Completely agree, very well said. I remember feeling agitated that someone I knew, like that, had interpreted at least one verse from the sermon on the mount to make it mean the exact opposite of what it was saying. Wish I could remember which line.

Of course. They fit the pattern of Yeshua’s own characterization of the Pharisees perfectly. Just read Matthew chapter 23 and replace “Pharisee” with “Fundamentalist”.

Or don’t. There’s countless better ways to spend time.

That carnism is an extremely entrenched mass psychosis or mania, and an insane amount of people need to sober the fuck up.

One popular answer is that sometimes people just experience things that they find scientific answers to not be able to answer adequately. We as a species are still far from knowing everything.

I’m a spiritually-inclined person. Also think it’s totally legit to be atheist. You’d think that actively wanting diversity of belief would be reasonable, but evidently a lot of people just want uniformity and cultural erasure.

As someone who unfortunately has had contact with such people, I can assure you that the most extreme of them read their Bibles (KJV ONLY!) every day. For these fundamentalists the Bible is literally their laws, and so extensive knowledge of scriptures becomes a core part of how they exert power over each other and maintain their social hierarchies.

One of the things that really changed my perception was learning that a single burger patty might contain some ground up flesh of a few, or possibly even a hundred or more animals.

Our food system does a really good job of hiding it’s brutality behind heavy processing, and clever packaging and advertising. But once we open our eyes to what really goes on, it can’t be unlearned. We have a responsibility to at least make ourselves aware when our actions are responsible for awful things happening.

I was also raised to believe that foods like rice were “filler”. Refined grains might not have much to contribute, but it’s been a lifechanging experience to have learned better that whole grains are nutritional and culinary cornerstones.

Everyone here saying that tofu, rice, flower, etc don’t have flavor of their own should stop adding so much sugar, salt, and fat to everything they eat.

Lol. The funny thing is they are kind of technically right. All refined sugars have some harmful effects like blood sugar spikes and inflammation, but corn syrup only has a slightly higher ratio of fructose to glucose as table sugar does. In small, irregular doses it’s fine to consume. And for athletes it can even be beneficial since refined carbs can replenish glycogen stores rapidly.

Mainly the people who are profiting from anti-carb diet fads - Atkins, keto, paleo, carnivore, etc.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKOQOP3G1go

If you’re blaming rising obesity on sugar, it shows you’re more susceptible to marketing than you are knowledgeable about the relevant science.

Refined sugar is generally not good, and certainly whole food sources of carbs are much more beneficial than simple sugars - however, sugar is not nearly as much of a demon as popular health influencers make it out to be. Importantly, it also needs to be kept in mind that the “standard american diet” (sad) or standard western diet is one that’s high in animal products, fat (particularly saturated fat), refined carbs; while being low in whole fruits, vegetables, and fiber and phytonutrients in general.

Walter Kempers rice diet is worth learning about. It was a terrible diet - patients could basically only eat white rice, sugar, and fruit. But despite being an absurdly high sugar and high carb diet, a lot of patients saw dramatic improvements in their health, particularly when it came to things like obesity and type 2 diabetes reversal.

https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/information-all/walter-kempner-md-founder-of-the-rice-diet/

Looking forward to getting a Pinetime. It might not be polished, but community support never truly ends.

They probably would, and hyperpalatized processed foods and our toxic food environment are a problem that effect both plant-based foods and animal nonfoods.

But it takes a lot of effort to break plants into smaller constituents and rebuild them into something bad for our bodies. Animal products do that by default, and there’s no getting rid of that.

(and of course that’s in addition to all the other myriad reasons why it’s best to not eat animals).

The prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune disorders in western society indicates that we are really shitty at being omnivores at best.

I’ve seen an operation where someone grew a small food forest on 12 inches of manure spread on an abandoned parking lot, in the midwest.

The idea of what land is suitable for crop use is likely based on what’s suitable for industrial monoculture, a highly inflexible cookie-cutter system, which is a problem in and of itself.

I chose my username to make fun of all the people who categorize vegans as militant anytime we speak out at all. It’s to highlight that the only vegan who isn’t seen that way is a vegan who stays silent and does nothing to speak out against the atrocities being committed against animals.

Avocados are relevant to what, exactly?

Amazing, you managed to pack so much patently false bullshit into so few words. Elegant.