I was hardcore vegan for 2 years. I didn’t fish or hunt. Things I bought to eat still killed a lot of animals. Lots of bunnies and deer were shredded to feed me.
No leather or other animal derived products? What about medicines developed via animal testing?
It’s bloody hard to be pure about anything.
Yeah, it’s pretty hard to eat without killing at all. I think it’s just a question of doing the best one can.
I don’t know. You might need to ask him for the specifics.
Certified died of natural causes meat?
As a non-believer in humans having a soul, my objection to murder is mostly golden rule oriented, not some god given right to life. Utilitarian basically.
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10-12% of the planet does not eat meat
You can get to veganism from utilitarianism pretty easily. Peter Singer might be the most famous contemporary utilitarian philosopher to lay that out. If you haven’t read his stuff, you should check it out. He can get you from utilitarianism to veganism pretty convincingly.
I live in an extremely rural area that it’s taking 45 minutes for the sheriff to arrive if they even come. I live up a long dirt road that’s also hard to find.
If a car pulled up late at night I would assume it’s some highschool kids looking for a spot to drink.
If I watched lots of Fox News and believed that bullshit I would think its antifa! John wick and video games ain’t the problem.
I think the vegetarian/non-vegetarian divide misses another trend that is people who aren’t vegetarian but who are reducing meat consumption. Or switching from beef to chicken/fish/shellfish. I find myself increasingly making vegetarian meals and moving away from beef even as I’ve been increasing my protein intake. And mostly for health reasons rather than ethical reasons, tbh.
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Beef isn’t unhealthy. I worry much more about fish and shell fish being unhealthy over chicken, beef, etc. lots of toxins in ocean. Times I can’t eat shell fish or crab.
It’s a concern for sure. I try to not overdo it on the seafood that’s high in mercury. I’m already a bit goofy though, so a bit of mercury poisoning probably wont do too much harm.
Shooting a young white girl. This one is really gonna put 2nd amendment nuts to the test.
Odds are that this POS gets some punishment while the POS who shot the black kid in Missouri faces no consequences whatsoever.
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Dudes 85 and white. He won’t serve one day
I have linked the Taibbi Parkland shooting piece about 5 times on here probably, but I really think he nailed it.
The people who point at pop culture as the reason disturbed kids and lone-wolf madmen go on killing sprees are half right. But images of violence are less the problem than the messages behind them, which are profoundly intertwined with deep-seated cultural ideas about the virtue of military supremacy and the political efficacy of violence… [one] incredibly popular genre is the revenge tale, in which the otherwise peaceful family man (who just happens to have also been a government-trained super-killer – “beware, I do this for a living!”) is forced to go around the world ripping heads off to save his daughter/son/wife whomever. Hell, even the president turns into an unstoppable ass-kicker from time to time (who can forget Harrison Ford’s “get off my plane!” scene).
These aren’t just scenes from bad movies. They’re foundational concepts in our society. We’re conditioned to disbelieve in the practicality of nonviolence and peace… we’re trained to accept that early use of violence is frequently heroic and necessary (the endless lionization of Winston Churchill as the West’s great realist is an example here) and political courage is generally equated with the willingness to use force.
The fetishization of guns, police with Punisher bumper stickers, John Wick movies, constant public military displays and fawning deference to “the troops” even from ur-liberals like Jon Stewart are all part of this morass. There are not links of causation between these things, they are all manifestations of the same cultural phenomenon.
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Yep. 100% agree with this. People watch ufc and think they could hang longer than the guy who gets knocked out. Americans are delusional when it comes to guns and protecting their family
Yeah, you’re probably right.
Completely agree. Plenty of countries have guns but treat them very differently from America. They’re treated as tools to be used rather than God given rights and symbols of freedom from oppression.
People have guns in Czech Republic (obviously nowhere near as many as America) and many of my students have shot guns in the past with parental supervision but don’t have a fetish or obsession with them. They also don’t perceive everyone around them as potentially armed and thus a threat to their safety either.
The process of obtaining a gun here is quite challenging relative to the process in America but easier than most other EU countries. So you really have to be dedicated to getting one and be willing to pay for it.
Hunting isn’t a problem, I’m not worried about hunters shooting up a school or anything. Bringing hunting into the gun nut conversation just puts more people on the gun nut side. The problem are the people who own 5 AR-15s kitted out for various tactical scenarios and who horde ammo by the 5-Gallon bucket full. If they have any self-respect they probably aren’t the ones who are going to shoot up a school either, but they are the ones who make it easy for the mass murderers to get their gear. Every piece of gun control should be going out of its way to make it clear that hunting rifles aren’t included.
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I bet 1/2 of the cars I my high school parking lot 40 years ago had hunting rifles on board during deer season. Lots of guys hunted before school.
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