If necessary for your survival, do you think you could resort to cannibalism?

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like in an "Alive"/Donner Party scenario

Poll Results

OptionVotes
yes 36
no 5


congratulations (n/a), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link

i think i probably could

congratulations (n/a), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:06 (twelve years ago) link

only if it meant eating you

desk calendar white out (Matt P), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:07 (twelve years ago) link

I dunno. I definitely couldn't "prepare" the meat (cut up another person), but if it were served to me and I was on the verge of starvation I'd probably give it a go.

Johnny Fever, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:07 (twelve years ago) link

yes and i'd also be the dude who's enjoying it a little too much and making the rest of the plane crash survivors really uncomfortable

these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:12 (twelve years ago) link

wouldn't do this

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link

not into killing other people - who determines who goes first, etc. is a fucked up process I would refuse to participate in.

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link

what if a dude JUST DIES on his own and you realize you have to eat him before he goes bad

these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link

If it were an Alive situation then yest I would do it without question and I don't even eat meat in general.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link

That is to say that if the people were already dead * really think it would be a no brainer for me. If they were alive as Shakey is describing it would be totally different.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link

I wouldn't kill someone (probably) but yeah, if someone else prepared the meat I could imagine being able to eat human flesh.

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link

*om nom nom*

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link

i wonder what would be the choicest cut of manmeat

these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link

Your username possibly provides an answer?

beanz meanz lulz (snoball), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:22 (twelve years ago) link

I get really cranky when I don't eat, I could prob eat human flesh after...3 days?

iatee, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link

not that I *want to* but if I were on a desert island w/ no food and a dead body, sure, 3 days

iatee, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link

i'm a vegetarian cuz i want to avoid killing things but in an Alive situation the moral permission to find out what people taste like would probably be the one bright spot of the entire scenario

their private gesture for bison (difficult listening hour), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link

more curious about the people who think they just absolutely couldn't do it, even if it was someone who was already dead. seems like an underestimation of what truly facing death by starvation would be like. but i'm pretty sure there were people in the donner party who refused to partake and died of starvation.

congratulations (n/a), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:24 (twelve years ago) link

not that I *want to* but if I were on a desert island w/ no food and a dead body, sure, 3 days

pretty sure by 3 days that meat has gone bad

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:25 (twelve years ago) link

I am choosing to parse "an 'Alive' situation" as meaning "whenever you hear the Pearl jam song"

voted yes

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:25 (twelve years ago) link

Yeah, idk. Eating someone who is already dead just doesn't seem that bad to me if it means I get to live. If it were all frozen and stuff it probably wouldn't even be really gross. I read that book a bunch of times (why I have no idea) and I think they cooked some of it by laying it out in the sun and drying it out.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:25 (twelve years ago) link

weren't there people who made it out OK without having to eat their buds in both alive/donner party?

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:26 (twelve years ago) link

AS far as Alive goes, I don't think so. Everyone that refused to eat their friends wound up dying. I think.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:26 (twelve years ago) link

I have also seen that movie several times but I know why I did that - Ethan Hawke never looked hotter than he did playing a sunburned unshaven cannibal.

wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:27 (twelve years ago) link

as long as we're talking dead bodies, if you're an atheist its sorta just one of those biological reactions that you just have to get over, sorta like 'can two siblings get married if they agree to have no kids'

iatee, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:27 (twelve years ago) link

the donner party story is pretty involved and confusing and most of what we know about it comes from (often conflicting) stories from people who were there who had their own motivations etc., there were two different groups (one who camped out waiting for rescue and another that tried to continue on to california and get help) that resorted to cannibalism, etc so i don't know if there's really 100 percent reliable info about who did what exactly

congratulations (n/a), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:28 (twelve years ago) link

like the group that was trying to get to california ended up killing their indian guides and eating them but there's conflicting info on how close to death the guides were before they were killed (ie was it a mercy killing scenario or not)

congratulations (n/a), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:30 (twelve years ago) link

sunburned unshaven cannibal

read this as 'sunburned buttshaven cannibal'

What I think now, in the comfort of my home, with a full belly and a nice cuppa, is probably irrelevant should this situation ever arise.

Aimless, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:32 (twelve years ago) link

i remembered reading some book which i think was alive where the church gave them post facto dispensation to eat their pals, but that some of the dudes didn't need it because they abstained, and i always imagined the pope doing a little aside like, "this applies to everyone except timmy and jeffy, who unlike SOME people, don't fill up on snacks before getting rescued."

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link

If necessary for your survival, do you think you could resort to cannibalism?

http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/romney-santorum.jpg

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link

With relish.

