It’s a right wing trope that we’re all going to be forced to eat bugs.
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Yeah, this is the sort of shit tucker carlson and alex jones spread - the elite globalists (which totally isn’t an antisemitic dog whistle, trust us) are gonna make the poors eat bugs, better be scared and on our side cuz we’re against the people who want you to eat bugs
They take articles where researchers talk about how easy it is to farm bugs for protein (which is then heavily processed) which could help with global food supplies. They take the news that people are exploring it and twist it into fear mongering bullshit as if we’re going to be forced to eat bowls of crickets with a spoon. Idiotic.
Don’t get me wrong, the inequality gap is growing at an alarming rate but spreading far right memes does not help. Want to stick it to the rich? Fucking unionize.
To bring it full circle, the title about Pullman is a great thread to pull - look into the history of the pullman riot and the town of Pullman, Chicago. Literally the story of why we have Labor Day as a National holiday in the USA. People literally fucking died over unionization because the elite fear it so much.
But no, be scared cuz they’re coming to replace your lunch with bbq crickets.
I don't even get why they think we're going to be forced to eat it. You can also just eat plant protein like beans. Do they all just forget that plants exist?
Villifying plants is on the nonsensical agenda as well (i.e. making mountains out of molehills over soy/phytoestrogens). But Tofu and other soybean foods have been staples across a huge chunk of East Asia for centuries and nobody's been worse off for it (besides unlucky allergies). Funny enough, East Asia also has a few niche recipes for cooking bugs, and since my parents are from South Korea I occasionally ate steamed silkworm pupae as a kid (they sell them here in cans as 번데기/beondegi). The weird earthy taste and general phobia of creepy crawlies is the reason it's not too popular nowadays. I wasn't a huge fan myself but I do see bug meat as a potential resource.
So it's just the usual fearmongering over made-up problems. Plant protein is good, bug protein has existed as something I wouldn't mind if it tastes alright, and the meat industry's going to lobby for more subsidies and thrive regardless of what happens.
This is the second-funniest instance in which I've been accused of repeating alt-right talking points, second only to saying I don't like the Star Wars sequels.
Wow you're ignorant of the alt-right. I grew up in this shit. Alex Jones was on this shit like a decade ago.
I'm happy for you
I think you should repeat alt-right talking points less, 2 times is 2 times too many
I don't care if those braindead weirdos happen to agree with one or two of my opinions, a broken clock is right twice a day anyway. Moderating your language based on the idea that its connotations will associate you with one of the two monolithic political sports teams that divvy up the entire political spectrum between them is a very Americentric view, and it's also very servile.
I'm not asking you moderate your language. I am asking you to reflect on "why do me and braindead weirdoes are agreeing". It's not about how you will be perceived, it's about the neverending struggle of always asking yourself "am I out of touch or is it children who are wrong" or variations of those. Lack of this self-reflection might lead you to a dark path of thinking that every time you get criticized for your take, it's because political censorship or whatever.
Judging from their reaction to the mildest form of critique I think they're too far down that path to hear you.
Thanks, but I had a big breakfast; I don't have any room for substanceless word salad.
Ah, so that's why you agree with alt-right monsters so much. Figured.
"I hate thinking!"
Like it's something to brag about.
The fact that I don't suffer fools makes me alt-right? Funny how it always comes back to guilt by association. Maybe once you grow up a little you'll also outgrow the mentality that everyone speaks in coded signal language like huge fucking dorks.
No, the fact that you can't read for shit, throwing hissy fits every time you got mild criticism, and walking around like that stick up your ass is made of solid gold.
Also, the fact that you think that the reason people got criticised is language with which they express their garbage ideas, not the garbage ideas themselves. That all is, like, prime alt-right material. People like that usually one prageru video away from ranting about cultural marxism.
you can't read for shit, throwing hissy fits every time you got mild criticism, and walking around like that stick up your ass is made of solid gold
Project much? I was accurate in my assessment the entire time: you're the kind of person who brings their conclusion to a discussion, emotionally argues backwards from it, and tries to "win" by ridiculing their "opponent". The fact that I'm ignoring sophistical window-dressing in favor of skipping to your actual meta point—and unmercifully making fun of you for being too dense to get it—does not make me a Nazi. The horrible truth is that despite feeling strongly, you're really just wrong anyway, a phenomenon that I'm sure has happened one or two other times in your life. Maybe you should get a grip, or at least go deliberately misinterpret somebody who doesn't see through it.
