Switzerland Places Ban on the Humiliation of Plants

In an attempt to be on the cutting edge of the absurd, the Swiss government has added an amendment to their plant rights law. It is now illegal to humiliate a plant. "Where does it stop?" asks Yves Poirier, a molecular biologist at the laboratory of plant biotechnology at the University of Lausanne. "Should we now defend the dignity of microbes and viruses?" If the Swiss have their way, nobody will be eating twice-shamed potatoes at my house anymore.

Comments

Big deal

[Profane MuthaFucka]

This is such a stupid story, because it relies on the stupidity of the audience to completely misunderstand what it's all about.

I'm sure conservatives like Pudge will be all outraged by it.

Re:Big deal

[pla]

This is such a stupid story, because it relies on the stupidity of the audience to completely misunderstand what it's all about.

Completely misunderstand? Did you read TFA? You don't need to misunderstand it to find the situation absurd:

the team published a treatise on "the moral consideration of plants for their own sake." The treatise established that vegetation has innate value and that it is morally wrong to partake in activities such as the "decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason."

So yeah, the jokes about potatoes may go a tad bit outside the scope of this law, but they actually don't miss the point. Why shouldn't I decapitate a roadside flower for the hell of it? Attributing ideas such as "dignity" to literally brainless creatures sounds just as absurd as the inevitable jokes about all our least-favorite veggies.

I suppose you could invoke vague and largely-religious issues such as the "sanctity of all life" in defense of this (part of the) law, but don't pretend it has merit on its own

Re:Big deal

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Completely misunderstand? Did you read TFA? You don't need to misunderstand it to find the situation absurd

Exactly what I'm talking about. What does this have to do with a Pope saying that condoms are unnatural? What does this have to do with programming plants to produce infertile seeds? What does this have to do with messing with any genetic codes at all?

If you find the situation absurd, then you're just not thinking. You're simply reacting to the specific absurd consequences without considering the reasoning which leads to the consequences.

Why should I not ejaculate into a piece of latex? Assigning ideas such as "dignity" to such actions as a Pope's idea of the "right way" to have sex sounds just as absurd as prohibiting the decapitation of dandelions.

Re:Big deal

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Sure there are differences. They are different things. The law was about some kind of weird dignity for plants, and there are other people who want dignity for other weird things - like cumshots.