• Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    One of my favorite facts about nature is the fact that practically nothing is vegan. Herbivores are basically constantly eating insects off of the plant matter they eat, and pretty much anything will eat eggs if they find them unguarded.

    My point is that if you want to be “closer to what nature intended”, being a vegan with cheat days is probably the closest you’ll get.

    • reev@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Being vegan isn’t about being “closer to what nature intended”, it’s about reducing cruelty and harm as much as practicable/possible.

      • shinratdr@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Being vegan is a lot of things to a lot of people. It’s not only about animal suffering. This is true for some people but plenty of people are vegan for health reasons.

        • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          No they’re on plant based diets. you don’t stop using rabbit glue for health reasons, or not buy a leather couch for health reasons.

          Veganism is not a diet, it is a philosophical and moral stance which necessarily includes making changes to one’s diet among other things.

              • shinratdr@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Yeah but the difference is there is no dictionary definition that supports that definition of feminism. It’s just an interpretation. You could say the same thing about veganism as being a philosophy that animals are superior to people. That’s a more direct metaphor and you would be just as wrong, and no dictionary would agree with you.

                Any “ism” will have multiple ways to define it, and those who coin a term don’t get to define its evolution. If you want to take the “GNU/Linux” approach and insist everyone else is using the word wrong then go for it. But in modern parlance, “vegan” is frequently if not almost always used to refer to the diet, whereas “veganism” does evoke the stricter definition you’re touting.

                • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  Dictionaries are just someone’s attempt to record how people use words. They’re not authorities on meaning, just records of use.

                  If someone says they’re vegan you would expect them to use no animal products, including clothing, nail polish, colour pigments etc. That’s not controversial, you can find shampoo and jackets marked as vegan it is a common understanding. That is just incoherent with health motivations, and indeed many "vegan for health " people do use animal products and have cheat days and crap. They aren’t vegan, they’re just dieting.

                  People call themselves lots of crap, doesn’t make it true.

      • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I absolutely hear that argument all the time though, that “our stomachs aren’t designed to eat meat so you shouldn’t”.

        Personally, I have absolutely cut back on meat, especially beef, but still eat it probably twice a week. It’s a far more realistic ask than veganism, though I perhaps should’ve specified only the most deranged of vegans act like I was describing in the first place.

    • CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      One of my favourite facts about people hating or finding “gotcha” moments to vegans/vegetarians is that most the time they don’t have a clue why people are vegan or vege and miss the whole point.

    • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      … people are vegan precisely because they don’t think we should derive our notions of morality from random observations of charismatic megafauna.

      what on earth gave you the other idea? it’s always carnists that are like “see you have stubby little canines, eat meat” or “see lions eat the children of a pride when they take over so we should… wait fuck I mean lions eat gazelles alive sometimes so, wait sorry I’ll get it. Lions eat meat and are good role models as previously established so you should too”

          • I’m capable of holding 2 conflicting ideas in my head at the same time without a complete mental breakdown.

            1. Animals don’t deserve to suffer.
            2. I like the taste of chicken and bacon.
              • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Hens I raise in my backyard coop and slaughter humanely when they stop laying? You’re telling me they suffer?

                • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  Yep. To be clear I don’t think you’re a bad person deliberately abusing them but it’s likely that several things are true:

                  • they’re a breed that emphasises egg laying at the expense of their health and wellbeing. Jungle fowls, the birds chickens are bred from, lay around 12-20 eggs a year. Most chicken breeds lay about 10x that. This is hard on their body and shortens their lifespan. It is cruel to breed them in the same way it is cruel to breed pugs.

                  • As the demand for hens is much higher than roosters it is highly likely many of their brothers were killed, often moments after being born in a hatchery by a putting them on a conveyor belt that feeds them, conscious, into a blender. I wish I was making that up. Or they were stuffed into trays and suffocated in co2, not a pleasant experience either way. The blender might even be less cruel there.

                  • Because you view them as a means to an end it is unlikely you avail them to medical care of a quality you would give a child or a pet. Also it is likely they could enjoy more life when they stop laying but you do not view them as whole beings deserving of dignity and respect, so you kill them when they are no longer productive.

                  • It is unlikely they are killed humanely, a humane killing is one we would be happy to use on another human as a way to die with dignity. Maybe I’m wrong but I doubt you do anything so peaceful, consentual, and gentle.

                  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago
                    1. This argument could be made to promote eugenics in humans, so I’m dismissing it outright.

                    2. The chicks were purchased before they were sexed, the roosters were slaughtered for meat much younger than the hens but not in a factory.

                    3. Of course I don’t give them medical aid like I would with a human child. They are put out of their suffering when their usefulness ends, just as we do with all other animals. It just so happens that animals we keep as pets are useful for emotional reasons, which continues even in sickness.

                    4. I would happily die by beheading as a form of euthanasia, as the blood loss causes near instant shock and rapid loss of consciousness. If my brain could be destroyed in the process, I would prefer that even more. Both are preferable to slowly succumbing to a painful illness, as long as I have my affairs in order. Chickens don’t have affairs to worry about.The only reason we don’t do that with assisted suicides in humans is because of the mess it makes.

                • Bob@feddit.nl
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                  1 year ago

                  I think it’s uncontroversial to say having your life taken away constitutes suffering, unless you’re undergoing some extreme torture by staying alive, and causing suffering like that is inhumane. Just saying that you do it humanely doesn’t really change anything tangibly.

                  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    It doesn’t cause suffering to end a life unless that life is aware of its fate and becomes stressed out, or if that death leaves behind loved ones to grieve. Chickens don’t grieve.

          • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            As a general rule as soon as you start making up words like “carnists” and trying to insert them in regular conversation, you’re probably very deep down a rabbit hole and need to strongly consider the life choices that got you there.