this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Vegan
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I suppose I just disagree with the premise... Insects ARE mindless little robots. They can react to stimuli, and have some basic behavior, but to say they experience emotions is a huge stretch. Bees have less than a million neurons, 10,000x less than a human.
If we were to follow that logic, we should keep brain-dead people "alive" on the basis that the peripheral nervous system has neurons and can independently react to basic stimuli. Thankfully doctors aren't quite so radical.
I mean, this has been researched. It's not just my opinion, researchers agree that bees are sentient and have feelings.
I would be VERY interested in seeing the paper on that. Because all I've read about it is that bees are sentient because they react to painful stimuli, but that's about the extent of it. To say they have feelings in any meaningful way is an entirely different conversation.
I'm no scientist, I've just read the tl;drs. It seems clear they're more than just automatas.
Obviously people can draw the line wherever they want, but the more you nitpick about what qualities make a being okay to eat or use, the blurrier the line gets. Veganism seeks to exclude all potential suffering to err on the side of caution. I mean, honey is NOT a vital ingredient to our lives whatsoever. It's not like it takes much effort to avoid.