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Pirate Bay Co-Founder Peter Sunde Is a Free Man Again
jones_supa writes Former Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde was released from prison this morning. Peter is expected to take some time off to spend with family and loved ones before returning to the normal grind. He was arrested in late May this year. Despite being accused of non-violent crimes, Peter was transferred to a high-security unit. His time in prison is described as being tough. There was no concern for high values such as a vegan diet or even proper treatment of depression. Peter also lost 15 kg of weight. After the experience he tweeted, "My body just got re-united with my soul and mind, the parts of me that matters and that never can be held hostage."
A vegan diet isn't about being hipster, it can be about moral choices.
If you went to jail and all they served was dog meat, would you eat it? How about insects?
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If your not depressed about being in prison you have a problem. prison is not supposed to have concern for your high values. That is why its a punishment.
You would if you didn't want to die.
Also I wouldn't be citing moral choices when you're committing actions society as deemed criminal and will result in jail.
What if you don't like being in prison for moral reasons, do they accommodate you?
Perhaps because of moral reasons you do things that don't land you in jail?
Keep in mind I'm not saying he should have been jailed, or that the laws are correct. I'm just telling you how it is.
So this is what you get when you threaten the Hollywood Moguls that control the government....welcome to 1984
I am troubled by the no concern for his vegan diet. No concern would imply he was routinely served meat with no deviation from the regular prison fare. I don’t know about Sweden, but it seems there would be plenty of vegetarian diet dishes available for religious reasons to prisoners. If he was offered vegetarian fare, perhaps that suffices, its not like we can accommodate every dietary request. My religion only allows me to eat panda or human flesh certainly wouldn’t fly.
The question here is whether any reasonable accommodation was made. Without more details it is hard to judge. Disturbing if true though. This would imply you have to have a major religion to back up your moral choices in life – which to me is not religious freedom.
Letter To Iran
A vegan diet isn't about being hipster, it can be about moral choices.
If you went to jail and all they served was dog meat, would you eat it? How about insects?
You'd probably eat it.
As for moral choices, I think all life is precious, from microbes to plants to things with faces. I also know that outside of chemolithotropes, we get our energy by killing and eating living things.
Having reasoned that becoming a breatharian isn't practical. I rest assured that our state of matter is just what it is, and we are stuck in it. I eat what I am physically designed to eat, and any "vegan" who is claiming moral superiority, but happily slaughters and devours plant life is just a hypocrite.
IOW, eat what you like, but don't act like you're superior because of it.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
What is it with governments and putting hackers in high security prisons and solitary confinement?
These people are computer nerds not violent criminals. There was no need to put Kevin Mitnick in solitary, no need to put Swartz in solitary, and there was no need to put Sunde in to high security. This is pretty clearly an abuse of power by the government, and there should be a way to stop it.
Seems strange indeed. If you're vegan for moral reasons (even if bluefoxlucid seems to think being vegan is something only hipsters do to set themselves apart) it's not protected, but if you believe in a magical being living in the sky, you're protected.
That's not just a lack of religious freedom, that's protecting the idiots.
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Meat will make you sick if you haven't eaten it in a while
According to Sunde the reason is incompetence;
excerpt from http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article19207648.ab
"Jag är vegan och har gått ner sju kilo på en månad. Viktminskningen beror på den undermåliga maten. De få grönsaker som serveras saknar nödvändiga vitaminer och mineraler. Vid klagomål har jag fått höra att de inte behöver ge mig annan mat än den vanliga, då min diet varken är religiös eller medicinsk, trots att lagen är tydlig med att vegetarisk kost ska tillhandahållas. Problemet är att lagen inte följs särskilt ofta."
"I'm a vegan and have lost even kilos in a month. The weight loss is due to the substandard meals. The few vegetables which are served lack the necessary vitamins and minerals. When I complained I was told that they didn't need to afford me any special accommodation as my diet was neither religious nor medicinal, even if the law is clear that vegetarian diet shall be offered. The problem is that the law is often ignored".
my translation is kind of shit but it's apparent that it was a combination of incompetent and/or vindictive/uncaring prison officials.
I do understand that there are limits on when and why a prison can supply specialized diets. But the depression issue is much more serious. Obviously the prison systems are designed to create depression or worse. And that is flat out stupid. Many mental hospitals play the same game. People are given little or nothing to do that is fun or stress relieving. And much like many convicts many mental patients have nothing in life to look forward to as well. So the convicts become much harder to handle and much more prone to commit serious crimes upon release. After years of mental torture many inmates hate society so much that they are not only walking time bombs but they also seek revenge on all of society. The US prison system and jail systems can take a person with a minor problem and grow them into a monster. Small examples are obvious. A person on probabtion or parole will be required to tell a future employer that they are a criminal. Jobs are hard to get and revealing that you are a criminal makes employment next to impossible. Th ex inmate is not going to starve and rot. if he can't get work he will turn back to crime. Even child support creates many criminals. A judge assigns too much child support and a full time job will not leave a man with enough money to survive. If he doesn't pay he goes to jail. He will turn to crime. Now his exwife and child will get zero support. When he gets out of prison he can not apply for any bennefits in some states so having nothing and being unemployable his only chance is crime. The system is creating criminals and creating some serious hatred within the inmates. These issues would not exist if the system did not want them to exist. To some people a convict means money and lucrative supply contracts and therefore the system seeks to create criminals. Yes we are that corrupt.
