I hate how "adults" "hang out".

[Junket]

Empathy is controlled by mirror neurons in the brain. I suppose mirror neurons are also a social construct?

Just because a baby is not born with a fully developed sense of empathy doesn't mean that that quality is socially installed. It is a question of brain development.

Coordination, speech, the ability to express abstract ideas, to form friendships, to delay immediate pleasure for future gain, to plan - children develop these over time and the form they take is indeed influenced by their environment. That does NOT mean they are social constructs. And I don't think anyone in their right mind would try and argue they are.

Yes what you say is true, but that's the case under "normal" circumstances because in most cases they're surrounded by people.

Raise a child in a closet with minimal human contact and you really won't find much of anything without intense therapy thereafter, (if at all).

Humans are animals too, if it's okay to kill animals, why not kill humans as well? Once you say killing is okay, it's hard to draw the line.

It's not that hard to draw a line at all.

Don't kill people or suffer the consequences of your region.

See? That wasn't hard at all.

On the other hand, society (even yours!) permits the killing of other people under certain circumstances.

I think I just won twice!

There actually very strong arguments for all of us converting to vegetarianism. Producing meat is environmentally costly and vastly less efficient than producing crops and vegetables.

We could feed many more people more easily if we did not produce meat.

Yeah, but who cares? The very act of producing more people, and keeping who we have alive in itself an environmental hazard. For anybody who is hungry can find themselves 4 quarters and buy McDonald's garbage from the dollar menu.

[Mish]

It's not that hard to draw a line at all.

Don't kill people or suffer the consequences of your region.

If you don't want to talk about the moral line between the two then from legal perspective you are absolutely right. Tomorrow someone will say don't kill animals or suffer the consequences of your region and that will be the end of that.

[Junket]

If you don't want to talk about the moral line between the two then from legal perspective you are absolutely right. Tomorrow someone will say don't kill animals or suffer the consequences of your region and that will be the end of that.

No they won't.

[Justplaying5050]

There is the 'pollutant' argument as far as raising animals to eat

there is the 'caging life' argument (which really boils down to do you want his protein more than you care about the animal's feelings? for most people it is yes)

the 'killing' one really is not an argument. nearly every complex animal on the face of the earth kills DAILY for its own existence and doesnt run around massacring the rest of its species.

[Junket]

doesnt run around massacring the rest of its species.

This isn't entirely true either.

Animals will quickly kill their own when it comes to competition over resources.

Animals will even massacre other species for resources. Ever see the video where wasps lay waste to a bee nest for their honey and unborn? It's pretty horrific.

[doppelgaenger]

You guys aren't very empathetic towards each other's views and opinions.

[Junket]

You guys aren't very empathetic towards each other's views and opinions.

Not at all.

I'm out to kill tonight.

No pun intended.

[Doc Durian]

Humans are animals too, if it's okay to kill animals, why not kill humans as well? Once you say killing is okay, it's hard to draw the line.

Killing for a purpose? Sure.. why not. Population control during lean economic times?

[Aeradalia]

Killing for a purpose? Sure.. why not. Population control during lean economic times?

I thought we called those 'wars'.... *shrugs*

[Doc Durian]

I thought we called those 'wars'.... *shrugs*

they are though more than occasionally they're also called epidemics, pandemics, recessions, depressions, counterculture hippy movements, etc, etc...