• MilitantVegan@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Okay, let’s talk language. Colloquially, in our age, the word ‘milk’ is most commonly associated with the somewhat thick, off-white substance that is produced by cows, or any other substance with similar culinary properties. When we hear or read the word, the natural thing that comes to mind is of this substance, and meaningfully, that it is an object meant for human consumption.

    So if I, as a vegan, were to use the language that you want me to, it would mean reinforcing the idea that the stuff mother cows produce is a product meant for human consumption. You’re trying to push me into complying with the linguistic framework that legitimizes your perception of reality, and your misconduct. I do not accept that as legitimate, and since ‘milk’ to me implies something for human consumption, only plant milks are milk by my definition.

    I refer to the stuff cows produce in the most accurate way that I can - a specialized formula that is meant for the nutritional needs of calves, and most definitely not for human consumption. Baby cow formula.

    In the same way, the rotting carcasses of slaughtered animals, and their mutilated body parts are not “meat”, because meat also implies something meant for human consumption. Grains and legumes are my main source of “meat,” because again, I do not except the distorted perceptions of carnism.

    Now let’s take this topic more broadly. Are the words vegans use merely ‘edgy’, or is it an attempt to encapsulate the totality of how monumentally bad of a predicament you carnists are putting us in? “Chick culling” sounds almost innocuous. Why don’t you try looking up that term on YouTube, and see what that entails.

    Are you aware that in the US alone, over 11 billion animals have been killed for food already this year? The basic definition of a holocaust (not to be confused with the Holocaust) is a slaughter done on a mass scale. People frequently lose their minds when a vegan refers to the mass slaughter of animals as a holocaust, despite the fact that it is truly the largest, perpetual, mass slaughter in human history.

    That’s not even getting into the environmental destruction, and pandemic potential of this holocaust that you’re taking part in. Maybe you should check out the vegan communities and take more time to get educated on all the topics. You might come to realize that there is no language edgy enough to capture the full breadth of how awful carnism is.

    https://animalclock.org/

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9cEEDbM_GvU&pp=ygUNQWxleCBIZXJzaGFmdA%3D%3D

    • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Look, I am not “trying to push you into complying with the linguistic framework that legitimizes your perception of reality”, I am telling you that language is important and you can’t make words up or subvert the meaning of them, else society will not understand you at best, or think that you are just a lunatic at worst. Sure you can decide that for you “up” means “down” and insist that everyone else is wrong, but then you are probably wasting your time replying to others’ comments on social media.

      I get where you are coming from, you really care about your ideas, but so do antivaxers and lots of other radicalized groups that are just drifting off reality and, well most of society thinks they are just lunatics. I am not even a native English speaker but a few examples:

      “Murder” is defined as the killing of a person. I understand why you are using it for animals but it comes off wrong, that’s not what the word means, and the only use of it as an hyperbole (a karaoke singer killing a song) has the opposite meaning that you are trying to convey. There are plenty of words for describing the killing of animals and some of them are already loaded with meaning, it’s not like “slaughter” and “butchering” are used lightly. You don’t need to come up with your own vocabulary, that’s like Trump saying “bigly” he looks like an idiot to a non-maga crowd.

      The word “formula” refers is an artificial (formulated) human milk substitute, your use of it to refer to “cow’s milk” sounds pretty ridiculous, particularly when you add another 3-4 words around it and when the rest of society uses the word milk to refer to cows’ milk, or if specified, to other milks like goat or soy. Your example where you use “meat” to refer to grains is just bonkers; and describing meat as “rotting” is just silly, as technically so are broccoli that have been cut off the plan: specifying that any food is rotting while waiting to be eaten, while technically not wrong, makes the person you are talking to wonder what is going on in your head.

      Now let’s take this topic more broadly. Are the words vegans use merely ‘edgy’, or is it an attempt to encapsulate the totality of how monumentally bad of a predicament you carnists are putting us in? “Chick culling” sounds almost innocuous. Why don’t you try looking up that term on YouTube, and see what that entails.

      Based on the above, I am afraid it is merely ‘edgy’. In fact it’s worse, people that talk like this come through as they are either 12 years old trying to cause a reaction, or just lunatics. You are really not making any favour to your cause, and I will come back to that later because that is a shame Still on language, I am not sure in what world “Chick culling” sounds almost innocuous, it describes exactly what it is, quite perfectly, it’s a horrible practice, do you really need to add any more words? One more thing that is quite annoying about radicalized groups is they tell you to check something up on Youtube or do your own research, I am very familiar with the concept of chick culling, I don’t like it, you don’t need to be vegan to know how certain industries work and suggesting it in that way is again off putting.

      I am familiar with most of the arguments vegetarians and vegans use as I have been interested in tangential topics for a long time, I am passionate about environment, permaculture and food self sufficiency. Some of the points I actually agree with, I am against industrial practices like chicks culling, the way animals are treated in industrial farming, I agree that the planet would be better off if we all reduced meat consumption dramatically and if there were more vegetarians and vegans. I think that if someone is passionate about these and other messages they should try to convey them in a way that they can be absorbed by the rest of society. That is, if you want to convince anyone to marry your cause or part of it. And if you don’t want to, why are you even wasting words?

      The reason why I am particularly annoyed when people do this is that there are some topics that I would be interested to discuss like adults, particularly where I stop agreeing with veganism, and this is just off putting. Example, I have three egg producing chickens that are treated like pets, they have plenty of space, protection, access to food, water and treats, they play with my babies, and they drop one egg each every day that they quickly forget about and they proceed to ignore. I use those eggs to feed my family and to reduce our meat consumption with something that is organic, nutritious and (in my opinion) ethically produced with no impact on the planet. In fact, the contrary is true because those chickens eat my leftovers and I use their poo as fertiliser. I’d like to understand how many people are vegans because industrial farming is a horrible practice, and how many would for example still eat eggs if they were produced more “humanely” like I do, and the reason why I am interested is that i cannot conceive non-industrial farming without animals being heavily involved, at the very least for using their shit to grow plants. In short, there are some discussions I’d enjoy having, but every time a vegan engages they distort the language and they make the assumption that I don’t know anything about industrial farming :)