Is it immoral to NOT eat meat?

There's an arguably convincing argument that goes:
People died and suffered for your right to vote, so you damn well better do it come election day.

I've been reading up on aurochs, the now-extinct animal from which cattle were domesticated. They were huge and aggressive and very dangerous: it was a show of great courage and bravery to kill one, as with killing a tiger or lion.

Julius Caesar said,

They took millenia to be domesticated into the comparatively docile, languid beasts we know today. How many people were gored and trampled in the meantime?

Therefore, people suffered and died so that you could have easy access to a tasty, well-marbled steak. So you'd damned well better enjoy it.

People have fought and died for all sorts of reprehensible things.

I don't think voting or meat is reprehensible.

Nor do I. Your argument is flawed, despite the truth of your conclusion.

The argument is that if you subscribe to the first idea, you should subscribe to the second for consistency. It is not flawed.

Eh, it's something in the the questionable cause fallacy family, but I can't quite nail it just now...

Eh. People died in WWII so I wouldn't have to speak German or eat sushi, but it's still handy to learn a second language and try different foods.

Yes, world history has just been FULL of bright sunshinny days since the era of Hitler... IIRC, after WWII, we went straight into a slipstream of one fucking disaster after another to the point where government is now just a tool of corporatism. You want to know who runs the world now? Walmart. Proud of yourselves? It's time we had a new Hitler to come in and clean house.

Except this time he'll have a Muslim name.

It's not immoral to not eat meat, but it is illogical. Biologically, we're omnivores. For someone to pretend that humans are anything else is nigh unto delusional.

Actually, a professor and I were having this debate several years ago. She was convinced that the next Far Right regime to emerge and begin war against the world would be France under LePen's people and spread throughout Europe. Well what the hell are they gonna do for military and secret police without Russia's help? And let's face it, Russia is a country who is intent on being her own madam.

I'm convinced now, as I was then, that with the impending economic collapse, the next Hitler will emerge right here in the United States.

I have a dream to one day eat one of every animal on the planet--just as a reminder that we are the top of the food chain.

On a semirelated note, I'm still looking for an attorney to take my suit for false advertising against Panda Express.

Look to the question of who runs the world's major banks. Who runs the world's most prominent media outlets. Who runs the most powerful PAC influencing U.S. policy.

Then ask yourself if what you describe isn't exactly what the U.S. needs.

Why is it illogical for omnivores to eat meat?

You quoted it, but you apparently failed to read it. Try that again, genius.

Why? Being omnivorous just means we can survive on anything, it doesn't mean we'll equally prefer everything.

Humans are omnivorous because it was an evolutionary advantage to be able to survive on a vast range of foods, while a varied diet is good though your average human doesn't need to eat everything that we are physically capable of digesting.
If I was stranded in the wilderness it would be silly to not eat meat. In the modern world though it is incredibly easy for me to get all the nutrients I need without eating meat.

I'm okay with Nature. Sure, I don't live in a cave in the jungle, but that doesn't mean I feel any obligation to live like a robot in a metal cage, either.

What you said is that is is illogical for a species which eats both plants and meat (omnivores) to eat meat. This makes no sense.

What I said is that it is illogical for a species adapted to eat both plants and meat to arbitrarily forego either one or the other for no objectively productive purpose.

Learn to read.

No, really.

Learn to read.

He said it's illogical to not eat meat. You're making this way too easy.

I'm gonna get some bacon from breakfast now.

brb

I think it fits into a couple of fallacies.

The most obvious being an appeal to pity fallacy. X group suffered so you could have Y. In the US you always see this with the soldiers died for your freedoms meme in an attempt to exonerate them from any criticism. Or the line used by Moms everywhere. Some poor child is starving in Africa so enjoy those nasty vegetables.

It could also be considered a red herring since it attempts to sidestep the moral question of killing an animal for food.

Good thread Prufrock.

Geez, liberals just can't see a joke when it's staring them in the face.

None of our houses are entirely opaque, and reading comprehension fails us all every now and again.

For example I'm taking this thread seriously.







:dancingbacon:

Wait, a thread involving both the Aurochs and Hitler? You can't make this stuff up...

I've read they taste fantastic.

[/thread]

If you like meat, eat it. If you don't, don't. Who cares?