Jeff, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:34 (twelve years ago) link

obviously we want to respect the dead but i think if my loved ones were trapped w/ my dead body i sure as hell would rather they live than me get a decent burial.

one thing i wonder about is if i just died one day in the house, after a few days would my dog start chomping on my nose and cheeks or would he sit with my body and starve to death

also i really wonder whether its possible for me to predict exactly what i'd do if i crash-landed in the andes or was trapped in a tiger cage or whatever

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:38 (twelve years ago) link

What I think now, in the comfort of my home, with a full belly and a nice cuppa, is probably irrelevant should this situation ever arise.

cuppa WHO

iatee, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:38 (twelve years ago) link

the idea that respecting the dead = preserving their dead body as long as possible is ultimately cultural and prob a good thing to trend away from

iatee, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:39 (twelve years ago) link

I was going to say something about some people living by the credo of not doing to their loved ones in death what they wouldn't do to them in life but then I saw the massive rationalization for necrophilia lurking behind that statement and now I am just looking at my subconscious like this:

http://hellinahandbasket.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/skeptical-baby-looks-askance.jpg

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:44 (twelve years ago) link

I put human flesh on my rider just so I have a little every night in case I do at some point find myself having to subsist on it

same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:46 (twelve years ago) link

I am imagining you with a huge Dagwood-sized placenta sandwich, chomping away merrily backstage while the apocalypse rains down

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:48 (twelve years ago) link

"...can you push stage time back 10 minutes and get me some bromo? that placenta reuben's really rearing up on me"

same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:50 (twelve years ago) link

how much does a lb of flesh go for these days anyway?

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:53 (twelve years ago) link

oz of prevention iirc

same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:55 (twelve years ago) link

xpost Would it be bad after three days? You hang game for longer. I think you've cut and prepared and hung that juicy human flesh in a cool, dry place, you're OK. If, on the other hand, you've got a whole corpse and you're in the rainforest then it might be unappetising fairly quickly. But if you were in the rainforest you might be able to find something else. Cannibalism as a necessity seems to arrive in icy circumstances, where there is no opportunity to forage for anything else, and where the meat must keep pretty well. I think your cooking options might be limited, so a carpaccio or a tartare might be the best way to serve it.

Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:57 (twelve years ago) link

Sorry: that should be "I think IF you've cut and prepared …"

Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:57 (twelve years ago) link

if you starve in a rainforest I kinda think you must be a little stupid

Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 6 April 2012 17:58 (twelve years ago) link

Just in case anyone finds themselves stranded in a rainforest over the weekend, here's quick guide to finding food.

Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link

God, "a quick guide". I keep missing words today.

Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link

I dont value being alive enough to eat ppl

Lamp, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:04 (twelve years ago) link

you say that now

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:06 (twelve years ago) link

i'm pretty sure the industrialized food chain has made cannibals of us all in very fractional ways.
there's some food guidelines for insect parts allowed in veggies/fruits, but there should also be guidelines for allowable human body parts.

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:07 (twelve years ago) link

It's not the fact of being alive that would make you eat people, it's the fact of starving to death. You don't just disappear in a puff of smoke, you die a long, lingering, painful death.

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:07 (twelve years ago) link

dont we all?

Lamp, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:11 (twelve years ago) link

Poll needs a 3rd "Stephen King's Survivor Type" option - would you eat your own body parts if you had a big enough pile of cocaine to get you through the butchering :D

but I think, honestly, my answer would be yes. If I was hungry enough I'd kill and eat all of you. I just wouldn't eat your placenta.

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:12 (twelve years ago) link

[spoiler] they taste just like lady fingers! [/spoiler]

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:13 (twelve years ago) link

more curious about the people who think they just absolutely couldn't do it, even if it was someone who was already dead. seems like an underestimation of what truly facing death by starvation would be like. but i'm pretty sure there were people in the donner party who refused to partake and died of starvation.

the real hitch in this scenario is refusing to eat people means you are essentially volunteering to be eaten after you die. so your moral stance is just you turning into a cartoon cooked turkey in everyone else's eyes.

rob, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:14 (twelve years ago) link

nah lamp, some people get hit in the back of the head w/ a sharpened coconut while they're not looking and cooked over an improvised campfire

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:15 (twelve years ago) link

neither slow nor painful

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:15 (twelve years ago) link

I am p sure I could eat someone who is already dead. Obv can't say what I would do, but I have to believe that I wouldn't kill someone who wasn't already dead.

Tried to think about whether I could eat my cats in a is,lar situation but got too sad and had to stop thinking about it.

The real question thoughts whether you would cut off and eat your own extremities to survive. Xp!!!!

carl agatha, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:18 (twelve years ago) link

u dont know what happens before that coconut

Lamp, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:18 (twelve years ago) link

Is,lar = similar

carl agatha, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:19 (twelve years ago) link

what if the situation was if you were offered human meat by a culture that deems it extremely rude not to eat it, would you eat it? like REALLY rude, it would really hurt their feelings.

