
The ethical case for eating oysters and mussels - jeffreyrogers
http://sentientist.org/2013/05/20/the-ethical-case-for-eating-oysters-and-mussels/
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Oletros
When people start to talk about "exploiting plants" my head explodes

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volaski
This guy just wants to eat some meat and trying so hard to rationalize himself
(or herself). I wonder if he will eat lizard's tail after it gets cut off. Hey
it grows back like an apple tree, and the tail itself is not sentient.

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mrob
The lizard can feel pain when the tail is cut off, and even if it can be cut
painlessly it probably prefers to have an intact tail. This is more like lab
grown meat - something that's technically an animal but with no more awareness
than a plant. If somebody is vegan only for ethical reasons then the article
makes a good argument for them eating sessile bivalves.

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volaski
Apple tree can "feel" pain when apple falls off too. I am not a vegan (pretty
far from it) but I still can't bring myself to eat mussel or scallops because
I feel bad and cruel for eating the whole thing. Yeah so that guy can say
whatever and rationalize to himself that it's ethical, but they won't be
"ethical" to many other people's eyes (including myself who eats meat). It's
stupid to try to prove whether something is "ethical" or not in the first
place. "Ethics" is a social contract and naturally subjective, it's like
trying to "prove" that God exists--stupid.

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mrob
Unlike mussels and oysters, scallops can swim, and scallops have simple eyes,
so the same argument doesn't apply for scallops.

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volaski
haha holy shit i had no idea. Anyway, i can't eat any of them, it just feels
too cruel. I know i know it's weird coming from an otherwise meat eater, but
that's exactly my point, it's totally fine to feel certain way but it's just a
feeling and it's arrogant to think that it can be "proven" to be universal.
It's like some french people who eat fois gras judging some asian people for
eating dogs and vice versa. Personally I feel they're both cruel but I don't
try to "prove" them, it's just my own feeling. Everyone has their own way of
living depending on their culture. There's no problem with vegans eating
oysters, the problem is when he thinks he can prove that it's ethical.

