The video is to prove a point really fast, but, cows actually do only eat proteins. They have three stomachs that they use to feed grass to bacterial colonies, which they then pull into their fourth stomach to eat, with any of the grass that's left un-eaten by the bacteria being shit straight out without being processed any further. They don't eat the grass, the grass is there to feed what they do eat, which is supplemented by eating any large animal small enough to fit in their mouth. I read a study once that almost all cows when dissected had at least 1 animal in their digestive system at a time.

The notion that cows are good peaceful harmless herbivores who eat nothing but grass is nonsense. Here's a video of a cow eating the corpse of a donkey. Of note: there's grass right next to the body. And it isn't just a result of cows being fucked up by human domestication, wild deer (who you cannot blame on humans malnourishing it or contaminating its feed or whatever) do it too.

constructing an elaborate worldview out of a kindergarten level understanding of biology and then getting extremely smug about it annoys me relentlessly. Cows would eat you if they had the chance

      • Pezevenk [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Not really. It doesn't work like that. Of course science is gonna be anthropocentric, we're humans and we're doing human science. Why would we waste as much time thinking about the behavioral science and social structures of groundhogs as we do for humans?

        • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Because science is the study of reality and groundhogs are a part of that reality.

          A lot of amazing shit has been discovered from scientists 'wasting time' on things unlikely to centre around humans.

          • Pezevenk [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Because science is the study of reality and groundhogs are a part of that reality.

            So? Science is not just "study of reality". Science is systematic study of interesting or useful parts of reality. If scientists spent as much time studying animal behavior, social structures and physiology as they did for humans we'd be fucked now. Studying all aspects of reality is literally impossible, shit's just too wealthy.

            A lot of amazing shit has been discovered from scientists ‘wasting time’ on things unlikely to centre around humans.

            You can stumble upon something amazing while fooling around but if you mainly just fool around you'll find 3 amazing things and nothing else.

            • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              Science is systematic study of interesting or useful parts of reality.

              lol no it isn't.

              If scientists spent as much time studying animal behaviour, social structures and physiology as they did for humans we’d be fucked now.

              Are you kidding? We spend a fuck ton of time studying animal behaviour, social structures and psychology and actually found out more about our own by doing this.

              I'll tell you what would really fuck us over, only studying a narrow part of our existence. We are products of a very complex environment and almost every part of it impacts us in some way.

              • Pezevenk [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                lol no it isn’t.

                Yes, it is. Scientists don't study the optimal physiological features for spitting out watermelon seeds as far as possible.

                Are you kidding? We spend a fuck ton of time studying animal behaviour, social structures and psychology and actually found out more about our own by doing this.

                Do we spend as much time studying that as we do studying animal behavior, social structures and physiology? Do I have to show you the budgets for the respective fields???

                • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  Yes, it is. Scientists don’t study the optimal physiological features for spitting out watermelon seeds as far as possible.

                  lol you'd be surprised at some of the weird stuff people study.

                  Do we spend as much time studying that as we do studying animal behavior, social structures and physiology? Do I have to show you the budgets for the respective fields???

                  I was saying that everything is studied and all fields contribute to each other in unlikely ways. I don't give a shit what studies our capitalist society prioritises for profit. I'm talking about what science finds important, not the general public. To the scientific community, It's all interesting and it's all worth studying.

                  • Pezevenk [he/him]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    lol you’d be surprised at some of the weird stuff people study.

                    People do study some weird stuff. But they don't get many citations, and they don't get funding if it's something no one else cares about.

                    To the scientific community, It’s all interesting and it’s all worth studying.

                    It's not lol I'm not sure what you think the scientific community is. Ideally everything would be studied but there's not an infinite amount of time or resources to do that. If we didn't live under capitalism we could allocate resources better, but again, some areas of study wouldn't get as much attention because it's just a fact that you have to be mindful of where you allocate your resources.

                    • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      I don't know what you think the scientific community is. It must be different to the ones I've experienced lol. It's not that big a deal to me anyway tbh so lets just forget about it. I'm sleepy.