are vegetarians more ethical by not eating meat?

[littleendian]

Can animals build for aesthetics, for design, for multiple functions? Can they manipulate the environment surrounding them into an ordered fashion to serve themselves? Can they manipulate objects, or utilize social structures to utilize individual productivity? Can they communicate with one another?

No, no, and no. No. No, and no. And finally, no.

Neither can the mentally handicapped or infants or many elderly, yet we still feel we have a moral obligation towards them. We have no objective reason to feel morally responsible towards these groups but not for animals.

In other words there's a WORLD of difference between us and that's just scraping the iceberg. Shall I go into written communication, mathematics, space exploration? Shall I go into artwork? No I shan't because by then it'd just be humiliating you.

I'm sure that, as you so condescendingly hint at, I'm not even remotely capable of grapsing all these fascinating topics that you could write The Book on, but that won't win you this argument.

Now, do tell me in what ways we are similar to animals, but without using any of the most obvious three similarities

Animals can suffer. Humans are animals, so humans can suffer and share this with the rest of the animal kingdom. Thanks for the condescending lecture on the difference between ethics and morals, I'm sure it has significant bearing on the subject

By the way, you wanna know how to butcher a cow? Here's a hint; you don't let it suffer. [...] There are exceptions that crop up every so often in the US at least, but the FDA and USDA regulates this shit pretty intensely and when violations are found, they get fixed REALLY fucking fast.

We're not arguing about humane slaughter, which makes about as much sense as speaking of a "human genocide". We're arguing about whether the act of killing already is an issue.

But as a total aside, you are lying to yourself if you think that the machine that is todays mass slaughterhouses has any consideration for the suffering of the "product" that goes through it.

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If the cow is killed, I'll eat his meat so he didn't die in vain.

The man's a saint!

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No, it is not a necessity for you to eat plants that have been killed for food. Fruitarians don't all drop dead, do they?

I've given this a try, admittedly only for a few days, and I felt sick, and I now know that is because it is quite an unhealthy diet for most people. I won't risk my health, which is again simply self-preservation.

Anyone who has seriously tried vegetarianism and was getting sick from it has every right to eat meat, however there are many living and very healthy vegetarians and also vegans who prove that it is quite possible in general. There are very few accounts of healthy fruitarians doing that for any extended time period.

The argument that you made that one should only eat fruits implicitly already accepts that it is wrong to take life without a good reason, and on that we can agree.