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There are folks who are vegetarians + fish (they call themselves pescatarians), so there are arguments, even from vegetarians, that fish don't count as meat. I

There are folks who are vegetarians + fish (they call themselves pescatarians), so there are arguments, even from vegetarians, that fish don't count as meat. I don't know what the right answer is, but my personal opinion is that fish flesh is 'meat'. The law exists to bring finality, in a legal sense, to questions with nebulous answers such as this one.

JohnFen 3y ago
Pescatarians don't consider themselves vegetarians, though. They eat primarily vegetarian, and just limit their meat to only seafood. I just don't see how the "is fish meat" question is even a little nebulous, at least in my culture. All but a very tiny percentage of people here, including pescatarians, say it is. But I'm only talking about the culture I'm a part of. I'm not saying that others thing differently. My only point was that, around my neck of the woods, society does not tend to consider fish as not-meat.
- garciasn 3y ago
  It's great that your personal experience and of those you interact with on the regular can provide your entire society a level of finality in this decision. Here in the US, we generally rely on our judicial system (ending at the Supreme Court) to determine these bounds.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    I live in the US. > Here in the US, we generally rely on our judicial system (ending at the Supreme Court) to determine these bounds. The judicial system determines definitions that courts (and therefore regulations) use. Those are very often quite different from the definitions that are used outside of court. (As an example: is pizza a sandwich? The courts say "yes") I'm talking about how people use the language, not courts.
- klyrs 3y ago
  But Catholics have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme court. So perhaps fish isn't meat after all. I was raised to believe in a separation of church and state, and while I still hold dearly to that promise of the first amendment, latter day rulings have convinced me that the constitution is irrelevant when it gets in the way of a unipolar supreme court.

JohnFen 3y ago

Pescatarians don't consider themselves vegetarians, though. They eat primarily vegetarian, and just limit their meat to only seafood. I just don't see how the "is fish meat" question is even a little nebulous, at least in my culture. All but a very tiny percentage of people here, including pescatarians, say it is. But I'm only talking about the culture I'm a part of. I'm not saying that others thing differently. My only point was that, around my neck of the woods, society does not tend to consider fish as not-meat.

garciasn 3y ago
It's great that your personal experience and of those you interact with on the regular can provide your entire society a level of finality in this decision. Here in the US, we generally rely on our judicial system (ending at the Supreme Court) to determine these bounds.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I live in the US. > Here in the US, we generally rely on our judicial system (ending at the Supreme Court) to determine these bounds. The judicial system determines definitions that courts (and therefore regulations) use. Those are very often quite different from the definitions that are used outside of court. (As an example: is pizza a sandwich? The courts say "yes") I'm talking about how people use the language, not courts.
klyrs 3y ago
But Catholics have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme court. So perhaps fish isn't meat after all. I was raised to believe in a separation of church and state, and while I still hold dearly to that promise of the first amendment, latter day rulings have convinced me that the constitution is irrelevant when it gets in the way of a unipolar supreme court.