this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Showerthoughts

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It was only in 1969 (nice) that fungi officially became its own separate kingdom.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I overheard someone talking about veganism and said they only eat plants. I asked them about mushrooms, “of course it's fine, those are plants”.
No amount of convincing worked.

So I've seen it once.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Mushrooms are plants in the culinary sense. Like strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are berries in the culinary sense.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago

Yup. Inside culinary classifications, fungi don't exist. Outside of culinary classifications, vegetables don't exist.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Culinary definition doesn't differentiate plants, but mushrooms are vegetables.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Separate culinary definitions? That's nuts!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (6 children)

If anything is close to having a consciousness and experiencing an array of emotion, including suffering. That's a mushroom, much more than a plant.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The mycelium, maybe. That is definitely not the part of the mushroom that you eat.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Actual animals are far more likely to feel pain that fungi. Do fungi even have a nervous system?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Fungi are a nervous system.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

We actually suspect they do. They can also display intelligent behavior, from a certain definition of the concept.

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Is he though? He’s anthropomorphic, speaks clear English, and owns a dog.

Pluto is an animal-shaped person.

Wait no that’s Goofy. Pluto is an animal owned by an animal-shaped person!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I think an issue here is that taxonomic and colloquial definitions don't always agree.

Spiders are colloquially bugs, but they're not taxonomically "true bugs" (which is itself a colloquialism for Hemiptera). Tomatos are colloquially vegetables but taxonomically fruits...but afaik vegetable is a purely colloquial term anyway.

And as someone else in the thread mentioned, colloquial berries are not always taxonomic berries.

So...colloquially, "plants" sorta means, "macroscopic multicellular living non-animal thing," but taxonomically it's something else.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And literally anything is a fish if you try hard enough

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Similarly, “a planet” can be understood in technical or colloquial context which changes the meaning. It can have a specific meaning or a vague flexible meaning, just like with berries.

BTW raspberries are my favorite berries… sort of. Watermelons are pretty good too.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you’re talking about tomatoes, the difference is the context, and it isn’t a choice between colloquial vs scientific taxonomy, but between culinary/nutritional vs botany/taxonomy (and). You can talk about either in a colloquial context or a formal context, though generally there isn’t much reason to talk about botany in a colloquial setting.

From a nutritional perspective, mushrooms are generally considered vegetables, too.

afaik vegetable is a purely colloquial term anyway.

I thought you were wrong but I looked it up and I appear to have been mistaken. It makes “tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables” sound nonsensical, as it implies that “vegetable” is a different taxonomical option, when really it’s just a word for objects with a particular collection of traits that are relevant in a different context. What we should he saying is “While tomatoes are not fruit in the food pyramid, taxonomically, they are.” Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, though. Maybe “Tomatoes are vegetables AND fruits!” would solve that?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

but what about berry club? which things count as berries now?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Fuck you op. Mushrooms are plants, Pluto is a planet, and that's the truth from one edge of this flat Earth to the other.

~disclaimer: this is a joke~

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Honestly? Flat earth? It's not even funny as a joke. That entire movement has been so incredibly detrimental, and dangerous. It has shattered families, and been an instruction manual for other conspiracy theorists. And the worst thing of all is that it makes actual, real facts about how the earth is in, in reality, a hollow shell with a breathable atmosphere in its inferior, come across as just as crazy as flat earth. How are we supposed to spread the truth of hollow earth when flat earthers are out there making us look crazy? Just because hollow earth also points out that the government is lying about the earth doesn't mean we're the same! People need to know about hollow earth! Otherwise, we'll never be able to heal the housing market by building condos inside the earth!

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (6 children)

It's not a plant or an animal, but a secret third thing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They're ~~fungi~~ fun guys.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If Pluto is a planet, then Ceres is a planet too. CERES RIGHTS!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Let's just acknowledge that anything big enough to be round is a planet. That's the bare minimum criteria.

Orbit shapes and clear paths don't matter, the Solar system isn't a typical stellar system, many aren't so stable and ordered, especially in binary and triplet star systems. So the pedantry around the shapes of the orbits of the outer kuiper planets is a very silly thing to argue about. After all most orbits in binary and triplet systems aren't even predictable long term, let alone not circular.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (6 children)

So that makes Earth and Moon a binary planet system. I'm cool with that

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I've met people who were certain that bugs weren't animals

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Hell I've met people that don't think humans are animals

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Interestingly people who don't understand they are animals are the least human

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

Thanks plants vs zombies 😡😡

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Pluto is a planet, though. It’s officially considered a “dwarf” planet, and as “dwarf” is just an adjective, it’s still a planet (just like a short person is still a person). The other 8 new dwarf planets (Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus, and Sedna) are also all planets - so we have 17 planets total.

Seriously, though. By the same 3 criteria that Pluto isn’t a planet, Mercury isn’t (as it isn’t in hydrostatic equilibrium).

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Watermelons are berries. Strawberries are not.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The definition of planet is completely subjective, whereas the definition of mushroom is based on science and evolution.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

From what I've seen, dudes that care that much about mushrooms are really fun guys.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

...this would trigger a friend of mine so badly (fungi enthusiast and Pluto stan). I want to send it, but at the same time... I'm not sure I'd hear the end of it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Send it and report back. I am interested in subscribing to their newsletter. You'll let them know, right?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

I think OP is on mushrooms.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fun fact: mushrooms are closer to the animal kingdom than to the plant kingdom.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Yeah but we're not eating the whole thing we're just eating its sex organ

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Well they use chitin not celulose for structure so definatly closer to animals than plants.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Similarly plate tectonics - not fully recognised until the 60s apparently.

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