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In other words, everybody's a parasite on something. Lakota Sioux were buffalo parasites. Vegans are parasites of Daucus carota and Beta vulgaris among other species. Parasites of Homo sapiens are of course hated by that species. People are getting distracted by the whole theft thing. The guy's not awesome, and he's not terrible; he just did what he did, which was unusual. If you're picking up any "he's awesome" or "he's terrible" vibe, that's probably the result of an intentional editorial decision, to drive "engagement" via your admiration or outrage (or envy, which is both).

> Finding materials in nature (e.g. an untouched-by-humans forrest) vs in society (e.g. someones cabin) is not much of a difference if you are not a part of society. You go out, shoot a deer to survive, chop down a tree, and head home and you got some food and supplies. You go out, find a cabin, take some food and other stuff and head home and you've got some food and other supplies.

Or "You go out, eat the wrong food and die", like Christopher McCandless.

Thinking there's little or no difference is a gross underestimation of the difficulty of living in the wild.

McCandless would have survived if he had cabin food at hand, which means, there's a hell of a difference - a life and death type of difference.

>why should a person or another creature that is not part of society think any different when they go into someones cabin and take food and supplies instead of finding the things in untouched nature?

Because the creature or its family isn't going to be planning retribution, like I'd be doing if you broke into my property and stole my stuff.

Ah, the gatherer becomes the hunted.

It's not "gathering" if you're taking things that someone's deliberately prepared for their own future use.

So it's not gathering when we pick berries because the plant prepared them for spreading its seeds, not for us to eat and end up in our trash. Or we take the tree where the bird nested in, or the beetle, or the abe? Or when we take whatever else we take that something else prepared for another use?

It doesn't fit nicely in our societal view of "yours" and "mine", but whenever you take something, whatever it is, you are almost always taking it away from something else. Surely "thieving" is gathering. It's just a kind of gathering that society has decided is not okay, except in all the cases where society says it's okay, like taking the animals home, or the native humans, and so on.

> So it's not gathering when we pick berries because the plant prepared them for spreading its seeds

The plant isn't someone.

Insignificant detail.

> So it's not gathering when we pick berries because the plant prepared them for spreading its seeds, not for us to eat

Didn't many berries evolve so that animals would eat the berries and their seeds would end up in their feces? I'm not sure how to say that without it sounding like a cause and effect. Plants didn't _intend_ to evolve so that animals would eat the berries and carry their seeds away, it was more a symbiotic relationship.

Sure. Point being it’s all gathering. No difference when you gather berries or other peoples stuff against their will.

Stealing isn't gathering because we have a philosophical framework behind the concept of property. This is on top of the physical act.

If this guy got shot stealing from people, we wouldn't just call it killing; because we have a philosophical framework about justice and retribution. If you were consistent, you'd have to be okay that this guy would be treated like a fox who raids a henhouse; up to the personal whims of the aggrieved.

If I was gathering your stuff without permission, it’s stealing. If a bear or a person not part of society does it, it’s not stealing, it’s gathering. The myths of society are only that: collective beliefs inside society.

I see no problem with consistency:

From the hermits point of view, outside of the society with its philosophical framework, it is just gathering.

Society may call this theft. I may also jell at the crow stealing my unwatched food "you thief, give me back my food!". That is from my point of view, not the crows'.

To society the hermit still is human and we have morals and ethics that shall prevent us treating him as just a raiding wild animal / fox.