this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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βStealingβ? Am I βstealingβ fat from the food I eat? Since when is retaining some components of what you consume equivalent to theft?
I assume chloroplast is much more complex than fat and we do actually have fat within our body, while the slug doesn't naturally grow chloroplast.
Am I stealing chloroplasts when I eat a salad?
Can you photosynthesis afterward?
Can we learn how to steal the chloroplastic piracy of the algea?
I imagine there is an incredibly short window in which I technically can.
Can't tell if joking or anti-science, but ok.
Digestion begins before you swallow. I expect if I chewed up some salad, opened my mouth and aimed it at the sun, some percentage of what I'd just chewed on would have access to co2, h2o and 600nm EMR, and synthesize a glucose molecule two.
Since the genesis of this conversation was purely semantic ("why is eating a chrolorplast theft if eating anything else isn't?") I think it's pretty fair game to point out that yes, technically I also can reap the benefits of photosynthesis in a very limited way for something im actively digesting.
Not really a point in getting into a semantic argument if you're just gonna come out swinging about being anti-science.
To put it simply, that slug basically absorb and keep the chloroplast in their own body and let it continue to photosynthesis, hence stealing the ability of the plant they feed, while in your example we basically digest it whole, leaving none of the chloroplast cell to photosynthesis.
That's a huge difference between this two organism, kinda silly to bring it up as an example, no? And technically, it's still the salad that does the photosynthesis in your example. You do know what's up, so not anti-science but trolling? Sealioning? Idk. But overall silly.
You're the one who invented a definition of "theft" that for reasons beyond my understanding consider the consuming organisms specific mechanism of utilization that also specifically considers if the organism has the ability to synthesize the structures independent of consumption and now also demands that the process be sustainable for an arbitrary (but not indefinite) amount of time AND the structures must meet an arbitrary bar of complexity (which you've proclaimed unilaterally is greater than fat) etc etc etc
I'm going to drive directly to my point now that hopefully you can see how your ever-expanding definition of "stealing" (which I promise you, I'm not even getting STARTED on pushing issues that would force you to continually expand) is just bad.
Counter Definition: Eating isn't theft. The degree to which ingested materials must be broken down to be useful is interesting, but none of it is stealing. The article used a word that while amusing to read isn't technically accurate.
Itβs truly a gift to see my original comment, which boils down to βhuh, odd choice of words,β defended with such eloquence. The internet may not be paradise but I ask you, where else could this meeting of the minds have occurred?
So yes, trolling. I'm not gonna engage with that because someone is so edgy and tight with the term "stealing" and any deviation from a hyperbolic perspective is unacceptable, so have a good day.
Lol, you can't admit to losing an argument, can you.
Ohh i didn't know it's a competition.
You got into a semantic argument... and then started laying down incoherent definitions that you made up on the spot.
Yes, I agree, you are absolutely trolling.
I merely disagree with OP's view where in this case "stealing" of chloroplast from another organism and then proceed to use that chloroplast in the exact way the cell is used for, and which said organism did not produce, you're the one insist that we technically photosynthesis when eating salad. You drag me into your semantic argument. Big difference.
So if by troll you mean someone that riled up others then yep, i'm a troll for getting you so upset with the word use, you just bite the straight hook with no bait and does not let go.
Your disagreement with op about the definition of stealing IS the semantic argument. That's what a semantic argument is.
I said your semantic argument, not denying it's a semantic argument, i'm having an unpleasant back and forth with you if you haven't noticed. Yours is more stupid.
I can't believe this drag on for multiple days for a word "steal".
It's not mine. Literally look back through this comment thread.
The person you replied to said "steal" was a poor choice of words and you piped up to say it wasn't. That was the moment you entered into a semantic argument.
https://lemmy.zip/comment/23037140
This not yours?
Mine with OP ended just like that, a disagreement but we both agree to disagree, with yours this drag on and on and we're basically flinging shit at each other without advancing any of the argument, because you insist eating salad made us capable of photosynthesis if the slug eating algae and stealing their chloroplast then enable them to photosynthesis. Get a life, bro, because i'm blocking you.
your stomach acid would probably dissolve it before it becomes useful.
It uses the chloroplast as the algae uses them. It doesnβt really it them it uses them to photosynthesize. If you took the wing off the chicken and used it to fly you could say that was stealing its wing
Yes you are and you need to be stopped.
I would have gotten away with it, too, if not for you mean cows
I'd say, yes, you are literally consuming your food to take anything of value that your body can extract from it, often at the cost of everything for the thing you're eating (but definitely at the cost of the parts you eat). Like I'm a bit baffled as to how you can consider it not a form of theft. Hell, I'd even argue it is the purest form of theft there is and quite likely the original theft that only scavengers, photosynthesizers, and other life forms that survive on non-biological sources of energy aren't thieves in that manner.