this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 110 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Emotions? Sure.

Like us?

I dunno. Does irate fury at being woken up mid nap count as “like us”?

[–] [email protected] 82 points 4 months ago

I'm gonna go with absolutely.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago

That's exactly how I feel when someone wakes me up mid nap so yeah.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

they obviously have emotions, just a bit less complex ones, but it's pretty clear they're not just robots

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Just because we understand their emotions only on a basic level doesn’t mean they’re not more complicated.

There is a lot we don’t understand and can’t understand.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (5 children)

How do you know cats don't experience sonder? Did you ask one? No, you just assumed

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Two monks were passing by a little pond where there were some ducks, and the first monk said, "Look at how happy those ducks are!"

The second monk said, "You are not a duck. You can't know if they are happy."

The first monk replied, "You are not me. You can't know that I cannot."

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I've asked my cats loads of questions. Not one has given a comprehensive answer.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Man, mine go nuts being happy to see us.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago
[–] Squirrel 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Eh, we can leave our cats for a week with plenty of food, etc., and they're still thrilled when we return.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

emotions yes. Like us, I don't have the capabilities to determine if their emotions are like ours.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

My cat: I pissed three times on your stuff while you were away because fuck you and your shitty ‘healthy’ food

Same evening: cuddles? cuddles! cuddle me human, yes scratches behind the ears!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They don't have emotions like us but they have emotions similar to ours.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (10 children)

How would you define like us vs similar to us?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (10 children)

My cat has only one emotion: not giving a damn about me

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (42 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Silly vegoon, only the cute animals I didn't want to eat have feelings. The others are unfeeling slabs of meat that is magically created by wholesome farmers being folksy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

A few coworkers refer to cows as giant dogs. Then they sell them to be butchered.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (8 children)

As a new parent the agriculture propaganda from the very start is crazy! Look at this happy farmer and his cute pig its so happy in its mudpit, what a wholesome picture!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (38 children)

I don't eat meat, but the more we learn about plant intelligence, the less I can say with confidence that plants do not have their equivalents of things like pain and emotion. It doesn't help that we have great difficulty defining what emotion means.

But we know a lot about plants now that we thought were animal things. Grass "panics" or "screams" by sending out chemical signals when you cut it as a warning to others of its species that they are seriously injured and danger is coming. That's what the smell of fresh-cut grass is. Sure, calling it a panic or a scream is anthropomorphizing it, but it's kind of hard to describe it in other terms.

We also have learned about "mother trees," which will send resources to their offspring if the offspring let the mother tree know they are in desperate need of them. Which sounds very much like parenting in animal species. There's also lots of evidence that plants can learn from experiences and retain some sort of memory of them in some capacity.

Do I think plants have the same sort of sentience as animals and will I stop eating broccoli? Of course not. But I will still have to admit that at the end of the day, I might just be choosing to cause a different kingdom of life pain and suffering because it's far enough away from my species that I don't consider that to be pain and suffering.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (40 children)

If you're eating meat, then you're contributing to the death of all of those plants that had to feed the animals you're eating. Even if you grant plants sentience, veganism is still the more ethical option.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Just don't try to force it on your pets.

Cats are obligate carnivores.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago
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