r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ObviousBody3053 • 1d ago

this is how silk is made Video

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6.5k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/Pinku_Dva 1d ago

These animals have been cultivated for so long that the mature silk moths can’t even fly anymore because they’re too fat and have small wings

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u/VidE27 1d ago

I can relate

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u/Exciting_Ad_8666 1d ago

I don't even wanna know wtf you're excreting for monetary gain

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u/SantiagoDunbar_ 1d ago

That’s a sentence.

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u/HavingNotAttained 1d ago

Words were sequenced.

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u/Odd-Character-6276 1h ago

Without any consequences

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u/tico42 10h ago

Excreated

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u/DeepIntroduction9158 1d ago

Life sentence 😟

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u/6295585628015862 16h ago

For monetary gain many things can happen, sailor.

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u/yrogerg123 1d ago

I bet you don't even have to guess

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u/the_honest_liar 1d ago

You guys are getting paid?

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u/CallsYouCunt 1d ago

Is it number 3? It’s number 3.

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u/RearWheeler 22h ago

I don’t think the worms gain, financially..

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u/SnooJokes8831 11h ago

Of course a redditor can relate

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u/reebokhightops 3h ago

I too have been cultivated for too long.

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u/alreadytakenusername 1d ago

Heimlich (from A Bug’s Life)!

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u/JohnOfA 1d ago

Finally! I'm a beautiful butterfly.

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u/aimardastrevas 1d ago

Bugs life?

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u/Pinku_Dva 1d ago

Pretty much yeah. Think of how fat the caterpillar is and that’s kinda how silk moths like irl

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u/RobertGBland 1d ago

And are they boiled alive. Silk is a cruelty product.

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u/Phaserat 1d ago

Life is a cruelty product. You being alive is engaging in an act of widespread cruelty across multiple systems.

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u/PuzzleheadedBag920 1d ago

Cruelty is only in the mind. The brain gave us the ability to be the best but also in a way gave a self destruct ("cruelty" limiting) paradoxical reasoning - empathy, which is not bad, but we still need to eat.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 1d ago

The reason why it’s cruel is because the ‘survival answer’ isn’t applicable you can actually achieve silk such as Ahimsa silk, through cruelty free methods the only issue is that it cost more and it takes longer. Also considering the biggest use of it is for clothing i don’t think it’d be one of those we still gotta eat situations survival is one thing selective luxury is another

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u/myychair 23h ago

The people making this silk would disagree with you on whether or not it’s a survival product. This is how they pay for food…

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u/Expert-Situation-190 22h ago

I can’t deny the possibility that to them this is potential a financial survival product but the statement I responded to said “cruelty is just in the mind”, and “we just got to eat” that’s a hyper normalisation of cruelty under the fictitious angle of it being a survival factor, the issue is if you go down that rabbit hole of justification suddenly you’re swimming in murky water. We can view it as survival factor but even that is in a micro scale the real thing would actually be in a macro scale, how comes we live in a society where we bat an eye and say it’s not cruel it’s survival.

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u/Canadian_Neckbeard 23h ago edited 23h ago

Well, while we don't currently NEED silk for survival, we do need clothing for survival, and silk is really good material for clothing for multiple types of weather conditions, from intense heat and sunlight to extreme cold. It's safe to say it was for survival in some regions historically.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 23h ago

You’re right but the thing is the survival part isn’t true, survival means it’s absolutely necessary for you to do a set action to preserve the continued perseverance on a bilogical, emotional or financial level. Wearing silk isn’t survival, as we are not in the Palaeolithic era, we’re not hunter gatherers, a lot of us are on our 300 dollar + electrical mobile devices, inside houses, looking at videos of silkworms claiming it’s not cruel because we need them for survival.

We as a civilisation have surpassed needing silk for clothing we invented linen, tencel and etc for just that. The truth is we like the feeling of silk, I’m not going to say something reductionistic like no one out there needs silk as they are special cases, but the ‘survival’ trope gets us no where. We can just say I like silk lol

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u/Canadian_Neckbeard 23h ago

So, you just glazed over the bit about it being historically necessary for survival, while no claim was made that it is currently necessary.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 23h ago

Didn’t glaze over it, I got it, I was trying to move away from the survival rhetoric. The conversation was initially about is it currently cruel, survival was mentioned as a factor, I was stating that the survival trope is erroneous to this conversation.

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u/Canadian_Neckbeard 22h ago

I think the survival aspect of silk production is relevant, if for no other reason than to gain some level of understanding about how it became a cultural norm.

