Just heard a new insult...

[Archae]

"Carnist."

It's supposedly a pejorative describing a meat-eater.

I'm a carnivore and proud of it!

(There's even a web site devoted to the insult)

[hobbit709]

1. Way back homo robustus ate only roots and berries.

When the climate changed he couldn't adapt and became extinct.
Homo erectus ate everything he could get his hands on. Guess which one we're descended from?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

20. The omnivore.

That's what our teeth and digestive tracts suggest. Not carnivores, not vegans.

[dhill926]

2. been a vegetarian for 25 years...

and "carnist" just sounds stupid…I guess I'm also a "wineist."

[Buzz Clik]

3. Ok. I'm a Carnist.

Carnist, please!

Be warned -- any non-Carnist calling me Carnist will be guilty of extreme prejudice.

[yeoman6987]

21. Am I a carnist if I only eat meat 5 times a week

I am a novice compared to some who eat meat3 meals a day 7 days a week.

[lpbk2713]

4. Yeah, we need more words to describe the various ways we look down on others.

[onyourleft]

10. Oh, indeed.

If people would expend as much energy doing something worthwhile as they do making up new insults, the world might be a better place.

[upaloopa]

5. I am a vegetarian and proud of it

Does this mean war?
Personally I don't care what you eat.

[Archae]

7. Likewise.

It's the evangelistic vegetarians and people who make up these stupid insults that bug me.

[upaloopa]

9. How about those folks who tell us we have pointy

teeth so we need to eat meat? Or the post here that those who ate everything survived and we are descended from them?
Seems insults go both ways

[jeff47]

15. Our history doesn't dictate our future. But our history does exist.

How about those folks who tell us we have pointy teeth so we need to eat meat?

How 'bout the vegetarians who point out we have longer digestive tracts, so we are supposed to eat plants?

Pointy teeth indicates our ancestors ate meat. Flat teeth indicate our ancestors ate plants. Thus our ancestors were omnivores.

But what our ancestors did does not tie our hands today.

Teeth and the rest are only meaningful when someone is trying to argue what our "natural" diet is. It doesn't matter what our "natural" diet is. What we put in our mouth today has very little to do with what our ancestors put in their mouths 20,000 years ago.

[BlueCaliDem]

17. Exactly. Take the Giant Panda Bear, for example. Sharp canines show that they used to be meat

eaters, but today, they eat bamboo exclusively (99%).



Edited to add: Full disclosure: I'm a meat eater.

[hobbit709]

23. And are in danger of dying out.

[BlueCaliDem]

32. Not in danger of extinction because they don't eat meat. They're in danger because they only

eat bamboo and stick to a single diet item.

Science shows that creatures that have a diverse diet have survived extinction, like our American mountain lion that was around when the short-faced bear was alive.

The giant short-faced bear - which needed huge quantities of meat a day (16kg or 35 lbs) in order to survive and, of course, pro-create - went extinct while our puma -that lived during the same period, the Pleistocene epoch - survived extinction because it can survive on smaller game like rabbits and such.

[upaloopa]

27. I doubt any of that history means anything today

[jeff47]

28. It's only meaning is what we can eat. It doesn't control what we do eat. (nt)

[Orrex]

6. I thought that a carnist eats roustabouts and sideshow barkers.

[bluesbassman]

11. No, that's just a plain old carnievore.

[Orrex]

19. I thought they ate Ed Norton.

The original. Not that upstart kid from Fight Club.

[bluesbassman]

25. Sadly the rare carneyvore was last seen in 2003.

RIP Art!

[niyad]

14. I thought it referred to excessive consumption of carne asada.

[merrily]

8. Name-ists!

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Yes, there is...

http://carnism.org/

What Is Carnism?

Carnism is the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals. Carnism is essentially the opposite of veganism; “carn” means “flesh” or “of the flesh” and “ism” denotes a belief system. Most people view eating animals as a given, rather than a choice; in meat-eating cultures around the world people typically don’t think about why they find the flesh of some animals disgusting and the flesh of other animals appetizing, or why they eat any animals at all. But when eating animals is not a necessity for survival, as is the case in much of the world today, it is a choice - and choices always stem

Betcha can't watch the video through to the end...

[snooper2]

30. didn't make it to the end, she needs a hamburger LOL

[NightWatcher]

13. Sounds like a PC term for circus folk... a Carnie or Carnival Ride Operator

[WillowTree]

16. That should definitely, IMHO, be a "live and let live" topic.

I don't eat pork or pork products. Not for any religious reason, just a personal thing. Yet I don't have a problem with anyone else who eats pork and I can't say I've ever thought of or characterized folks who do as "Porkists". They're just people who aren't me who happen to eat pork.

[ananda]

18. I say, each to their own.

What a load of baloney.

[seveneyes]

22. It may have taken an analist to come up with that name

[LanternWaste]

24. I'm guessing it's human nature...

I'm guessing it's human nature to insult those who act, eat, believe or think differently than we ourselves might; though we do seem to take umbrage at those who do so whilst rationalizing the same when we do it.

[arcane1]

26. Wouldn't a carnist hate meat or meat eaters? Like sexist or racist?

[fadedrose]

29. As long as these slaughterhouses

keep killing animals, it would be a real waste and a shame if no one ate the meat.

Archae is a real hero in my eyes.

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. When growing flesh for human consumption is perfected...

I'm going to lobby for "Carn on the Cob".