beliefs you hold, you owe thanks to what the animal has provided you.

Meat farms are disgusting. But there's no way they will ever go away. They're much too profitable for companies to give up.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How do you humanely kill an animal who doesn't need or want to die?

How does thanking someone after you needlessly kill them help anything?

Why not just eat plants when we can easily thrive on a plant based diet?
We aren't "engineered" at all, we're omnivores which means we can do just fine both with and without meat.

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You hunt it. Not as a sport. Give the animal a fair chance, and even then it's not a fair fight, so be thankful for what's been provided

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Killing when we don't have to is cruel, doing it in the forest doesn't make it better, we can just eat plants.

There's nothing fair about needless killing, nothing is provided to you, you're taking it be force.

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

We are animals engineered to eat meat. It is natural for humans to do so. Killing an animal has nothing to do with morality. How and why it's done does

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We are animals who happened to mutate to be able to thrive with and without meat, we're omnivores.

If we are animals and killing animals has nothing to do with morality I can kill you with no consequences and without feeling bad yeah?

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like I said, why you do it and how it's done matters. What's your reason for killing me? For this discussion of course.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Let's say I thought your corpse would taste good and provide me with sustenance for a while and I killed you painfree and instantly.

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Then that's not a good reason. "Because it's good" doesn't justify the kill. For survival? Sure, I'd give that a pass, even though I'd defend myself. I would understand the situation. And people have done this.

If you have this "no-kill" stance for animals, you need to have it for everything, including insects. I'm not saying you don't, because I don't really know, but I do know that's often overlooked or ignored.

A life is a life.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's literally the same argument you're using.

You don't need to eat animals for survival.

I don't kill insects on purpose.

Yes a life is a life and shouldn't be wasted because you think corpses taste good.

[–] NMBA@mstdn.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@NotAPenguin @trashhalo @marx2k @reric88
On earth, death is as natural as eating other life forms. It’s how Mother Earth survives, not unlike how our bodies recycle dead cells and attack foreign ones.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you'd be fine with me eating you?

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A life is a life.

Plants too are living beings. Cutting them, letting them starve without their roots, dissecting it in various parts to be sold...

Why don't we think about it? Are we so extremely sure plants don't feel any type of pain, not even a much different pain that animals can't understand?

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have to survive on something, and at the very least we choose the least-sentient thing we can find to eat. Plants do have a nervous system, but they don't have a brain. Or a centralized brain, anyway.

We don't know if plants can feel pain, but we definitely know that plants respond to damage

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Completely true. But it also shows how the need for anyone and anything to survive always comes from hurting something.

Nature is, de facto, unfair. A prey will struggle against a predator, much like when something else is a "predator" to something that most of the times cannot more or respond.

There is simply no way of not causing harm ever in all processes of producing food, especially without heavily reducing the quality of life of many humans.

[–] 108@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Hell yes, we moved on to canabalism.

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

You are trolling at this point. You simply can't compare killing for food to murder.

We are predators by nature, and there is no way you can deny it. The human intelligence has helped us evolve better tools for both hunting and farming.

We have mutated to be better hunters and predators, apart from being also better at not being one. But the first part will always remain.

[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Humans aren't engineered at all.

[–] imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a too bad that you weren't more clear than your first post, people almost took you serious

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

The "people going “yum” in the comments" made it so extremely obvious its about OP not wanting to see pieces of cooked meat in beef ramen videos

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Why wouldn't it be serious?

Meat is cut up animal corpses.
Humans can easily thrive without meat so it's clearly abusive to kill for profit/taste.

Could you reactionary fucks think about the subject for more than 2 seconds before you get angry and downvote?

[–] reric88@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago

Come on, guy, are you farming for an argument? You aren't helping your case by being abrasive

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

With respect, this approach does nothing to convince people to reduce their meat consumption, and in fact alienates people who might otherwise be on the fence about reducing their meat intake.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We get told this literally no matter how we approach the subject lol.
Which approach is it you think I'm using here and why is it ineffective?
It's not like I've been especially rude or anything?

Which approach worked on you?