The alt-right is not right about this. The upper class does not want to make you eat bugs, nor does the left.
You really, genuinely think corporate America will not attempt to solve future resource scarcity by gaslighting the working class into accepting substandard fare and conditions? I happen to be the real owner of the Brooklyn Bridge and I can give you the deed right now if you PayPal me $100.
Not sure what to take from this other than it being a really bad take. Insect protein is orders of magnitude more sustainable and eco-friendly than beef. We could replace all the land we destroyed that is used to have cows standing around in their own shit and for a fraction of the acreage produce the same number of protein and calories without massively contributing to climate change.
Yeah or just eat plants like someone who isn't fucking nuts
I'm a big fan of plant based burgers, but the reality is that telling people "just eat plants" is not going to result in any change. They've long ago decided that the inconvenience of switching protein sources is greater than the climate impact ignoring that choice makes, so the only way we're ever going to see change is to either ban cows or provide an alternative that the masses can/will adopt.
The fda has just approved lab grown chicken for two separate companies. It will still most likely take more land/energy to produce than plants, but should eventually be more efficient than traditional meat. It also has the benfit of not being a substitute, but instead actually being meat.
Oops, didn't scroll down far enough to see someone already mentioned it. Feel free to ignore me
I hadn't actually heard about lab-grown chicken, everything I'm read about has been beef. Vat chicken soup would be cool too.
Now, eggs might be more difficult
Apparently eggs have already been done, as has milk that can be turned into cheese
Although it's a different process
Rather than grow them by duplicating existing cells, instead you GMO brewer's yeast to produce the proteins you want, similar to how we make insulin now, and then add the few things you can't get the yeast to provide (which with sufficient tinkering, is basically just the shell, and even that can be substituted with plastic containers)
What's so nuts about eating insects? Lots of cultures do it.
How can one realize that gender is a social construct but still think that eating insects is "unnatural"?
Cultures of starvation. If rich Western countries were giving away all the perfectly good food they trash, I guarantee you eating arthropods would stop in a generation. You could also pretty fairly argue that the entire point of social constructs like society is to avoid shivering in the cold, being murdered for your shiny rocks, or eating insects.
Cultures of starvation. If rich Western countries were giving away all the perfectly good food they trash, I guarantee you eating arthropods would stop in a generation.
Yeah, sure, lobsters (which are also arthropods) only get eaten because people don't have anything else. /s
You could also pretty fairly argue that the entire point of social constructs like society is to avoid shivering in the cold, being murdered for your shiny rocks, or eating insects.
Agreed. But you have not presented any reason for putting "eating insects" in the same category as "shivering in the cold" and "being murdered for your shiny rocks". Some social constructs are useful, but they're not useful by virtue of being social constructs.
Yeah, sure, lobsters (which are also arthropods) only get eaten because people don't have anything else.
At first I thought you were being completely serious, but then I realized that you were being sarcastic after you told me, good thing you did! Anyway, lobsters were eaten because there was nothing else. Making them into a luxury dish is a modern affectation. That's not an actual counterargument to the real point here, but it needed to be said.
Agreed. But you have not presented any reason for putting "eating insects" in the same category as "shivering in the cold" and "being murdered for your shiny rocks". Some social constructs are useful, but they're not useful by virtue of being social constructs.
My reason is the only reason that actually exists when it comes to the value of social constructs: consensus. Most people find eating vermin to be disgusting for some reason, and they avoid doing so if it doesn't increase their likelihood of starving to death. Which is why you find this aversion to be less prevalent in cultures where famine and starvation exist right now and/or in living memory—and thanks to colonialism, there are a lot of deadly famines in living memory in the third world. I agree that social constructs don't have any intrinsic value, but what difference does it make? Social constructs have the value people place on them, and that value can be imported from other places. Eating bugs is, to most people, disgusting. Like all value statements, this should be understood within its context as being a statement of arbitrary value that is supported by the consensus of a large plurality of people (though this one has majority support). Asking for quantification of it like "why is this a right thing to believe?" is just asking "why do we value what we value instead of valuing something else?", to which the only actual answer that matters is "because it had to be something, and we got this". But as I said, values get imported from elsewhere, like trauma or instinct, such as how European culture developed certain values around hygiene after and in response to the plagues. In my opinion it's reasonable to assume that human beings are instinctively averse to writhing masses of disgusting vermin that are usually found in places like fetid bogs and putrid rotting corpses, and that we are far less averse to things that resemble our ancestral natural prey, like deer and geese.
