"Quintus Sextius was a quasi Stoic Roman philosopher, who apparently came from a wealthy, powerful family, and turned down a Senate role from Julius Caesar. He had an interesting argument for Veganism, which is based more around the Greek and Roman ethics of the time. Instead of talking about suffering, it talked about the virtue in the individual. Eating things which have their origin in cruelty causes the person to become accustomed to cruelty. In a way it erodes your virtue and soul.

Of course, if there was anything in Roman society that got you accustomed to cruelty, it was probably politics. The incredibly brutal acts of Caesar were celebrated and praised officially, so it seems like maybe he could have gone into politics to try to temper the cruelty of the State. I mean, they would have just ignored him probably, but most people probably ignored his vegan argument too, so maybe poor Sextius was doomed either way."

I dunno, preaching animal rights as a politician in Ancient Rome sounds like a great way to make enemies of very powerful and very petty people, and a fast track to getting yourself stabbed. Although I'm not sure if the philosopher route was *that* much safer, we're talking about the people who looked at a beautiful pet bird prized at a status symbol all the way from Asia to Europe and were the first to think "I wonder what this 'chicken' thing tastes like?"

Anyway: wow, so QS invented the "carnism" argument?

"Beautiful universe"

Aww, they complement each other. Rare (fully) wholesome PBF

So in the example of "map of the world and the world", the real world is a sphere, not a flat plane. So does that mean there's going to be two fixed points?

(images are currently broken but you need to click through for the full comic anyway)

Two offside jokes by American comic authors in the same week, is this a sign of the end times?

(for my IRL friends on here: yes, even I am aware the world cup is being hosted in the US right now)