6 ms·
The older I get, the less I want anything sentient on my plate.
by jpmattia 3y ago
The older I get, the less I want anything sentient on my plate.
- demondemidi 3y agoI never used to care, but I feel the same way as I ease into my 6th decade.
- Ekaros 3y agoI on other hand am still saddened at this age that I can't get dog or cat meat here...
- dbspin 3y agoI'm genuinely curious, is this just edgy humour, or is there any culture that regularly eats cat?
- Ekaros 3y agoIs it really any different from any other animal? So why would it not have possibility to be on plate? After all one of my life bucket lists is to taste as many species as possible...
- steve_adams_86 3y agoThis is exactly why I don't want to eat them. As an animal, yes, I can identify that they are in fact like other animals; they are like me, for instance. I don't want to eat things like me, because I don't want to be eaten. That's why it's not possible to put a cat on my plate. That logic goes both ways, and the variables in the equation are values-based.
- mrguyorama 3y agoFunny because those cats and dogs would happily eat you. Not in a "cats eat their dead owners sense" but in the sense that dogs and cats are pretty un-discerning when they are hungry. The real reason to not eat cats and dogs is that they are mediocre food
- steve_adams_86 3y agoThis reads like an appeal to nature which isn't a compelling reason to change my behaviour. There are people in this world who might steal from me or try to hurt me, too. My response wouldn't be to do the same to them; especially not proactively. I also know that a bear would eat me. Why would this mean I should want to eat it? It may not be discerning, but I certainly am. My take is that the real reason to not eat cats and dogs is that they appear to have a relatable, sentient experience of the world — just as we do — and ending that for the sake of a meal lasting mere moments is an unthinkably awful thing to do.
- aaomidi 3y agoNo, and tbh, I don't want us to expand our horizons of what sentient animals we find ok to eat. (I say this as someone who is not a vegan, or vegetarian)
- jurynulifcation 3y agoThat's pretty sickening, I hope you keep away from polite society for the rest of our sakes, and hopefully you won't have too much longer to pursue your bucket list.
- georgecmu 3y agohttps://www.chinasmack.com/boiled-alive-cat-prepared-served-in-guangzhou-restaurants https://www.chinasmack.com/boiled-alive-cat-prepared-served-...
- TheRoque 3y agoSome countries do eat cat and dog yes. I'm on South Korea, and I could try dog meat if I wanted as there are some places cooking it.
- youcantcook 3y ago[dead]
- steve_adams_86 3y agoThe older I get, the more I have the sense (both intuitively and through evidence) that I'm far more like the animals I've eaten than I am unlike them. That sense has become more and more attuned, and it has gotten to the point that I don't see animals as food anymore. They're just a different kind of people trying to survive. Since I don't actually need to eat them to survive, it seems akin to murder to consume them purely out of pleasure. That would have sounded crazy to me once, but not at all these days.
- hellisothers 3y agoI recommend the book Tender is the Flesh, I think you’ll love it
- steve_adams_86 3y agoThanks, this looks like a good read!
- jamwil 3y agoI also have grown more attuned to the fact that humans are just another animal, but in practice this has put me more at ease with eating meat as we are omnivorous predators in the food chain. I am much more aligned, however, with sustainable harvesting (hunting) than industrial farming these days. There is nothing natural about the modern slaughterhouse.
- euroderf 3y agoI'm not ready for the leap to meatlessness, but my halfway house is to use meat as a flavoring, a sort of spice, rather than as a centerpiece.
- steve_adams_86 3y agoFor what it's worth, I was once a serious meat-eater and couldn't imagine life without it. In a way it was part of my identity. I was the one people wanted to cook meats for holidays, I liked curing meats and making sausages for charcuteries, always smoking things, making elaborate broths and other animal-based preparations, fishing, hunting. Now I couldn't care much less. Something I was certain was true turned out to be patently false, and being on the other side now it's hard to imagine having the same belief again. I'm not trying to overtly convince or coerce you here. I wish I'd more seriously considered the possibility of changing sooner, though. I suppose I maintained my status quo a little lazily for quite a long time despite caring about the possibility of change. Having said that, the change you've already made makes an enormous difference in the scheme of things. Christ, I remember having meals where I would eat almost exclusively meat. Like an entire chicken after lifting weights or running particularly far. Totally excessive and bizarre in retrospect. Anyone eating moderately as you described has already shifted towards something resembling sustainability; it isn't really a problem in the scheme of things.
- joak 3y ago"Sentient" is ill-defined, you can apply it to almost anything you want. From its Latin ethnology it means: able to feel or perceive.
- pvaldes 3y agoThe term was weaponized to confuse deliberately.
- tiberious726 3y agoIt's Isaac Asimov's fault. I think he was just confused. Never assume malice when ignorance/incompetence will suffice and all
- jhanschoo 3y agoThe Wikipedia article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) summarizes the situation well; philosophers use it consistently, but it seems that science-fiction writers got confused and hence the confusion in layperson usage. > In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations. In different Asian religions, the word "sentience" has been used to translate a variety of concepts. In science fiction, the word "sentience" is sometimes used interchangeably with "sapience", "self-awareness", or "consciousness".
- pvaldes 3y agoAll organisms interact with its environment collecting data and acting according, so they are all sentient. But there is more: Modern machines are also sentient. Cars are aware of its own self. Know for example its own inner temperature. They know if they are too hot and warn us about it. Know if they are stopped or moving, and how fast. Know in real time the position of many of its parts and take delicate complex actions with this info. Cars are also aware of the environment. Don't have eyes, but know if is dark or sunny. Don't have ears, but can echolocate. Don't have touch, but register the pressure of the air at real time, or react to our fingers on a screen. They are as sentient as animals are. If this proves something is that "sentience" was not used before, because is a term totally useless. Should we jail somebody if it crashes a car "killing" it? What if he/she scratches a key against a door, torturing the poor paint layer and creating a permanent scar?
- riedel 3y agoI actually got too tired to think about all this all the time. Unfortunately going fully vegan also gets more complicated. Being vegetarian seems to fit my laziness best at the moment. But alternatives are getting more and more convenient.