Lol, yeah Eisel is a bit of a mixed bag. Quite a controversial figure in the vegan community who many disagree with on a lot of things. But I think the actions he advocates for are probably positive for the most part (not destroying nature, not exploiting animals etc, even extending that further than a lot of vegans will by saying we shouldn’t own pets etc), even if his views, ideas and expressions can be problematic. I agree that part especially at the end about saying non-human animals are “mindless” didn’t sit well with me, and the implication that their lives aren’t very meaningful. It also continually surprises me that he actually cares about not harming/using animals given how lowly he sometimes speaks of them in comparison to humans and how focused he is on the supposed greatness/potential of humanity and civilisation. For him, veganism/animal rights is a “civilising mission” for humanity to stop doing barbaric things for the good of our own evolution, as much as or perhaps even more than it is for the good of the animals themselves. I think you’re right that it’s a more than slightly egoistic and anthropocentric perspective for sure. But again, at least he seems to place some value on non-human animals sufficiently to the degree that he maintains it’s not acceptable to abuse them, and holds fairly high standards for that comparably to his standards for human rights. I primarily mention him in the topic of this post as one of the only people I’m aware of actively speaking out about the concept of petism / pet ownership and why vegans/animal liberationists shouldn’t support it, rather than for his other musings. He rarely focuses on one point at a time and usually drags in multiple other topics into the discussion, lol, so it’s hard to find him talking exclusively on that issue for reference. Like you said his book quotes are pretty eloquent.

I would generally agree plastic = bad in most cases, though it’s probably an unavoidable necessity for our modern world. It should be reduced where possible. However, plastic = bad doesn’t change the fact that animal farming is usually far worse for the environment.

There are 2 “organic” alternatives to synthetic leather (aside from not buying any of them) : plant-based leather or animal-based leather (which is not exactly completely organic or natural considering the plastic coating and chemicals used to preserve and produce it). 1 is better than synthetic leather and 1 is worse. I’ll let you work out which is which :) Spoiler: plant-based comes out on top

Also, leather uses plastic coating. A fact many people don’t know. It’s also dead flesh that’s been heavily preserved with chemicals in order to not decompose and to remain usable. It’s far from the natural product people would have us believe. Keep in mind the massive size of the industry and propaganda similar to the meat and dairy industries which it’s directly connected to.

Setting aside plant-based leather which is definitely more eco friendly than animal leather (and the fact most of the ways in which leather are used are wholly unnecessary to begin with), I don’t agree that synthetic leather is worse for the environment. In fact it seems like it’s still a lot better than leather products.

A 2017 report entitled “The Pulse of the Fashion Industry” went into some detail on this subject. Real leather is regarded as being much worse for the environment than faux leather, primarily due to the massive water requirements, fossil fuel usage and contribution to the eutrophication of waterways. The report concluded that synthetic leather has less than half the environmental impact of cow leather and rated cow leather as the least environmentally friendly of the commonly used raw materials in the fashion industry.

This video also goes into some of the reasons why animal leather is so damaging to the environment and why not only plant based leather but even synthetic leather is a lot better: https://youtu.be/x-UGgf7i0qM?si=tcnfiT8wVOj4ii4_

All that aside, veganism is about not exploiting animals, and buying leather definitely does that. By supporting leather you’re supporting beef. There are even some cattle farmers that raise animals specifically for leather. It’s a highly profitable industry and can probably be considered a co-product rather than a byproduct. The ethical thing to do both for animals and the environment is to boycott leather and either avoid any kind if you want to or use plant based or even synthetic leather.

Sorry and I hope we can set this issue to rest since it was not the purpose of my post at all. I’m here to talk about fuggs

This is the true animal rights mindset. Reject petism / mascotism. Animals are not living toys or playthings, they are individuals. They are ends in and of themselves and not merely means to our ends. The pet industry is horrific along with pet ownership itself and all the rights violations, sufferings and deprivations it causes, many of which are overlooked or dismissed by “pet owners” or petists.