Sure in America that's called jail. However, not everywhere is in America and not everywhere else uses that terminology. Sweden happens to be part of the everywhere that isn't America and doesn't use that terminology.
Neither dog food nor insects are considered human food in most countries. I'll rewrite your question so it makes more sense and is comparable to eating ordinary food instead of vegan food... "If you went to jail and all they served was vegan food, would you eat it? How about kosher/halal food?" My answer is, Yes I would eat what ever food they put in front of me as long as it is human food.
Sunde did not commit any crime. His actions where made crimes after he performed them and he was convicted due to foreign and political pressure on the legal system.
I'm sure it's just a question about vegan/vegetarian food not having same status as halal/kosher food. I doubt Muslims in Swedish jails would be forced to eat non-halal food. It's probably just a matter of economics. Preparing special food for one guy and have it delivered to him would cost too much money and take up to many man-hours. It's just not cost effective and prisons have a budget just like every other government run facility.
Truth. My wife's been vegetarian for going on 2 decades now. There have been times in the past when meat has accidentally made its way into her diet, and she's gotten horribly sick from it. She doesn't even have to know she had the meat, so I doubt that it's psychosomatic.
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So if I have a "moral" belief that says I can only eat PRIME beef in proportion with Lobster and an expensive vintage wine, cooked in a specific way and accompanied by a rotating set of side dishes, the prison system is now required to provide for my "morally" dictated diet? Of course not.
What the prison system is required to provide is basic food. If that does not meet your "moral" requirements then don't eat. or eat as your choose. This "normal" diet is not cruel or unusual punishment. If the prison system chooses to provide more than that, it is up to them, but those who break the law, get what they get and I'm tired of all the complaining about it being unfair or wrong.
I wan to remind folks that prisons have come a long way. It wasn't that long ago being in prison meant you starved and spent your time in hard labor. Prisons where seen as punishment. In may places in the world they still are this way. In some ways we've made prison too cushy if you ask me.
So, if you are sent to prison (or jail) I suggest you not expect your vegan diet choice to be accommodated, just like mine won't be either. Learn to live with eating what you can, or if it means enough to you, starve yourself to death for your morals. I'm all for you exercising your morals, I just wish you had a bit more moral clarity on your activities that got you in trouble in the first place...
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You can consider yourself a vegan but you're not. You've become omnivorous.
Veganism is a diet for rich western people who have shops stocked with food year round and first world medical facilities. For most of the world, veganism is a cruel joke, if not a slow suicide.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
actually not , most people in the world are too poor to afford meat unless they grow it themselves and even then they eat it sparingly. This has been ever since humans have traded foodstuffs.
Meat is a diet for rich western people who have first world medical facilities , for most of the world , eating meat is a cruel joke , a slow suicide of the planet as land used for meat production is typically orders of magnitude less resource efficient.
there i fixed it for you , now please fix your diet and mindset
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People have their own individual reasons for being rapists. "Alcohol isn't really rape, it turns a no into a yes so it's not rape." "She was all over me, then she started being a bitch." In the end, it all comes down to a macho feeling of control and a sexual outlet, coupled with lack of caring for the other person.
You say that "people have their own individual reasons for being vegans", and it holds the same weight: people are trying to assimilate a position of individuality, and don't have a real moral concern for anything when they go vegan. Vegans argue over whether bee honey is actually vegan, as it exploits slave insect labor; they don't understand that bees would leave the hive if their position was uncomfortable. Vegans argue against the killing of animals, while eating grain farmed in practices that wound or kill animals and insects continuously. The meat at the slaughter is the least of all suffering involved in food production: it is as if you burned down a 500 mile wide forest, and complained about someone stepping on a dandelion.
Vegans don't care about any of that. They honestly don't care. They are joining to an ideal--a packaged ideal. Buddha said that consumption causes suffering, and so we should not overconsume: he understood that eating too much, building too much, taking too much water, anything we do inflicts pain and suffering on a large scale to other humans and to animals and insects alike. Vegans are concerned with what, and not with how much; they aren't concerned about their food source having more loss, greater shipping requirements, and other demands which eventually lead to more consumption and more animal suffering. They just don't want to be involved in the suffering of a sheep or chicken somewhere.
It's an ideal system straddled purely to produce a social kinship feeling. It provides a self-identity. Vegans can't deviate and eat meat which will otherwise be thrown away not because it will somehow reduce suffering of some animal, but because it is an assault on their identity and sense of self.
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My meat packed freezer and diet are just fine. now please stop forcing your beliefs upon others. Do as you wish and I'll do as I wish.
you are the one spreading lies about vegans , that is forcing your beliefs on others.
