Ratman

Bullshit? Are you the only member of the TFP that lives in a Western country? Is it possible that other such members could have jumped on your bandwagon of disgust? My initial post was an attempt to prompt others to consider the culture of food in their own country before "poppin' off" about this video and assuming, as you did, that this is a common practice in Japan, and that it is torturous and sadistic in nature. It was not directed at you, Shakran, as you had already posted your opinion on the topic.

Sadism implies that there is some pleasure (often sexual) derived from the suffering of others, and in the inflicting of that suffering. You continue to imply that this is your belief in your most recent post when you state that Japanese don't torture dogs or cows as they derive enough sadistic, tortuous pleasure from "doing it to fish instead". I think this pretty clearly qualifies as a condemnation of a culture as a whole since you do not differentiate between the people and the practice. Your implication is that if fish weren't available for this, some other animal would be used instead. As I live in Japan, I am lumped into your blanket condemnation of all that have partaken in this particular method of food preparation. I find this directly offensive, since neither I, nor anyone I know here, are sadists who revel in the torture of animals. I have yet to be in a situation where I'm in a group that sits around eating anything with the thought of "Man, look at that suffering! I'm totally digging on this fish watching me eat it! What a rush!"

In addition, your reply that "it was hoped, but not realized" was quoted to let you know that I am not an idiot incapable of perceiving, nor using, sarcasm. Also, I'm happy to know that you live up to your standards by not eating raw oysters, but my point was not directed to you specifically, since you were not directly named in my comment which, I believe to be true since I managed a restaurant that served thousands of raw oysters a week to customers that to a man never asked if the oyster was alive. Nor did they ever question us directly, to my knowledge, as to the state of animation of the lobsters when they were cooked. My point was that there are practices in Western food production that could be morally questionable, yet still remain, that should give us pause before we question those of other cultures.

I'm sure it was not your intention to come off the way you did, but you did come off that way. I have nothing against you, and having been a member here since TFP 2, I know it is not your nature to offend. You are a super mod for a reason. I hope we can both walk away from this with the awareness that what we say can be construed differently than we intended. If you feel the need to address this further, let's take it to PM's.

Peace

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