asleepawake

You don't think physical education courses are legitimate college classes? Every school I've attended has had them, though they have often been worth only like 1 credit.

Congrats! I'm in the airport or I'd give you a gif. Great news!

Congrats recent admits! I can't believe it is March!

Proof this thread is not entirely stupid....

Oh my gosh. 50 people posting how annoying this thread is is way more annoying than this thread....

YAY! I'm glad not everyone thinks I made a fool of myself in this thread... (though I probably did) Yes, despite how I've discussed it here I agree with this. I was more concerned with defending the field from those who see fatness as a personal failing that is as unworthy of discussion as "unflattering outfits," etc. I can't speak for others, but I was not trying to speak to the work that has been done in the field.

Thanks for posting this! I'm sleepy now but I'll try to listen tomorrow.

Only one? It's a good day.

LOL thanks for the jab. This certainly doesn't sound like the worst future possible, though...

Determinism does not require that things are "predetermined" in the sense that they are predictable--things can be unpredictable and also determined. I think it's a bit rash to say "physicists believe" any single thing. Einstein did not believe in freewill (in the 20th century), and the small number of physicists that I know now aren't too keen on it either. Of course there may be many physicists who do believe in free will, and I've love to hear what they have to say.

It is possible to hold someone responsible for their actions without holding them culpable, I think. I consider myself a hard determinist because I can't buy the concept of free will, and I can't just say it must exist because it makes it easier for me to be consistent. The cognitive-disonance is a bit maddening. I think you have good points, but more than anything they just seem to posit the difficulties we have as a species if determinism is true, but not actually evidence against its existence. Even if we cannot know with certainty, we can gain knowledge in the same way that a bird can test the materials that are best for its nest. (You were right about it being late, and I'm probably not making sense anymore. I lose this round.)

To be fair, the book is just one resource on a new field. We can talk about it in different ways. But being a vegan doesn't make you magically thin. I'm an overweight vegetarian. So many vegan carbs.

Absolutely. I still feel like I make all of my decisions. I still get mad at people when they act in ways that I don't like. I still yell at nobody when some horrible driver cuts me off. I still feel like I'm the one making a decision about where I will go to school in the fall. It's only when I really think about it that I just can't believe in it.

If you have time tomorrow, I'd love to hear more on this! My views are always malleable.

They actually make a lot of sense together, at least to me. My interest in prison studies, for example, is helped, not hindered, by my belief that nobody "deserves" to languish away in deplorable conditions. We can certainly do work in the humanities and in social justice without needing to do that work out of free will. Likewise, I think that we can talk about "agency" without needing to have free will. We still have wants and we still suffer. We still value the feeling of free will.

LOL, you're so much more fun than I am! Please, prove me wrong. I didn't choose this belief! It chose me! You say you're a science-y guy, so I'd love to hear your reasons for your belief in free will.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into Daiya next time I am at the store. It's going into my next ziti, so it better do its melting thing. The first 37 minutes are the hardest, though!

I can be an intellectually curious (post)humanist who doesn't accept the notion of free will... I'm certainly no Calvanist, lol. I know of people who think critical animal studies is offensive when it is done with oppression in mind. People who do not believe animals are or can be oppressed may think it's a problem to compare it to "real" human oppression. I didn't mean, like, studying the symbolism of animals, but more activism-based criticism. Enjoy the company of your pups.

Well, I mean what I said... I believe in hard determinism. I don't believe that the human brain is the only thing in the universe that does not bend to the laws of cause and effect. I am by no means an expert, and I could be convinced of the existence of free will with the right evidence. I used to believe in it quite a bit (it's pretty much the default in our culture). Here's a decent article.

Yes, I definitely know that my consumption of dairy and eggs isn't consistent with my ethical principles (neither is my use of non-vegan hair products, etc). Maybe I'll try something like a 6-day-a-week-vegan-thing or a only-eat-dairy-when-eatting-out-thing to ease myself into it. I've tried some of the cheese substitutes, but it's been a while. At the time I thought they had a bad aftertaste. Any particular brand you suggest?

Well, first, I don't believe in free will, so I'm not sure we can debate the responsibility angle productively. We have too fundamental a disagreement on what that even means. I'm not suggesting that we read fatness in the same way that we do race, though there are topics that engage both (Hottentot Venus, for example). Reading race, gender, sexuality, and, yes, body size/shape/etc doesn't mean equating those things, and every single thing that has been added to that list has met with detractors. Plenty of people get "offended" at animal studies, for example, because some of us want to talk about the oppression of nonhuman animals, and some people read that concern as not legitimate. I don't think we need to have a debate about who is the most oppressed; that isn't what I meant to do.

Yes, especially for ethical reasons. I was vegan for almost a year right after high school, but it didn't last. I do think often about trying again, but I haven't taken the plunge because CHEESE and because I'm a terrible cook. I should really do it...

I agree with you. Even though I've been discussing the reasons in this thread, it is a valuable topic even if science proves me wrong on all of those reasons.

I am really surprised to see these really simplistic ideas coming from someone who presumedly has the intellectual curiously that we have in the humanities. I asked a legitimate question. Fishbucket said that we should leave "fat studies" to those in medicine, so I asked if s/he feels that we should also leave disability studies to those looking for cures for illnesses. I didn't say that being fat = being blind. Do you tell addicts that they do not have real diseases, and those with depression that they merely need to look on the bright side? Or is it only weight that you assume is the direct result of some personality flaw?

I've been a vegetarian for a decade, and I agree with you that a plant-based and unprocessed diet is ideal. However, people who are really living in poverty, especially in food deserts, have to think about things like how often they go to the grocery store, because it uses gas or bus money every time they go, and so they buy things that are cheap but also things that last (aka canned, frozen, and processed foods).