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You've been hostile ("reactionary fucks") and you've hijacked the broader discussion referenced in the article (Musk's Twitter showing terrible videos including human death, animal cruelty, etc) to make a point about meat consumption generally versus videos on Twitter showing the intentional and purposeful infliction of pain on animals for pleasure.

My meat consumption is down quite a bit. Information on substitutes, good recipes, studies on the intelligence of (for example) squid and such have shifted me into eating less meat. While I'm sure you'd prefer people not eat meat at all, convincing 5 people to cut their meat consumption 50% is better than convincing 0 people to cut their meat consumption 100% , no?

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

("reactionary fucks")

After my comments were downvoted to hell lol.

I've not hijacked anything, I contributed to the conversation and everyone lost their minds because they don't wanna think about the animal abuse they support every day.

convincing 5 people to cut their meat consumption 50% is better than convincing 0 people to cut their meat consumption 100% , no?

Would you feel the same about abolishing slavery?

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would I prefer that 5 people free half of their slaves versus no one freeing any slaves? Of course, why would I want everyone to stay enslaved if I could free some and continue to work to free others? Would you prefer that everyone who is currently a slave remain enslaved until we convince the entire world to free their slaves?

I think they more prefer to focus on the issue (the state of Twitter) in a post about Twitter, versus going off on tangents that would otherwise make for interesting conversation.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would you prefer people advocate for freeing all slaves or "slave free monday"?

[–] grahamsz@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's really a difference about whether you approach meat consumption as a moral issue or an environmental and social one.

I tend to agree with @Melpomene that any improvement is a good thing, maybe a better analogy would be in CO2 emissions. If we can convince 10% of people to bike to work one day a week then that'll make meaningful difference, and it's exactly the same from an emissions standpoint as taking X cars off the road.

Convincing someone, at least in the USA, to do without a car is fundamentally difficult, but convincing them to use it less is a significantly more accessible proposition.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just don't see reduction as enough or what should be advocated when it comes to something so serious as billions of animals getting needlessly killed.

[–] FlowVoid@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Billions of animals are killed wherever crops are grown.

Even if you are entirely vegan, animals have to die if you want to eat.

In fact, if your food is grown on a farm then you are probably contributing to more animal deaths than someone who obtains food from hunting or fishing.

[–] NotAPenguin@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Source on billions of crop deaths?

Besides, most plants grown are used for animal feed.

Killing animals when we don't have to is inherently cruel, farming can be done without harming animals.

[–] FlowVoid@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Billions of invertebrates and other small animals are killed during tilling before planting, with pest/weed control during the growing season (even with "organic" or "natural" compounds), and of course during harvest.

This is inevitable, planting requires controlling soil and plants, and this will inevitably kill animals that you don't even see. Do you really think you can pull a weed without killing any of the invisible animals living on it?

Fishing/hunting also kills animals, but you can catch a fish or hunt a deer without restructuring an entire ecosystem. Which means you can feed yourself without killing quite so many animals.

[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

That you literally made this argument is sad and gross. You just argued that people shouldn't fight to free all slaves. What the actual fuck? You literally made an argument to not fight against slavery because it's hard

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

?????

Slavery never ended suddenly, exactly like any other major change in society. Also its extremely off topic.

[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

The "reactionary fucks" was in response to hostility. Hijacking broader topic? I'm sure you're on reddit complaining about John Oliver taking over the broader topic that is generally on r/pics. I'll let you ruminate on that until you see the obvious point.

I'm sure in history some abolitionists wanted to get rid of slavery all together, but just minimizing the number of slaves is better than nothing right so they shouldn't have been so absolutist. At least according to your own argument unless you admit to being hypocritical or simply not understanding the argument of those you're responding to. You can't be neither though.

You're putting forth either bad faith arguments or extremely toxic ones, under the guise of polite society. It's kind of sickening if you aren't actually intentionally doing it.

[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

This is kind of funny, cause it's the same approach the toxic right takes against progressives. "Be nice to us cause pointing out the things you do makes us get angry instead and won't convince us." It'd be ridiculously hilarious if it weren't so sad at the same time. This is the most subtly toxic response you could have had.

[–] Dio@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

No, they're incapable and whingy.

[–] FlowVoid@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Well if you put it that way, then I guess animal cruelty isn't as bad as we thought.