27.2.05
Omm...
Last week, a link to a BBC article about a research which demonstrates how a bad vegan diet can be dangerous to children was posted on the local EV newsgroup. Predictably, the reactions from the local EV/AR community ranged from they-are-lying! to I-do-not-believe-it!, but of course, without any real arguments.
Then one guy appeared, and, after stating that these 'experts' and 'scientists' disregard 'the individual needs, individual differences, and the very meaning of feeding', asked the people who make claims about the danger of unbalanced vegan diets, how is it possible that a diet which contains animal products can contain nutrients which can be absent from a vegan diet. Then he went on about how the scientist's measurments of growth and intelligence disregarded 'the man as a whole' and 'satisfying the needs of spiritual life and development'. Having been primed by the displayed lack of very, very basic knowledge of biology, I ignored the last part. As it will turn out, to my woe.
So I made a rather long post, in the language I would use to explain things to a not very bright three-year-old, how living beings have the ability to use different substances to create other substances, and that these abilities differ from a living being to a living being. I did this clearly, although in a somewhat condescending manner. Like I said, the political correctness safety was off.
The truth was even worse that I thought. After completely not understanding what I was about, the guy went on about the people's need to develop not only 'some prefered qualities', and how the scientists who do this kind of research only 'work on increasing human non-freedom, and don't conduct serious scientific research', because every individual needs to develop 'not too slowly, and not too quickly, according to one's internal law' according to which 'humans are humans, and don't have to be what they eat, but can be free from that'.
So now I'm wondering the same thing this guy wondered about these scientists of ours... What did his parents feed him when he was a kid?
Then one guy appeared, and, after stating that these 'experts' and 'scientists' disregard 'the individual needs, individual differences, and the very meaning of feeding', asked the people who make claims about the danger of unbalanced vegan diets, how is it possible that a diet which contains animal products can contain nutrients which can be absent from a vegan diet. Then he went on about how the scientist's measurments of growth and intelligence disregarded 'the man as a whole' and 'satisfying the needs of spiritual life and development'. Having been primed by the displayed lack of very, very basic knowledge of biology, I ignored the last part. As it will turn out, to my woe.
So I made a rather long post, in the language I would use to explain things to a not very bright three-year-old, how living beings have the ability to use different substances to create other substances, and that these abilities differ from a living being to a living being. I did this clearly, although in a somewhat condescending manner. Like I said, the political correctness safety was off.
The truth was even worse that I thought. After completely not understanding what I was about, the guy went on about the people's need to develop not only 'some prefered qualities', and how the scientists who do this kind of research only 'work on increasing human non-freedom, and don't conduct serious scientific research', because every individual needs to develop 'not too slowly, and not too quickly, according to one's internal law' according to which 'humans are humans, and don't have to be what they eat, but can be free from that'.
So now I'm wondering the same thing this guy wondered about these scientists of ours... What did his parents feed him when he was a kid?