Have you listened to or read anything by Eisel Mazard by any chance? His newest livestream touched on the topic (don’t be thrown off by the title, he does talk about petism) https://www.youtube.com/live/SSiVZ0UIwbM .

Lucie Munson also has a good podcast on “pet ownership” and veganism. https://youtu.be/GD-6XJfkF2I

One thing I would say though, I think animals should be referred to as “they” or he/she, rather than “it”. This helps to individualise them and see them as someones and not somethings, individuals vs objects. “The dog was restrained and we chained them/he/her (rather than it).” I believe language can have a powerful effect in how we view other animals leading to how they’re treated societally. For the same reason I reject the use of animals as insults, such as calling a human a pig derogatorily.

Oh and one more thing. I played Size Matters properly (on PS2, but it’s also on PSP, PS Vita, or emulation) and I slept on it too much. It’s actually a great game.

Lastly I will say that I’m not sure if you played PS4 Ratchet & Clank remake or Rift Apart (PS5 or PC port) but both of those games are amazing to me.

Quest for Booty has very respectable graphics and was a nice little game on PS3 as well.

Also, you may know this already but A Crack in Time (in the Future series) is largely regarded as one of if not the best Ratchet & Clank game ever made, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy that one. Have fun Ratcheting!

Also the graphics are actually incredible, even better than the PS3 ports I think. You can tweak it further on your PC as well.

If you really want to be amazed by R&C content you never played, check out “Ratchet & Clank: Premature Release” fan game https://veroli.itch.io/ratchet-clank-premature-release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXZQGAvXIMI

I played through this recently, while it’s short and not perfect, it’s pretty great and I loved to have more unplayed Ratchet content. It’s certainly the best fan made Ratchet game I ever came across.

Wish I could think of more good Qwark quotes.

…that I invented!

Such a classic iconic legend. Best wishes to him.

Yeah, I don’t have the PS Plus Premium thing and idk if it would be available for me to stream them either. So I play the original games on PS3 as the best versions I think (PS5 would be streaming the PS3 versions anyway).

I play ● R&C 1-4 (4 being Deadlocked/Gladiator) on PS3 (HD “remasters”/upscaled versions) ● Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank on PS2 or PS Vita ● R&C Future series (Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty, A Crack in Time, Into the Nexus) + All 4 One and QForce (which is also on PS Vita) on PS3 ● Ratchet & Clank (2016 reimagining) and Rift Apart on PS5

Overall you can play the entire R&C series apart from the mobile games as long as you have a PS2 (or PSP or PS Vita), a PS3, and a PS5. (Or if you emulate all of them except the latest 2 on a computer (or phone) and either play Rift Apart PC port and play R&C2016 on PS4 or just both of them on PS5).

I agree it would be ideal if they were all just available to play on one console (PS5). Technically I guess with PS Plus Premium you can play every game on PS5 apart from Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank and the mobile games, though I’m not certain if every game that was available on PS3 can be streamed on PS5, but that requires an expensive subscription that not everyone can get.

Happens on lemmy world too.

In my opinion, lots of posts get removed here which would fall under reasonable (and even important) / valid free speech. So I do think the mods are abusing their censorship ability.

I kind of agree with your last sentence… but that’s why I think this platform doesn’t serve that purpose unfortunately lol. Interesting or radical liberal posts seem to get removed a lot.

So how do we determine if a question is nonsense? I didn’t realise the questions had to be necessarily important

Hi, I never received a bot message that I was aware of. I thought that the links I posted in the comments were providing examples of what I meant and helping to describe the question. I don’t really understand why it was removed. I can see that this post was also locked and then unlocked seemingly.

All I said was something like “We may want nature to fit into neat boxes but often vegetables are sweet and fruit are savory”. It wasn’t anything less innocuous than the title so I still don’t understand it. Apparently it got removed because I posted some links in the comments to lists of common “fruits” that are actually vegetables and vice versa. If that’s spam then I think they have a very low tolerance for content. I thought it added to the question to describe what I meant and provide examples.