Vegetarian men: Seen as less manly, but more ethical. Your thoughts?

[iris lilies]

"The animals moved and plants didn't, and that's how fungi got stuck with the plants," said Tom Volk, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. (Source: https://www.livescience.com/53618-fungus.html)

Maybe the "kingdoms" were not created based on the best knowledge.

Dude, I know with absolute certainty that mushrooms feel no more pain than do the green peppers I harvest and bite into.

There is of course that movement that ascribes awareness to vegetables as they are being picked. I haven’t read up on it but I doubt there’s much science behind it except in a very general sense.

[Chicken lady]

I’m not correcting him. I’m arguing with him. We do that.

So, mushrooms now have their own kingdom, being classified as neither plants nor animals. Therefor, if one defines vegetarian as “person who eats only plant foods” they are not vegetarian. If one defines vegetarian as “person who does not eat animals” they are vegetarian. Along with yeast, which is now in the new kingdom with fungi. As bread and beer are widely accepted as vegetarian foods, mushrooms would follow the same guidelines.

oysters are still animals. The problem I see with claiming to be a vegetarian and eating oysters, rather than saying you eat mostly vegetarian except for oysters. Is that you are claiming someone else’s belief system and then sowing confusion about it among people who are already either confused or openly attacking the people to whom it really matters.

”well my friend’s son is a vegetarian and he eats oysters! Grandma made that stuffing separately from the turkey just for you, and I think you are being very rude!”

[iris lilies]

I’m not correcting him. I’m arguing with him. We do that.

!”

well then that is excellent! Carry on!

[Ultralight]

oysters are still animals.

According to a classification system that also once incorrectly classified mushrooms as plants.

[Ultralight]

well then that is excellent! Carry on!

CL is still the coolest in my book.

[Chicken lady]

It’s what we’ve got. The Catholic Church classified capabaras as fish - because they spend much of their time in water, it was lent, and people were starving.

but hey, if you claim “old school vegetarian” you’re cool with mushrooms either way!

[Greg44]

I have been vegetarian for nearly 20 years, off and on 100% plant base. I get flack about it all the time. I use to be nice - but now I just poke back. I have always thought it troubling that some can eat one kind of animal and cuddle another.

Just went to the "Game Changers" premier movie last night. Directed by James Cameron. Probably the best film of it's kind since Forks over Knives. The movie features plant based athletes at the top of the game. Very interesting watch. Not sure how the movie is going to be distributed - it was a one night affair. I haven't been to a movie is years - wow those big recliner seats are nice.

The whole eat meat manly thing I find just stupid. And yet they still drink breast milk. whahahahaha

[lmerullo]

Greg - I believe it's coming to Netflix on Monday.

[catherine]

I have always thought it troubling that some can eat one kind of animal and cuddle another.

Agreed. I had a lot of moments like that when I decided to be vegetarian (I'm "flexitarian" now). Such as:

Our ego and cultural practice often determines who gets to live or die, not necessarily reason or need:

a) There was a news article about a cow in a line walking into a slaughterhouse in Brooklyn. She all of a sudden broke rank and ran down the street. They got her, and "rewarded" her by sending her to a farm in New York State to live a life of grazing. Why does she get that special treatment and not the others?

b) To your point, Greg, when I got a dog, that got me thinking. If the thought of eating my dog, or any dog, is absolutely horrific, but it's fine to eat other sentient creatures, it's only because I happen to have a personal relationship with "my" animal, and not with the animals that wind up in plastic and styrofoam in the supermarket. If I have ethical objections about eating my dog, shouldn't those objections extend to other sentient beings?

c) I felt for a long time that if I couldn't personally kill an animal, I shouldn't expect anyone else to do my dirty work. I still would have a hard time slaughtering a chicken, or even catching a fish. I totally respect my neighbors who hunt deer, butcher it and live off it. They earned the right to eat their kill. But the rest of us turn from the reality of how most animals live to get to our plate, and animal flesh becomes abstract by calling it "meat." People will eat fish unless it comes to the table with the head on.

d) It's OK to eat pork, lamb, beef, chicken, but go to Asia and eating turtle is disgusting. Eating horse is a crime in some places, but not in others. Why?

And yet, I am eating meat now, out of convenience--I do eat grass-fed beef from my neighbor a quarter mile away, but I'm lazy about my poultry purchases.

I'm going to watch that James Cameron movie. I heard that he turned vegetarian while working on the movie Babe.

And speaking of vegetarian/vegan athletes, I've read Ruth Heidrich's book--very inspiring.

https://www.greatveganathletes.com/r...rance-athlete/

[JaneV2.0]

If I consider that plants seem to show a level of consciousness along with the fact that in all but the tiniest, most ethical organic farms, small mammals, lizards and amphibians, birds, and insects are killed horribly by the millions, I'll go mad. I haven't evolved enough to be a breatharian.

Not to mention that I failed at being an "ethical vegan" by getting clear messages from my body that such a course was a disaster for me. Vegetarianism probably could have worked, but I got tired of the constant hunger brought on by such carb-heavy eating. I think adults should eat however they choose, within the guidelines of their genetic makeup, and allow others to do likewise.