My answer to #RandomQuestion on dietary preferences. CW: #LongText ( > 1000 characters)
Good #RandomQuestion, from the birdsite.
https://twitter.com/GadSaad/status/1036744139805782016?s=19
I'll attempt to answer where I stand. Consider the following:
1. It is generally considered bad (kinksters, kindly excuse me) to capture, enslave, kill, or eat humans.
2. Animals are much like us. In particular, their flesh and blood is like ours. They even die by same mechanisms as we do. To see an animal in pain invokes empathy in many of us.
3. Insects are not as much like us as animals. Many of their organ systems are totally different from those of animals. Their blood isn't even red!
4. Insects, alive or dead, provoke disgust (or fear, in many of us), rather than empathy. To see an insect in pain doesn't change that.
To summarize: Most vegetarians avoid eating animals because of empathy; but they avoid eating insects for different reasons - disgust and fear.
I come from a largely lacto-vegetarian community. Personally, while I occasionally consume animal meat, I find the idea of eating insects as disgusting even to consider.
🇳🇱
My answer to #RandomQuestion on dietary preferences. CW: #LongText ( > 1000 characters)
@madhur Insects don't have blood at all actually. They have something diffierent called Hemolyph.
What i find interesting is that while I do react to most insects with disgust I also have a great deal of empathy if i see one in pain or suffering.
Of course it varies from person to person, and culture to culture. Insects, etc feature in traditional Chinese diets, if I remember correctly.
@madhur For sure, wasn't a criticism. Just sharing my perspective. Thanks for sharing yours!
My answer to #RandomQuestion on dietary preferences. CW: #LongText ( > 1000 characters)
@madhur I think this is very individual. I know I have on multiple occasions tried to help an injured insect and my empathy for them is not "weak". But I don't expect my feelings to be the norm either.