LilWabbit
Senior Member
That comes over as if discussing two plates of food, a vegetarian chilli and a lamb korma, with two friends; one's a vegan, and we discuss their suitability in that regard, the other hates picant food, so we discuss their suitability in that regard - and you then butt in and tell me that I'm claiming veganism and spices are synonymous. Which on its own is absurd, but is particularly bizarre as the only claim that I'm making is that both of them are just food, nothing non-food in them, and as far as we know, all my food is just food.
That's a good analogy for our purpose but ill-applied.
Vegetarian chilli and lamb korma can both be eaten with the result of both nourishing our bodies. They can both be broken down into smaller particles. They're both visible, smellable, touchable. They're clearly food and physical.
My understanding of the ideas of 'vegetarianism', 'veganism' and 'picant' cannot be eaten nor does it (regrettably) nourish my body in any way, nor is it visible, smellable or touchable. It is not clearly food nor physical.
One is claiming that both the vegetarian chilli and our understanding of vegetarianism are food, or at least emerge entirely out of food, without proof.
The other is stating they're evidently not both food in terms of their immediately accessible properties. They are completely different kinds of phenomena the dogmatic conflating of which is both bizarre and unscientific. But it's become so popular to conflate them that the sane one gets called out as being nuts. And yet, the sane one allows for this absurd conflation for the sake of freedom of thought, only hoping they'd back it up with a proof.