What would be the likely outcome if you served somebody human flesh and told them about it after the fact? Yeah, I know it’s a weird question, but I was sitting on the couch thinking about a really twisted episode of Criminal Minds that was on last season, and it just popped into my head. Now my brain won’t let go of it and I have to have an answer. So what would the likely outcome be, aside from the obvious sprint for the nearest toilet followed by a spectacular Linda Blair imitation? Are we talking instant PTSD here? Would a lot of people have to be hospitalized for psychological trauma? Would they stop eating and become anorexic? Would they become vegetarians and never look at red meat again? Would some people with tougher constitutions just get really, really, really grossed out, but then just shrug it off and go about their business? I realize that no two people would react in exactly the same manner, but what would be the typical short-term effects be on the psyche of the average person?
All depends, when the german cannibal from the 20s/30s in Germany sold human meat from his sausage shop, we really don’t hear much about it, though I assume people ran the gamut from ‘Damn, I ate what’ through throwing the hugest hissy fit complete with vomiting and so forth
Now days? The government would have to ship in psychnannies and coddle the entire population because we are now conditioned to have huge incredibly exagerated reactions to ‘disasters’
My reaction is that any ‘sin’ inherent in eating human flesh lies in deliberate action. If you have no idea that you are served something tabu, it is not your sin but the sin of the person who served it. I would be grossed out somewhat but not to the point of vomiting. I certainly wouldnt need a psychnanny to tell me to get in touch with myself, or any other psychotwaddle.
Hell, when I was in kindergarden myself and a bunch of classmates saw a kid get smeared on the street by a schoolbus, and the only thing that happened was our parents read about it in the newspaper and the school sent home a letter. Nowdays it would be on national news, there would be more psychnannies in teh school than students, and everybody would be encouraged to slump around in shock and terror and crying. Meh.
Might depend on the vict- I mean, main dish.
For instance, I’ve been told that clowns taste funny.
“Oh no, not meatloaf again!”
Excuse the psychotwaddle, but the very flippant way you talk of this child’s death suggests to me that you were more emotionally affected by it than you might care to admit.
Silence of the Lambs had an episode where Clarice learned that one of Hannibal’s victims had been missing his pancreas and thymus gland, and the next day Hannibal gave a dinner party. It was implied that maybe he served sweetbreads as a main course.
Someone at the party later was treated for anorexia and alcoholism.
There is no factual answer. I’d suggest another forum. Maybe Great Debates?
As to the OP, myself, I would punch the cook really, really hard in the face and call police. I doubt it would change my eating habits or cause me any mental damage.
The episode of Criminal Minds the OP mentioned was a real corker. Women were going missing and their chopped up bodies were being found months later. The team realized they were being frozen and eaten after finding one body with 10 fingers in her stomach, none of which were her own.
When another woman went missing, the team organized a search team with the help of the local minister. The very nice restaurant owner served a very nice chili to the search team. When the CM team realized that the restaurant owner was the killer and captured him, the local minister asked to talk to him to see if he could find out where the guy was holding the missing woman. The minister was being all nice and sympathic until the guy said something like “Well, now she is in all of us,” and when the minister realized what he was talking about, he lost it and attacked the guy.
Guess what the secret ingredient in the chili was.
I tried eating a crackhead once. I found the meat a little high for my tastes.
Scott Tenorman’s parents?
To be honest, I barely knew the kid - I can’t remember his name and probably didn’t know it in the first place, and last time I even thought about it was because we were driving past the area a couple of years ago and my brother mentioned it. It was just over 40 years ago. The only effect was the school hired crossing guards. I am sure that his actual direct friends were affected, as was any family, but nothing happened in school, no psychnannies, no great meetings in the auditorium with candles, no piles of crosses flowers and teddy bears [or transformers or whatever was the popular toy in 1966] nada.
Flippant? The kid is barely a memory. I have more memories of the cat my sister had at the same time.
Worcestershire sauce?
How strange is it that I find the thought of eating human flesh just gross, but the thought of eating a human organ (liver, kidney etc) far more repulsive. I will eat an part of an animal, but the thought of a human liver is unspeakably awful sounding.
What if you were eating human cells grown in a lab? Since it never came from an actual sentient human, would that make it any better?
Such things weren’t discussed in any great detail then. Interestingly, Germany had THREE cannibal serial killers during the '20s, at least two of whom (Karl Grossmann and Fritz Haarmann) butchered their victims for sale. Times were pretty goddam tough in Germany in the '20s.
Your own link says in the latter case that there was no evidence the meat was sold.
Seventeen posts, and no mention of Sweeney Todd? Huh.