They don’t have a brain really and kinda just float there. Do they even feel pain?

  • robotdna@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    After having kept jellyfish as pets (Atlantic bay nettles), I wouldn’t really consider them to be vegetarian nor vegan. While similar to plants, seemed to have a greater sense of environmental awareness than my plants. Mine could sense light, have “off days”, and interact with their environment. It’s probably true that there’s not much going on there due to the small amount of nerves that control everything, but even when mine would accidentally get caught on tank cleaning tools or get bumped around they’d react in a protective way and to me it’s just similar enough to animalistic behavior that I’d not feel comfortable consuming them if I were vegan.

    • simplecyphers@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So is this theory of veganism to not cause pain to an animal? If so what about ethically sourced meat. Like bullet to the head/decapitation. Most of those creatures feel nothing, they just end.

      Or is it to not eat anything that comes from the an organism from the Animalia kingdom because harming animals is immoral?

      After proofreading, these sound more aggressive/argumentative than i had intended but they get the point across.

      • Tywele [she|her]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Veganism means to reduce the suffering and exploitation of animals as much as practically possible.

        There is nothing ethical about killing a living being that doesn’t want to die.

        • simplecyphers@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I mean, sometimes its ethical. Its kind of unnecessary (and therefore immoral) at the scale of modern meat farms. But on a more individual level with like subsistence hunting/livestock, i dont feel like there are any ethical problems. Like if you need food or you will die, animals lives are worth less than humans lives…

          • Tywele [she|her]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            The need to hunt for food to prevent dying yourself is not really a problem in today’s society unless you are indigenous and living outside of our society. So there is no real argument there.

            • simplecyphers@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I mean, yeah. Im also being pedantic with unqualified absolutes.

              The fact remains sometimes it absolutely is ethical to kill stuff, even if they don’t want to die.

              My general ethical foundation is based on my conscience saying “that would be bad” or “seems ok”. I fully admit that this is potentially a personal flaw, but I don’t feel bad about eating meat. I have a vague sense of guilt for the treatment of meaty animals, but honestly, it isn’t enough to offset the convenience of a burger.

              Tldr sometimes its ethically okay to kill stuff, and I’m too lazy to do anything about benefitting from the majority of times when it isn’t ethical.

              • Applejuicy@feddit.nl
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                1 year ago

                I respect the self-reflection in this comment. Sadly, I also feel a small need to ask you to think about ethics and morality slightly deeper. Imagine if your predecessors made similar comments about [insert moral failing of history]. How would you think about that?

                I think most of us try to be good people, but it’s really hard to do the right thing if you never think about what is right and why (and yes, sometimes that includes not being lazy).

        • Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Tell that to lions and eagles. They cause as much suffering as possible. It’s just how nature works. It’s why I really don’t care about veganism.

          • adrian783@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            they cause very little suffering. the systemic factory farming of animals and the deforestation in the process of meat production causes unimaginable collective suffering.

            you don’t care about veganism because you are willfully ignorant.

          • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            cannibalism too exists in “nature”. I don’t see any of you meat justifiers treading that line of thought to its coherent end.

            a lion or an eagle eats anything. Most (if not all) carcass eating humans make arbitrary choices: Dogs or cats shan’t be eaten. Pigs or this or that is a sin. Eating humans are monstrous.

          • projectd@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            15 minutes of pleasure from eating doesn’t justify forcing an animal into existence to a life of suffering and premature death, especially when there are so many great alternatives - without even considering the the secondary effects of animal agriculture, including climate damage, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and the likelihood of bringing forward the next pandemic.

    • db2@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Don’t forget the ecosexuals.

      I’m not making that up, it’s apparently a thing.

    • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      jains are considered vegans but vegans don’t have the same considerations.<br> a vegan is simply somebody who avoids consuming any animal product including leather, honey, wool &c

  • pinwurm@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It depends on the definition of Veganism.

    There’s is a popular school of thought that the diet‘s sole purpose to reduce suffering. If a living thing has no central nervous system (or brain), it has no thoughts and cannot experience pain or harm. It’s not much different than a fruit or vegetable. I know vegans that make exceptions for oysters - for example.

    Others schools of thought are about avoiding animal products altogether, it doesn’t matter if it suffers or not - there’s no way to know. Therefore, it’s immoral to eat them if you can knowingly choose an alternative.

    • simplecyphers@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s is a popular school of thought that the diet‘s sole purpose to reduce suffering. If a living thing has no central nervous system (or brain), it has no thoughts and cannot experience pain or harm.

      What about instant death? Like a farmer putting down a well-treated cow with a bullet to the head. In this scenario, the cow never suffered. In all likelihood it probably never even had much mental distress, let alone fear of death. Would that meat be ethical/vegan friendly?

      • SQL_InjectMe@partizle.com
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        1 year ago

        Replace cow with human and see if it passes the test.

        Is it ethical to give a human a scarf? Yes. Well it’s also ethical to give a cow a scarf.

        Is it ethical to shoot a human in the head? No? Well it’s also unethical to shoot a cow in the head.

        • simplecyphers@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I value every other species as worth less than a human and therefore they have different ethical considerations.

          But, far down are you willing to go? How small? Rabbits? Rats, mice? Insects? Is squishing a spider ethically identical as murdering some one? I would say no, what would you say? There is a line, be it soft or hard, somewhere.

          • debased@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            Just because they are worth less than a human doesn’t mean you are free to inflict pain and suffering upon them. I’m vegan and i see animals as below me, i’d kill an animal if it means saving a human life. However that alone doesn’t justify paying for them to be abused, raped, and have their throats slit for 15 minutes of taste pleasure when i can just eat something else instead.

            The line is to not hurt animals unless you have a reason to.

      • jeffw@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They told me Lemmy would be more leftist, why am I still seeing 0 IQ vegan jokes

      • FermatsLastAccount@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        If you want to minimize plant death, going vegan is still the right move.

        Most of the crops we grow go to feeding animals that people eat.

        • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t really care about minimizing plant death. I’m not Vegan or Vegetarian, nor will I be in the future. I just made a joke.

    • remotelove@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We may be able to tell if they are stressed, which could be related to pain, depending on your viewpoint.

      Here is a recent study of audible reactions plant can have to stress: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3

      Do plants react to stress and harmful situations like infestation? Absolutely. Do they actually feel pain as we understand it? Probably not since they lack a nervous system.

      This boils down to the question: What is pain?

      • marmo7ade@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Pain is reaction to stimuli. One of those reactions can be suffering, if we assume lobsters and dandelions, who have wildly different biology, experience and perceive reality in the same way humans do. There is no evidence that they do. A belief in something without evidence is called religion.