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comment by mk
mk  ·  3453 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The 4 Ways People Rationalize Eating Meat

Ok, good point.

Although I have to wonder if Buddhist vegetarians consider their diets as unnatural, or less natural, than that of omnivores.

At any rate, the acceptance of driving over walking or riding a horse is somewhat similar. If technology allows, we can choose to adapt our behavior. I do think a lot more people would be vegetarians if the processing of their meat weren't so abstracted. Personally, I have a harder time understanding someone that eats meat but doesn't want to consider the source than someone that is comfortable with the sourcing and isn't deterred.





mullirific  ·  3453 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Good points on the sourcing. I grew up on a dairy farm where I sourced much of my own meat. I have no qualms with eating meat and it is the main component of my diet, but I also know what it took for me to eat it. I feel that a lot of "city folk" who are so abstracted from their food would be appalled at what it takes to allow them to eat a steak.

user-inactivated  ·  3453 days ago  ·  link  ·  

do you consider riding a horse natural? I'd consider domestication to be a technology.

mk  ·  3453 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm not sure. Once you start talking about our tool use, cognition, etc., then most everything we do or create can be considered natural. But then what is the purpose of the word?

'Naturally occurring' isn't too difficult, unless you start splitting hair with ant hills and beaver dams. but 'natural behavior' is really muddy.

I suppose it depends on how you define 'natural'. Domestication is definitely a technology. Are all technologies unnatural? If so, then I guess horse riding is unnatural. But then so are beaver dams. But then bird nests?

Hell, I have no idea.

randomuser  ·  3453 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Riding a horse the right way is very natural, riding a horse the wrong way is painful and awkward.

user-inactivated  ·  3452 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I hope you're talking about bareback, because there's no other way to ride a horse that is arguably natural

randomuser  ·  3452 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes, lol, bareback and correct riding technique. Riding that looks graceful, not painful.

user-inactivated  ·  3452 days ago  ·  link  ·  

After reading this comment in chatter, I'm sort of surprised to see that this thread is actually about horses.