Ciaran O'Loughlin

@Awakenthyself33 How?

I found Blood Meridian extremely inspiring, in terms of how unique and evocative prose can be. He actually makes up his own words at some points, and for all of the poetry of the writing is actually really direct at conveying what he means at times. He cuts through the conventions of language to put an image directly into your head without any beating about the bush or adherence to orthodoxy. All that said, I wouldn't say it's a super enjoyable read. There are fascinating moments. The ending is phenomenal. But he conveys something quite blunt overall with it. I think the idea is good and the execution is exceptionally impressive. But I can fully understand why people wouldn't enjoy it. I'm trying to read it a second time and getting quite bored, even though if someone asked me what the best thing I've ever read is, I would probably say Blood Meridian. A lot of great stuff isn't necessarily meant to be fully enjoyed. It can serve as a reference point. The Wire is one of the best shows ever, but it's probably not as enjoyable as bunging on a good episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

I feel like people wouldn't be frothing at the mouth over a guy who is just not that into Cormac McCarthy if they gave up the incessant and needless desire to be fully understood and liked by others.

@ErinPerise There's a Chinese guy making a potion out of eagle feathers somewhere

I refuse to believe this airbus is up in the air by ways of “aerodynamics” That is witchcraft and I know it

The language you learn in textbooks is SO different to the one people use in real life 😂 it's crazy. I sound like a robot speaking Spanish, compared to Spanish people sound like they're basically speaking a different language. So many idioms, weird pronunciations and made up vocabulary

It’s like, when you learn a language, it’s all in print. And when people actually use a language in real life, it’s in cursive handwriting. Endings, middles and contexts often left out, abbreviated, and totally idiosyncratic to each person. Especially true of Italian. Very endearing even though it makes it much harder to learn. It’s a sign of life in the language.

@yginbar @Lewis_Bollard So what matters is your culpability in the situation and you feeling like you have a clean conscience, not the actual outcome?

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard If I kill an animal - especially if I do so intentionally- I'm responsible for its death and for any accompanying suffering. Otherwise I'm not.

This is a pig who spent years confined in a gestation crate. She was left behind when factory farms flooded in Iowa and then rescued by some volunteers. The volunteers took her home and dug her a mud pit. She ignored it. They assumed years of confinement had extinguished her natural instincts. Then they noticed her wandering into the woods on their property. They followed her — and found her rooting in a pile of dirt, digging her own mud pit. The pork industry claims pigs adapt to confinement. They don't. Inside every gestation crate is an animal who still yearns to root, wallow, and just be a pig. This is the tragedy of factory farming. We tried to reduce feeling animals to machines. We failed.

But it's not natural for humans to do that... It's natural for praying mantis to do that. That's like if I say it's natural for humans to want to have sex with each other, and you say therefore I'm saying it's natural for humans to want to have sex with fish. Nope. Completely different.

@Reframe_Reality @fanoonman @Lewis_Bollard @PeggiBosquez I was responding to the use of "it's natural" as some kind of moral justification.

@theralkia Not wearing one is telling him you don't appreciate the life he gave you and feel entitled to his protection.

Wearing a seatbelt is telling God that you don’t trust Him

@euroesunasecta @Lewis_Bollard Agreed. If all farming was like this, there probably wouldn't even be a serious debate.

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard For me the important ethical question is whether the animals can have a good life with a close-to-nature diet, social structure and environment. And once you kill, be respectful and use every part for the highest value purpose.

@jan_fifi @JMer3963 @Lewis_Bollard No, I'm asking you a simple question. What is a "nice" death for an animal? How many of them die in this way?

@Reframe_Reality @JMer3963 @Lewis_Bollard Are you talking about predatory animals, because they have to do it to eat. We don't.

@jan_fifi @JMer3963 @Lewis_Bollard Which animals in the wild die a nice death?

@JMer3963 @Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard Well it's nice for you that you 'delight' in converting veggies and vegans back to eating slaughtered animals. Not much 'delight' for the poor animals when they're being slaughtered, no matter how humanely.

@fanoonman @yginbar @Lewis_Bollard @PeggiBosquez You could say the same about potatoes, grains, bananas, oranges, rice etc. Most foods require preparation. And modern humans also can't drink water from lakes or puddles, that doesn't mean that we aren't natural water drinkers.

