Whilst it's not a feeling I personally hold, I disagree that anyone who has a different view on the segregation of the human species from the animal kingdom is a 'dickhead' Dave.
No Dave, that's called being capable of showing respect to someone else's fundamental beliefs (& once having a partner who was a vegetarian)
I did say fundamental JB.... In real life I'd never belittle anyone's fundamental beliefs (unless they were David Icke'esque )
It depends on whether internet forums come under that heading ...... and what you consider the difference between a belief and a fundamental belief to be!
A fundamental belief is something that has a direct bearing over your life imo & impacts on how you view things from a 'birds eye' level. They can be very different from person to person & can encapsulate anything from religion to animal rights. As opposed to mundane opinions on things such as politics, football or badgers
I don't think there's a need to say fundamental - belief is belief whether that's religion, lifestyle choice, politics indeed anything that rules your life [as you say] but could include what a lot of us would say is the more mundane like football, which for some has a great impact on how they live their life. The common mistake is in thinking that an opinion is a belief. [ also the fact that the language guides us into using the word belief when expressing an opinion]
mmm, I see where you're coming from, but you can have something that takes up a big chunk of your life e.g. football & whilst we all would say we're passionate about it & it's in our blood, the reality is that it's not part of our fundamental belief system. It doesn't define what makes us who we are imo.
It depends on whether you consider the 'who we are' as finite [on an individual basis] or fluid. Are your beliefs open to change or set in stone? For some football [for example] really does seem to be a part of their belief system and is like religion dictating who they like or hate. Psychology studies have been done on passer-by syndrome were a guinea-pig [no not the animal, despite our recent obsessions with them] was asked to wear a Liverpool scarf on a Manchester campus and pretend to collapse to see how many would stop and help, then the same experiment with the volunteer wearing a utd scarf [or no scarf can't remember] - you can guess the results.
Lol, animals appears to be where me and Dave actually disagree! If it had been my dogs? I'd have cut the farmers throat and not even blinked about it. Had same reaction when I saw the Chinese dog fur trade video. Physically wanted to nuke an entire country while watching it. See? My dog wouldn't have reacted like that he would have wagged his tail! Soooo: Rating animals above humans sick? hmmm: Well my Jack Russell may have made each new Postie **** himself but he didn't gas 6 million people or inflict all new wonderful diseases on entire populations, or nuke two cities or well i could go on...all because they believed they were set on this earth above all other things but each to their own.... I'm not a veggie; I just don't see the point in using our dominant position in the world to inflict unnecessary cruelty on other living beings that can't fight back. Is it hypocritical of me having a sliding scale? Probably. I eat meat but want it treated like a king while reared and killed quickly as possible when the time comes to turn it into my dinner or shoes...but by all means if those awful quorn people finally manage to make a steak or sausage taste like a steak or sausage I'll happily quit the meat.
I find that genuinely staggering tbh. I love football & the banter etc, but are we really that shallow that the colour of someone's football scarf would denote whether we'd deem them worthy of assistance if in desperate need? That's a very sad reflection on our society if that experiment has any credence. What makes us who we are is obviously fluid, as we change over time, as a direct result of life experience, the people we associate with & the media / literature that we allow ourselves to be exposed to. But peoples 'core beliefs' - the bedrock on which they build their lives, tends to be embedded in their formative years (that's a generalisation & I know there are exceptions) & I'd have likde to think that basic human decency was part of most peoples bedrock - but you've made me doubt that there.......