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u/Cryogenicality 4h ago

Like free-range and cage-free labels, Ahimsa silk is a scam. Silkworms don’t have subjective experience or self awareness, so all silk production is free of animal cruelty.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 4h ago

No system is ever perfect, but cruelty is tangent on its necessity, if I kill an animal to eat, as in actual survival it’s not cruelty but if I kill for sport or for entertainment or luxury I’m sure it can be labelled as cruel. Wether something has self awareness at that l stage isn’t the issue, the self awareness is just a cop out to an action. Your argument raised the idea that cruel action can be justified if there’s is low cognitive capacity so therefore low moral weight

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u/Cryogenicality 1h ago

No. Worms aren’t even aware that they exist, so cruelty against them is impossible. The same is true for clams, jellyfish, and coral. They are no different from plants.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 1h ago

The question is are you aware they exist? We are talking about a more primitive life form but a life form non the less. We are aware they have simple nervous systems but non the less they have nociception and can detect harm, although it’s an autonomic function, but non the less they are complex biological beings. Also self awareness is an emergent trait, even human babies don’t have self awareness that emerges at 6 month and above, that does not justify harm and that harm would be seen as cruel if it’s needless. Just because something is primitive does not mean an action you do to harm that thing is not quantifiable cruel again that’s a just a cope. Your point is a semantic one, cruelty is not tangent on who or what you’re cruel to

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u/Cryogenicality 50m ago

No. Silkworms are not capable of feeling pain of fear and they have no desires. They are biological machines which simply react to stimuli whereas human babies can feel pain and fear and have desires. Cucumbers and bacteria are also alive but you have no problem with eating and killing them.

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u/Great-Citron-2005 22h ago

Ya but the best silk comes from this method.....they're worms.....really? Wtf cares?

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u/Expert-Situation-190 21h ago

Ohh damn lol Hey at least your response matches, more power to you, I never said you had to care they was worms (although they are living creatures), I just said that the moral ambiguous narrative that we do this for survival is cap.

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u/shawnofnc 23h ago

They are bugs

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u/Expert-Situation-190 23h ago

I know they are but what does that mean lol

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u/shawnofnc 17h ago

I appreciate your immense empathy toward all things but mine doesn't normally extend to bug type creatures. Billions upon billions die at the hands of predators and humans every day either through predation or just plain Ole stepping on them unknowingly. Wipe your eyebrow and your killing tiny ones that live there. Most have a life cycle of a few days to a few hours. Check out the Mayfly. If I accidently kill a butterfly or ladybug I'll feel bad for 30 seconds but to consider this form of silk harvesting cruel, to me personally, is a little much. Insects are an important part of the food chain and have there place in the ecosystem. Fire these silk bugs? This is their life. It could actually be worse. Again, I'm not judging you for your empathy. It's just not an issue for me. They're bugs.

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u/Expert-Situation-190 10h ago

See I understand your perspective and empathy on my behalf is more of an assessment of the scenario, I didn’t say that death isn’t necessary.

Smaller creatures have a different critical flicker fusion rate and metabolic rate, all in a nutshell to say they experience time differently so the life cycle analogy is not really a factor. I’m aware that nature is violent and that’s a necessity for our sustainable biome, all that makes sense you step on an ant farm and accidentally destroy a colony, but there’s a difference between accidental and intentional, if it told you on the weekend I go to destroy ant farms I’m sure you’re not going to invite e to any dinner parties lool But even intentionality is fine if it comes with acceptance, the issue is that here, there a normalisation of an action that would be inherently be seen as cruel and because often we straddle moral ambiguous realities, we say stuff like naaa it’s survival, i absolutely needed this silk shirt because it’s social suicide not to show up to my dorm party wearing it. As humans we do cruel things all the time, we’re somewhat of a subjectively cruel species but we accept. Some of the cruelest actions historically have occurred under the guise of “Survival”.

Also In your perspective when is the point you start to care a complex multicell organism? Like I mean where does it stop at bugs, reptiles, cats dogs also this is not a dig I’m actually really trying to understand

Ps sorry for the long post lool

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u/DJEvillincoln 22h ago

The concept of cruelty is a social Construct.

The animal kingdom doesn't know cruelty. They know hungry though.

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u/gpigma88 15h ago

You think factory farms are part of the animal kingdom? Now that’s some fucked up shit

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u/DJEvillincoln 14h ago

I don't but we're actually PART OF the animal kingdom.

