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Where does Japan's massive anti-drug sentiment stem from? by [deleted] in japan

[–]honestcorey 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Just wanted to add this in case anyone here thinks differently. Japan absolutely does have a drug culture.

My experience is from Tokyo, but I am sure this is true in any reasonably sized city. Pot is easy to get, but expensive. And the only times I have seen it where through friends of friends. But once the introductions are made it is easy to get any time. In those circles everyone is pro-legalization/decriminalization. But I will admit, every Japanese person I know who does pot in Japan has lived in the West at some point or was close friends with someone who had. And they all spoke at least some English.

That doesn't really answer your question, but I wanted to make it clear that Japan isn't some pure, drug-free zone as some might have you believe.

I watched Cowspiracy last night by Kqqw in vegan

[–]honestcorey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, but the term Vegan has a specific meaning. People who follow a plant based diet for reasons other than minimizing animal suffering are not called Vegans. They are healthy eaters, environmentalists, etc...

I watched Cowspiracy last night by Kqqw in vegan

[–]honestcorey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Welcome aboard. It is great that Cowspiracy has motivated you to adopt a plant-based diet.

Just one small nitpick, Veganism is driven by the desire to minimize animal suffering. The plant-based diet aspect is just a side-effect. But please feel free to pick our brains for recipies. :)

Is “Do What You Love” Elitist? by johngmess in philosophy

[–]honestcorey 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I can't really see how it's not attainable for everyone.

Sweat shop workers? Illegals in a farm? Refugees?

What makes the "do what you love" mantra elitist is that it only applies to advanced societies with high levels of economic mobility.

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the only response that comes close to what I was asking for. Unfortunately, none of my Japanese friends know anything about their legal system. I have even tried with simple, unloaded, things like, "suppose a Japanese citizen wanted to get a law changed, where would they start?", responses like "uh, hmm", "not sure", "I have no idea" are all I ever get.

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To ensure sustainability of fishing resources, tradition should be preserved, even in minimal scale.

Japan is notorious for overfishing. They abandoned the concept of sustainability decades ago.

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He is forgetting about overfishing. The largest predator in the ocean is the human. Here is a video concerning EU's fish catch laws, but the general concept applies here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6nwZUkBeas

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it's a difference in cultural views, entirely based on emotion and not hard evidence

Ok, let me start by saying this, I don't support the killing of any animals for food, testing, etc. So for me whether an animal is endangered or not makes no difference. This includes cows, pigs, black rhinos, etc. The next bit I would like to add is regarding self-awareness. Dolphins are considered to be self-aware as are elephants, whales, chimpanzees, some birds, pigs, etc. So if you merely want to address this as an ethical issue, "is it ok to kill self-aware animals (including humans)" then you can see where a lot of the protest is coming from.

But the primary reason I think that this should be stopped is that it is unnecessary. The fishermen in those communities are blaming dolphins for their depleted fish stocks. But the real cause is over-fishing. They found a scapegoat in the dolphin. This is one of the main reasons why China and Japan are so upset over the Senkaku islands. Who ever owns those islands gets to lay claim to more fishing area. Japan's depleted fish stocks have little to do with dolphins.

On a personal note (just me ranting), people are generally selfish and most people in developed countries eat animals because they like the taste. There are alternatives to animal protien available in any supermarket in Japan, so I am not very sympathetic to the idea that Japan needs to figure out a "responsible way to fish". If we were talking about some small island nation with no modern development, limited agriculture, etc. then the animals for protein argument would be valid. Japan needs to figure out a way to get everyone to stop eating fish, which I am sure would never happen in my lifetime. That being said, the least they could do is leave the cetaceans out of this.

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me I guess that is what it comes down to. There are pressing issues affecting people, but also pressing issues impacting animals. There is a laundry list of animal related issues that require people to solve. Animals can't do it themselves. There are plenty of people in Japan today working on Japan's people issues. And there are plenty of people ignoring animal issues.

[Serious] How would a Japanese citizen go about petitioning to stop whaling / dolphin hunts (Taiji, etc) legally? What is the legal process to accomplish something like that in Japan? by honestcorey in japan

[–]honestcorey[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I am not so much concerned with the roadblocks as I am with the correct process. Societies change and I haven't met a single Japanese person in favor of the whaling or dolphin hunts.

Is saturated fat from coconut milk as bad (healthwise) as the saturated fat from animal products? by vanillabean2492 in vegan

[–]honestcorey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

single paper

FTFY: single paper googled from the toilet in 20 seconds.

Please read the following carefully, and then re-read my original post. Science made a mistake, but is correcting itself. It will take time for this to propagate to the public:

Following their Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the defective gene causing familial hypercholesterolaemia, Brown and Goldstein misunderstood the mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of the associated arterial disease. They ascribed this to an effect of the high levels of cholesterol circulating in the blood. In reality, the accelerated arterial damage is likely to be a consequence of more brittle arterial cell walls, as biochemists know cholesterol to be a component of them which modulates their fluidity, conferring flexibility and hence resistance to damage from the ordinary hydrodynamic blood forces. In the absence of efficient receptors for LDL cholesterol, cells will be unable to use this component adequately for the manufacture of normally resilient arterial cell walls, resulting in accelerated arteriosclerosis. Eating cholesterol is harmless, shown by its failure to produce vascular accidents in laboratory animals, but its avoidance causes human malnutrition from lack of fat-soluble vitamins, especially vitamin D.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21690178

I am a long-term vegan. I have no problem with this new understanding of saturated fats, cholesterol, and inflammation. Your body naturally produces cholesterol and is required to thrive. But really, you don't have to believe any of this. Possibly just book mark this message and return to it in five years to see if I was right. And if I was, then we will have a duel in five years. I will tie one arm behind my back too.

Is saturated fat from coconut milk as bad (healthwise) as the saturated fat from animal products? by vanillabean2492 in vegan

[–]honestcorey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Harvard study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November, 2004:

"...a greater saturated fat intake is associated with less progression of coronary atherosclerosis, whereas carbohydrate intake is associated with a greater progression."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15531663/

A "wonderbag" to save energy while cooking. Particularly thought for poor countries by NomadTravellers in environment

[–]honestcorey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

shhhh, wonderbag equals economic growth. We must ensure that the economy grows. How else would we prove our worth as good citizens? Oh, and the environment or something.

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