"People are essentially red meat. They are"
About this Quote
The unfinished tail - “They are” - matters. It reads like a cut-off thought or a deliberate refusal to tidy up the ugliness. That fragment creates a vacuum the audience can’t help filling: they are for sale, for sacrifice, for feeding someone else’s hunger. It’s also a sly jab at the way hot takes and slogans work. The sentence starts with false authority (“essentially”) and ends in a stumble, exposing how quickly “truths” about humanity collapse into rhetoric.
As art-world provocation, the line sits in the tradition of anti-romantic realism: no halo, no “human spirit,” just flesh and the systems that process it. The intent isn’t misanthropy for its own sake; it’s a pressure test. If you flinch, good - you’re noticing how normalized it’s become to speak about people in the language of consumption, extraction, and waste. The cynicism is the point, and the discomfort is the medium.
Quote Details
| Topic | Dark Humor |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cannon, Max. (2026, January 15). People are essentially red meat. They are. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-are-essentially-red-meat-they-are-155577/
Chicago Style
Cannon, Max. "People are essentially red meat. They are." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-are-essentially-red-meat-they-are-155577/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"People are essentially red meat. They are." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-are-essentially-red-meat-they-are-155577/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.