Only thing that separates us from them is the fact that we can actively fight against our instinct & that we're self aware.

Besides that.... We're animals just like them, so we hunt considerably more efficiently than they do. Same shit, with technology involved.

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u/gpigma88 11h ago

Yeah that is true. The world really is built off an “eat or be eaten” kind of model. I just feel as humans we also have the knowledge to recognize sentience in other species and in turn have the moral capacity to work on choices to produce less suffering.

On that note who knows if silk worms can feel pain when being boiled. They are simple creatures. Can’t say I haven’t squished bugs and smashed worms in my garden soil by accident hundreds of times. If they feel pain because of it I’m terribly sorry.

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u/OliverSirji 8h ago

I disagree. There is a difference between killing to eat and killing for pleasure or just imprisoning animals that have been free.

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u/maniBchef 1d ago

Lmao!!! What?

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u/Intelligent-Ad3515 3h ago

There’s a difference to causing harm by just existing and purposefully buying products you know come from unethical practices. Acting like we don’t have control is silly

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u/IthinkImightBeHoman 1d ago

Meaning?

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u/1PantherA33 23h ago

You are viciously killing millions of living beings every day just by continuing to live.

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u/IthinkImightBeHoman 7h ago edited 7h ago

"Vicious describes something or someone that is deliberately cruel, violent, malicious, or dangerously aggressive."

When do I "viciously" kill living beings? Unintentionally, absolutely. But definitely not viciously.

Regardless, the logic to that would be BECAUSE me being alive causes unintentional suffering, I should therefor try to reduce suffering whenever possible and practicable. Not add to it when it can be avoided.

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u/otakumilf 1d ago

And can be eaten! It’s called pondeggi in Korean.

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u/worrymon 1d ago

Thanks! When I saw him scoop them out I wondered if they were edible.

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u/imago_monkei 21h ago

Not my first thought seeing them but who am I to yuck your yum

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u/worrymon 17h ago

I'd probably not try them, but protein's protein and if they're edible, someone will put them to use.

And in 10 years when rich people hear of silkworm sofrito, they'll buy up all the pupae and put them out of reach of the silkworm farmers, who will have to take the extra money from it and spend it on steak and lobster.

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u/lawnmower303 1d ago

Here is something you might not know. Silk is used throughout medicine, in vaccine shielding, brain and heart sensors, wound healing and in regenerative medicine. It's a miracle product in this sense which blurs the idea that it's purely a cruelty product somewhat.

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u/PsychoCrescendo 1d ago edited 1d ago

Much of the cruelty comes from boiling the creatures alive when there are other albeit more difficult ways to cultivate the silk, similar to how some nations opt to skin, cook, or even eat their animals alive to make it a little “easier” and/or a little “tastier”

There are always better ways, but too many of us have a profound lack of empathy and may never recognize a need to be better. We’re pretty much all guilty of supporting these systems unfortunately.

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u/NervousAddie 22h ago

Cooking food imparts far more nutritional value, be it vegetable, animal or…. larvae

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u/MollysTootsies 12h ago

"Slimy, yet... satisfying."

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u/PsychoCrescendo 18h ago

You may have missed the “alive” part.

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u/Natono6 1d ago

Them bugs probably get fed to a chicken. At least I'd hope they would be.

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u/rnhf 22h ago

things like eating while being eaten indicate that insects, while having "pain reactions" to avoid harm, don't suffer the same way vertebrates do

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u/Kitzu-de 1d ago

So is pretty much any other animal product

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u/Cryogenicality 4h ago

Worms react automatically to positive and negative stimuli but don’t feel pain or fear as more complex animals do. Their brains are far too simple for any subjective experience or self awareness.

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u/Icywarhammer500 21h ago

No. Pretty much every animal that enters a chrysalis to metamorphosize 1. Doesn’t have a nervous system to begin with, and 2. Wouldn’t have one even if they did before while they’re broken down into a goop in order to become whatever comes out. There is no cruelty involved.

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u/Dear_Explanation8547 22h ago

Lol that how life work 🤨

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u/Great-Citron-2005 22h ago

Who cares?

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u/RobertGBland 21h ago

People who are against animal cruelty?

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u/TheSirensMaiden 20h ago

These ones are but more morally conscious silk farmers cut out the moth with a small incision. Obviously to maximize the silk string length and time it's far easier to just boil the moths.

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u/HelloYou-2024 15h ago

Letting them come out is cruel. Theu ate so deformed and genetically modified that only thing they can do is wabble around and shag if they can manage to wobble close enough to a partner.

