What the fuck is the ‘authentic experience’ of a chicken nugget that seitan is incapable of replicating, anyways? Also the burger patties I ate in school as a cringe baby carnist were 60% TVP soy to begin with, so if anything I’m being even more honest with my frozen slabs now

  • beef_curds [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The line between “meat substitute” and “regular veggie dish” is kinda bullshit anyways:

    Like, if I make my own seitan from scratch and use it in unique ways is that meat substitute?

    If I make a roux, and make it salty and a little sour, is that a queso substitute or just a roux?

    If I crumble firm tofu and pan fry it until it’s a bit crispy, is that meat crumble substitute or is it just tofu crumbles? Am I sinning if I use tvp instead?

    Makhani sauce uses cashew cream by default but if you take that same cashew cream in another dish, maybe you’re a big faker.

    How much squash do I have to put in my patty before it flips from “burger” to “veggie fritter?”

    It’s all silly.

  • CarbonScored [any]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Is anybody actually getting hostile about that?

    Eat chewy savory protein as much as you please, I ain’t stop you. But my issue is implying these foods are a healthy option when there’s no doubt that most fake meats are heavily processed, full of weird shit, and relatively unhealthy compared to some cooler vegan dishes.

    • laziestflagellant [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      I personally see this opinion pop up just about every time meat substitutes come up in conversation, including on hexbear.

      And re: meat substitutes being ‘full of weird shit’ just comes off as silly when the majority of them are basically just fancy bread. Soy protein, wheat gluten and seasoning oooh so scary.

  • Are_Euclidding_Me [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Also, and this is a bit of a different issue, but there is absolutely no reason that “meat” has to mean animal flesh. Historically the word “meat” has been used to refer to all sorts of things. Nutmeat and sweetmeats are the two examples that spring to mind immediately, neither of which is dead animal. I support taking back the word “meat” from the carnists. Yeah, I eat meat, it’s soy meat and it’s delicious! No dead animal involved!

    • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Historically the word “meat” has been used to refer to all sorts of things

      The only modern use of the old definition is in mincemeat pie…

      That being said, I think the chuds are gonna do a slogan of “put the meat back in mincemeat pie” or somethin’, when someone tells them that fact…

    • AdmiralDoohickey@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      That’s just moralizing for no reason. Meat eating has been a part of most of the world’s cuisines for a very long time, so having substitutes to help more people transition is a very good idea. This point has been repeated a ton of times, but many people are ND and can’t change their habits very easily, or have texture / taste sensitivities

      • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        sure, but the point stands. for a lot of us, the idea of eating animals is gross. it is a viscerally disgusting thing. we don’t eat animals not only because it is wrong but also because it is disgusting. the idea of eating stuff that is intended to be as close as possible to something disgusting is not appealing in the slightest.

        and the comment is not “moralizing.” no one is saying it would be evil to eat imitation baby. it’s just … why would you want to?

        • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          we don’t eat animals not only because it is wrong but also because it is disgusting

          I don’t eat animals because it’s wrong. They tasted great to me on the day I stopped. It’s true that my taste has changed as a consequence of not eating animals - after a restaurant miscommunication I discovered that butter tastes weird now - but focusing on that is counterproductive for external messaging. Carnists eat flesh and think it tastes good. You can’t convince them that it tastes gross and trying to do that will have you dismissed as a picky eater.

          • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            but focusing on that is counterproductive for external messaging.

            what fucking external messaging this is !vegan@hexbear.net, an explicitly vegan forum where carnists aren’t allowed to post on a website where being anti-vegan is explicitly against the rules. this is internal chatter, not external messaging. we’re not talking to carnists, we’re talking to each other. stop jumping down people’s throats for speaking as though carnist brain is not the default

            • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              The reason I’m vegan is to get other people to do it. This comm isn’t invite-only; carnists see it on Hexbear and in federated servers, and carnists come in and comment all the time. It’s fine that you personally are disgusted by the taste of flesh, but that has no moral weight. Transpose it slightly: a lot of tomatoes are picked by slaves. If we were trying to organize a tomato boycott we wouldn’t want “tomatoes taste like shit” to be widely agreed on by boycotters. In fact we would want to discourage that talk, to prevent people from saying “you guys don’t care about slavery you just don’t like tomatoes”. And it would be frustrating for boycotters to constantly hear others in the movement go on about how tomatoes are disgusting and how could anyone include that garbage in their meals to begin with, while they’re busy trying to make some pathetic bell pepper red sauce.

              Idk I mostly want to uncouple the correct moral outrage at production from how stuff actually tastes. When carnists ask me if I miss meat, that’s an opportunity to say “sure, but it’s really important to not eat it” not “nah I never liked it anyway”. Maybe I’ll feel differently in a few more years; right now when I hear someone say they’re viscerally disgusted by like, seitan because it’s sort of vaguely like meat, I find it hard to believe.

    • laziestflagellant [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      Okay but seriously though, there are a lot of things that are ‘imitations’ of things that are morally repugnant that are not only harmless but enjoyable due to the fact that no one is getting hurt from it. Like violent video games, some sexual roleplay and so on.

      It’s less ‘we are imitating the animal harm hooray’ and more ‘we took the animal harm out of this thousand+ year old human food tradition, hooray!’ (or twenty+ year old if it’s the fast food stuff lol)