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That’s astonishing levels of incompetence.

Me, having recently moved to rural Ireland: “the cows were mooing and wailing horribly last night, were they being slaughtered?”

Farmer Neighbor (not the one with the cows): “oh, no that’s just when they take the calves away for veal”

As a parent I feel worse about dairy than beef…


I eat meat, although less then what I grew up with. I know what goes on in a slaughterhouse.

I cut out dairy about a decade ago. This is another level.


Dairy is a legit nightmare factory for the cattle involved.

Constant rape. Constant separation from off spring. Tons of hormones and medication to keep infections down.

They are so stressed physically and emotionally that their lifespans are 50% or lower of what they should be. Dairy cattle routinely just die from stress.

Its also insanely bad for the environment.

I grew up ranching and have seen dairy operations plenty of times. They're disgusting cruelty factories.

Every time we eat a snack or food that involves dairy, remember that it is completely unnecessary to include dairy.


>Constant rape.

I am not sure I buy that. Rape is intensely upsetting to humans, but that does not imply it is so upsetting to other animals. And dairy cows aren't usually impregnated through sex to my knowledge; they are artificially inseminated. I don't see evidence that cows find this upsetting.

It's unnecessary to bring in weak arguments when we have such strong arguments. Cows are distraught beyond measure when their calves are taken away.


They have to forcibly hold them in place. You have to do this with pretty much all artificially inseminated animals.

Rape is not a terrible word to describe forcible penetration.


I don't care what word we use. I'm interested in whether or not we have clear evidence the animals find it upsetting. And if so, is it upsetting in the way my cat finds taking her medication upsetting, or it is upsetting in the way humans find rape upsetting? Just having to hold the animal proves little.

Having to forcibly restrain an animal is clear evidence that they don't like it, otherwise I don't know what clear evidence you would accept. A good proxy for whether an animal likes something is when it shows aversive behavior around that thing!

The fact that your cat needs the medicine just means that the discomfort you are inflicting on your cat is ultimately with its best interest in mind. When we hurt an animal, or even kill one with its best interest in mind, we do it out of compassion.

When we forcibly impregnate an animal repeatedly and then take away it's calf (cows being viviparous animals, this causes them suffering), that is not in their best interest. Their suffering is not benefiting them, it benefits us.


> Every time we eat a snack or food that involves dairy, remember that it is completely unnecessary to include dairy.

You're preaching to the lactose-intolerant choir here, man.


Indeed. Though omnipresent surveillance and restricted speech is an issue in some of Europe too.

On the other hand, I see a lot of HackerNewsers and European geeks utterly angry at laws that forbid (blanket) recording of public places and GDPR which controls what the videos can be used for.

Every EU topic here is filled with people wishing for its destruction and dismantling of such privacy protecting laws.


Europeans fear corporations more than government, and in the USA it's generally the opposite. The USA doesn't like when any entity gets too powerful.

> The USA doesn't like when any entity gets too powerful.

The US seems to broadly have permitted both their government and their corporations to exercise an absurd degree of influence over them in recent years, so this doesn't track. This is a problem in most countries, but the rate of change of the US is unparalleled.

You're right that some countries are more paranoid about certain kinds of power than others. That just ends up creating blind spots, where some Europeans can barely imagine their a decision of their government being wrong, while some Americans are knee-deep in ideology that decrees that anything private is automatically good, free and moral because only the government has the capacity to be evil and companies can't influence them. This doesn't really apply to the issue here, because it's a perfect collaboration of the world parts of the private and public sectors, so almost no one likes this.


No, Americans don't actually fear their government. Republicans are very much pro-ICE and in favor of expanded police budget (that is used for mass surveillance). And it's the same thing in Europe, the right has always been pro-surveillance and policing. They're just too stupid to understand that you can't only police your political enemies and racial minorities: surveillance impacts everyone.

Those are likely the same people who want to unconsensually force Flock and other mass surveillance on people. Most well socially adjusted people greatly appreciate those protections.

Reality Winner got five years for showing Russian interference in elections, which seems like doing the right thing

All very true, but doesn't change the fact that my dad's house is more than 1000 sqft bigger than mine and when he goes I will have literally no place to put his stuff.

Cheap carbs and starches but expensive vegetables and protein sources.

It’s the perfectly useless goods that are the problem.

Are the Dutch meet-ups better? Wanted to get to why2025 but couldn’t.

They are run by different people, though there is a lot of cross contamination and groups going to both.

I think the real difference is the setup, CCC is in a exhibition hall, while events like WHY are on a field and require you to camp. In that regard, you can compare CCCamp (what is different from CCC) more with WHY.


also Electromagnetic Field in the UK, and all the smaller camps

I had a great time at PyData Amsterdam last year. Terrific people!

I always like Fosdem (in Belgium, very close.)

I still miss college radio from my teen years. KDVS had a great Commodore 64 music show…


That's the one, links seem dead though.

Nerds like trains. A fair few of us live in NL too.

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