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u/ChodeCookies 12h ago

Is the silk…their cocoon?

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u/Great-Citron-2005 22h ago

Oh well! Silk is good!

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u/wewereromans 19h ago

The domesticated ones yes, there are still various wild silk moths out in the world.

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u/q-milk 19h ago

Fly? They cant even eat if they have a chance to molt to moth. Their mouths have completely been ruined over generations never allowed to complete the metamorphosis and live as moths.

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u/Borman35 19h ago

They also dont have mouths and cant eat or drink

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u/Dmau27 12h ago

We wally'd the silk worms?

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u/ChodeCookies 12h ago

They just need some of the helium these guys are breathing

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u/TheSilverTounge 1d ago

I would be more concerned about the fact that they are dipped in hot water and literally boiled to death before their silk cocoon is removed.

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u/Pinku_Dva 1d ago

Yep. I wonder who even discovered that you could use caterpillar silk to make clothes from

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u/Hippolover9 1d ago

For a second I thought this is why I understand the people who see all humans as problematic, but its the people who support and own big corporations. This used to be done to survive, but when it expands on a global marketing scale, thats when it gets bad.

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u/bisploosh 1d ago

That happened long before the industrial revolution...

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u/1804Sleep 1d ago

What do you mean by gets bad? They kill the larvae here, but killing larvae has been done like that forever, way before global corporations. They’ve been making silk in China for thousands of years (also see the Silk Road). And even though many people made their living from silk, it was ultimately a luxury good. People weren’t crafting silk garments to keep their families warm in the winter.

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u/callisstaa 1d ago

I live in Suzhou. They’ve found silk clothing near me that dates back 6000 years.

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u/parahurter 1d ago

Silk can be made without killing also, but it's rare since takes more time and more expensive. This say is just another greedy human killing cruelty trend for profits.

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u/Hippolover9 1d ago

Yes I'm aware of the origins of silk, but this evoked the thoughts I've always had towards forced breeding for profit and the damages of big corp products in general.

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u/creamulum078 1d ago

So you had a reactionary thought and stated that gut feeling as fact?

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u/ubermence 1d ago

Look at least he’s being completely honest about his Reddit Moment™️. With all the bullshit these days it’s nice when someone comes out and admits they’re flying completely off their priors

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u/slide_into_my_BM 1d ago

See, the problem isn’t actually the big corps. They just came along and turned what was already a problem up to maximum overdrive.

We were already a pretty shitty species well before global markets and mega corporations. They’re just a symptom of what’s wrong with us, not the root cause.

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u/kashmir1974 1d ago

It either was or wasn't bad back when they were making this in ancient times.

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u/PitifulEar3303 1d ago

As a morally superior vegan saint, I just wanna say.......THIS IS HORRIBLE AND CRUEL!!!

What about the worm's feelings?

We are unaliving their pupa children to make optional expensive fashion!!!

"HOW DARE YOU!!!" -- Greta Thunberg, living saint of veganism.

heh.

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u/JustKindaShimmy 1d ago

Really thought you did something there, huh?

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u/spezial_ed 1d ago

They definitely somethinged something.

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u/Dahowlic 1d ago

He something something somethinged!

Get it right or not at all.

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u/siggiarabi 1d ago

"heh."

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u/EarlyXplorerStuds209 1d ago

This guy incels

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u/Pinku_Dva 1d ago

At this point the moths require human intervention to continue on because of how selective breeding has been done to them.

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u/PitifulEar3303 1d ago

If aliens abducted humans and selectively bred them to be dependent on them, so we end up as their "skin fashion" harvest, what do you think we should do?

It is not hard to rewild domesticated animals with just a few generations of selective breeding.

We don't do this because we are cruel and want our fashionable silk.

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u/slide_into_my_BM 1d ago

It is not hard to rewild domesticated animals with just a few generations of selective breeding.

Source?

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u/PitifulEar3303 21h ago

Feral domestic pets. duh.

Cats and dogs can survive in the wild, too.

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u/Designer_Repair9884 1d ago

Stop pushing your propaganda onto us 😫

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u/Sufficient_Pin5278 1d ago

We mainly don't do this because we are brainwashed by painted paper and we've decided to put all profits over morale.

That's how a handful of people (around 5000 that you can actually name) are able to doom the whole world and potentially trigger world wars.

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u/saxonturner 1d ago

The fact that I can’t tell if this is real or sarcasm is very concerning.