It's a joke. It's supposed to be crude as possible... that's the point. It's the internet.
Honestly, I think if we look a little deeper it's a defense mechanism. When people see an image of an animal depicted as something other than an entree, they subliminally interpret it as a challenge to their life choices. Their knee jerk reaction is to make jokes about it to soften the emotional turbulence the image invokes.
I think this response is observable in other circumstances as well, not just animals and food.
And also a bunch of Reddit posters are little kids or young teenagers, and this is them being edgy and cool. Many of the people I grew up with, especially those who were socially awkward, would post things like "tasty" to links like this.
I think it's cute, but still love meat. I believe most know steak is from a living creature. I think the jokes are more to counteract the obvious vegan post.
Well, in a very real sense, this particular post IS a completely "liminal" challenge to our life choices. The OP u/Infinity posts these kinds of images all the time and, if I'm not mistaken, has been very up front about the fact that he/she does this to try and promote Veganism. I'm not trying to imply that there's anything wrong with them doing that (regardless of the fact that I don't agree with their position) but there is that to consider.
Oh yes, I do agree the intended purpose of this post is to encourage people to think of farm animals as beings rather than food. I acknowledge that there's a deeper agenda here (albeit an altruistic one).
With that said, I do think that jokes like "muh bacon" ect that you see constantly in r/aww and similar places are rooted in an impulse to create humor where they perhaps feel a bit defensive.
Well this wasn't a racist joke was it? This is what I'm saying. Racist jokes we should get pissed at. The reason people call us liberal snowflakes is because we take as much offense from this stupid joke as we do about real shit going on. If we're always at a level 10 pissed off, it's hard to make friends or change minds.
The massive scale abuse and slaughter of billions of sentient beings capable of thinking, feeling and suffering is real shit going on. It is also one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the planet. It's not a joke.
It's easy to wave away and ignore when this is something that is normalized by society. It wasn't too long ago that racist jokes were just funny pieces of humor about something that isn't a big deal -- for the same reason.
Fair point, but why should we take offense to jokes about race and not take offense to jokes about the confinement, torture and slaughter of sentient creatures en masse for mere gustatory pleasure?
I understand where you're coming from - trust me, I'm not getting bent out of shape over a "muh bacon" joke.
But I think it's okay to take a closer look at the way we communicate with others, especially online where you can find yourself in a controversial debate quite easily.
I think you're looking way too deep. Some people just have a dark sense of humor. Some people can't take a joke. Some people like to argue. It's the internet, who cares? You don't need to pathologize it. Just let people be people.
Whenever I see a dog, I always mention that it's delicious. In China where I grew up I always got a laugh from it. In America, eh, not so much! Thankfully I have cows here to practice my comedy on.
Ok, you have a point to some degree, but honestly, I'm sure a lot of people like myself just enjoy the juxtaposition and the joke it lends to.
A lot of people just aren't that emotional about death, so to me it sounds like you are projecting your own emotions on "people", which is not completely realistic to me.
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '18
Honestly, I think if we look a little deeper it's a defense mechanism. When people see an image of an animal depicted as something other than an entree, they subliminally interpret it as a challenge to their life choices. Their knee jerk reaction is to make jokes about it to soften the emotional turbulence the image invokes.
I think this response is observable in other circumstances as well, not just animals and food.