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:20 (twelve years ago) link

Starvation is definitely slow. An average westerner could survive at least a month, if not more, on water alone. As for pain, not so much, if you only consider the starvation in itself. However, you would grow very weak and could easily succumb at the end by being pecked to death by crows, or something similarly gruesome.

Aimless, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:21 (twelve years ago) link

sure, why not

Spleen of Hearts (kingfish), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:23 (twelve years ago) link

I'm pretty good at carving up a chicken into parts. Butchering a human seems daunting but I think I could manage.

Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:24 (twelve years ago) link

"The Savage Mouth" by Komatsu is a horrific tale that describes the insane side of a man who is overly intellectual and who tries to know his unexplicable self by eating his body.

^^ highly recommended to all fans of clive barker, etc

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:24 (twelve years ago) link

i just think in certain contexts, we're all capable and to some extent do eat human-derived product, so the trick to eating human meat in a survival situation is to alter the context enough so that it's comfortable.

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:30 (twelve years ago) link

Tried to think about whether I could eat my cats in a is,lar situation but got too sad and had to stop thinking about it.

I would eat people before eating my cats, definitely.

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:00 (twelve years ago) link

(And I don't even have a cat at the moment, just on principle)

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:01 (twelve years ago) link

what's the cutest animal you guys would eat? rabbits, pigs, lambs?

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link

Yes, yes, and yes

Jeff, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link

zooey deschanel? butters from south park?

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link

I don't think it's about the cuteness, really. More the companionship. Though cats are incredibly cute.

emil.y, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:13 (twelve years ago) link

personally, this one gets my vote:

http://www.animal-forum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/spiderc.jpg

God, Music and Romeo and Juliet (DJP), Friday, 6 April 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link

i believe some so-called "cute animals" actually routinely engage in cannibalism

http://www.thatcutesite.com/uploads/2009/09/puppy_nose_bite.jpg

the late great, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:37 (twelve years ago) link

i bet there's a weird inflection point where if you've actually decided to eat one, the animal's cuteness now works against it.
like if you had to eat ethan hawke or willem dafoe (i dunno if dafoe was in alive, i just think he'd taste really gamy and scaly.)

Philip Nunez, Friday, 6 April 2012 19:41 (twelve years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 30 April 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link

how much does a lb of flesh go for these days anyway?

― the late great, Friday, April 6, 2012 1:53 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Check ManBeef.com.

challoped potatoes (j.lu), Monday, 30 April 2012 00:28 (twelve years ago) link

EASILY

balls, Monday, 30 April 2012 01:19 (twelve years ago) link

Would you kill the dog or the annoying group member first?

I know my answer.

Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Monday, 30 April 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago) link

every time you are swallowing your saliva you are engaging in cannibalism THINK ABOUT IT

dayo, Monday, 30 April 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago) link

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENS WHEN YOU EAT YOUR BOOGERS

dayo, Monday, 30 April 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago) link

p. sure i'd just leap into a crevasse -- i'm a shitty cook anyway

mookieproof, Monday, 30 April 2012 01:22 (twelve years ago) link

i have enough trouble rationalizing continued existence even before factoring friend-meat into the equation

mookieproof, Monday, 30 April 2012 01:31 (twelve years ago) link

no, I always keep a Clif bar in my backpack anyway.

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 30 April 2012 02:00 (twelve years ago) link

not sure i'd even need to be starving, if they were already dead and cooked nicely. if they were a member of the group that i didn't like, it would even be a handy cover for just, y'know, killing them.

diafiyhm (darraghmac), Monday, 30 April 2012 07:41 (twelve years ago) link

best option would be to survive a fiery plane crash that happens to cook your fellow passengers amirite?

dayo, Monday, 30 April 2012 10:06 (twelve years ago) link

does soylent green count? soylent green is people btw.

fishermen are coveted by whores & stoners (Pillbox), Monday, 30 April 2012 12:10 (twelve years ago) link

SPOILERS

Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Monday, 30 April 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link

ffs mods can we get that poster deleted that isn't even out over here yet

diafiyhm (darraghmac), Monday, 30 April 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link

not into killing other people - who determines who goes first, etc. is a fucked up process I would refuse to participate in.

― Disco Bob & MC Criminal (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, April 6, 2012 5:18 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ you, my friend, are going first.

one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 30 April 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago) link

i wrote a ten-minute play about cannibalism in lol college.

the central question that i have, as a skinny dude, is whether or not i'd be more likely to be eaten first or less likely. on one hand, i would be skinny and weak in the first place and when instincts turned primal and angry burly dudes started flashing their canines at each other, i'd probably go down quickly. on the other hand, no one would want to eat me because it would be all bony.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 30 April 2012 21:39 (twelve years ago) link

if you were a brony nobody would eat you because you would be all brony

dayo, Monday, 30 April 2012 21:42 (twelve years ago) link

save derpy, eat a brony

one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 30 April 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link

I think the answer to your question, ZS, turns on whether we're eating people who die naturally (in which case you'd get et) or killing people to eat them (in which case I would).

