I have to laugh whenever vegans claim they don't eat living things. Since when are plants and vegetables not living things? They aren't conscious in the same way people are but they do "live," digest, respirate, and reproduce, and some of them have elaborate networks of roots that they use to send chemical signals to each other.

Anyway, not to knock vegans, some of my friends and family are and they seem to be doing great. Just, whenever I'm eating good chicken wings, or ribs, or any meat with a bone in it, I certainly feel glad to have that "carnivorous" side.

Which vegan said that?

Every vegan I've talked to says they don't eat living things. Literally - every one of them.

I really can’t tell if you’re being serious or not. Poe’s law I guess. But just in case - every fucking cause or belief or whatever will have idiots doing it for illogical, pseudoscientific, ignorant, etc. reasons. I assure you majority of vegans aren’t downright stupid and ignorant. Though some confuse animals with sentience.

I am serious, in every discussion I've had about it some one always says, "but plants aren't living things." ?? Since when!

I don't mean to imply that vegans are stupid or ignorant, they have their valid reasons for being vegans. And I'm on the same wavelength with them about sentience in animals - I think they very much are sentient beings, and the way they are harvested for meat is cruel and extreme.

I also think plants have a degree of sentience - in that they can breathe and communicate (via chemicals) to other plants, the way trees "warn" each other of pests through their root systems.

But we're omnivores, and there's no way I can excuse any of it, it's just what we are. We all eat living things. It's human nature. Even mushrooms contain living larva - most canned mushrooms, for example, have some maggots since they are where flies like to lay their eggs. It's just something we learn to live with even it it's gross and/or unpleasant.

Based on our understanding of biology, a prerequisite for sentience is a central nervous system. Plants have really amazing abilities to pass chemical signals, but they lack any mechanics that would allow them to internalize the signals they receive. For example, I wouldn’t say that my doorbell is sentient just because it can warn me when someone is at my door. Importantly, animals are different from plants in their ability to internalize pain, fear, sadness, etc. This is why animal ethics and welfare are considered important discussions, and why it’s damaging to invoke plant sentience to distract from that discussion.