@Reframe_Reality @yginbar @Lewis_Bollard @PeggiBosquez I think that was in reference to "I don't feel there's anything wrong with participating in the food chain, the same way animals do. It's natural." if you have to shoot it, skin it, gut it, clean it, carve it, cook it and season it, maybe you're not a natural carnivore.

@yginbar @Lewis_Bollard As opposed to them never existing? And please tell me which animals die nicely.

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard That's because "ethical farming practices" still involve the key practice of killing animals in the prime of their lives, if not earlier. And even the most "humane" slaughtering methods, with the best of intentions, inevitably involve much fear, pain and suffering.

@yginbar @fanoonman @Lewis_Bollard @PeggiBosquez Who said we have to act like praying mantis? No one.

@Reframe_Reality @fanoonman @Lewis_Bollard @PeggiBosquez It's also natural for a female praying mantis to eat her mate during or after copulation - that doesn't make it the right thing for humans to do, even assuming it's equally nutritious.

@JMer3963 @Lewis_Bollard Yeah, ultimately it is not the solution and will also lead to way less of these animals even existing in the first place. As well as taking money away from good farmers.

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard As a former vegetarian who now eats mainly raw milk, soy-free eggs, and regenerative grass-fed (and finished) cow, I delight in converting vegetarian and vegan friends by arguing the philosophy of veganism is a well-intended but ill-thought out reaction to factory farming.

@akirathedon Tbh I think even those of us who see ourselves as not being like this do it way more than we realise. The human mind is amazing but also simultaneously a mess of biases and wilful delusion. I've never met a person who wasn't at least sometimes completely retarded.

As far as I can tell most people don't have such realizations, as they exist in a constant state of seemingly unfathomably impossible cognitive dissonance and simply don't realize that they're doing it

@Nigel194288 @fanoonman @Lewis_Bollard Yeah we get it, you can't participate in adult conversations and also aren't funny. Bye.

@Reframe_Reality @fanoonman @Lewis_Bollard Bacon roll for me tomorrow morning mate..... Lovely 😄

@PeggiBosquez @Lewis_Bollard Yep. And the reality is that a lot of vegan produce comes at the cost of animals habitats anyway, rather than providing them a home (which farmers like yourself do)

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard I agree with this so much!! It doesn't have to be torture and cruelty or nothing.

I don't feel there's anything wrong with participating in the food chain, the same way animals do. It's natural. But modern industrial farming practices are not natural at all, and are actually akin to creating hell on earth. There are many great farmers like @PeggiBosquez though, who are giving animals the opportunity at a safe, healthy life where they're cared for. That is better than them not existing (which is the alternative, because most vegans aren't paying to raise cows and pigs) in my opinion. If I found out my life was part of some sort of alien experiment and that earth was some kind of enclosure, I would still be glad to have my loved ones, my family, my pets, my hobbies, my dreams, etc. But if you took all of those things away from me and put me in a box not big enough to stand up in then I'd definitely rather not participate in their experiment. That's how I see it.

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard That's true as far as it goes, and any step in the direction of less cruelty is a good thing. But too many people have no sensitivity whatsoever, and couldn't care less how many animals suffer or how much they suffer. Many who do care start wondering if they really need meat.

@fanoonman @Nigel194288 @Lewis_Bollard I've never understood these people either. I think they're the equivalent of a kid at the dinner table, listening to grown-ups talk, not understanding their conversations and going "I know, I'll make a fart sound!! That'll show them". It's insecurity masquerading as humour.

@Nigel194288 @Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard There's usually one asshole in every comments section on a post about animal welfare who feels some sort of demonic need to make a 100% gratuitous and pointless remark to trumpet his insensitivity. What do you gain? Some bizarre pleasure in thinking you annoyed nice people?

@dollrubyjane @Lewis_Bollard Well actually that's pretty much exactly what 90% of animal rights activists are telling people, along with the entire vegan movement. The people who believe in buying local, ethically reared meat are a tiny minority in comparison.

@Reframe_Reality @Lewis_Bollard No one's realistically telling anyone that veganism is the only alternative. The solution is eating less meat but making it higher quality, more expensive meat bought from local farmers.