Polly biscuit face (carl agatha), Monday, 30 April 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link

my haunches look srsly delicious, i've decided.

diafiyhm (darraghmac), Monday, 30 April 2012 22:14 (twelve years ago) link

rip darraghmac he was eaten for his delicious haunches

dayo, Monday, 30 April 2012 22:17 (twelve years ago) link

fingernails and bone marrow is still vegan right?

Philip Nunez, Monday, 30 April 2012 22:21 (twelve years ago) link

Yes, without question. I might not even wait till I was hungry.

we are not bemused (onimo), Monday, 30 April 2012 22:27 (twelve years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

American settlers 'turned cannibal'

Bees Against Racism (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 17:51 (eleven years ago) link

laura ingalls wild er

j., Wednesday, 1 May 2013 18:11 (eleven years ago) link

Crazy thing is that they prob didn't need to eat human flesh. America's coastline was a bonanza of naturally available foods: ocean and freshwater fish, shellfish, game and gamebirds, but also scavengable stuff like mushrooms, berries, kelp. The colonists were highly suspicious of such foods and shockingly ignorant of most survival skills.

Aimless, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 18:23 (eleven years ago) link

NO THEY HAD TO

j., Wednesday, 1 May 2013 18:26 (eleven years ago) link

yr all a bunch of savages smdh at these poll results

four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 1 May 2013 18:31 (eleven years ago) link

one year passes...

Was reading about mass cannibalism during the Bolshevik grain requisition Povolzhye famine in '21. The more morally defensible cannibals rationalised eating the dead to survive, but fucking cannibal cafeterias run by human hunters, profiteering during a famine is too much to take. I'd guess similar grotesqueness occurred during Mao's great leap forward as well.

The stealing of corpses from cemeteries became so common that in many regions armed guards had to be posted on their gates. Hunting and killing people for their flesh was also a common phenomenon. In the town of Pugachev it was dangerous for children to go out after dark since there were known to be bands of cannibals and traders who killed them to eat or sell their tender flesh. In the Novouzensk region there were bands of children who killed adults for their meat...

Moreover, the craving for human flesh which starving people can easily develop once they have eaten it was not peculiar to any social class. Hungry doctors often succumbed to eating it after long spells of relief work in the famine region, and they too stated that the worst part of the experience was "the insuperable and uncomfortable craving" which they had acquired for human flesh.

festival of labour (xelab), Sunday, 29 June 2014 20:08 (nine years ago) link

Well, once you've killed and eaten a human being, seeing all those people just walking around has to be maddening, like those old cartoons where the starving man on the raft floating mid-ocean imagines the guy on the raft with him's head turning into a roast turkey or whatever...

Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Sunday, 29 June 2014 20:11 (nine years ago) link

I love that old cartoon sight gag, it is brutal and funny at the same time.

festival of labour (xelab), Sunday, 29 June 2014 20:33 (nine years ago) link

I like the South Park episode where all the adults get snowed in and they resort to cannibalism _that night_

Stephen King's Threaderstarter (kingfish), Sunday, 29 June 2014 22:36 (nine years ago) link

that is a great ep

do u like green ez & jam (darraghmac), Sunday, 29 June 2014 22:38 (nine years ago) link

five years pass...

During an 1874 election fight in Tranmere, a 'local cannibal' allegedly attacked a canvasser with no provocation - he 'chawed' him and bit off part of his lip. A newspaper report concluded that 'cannibalism cannot be tolerated, even in Tranmere': pic.twitter.com/ftaNIXB8Jv

— Victorian Election Violence UK (@VictorianEV_UK) April 15, 2020

'cannibalism cannot be tolerated, even in Tranmere'

classic bantz

calzino, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 10:48 (four years ago) link

If I can eat ass, I can eat calf

Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 11:00 (four years ago) link

what if it’s not necessary for your survival and you just fancy sampling a bit of long pig

asking for a friend, like

He is married to Brogmus, Linda. (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 11:38 (four years ago) link

I think eating members of Longpigs is quite permissible tbf

calzino, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 11:56 (four years ago) link

brb gonna start a ‘which longpig would u eat’ poll

He is married to Brogmus, Linda. (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 12:13 (four years ago) link

lol these poll results are v revealing

crüt, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 12:51 (four years ago) link

At least five ILXors are liars.

coviderunt omnes (pomenitul), Wednesday, 15 April 2020 12:52 (four years ago) link

Poll is eight years old, those five have probably been gobbled up by now.


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