Disengagement is the use of mental tricks to feel less uncomfortable when confronted with cognitive dissonance. Those confronted with the “meat paradox” — eating meat while claiming to love animals — sometimes employ direct disengagement tactics where they actively justify their meat consumption. Some of these tactics include claiming that animals cannot feel pain, that they don’t possess intelligence or sentience, and calling meat consumption “normal, natural, necessary, or nice.” Read full article here
Science
An Eerie Poisonous Fog
If you’re visiting a farm, keep an eye out for an ominous-looking bronze fog. Nitrogen tetroxide, a red-orange gas, is made by certain bacteria during fermentation when oxygen is lacking in the crop. The lack of oxygen causes the bacteria to use the nitrate within the crops, which then produces nitrogen tetroxide. Inhalation of the gas is known to cause permanent lung damage or kill people and livestock. To prevent this, farmers have started performing nitrate tests after four weeks of fermentation. Read full article here
Merv
November 30, 2022
