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Flogging a dead horse?

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According to animal rights organisation PETA we shouldn’t be using common phrases like:

Flogging a dead horse.
More than one way to skin a cat
Kill two birds with one stone
Bringing home the bacon
Put all your eggs in one basket
Take the bull by the horns
Let the cat out of the bag
Using someone as a Guinea Pig
Hold your horses
Opening up a can of worms

Peta want’s to see them removed from our language because vegans see them as offensive.

They are very commonly used expressions which, I have to say, I use without a thought for the literal meaning because they are all used metaphorically.

Do we have any vegans here? Are you dismayed by these common idioms?

I think we can count on Emp to be, but anyone else?
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Comments

  • Emp_FabEmp_Fab Frets: 24208
    No you can't.  I don't find any of those phrases offensive.
    Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
    Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
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  • Are we still allowed to freeze the balls off a brass monkey?

    (no actual monkeys were harmed in the writing of this post)
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  • webrthomsonwebrthomson Frets: 1029
    edited December 2018
    Sorry thats just stupid - they can fuck off, along with anyone offended by those phrases! I'd recommend getting a life.

    Just beacuse they are offended means sweet FA, and frankly nothing should change because they are:

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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I always found 'pop goes the weasel' very unsettling.
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  • ESBlondeESBlonde Frets: 3576
    Letting the cat out of the bag refers to the whip called the cat of nine tails being pulled from it's stowage bag to thrash a sailor, it has nothing to do with poor animals but everything to do with people abuse.
    I wonder what these people would do if we went back to riding/working horses to save the planet from the internal combustion engine?

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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I was a vegan for a good few years and I never found any of those expressions offensive.
    Certainly nowhere near as offensive as people wafting the smell of frying rashers in my direction.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    I don't eat meat or animal products, but I don't call it vegan because of exactly this sort of shit being associated with what is, for me at least, mostly down to health and diet and not ideology.

    PETA are fucking insane.

    I saw something else they were promoting about how you can't be a feminist if you eat eggs, because chicken slavery = female slavery.
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  • HootsmonHootsmon Frets: 15923
    Emp likes opening up a can of worms especially with a Guinness or two
    tae be or not tae be
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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7730
    edited December 2018
    Only 'Sweat like a pig', simply because pigs are unable to sweat. 
    PETA are just looking for cheap publicy, I liked them more when they got hot girls to get their kit off. 
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  • deanodeano Frets: 622
    Hmmm... so using one of those phrases in the presence of a vegan, would really, really annoy said vegan?




    Heee......
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  • ESBlonde said:
    Letting the cat out of the bag refers to the whip called the cat of nine tails being pulled from it's stowage bag to thrash a sailor, it has nothing to do with poor animals but everything to do with people abuse.

    ^ Correct - as does refering to a room being too small to swing a cat - nothing to do with felines, all to do with whips

    octatonic said:

    PETA are fucking insane.
    /thread - you win!!

    I have yet to understand why anyone who thinks because something upsets / offends them the rest of the world should be barred from it? If you're upset about something why dont you show us your maturity by keeping it to yourself.
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  • randellarandella Frets: 4085
    Are we still allowed to freeze the balls off a brass monkey?
    I believe the officially-ratified SI unit is now "witch's tit".
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  • The brass monkey was where cannon balls were stored, made of brass in cold weather it contracted faster than steel so ejected said cannon balls. 
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  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12253
     "Correct - as does refering to a room being too small to swing a cat - nothing to do with felines, all to do with whips"

    There was a viz letter once that said

    "There's not room to swing a cat in here" my wife said to me, I tested her theory and discovered that there was if you removed the wardrobe which sadly for the cat I did not."
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  • What replacements should we use for music:

    This tone is beefy = this tone is nut roasty

    Plays like butter = plays like olive oil
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  • revsorgrevsorg Frets: 874
    Since June 2017 I have followed a vegan diet for health reasons, I'm not a moral vegan.  In other words, I don't do it because the suffering of animals bothers me.  But inevitably I've been exposed to a lot of the thinking of vegans and I think the arguments for cutting out meat and dairy to reduce your impact on the planet are compelling.  But the most compelling reasons for me are around the health benefits that Dr. Michael Gregor sets out.

    So, I'm never going to find these phrases offensive.

    But I wonder if PETA had phrased their message a bit differently it wouldn't have caused the reaction it did.  I think if our species is going to survive the threat of global warming we're going to have to change what we consume, and there's a positive message in veganism here.  I think telling people that phrases are banned is stupid and confrontational.  I mean, who exactly is going to enforce the ban?  But they might have pointed out that language changes over time and in the future we might look at the language we use now the same way we look back on the language Tom Hanks used in You've Got Mail - dated and out of touch.
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    "Bringing home the bagels"?

    We'll have less of your cultural appropriation, thank you very much.
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  • LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
    It really doesn't help their cause..  
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  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12253
    revsorg said:
    Since June 2017 I have followed a vegan diet for health reasons, I'm not a moral vegan.  In other words, I don't do it because the suffering of animals bothers me.  But inevitably I've been exposed to a lot of the thinking of vegans and I think the arguments for cutting out meat and dairy to reduce your impact on the planet are compelling.  But the most compelling reasons for me are around the health benefits that Dr. Michael Gregor sets out.

    So, I'm never going to find these phrases offensive.

    But I wonder if PETA had phrased their message a bit differently it wouldn't have caused the reaction it did.  I think if our species is going to survive the threat of global warming we're going to have to change what we consume, and there's a positive message in veganism here.  I think telling people that phrases are banned is stupid and confrontational.  I mean, who exactly is going to enforce the ban?  But they might have pointed out that language changes over time and in the future we might look at the language we use now the same way we look back on the language Tom Hanks used in You've Got Mail - dated and out of touch.
    We are going to have to eat insects and jellyfish is the thinking I believe (according to radio 4 a while ago) , they are the only species constantly expanding in numbers like we do and maybe rats.  They will be blend them and reconstitute them into a product similar in texture to burgers and taste like whatever they want.
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  • mbembe Frets: 1840
    PETA should think of the poor children and put them first.

    Children love to enjoy Jelly Spiders and Jelly Scorpion sweets, whilst Butterfly sweets are also popular with the girls.
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