The act of eating is a service.

[Monica]

What would you like the mods to say?

Whatever their opinion happens to be.

Well you seem to be implying that I said something 'wrong' or admitted to having unclean thoughts or something, and you'd like the mods to intervene. Busted!

But see, here I am, trying to guess what your thoughts/intentions might have been. I could be totally wrong, so what's the point of doing that at all?

How in the world could the mods even begin to assess what someone's thoughts are?

In this case, they might assess that based upon how many times one uses the word "murder" when discussing the eating of animals.

Why have you singled out that one word? Because it tends to trigger more (to use a Tenet Nosce term) butthurt?

I don't recall ever even saying that directly, though I did post a song by The Smiths once, with that title.

But see, that was just posting a song. I usually do post the title of the song, and that happened to be the title.

Does this mean I think meat is murder?

You might be very surprised to learn that I actually don't, in most cases. In fact, I posted a very long, detailed essay detailing the difference, in the early days of the thread. Maybe you missed it?

But even if I did think that...so what? NOT saying I do or don't...just hypothetical. Let's say you thought it is 'murder to kill plants. That is your opinion. Saying "it's murder to kill plants" isn't the same as saying "you are a murderer because you kill plants." There's a world of difference. The first is academic and the second is a personal judgment.

In order to discuss volatile topics respectfully, it's necessary to keep the conversation academic and avoid personal assessments.

A more fitting example would be abortion. Let's say we had a staunch pro-lifer among us, who believed that killing unborn babies was murder, since their DNA is, after all, quite human, they have brainwaves and a heartbeat, and even fingernails and eyelashes. They could build quite a good case!

Undoubtedly, our community contains some women who have had abortions.

How, then could we possibly discuss that topic, without those who've had abortions getting offended by those who think it's murder?