Also, the idea of the comic as I interpreted it is that the upper class thinks pandering will trick poor people into enjoying eating bugs while they themselves continue to eat meat, which has a meta-point to it told through subtext, like all jokes do: that capitalists value having what other people don't have, that they think the "poors" can be tricked out of it like simpletons, and that they think humiliating the poor and exploiting them in their humiliation is a virtue as long as it's profitable. I would have explained this to the other guy arguing with me, but he gallantly resists being reasoned with and seems much happier nailing himself to the cross.
I still think I'd prefer vatburger
Assuming you're referring to lab-grown meat, I think that's also a great alternative. We should be exploring any and all options that can get us to stop relying on cows for protein.
Yeah, I am referring to lab/vat grown meat (I don't think 'lab grown' is really accurate once it's at the industrial scale), and I can't wait. Steaks would be nice, but burger should be easy, since most inconsistencies in the meat would be solved by grinding it. I've tried beyond meat/impossible burger, and they just aren't right; gimmie some vat tacos, the sooner the better.
Though I did actually read an article a while back about gene-engineered plants spliced to produce animal proteins that were apparently a very convincing facsimile; I can't remember what plant, but I would assume beans. If that ever makes it to market, I'd love to give it a try as well
Hey, my cousin started a small business making cricket protein bars. They did taste good, but they absolutely were not for the poor.
Much more of a virtue signaling yuppy thing.
Why are they for yuppies?
Extremely expensive processed packaged product which appeals to the neoliberal idea of “good” when we have plenty of cheap protein which has grown from the earth since the dawn of time
we have plenty of cheap protein which has grown from the earth since the dawn of time
It seems like people are willing to go to ANY length to avoid eating beans and nuts.
Rice and beans is for those poor people tho 😭 Missing the essential nutrient of "living things suffering" that I need to live. I mean how else do you explain to things that don't speak that you're better than them in every way? Rice and beans only feeds the weak ass flesh water balloon you control, killing feeds the ego.
I'd rather switch to eating Dung Beetles because I can't dominate beans. The rice has no fog of war or technology tree. I don't understand how people eat without just killing absolutely everything in their path. I personally stopped buying beef from the grocery stores and just started going out into the fields at night to drain blood out of cattle's neck. I also really enjoy eating live squirrels and rats I find while navigating the city via sewers in order to avoid my vampiric form from being seen by those poor poor human people.
Straight up yeah. Which is insane. It’s the sexiest thing somebody can do imo. I don’t wanna see somebody eat a shitty protein bar I wanna see your homemade bean curry with brown rice. That’s a measure of character
So mostly the marketing was the issue for you? I’m game to try just about any food once but I think it’s weird how labels are attached to people once they eat it.
What about price?
Like price of the product would make someone a yuppie? I could see that if someone only ate them because they are expensive. Like folks that only drink specific bottled water because it makes them look richer. I like to eat honey crisp apples because they are worth the extra cost because they taste so darn good, but I don’t think that would make someone a yuppie. More of a conspicuous consumption factor I guess? Good question.
I dunno I just feel like an insect protein bar all packaged up and retailed for a lot of money appeals to a certain demographic. This isn’t the blue shirt labour class buying this crap. They’re eating whatever their wife/husband made for them and then going home I guess. But I can definitely see upper-middle/upper class detached 5 bedroom house owning yoga aficionado buying this by the crate and giving themselves a pat on the back for being so “advanced”
I was trying to convey that they were an expensive eco food, not a cheap protein alternative.
First, like the other thread said, eating bugy isn't a conspiracy. It's also not "subpar" or whatever, it's.. food.
Second, I never understand people's aversion to... food that isn't currently alive in your plate. I have eaten bugs, I've eaten a lot of plants, I've eaten a lot of different animals... it's all just food.
A lot of cultures eat bugs on a regular basis, it's really not that big of a deal
The "cheap" bugs:
Lobster: 40$ per tail
Crab: 4-8$ per can
Shrimp: 5-12$ per lb
Uh huh.
Ugh... How dare you recommend canned crab!
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