I pointed out your are wrong and suggested you change , thats not forcing my beliefs on others.
maybe if you ate less meat you might less agressive and defensive , i've heard it does that to people.
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So, your argument is blaming the victim?
The idea that all people in prison deserve whatever abuse because they did something morally wrong to get there doesn't make sense in theory (one can be both victimiser and a victim), let alone in practice given that law and morality sometimes match up and oftentimes do not. That meaning that there are plenty of people in prison for doing nothing wrong, or even doing the right thing.
And that might not sway your black-and-white view of the world, but I am certain you would feel differently if you were Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu being fed only pork (or beef in the case of being Hindu). Being arbitrarily forced to choose between conviction and survival with no need for it is akin to torture (certainly cruel and unusual).
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
You'd have a point if there was evidence that piracy hurts sales, which doesn't seem to be the case. Musicians make most of their money from touring, anyway - the vast, vast share of the money from record sales goes to the record company. People who pirate games are far more likely to spend more money on buying games they actually like. It's all exposure.
And you can't steal something by making a copy of it, as stealing is the act of unlawfully depriving someone of their property, not getting something for free.
Your analogy was truly pathetic, so it will be downvoted by anyone with a modicum of logic or intellectual honesty.
No? Why not? Eating other sentient beings or not is a moral choice.
Because the actual damage of producing, obtaining, and transporting food is large. Meat is easier to keep than vegetables: you can slaughter animals as needed, but vegetables must be planted months in advanced and harvested at the right time. Blemished vegetables are often thrown out (we've started to use them to make soups); blemished fruits are more often thrown out; and a lot isn't sold from the supermarket. Grain stores better than anything, but still uses a lot of land, damaging farming practice, varmint management, etc.
Everything that we produce--food, non-food, the like--involves continuous harm to the environment at large, and direct harm to individual animals and insects. An animal you slaughter is just the end of a huge trail of dead insects and animals. It's imperative to kill all the rabbits, mice, voles, and moles living in your fields if you grow vegetables. Free-graze cattle and even grain-fed livestock don't deal with concerns of storage and preparation for human consumption; they also eat genetically modified foods, for better or worse, which require less damaging management.
The largest impact of human activity is how much. If you want to inflict less harm, eat less. For example: eat cow--large single animal--instead of chicken. The obvious deficiency is the ever-expanding human population: if we free-range hunted and gathered, we'd strip the land bare; dense human farming supports our population.
These are all technical considerations; they tell little of mindset. The most telling illustration of mindset is the regard vegans have when meat is proffered: they won't eat it. The food will be thrown away; future accommodations won't be made. The act of not eating prison mystery meat or the steak and shrimp served at a wedding does nothing except throw more food in the trash. At business functions, when a significant vegitarian or vegan population exists in the business, meetings which ordered 3 trays now order 4, consuming more (with attached increased suffering to animals) than if the vegans just ate the same food as everyone else.
None of this matters, because veganism is a matter of self: for a vegan to eat meat would be inexcusable even when you could demonstrate absolutely that consuming a vegetable instead would inflict more suffering on animals than if they just ate the meat provided. Consuming meat is an attack on a vegan's personal identity, and would be akin to slicing open your own arm: it cannot be done without significant psychological harm.
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1) He's not a victim. He's a convicted criminal.
False dichotomy. Turns out he's both. Go back and dig in the posts. It was in fact illegal for the prison not to at least serve a vegeterian meal. So he was the victim of a crime.
Happy now?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Veganism is a lot more extreme than just being a vegetarian. Vegetarianism is common in many parts of the world. But veganism certainly is not.
Sure in America that's called jail. However, not everywhere is in America and not everywhere else uses that terminology. Sweden happens to be part of the everywhere that isn't America and doesn't use that terminology.
And even though we have "jails" in Sweden, Peter Sunde still wasn't in our version anyway, as he was incarcerated having been sentenced. The Pirate Bay trial and all that...
He was arrested in May to serve his prison sentence. Police claims he's been hiding himself abroad, he claims he's been quite open about his whereabouts and weren't even told there was an international warrant out for his arrest.
Given how the trial was handled, and given that Peter Sunde is the one of the Pirate Bay founders that have always kept his nose clean otherwise, I'm more inclined to believe his account than the official one.
Now, regarding food, that's not the only instance where the Swedish prison authority haven't followed their own rules. And as Peter Sunde didn't just roll over and take it, but lodged several formal complaints, he's been treated rather badly. Not only put in a high security prison when he was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment, has no history of violence, is a first time offender, and was most definitely not sentenced for a violent crime. It even got to the point where the prison authority threatened that he would have to carry his father's coffin wearing handcuffs! This for a prisoner that has no formal complaints lodged against him and that were given leave at least twice to visit his father in hospital under much less strict security.
No, it pains me to say it, but there's something rotten in the state of Sweden. This whole thing from beginning to end, smells badly.
Stefan Axelsson