# Are Vegetarians & Vegans Hypocrites? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2000, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882 "2000-03-14T15:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/1 "2000-03-14T15:30:00Z")
- - - Why is it that people who oppose eating or using animals for human purposes, find it so easy to use plant life? What evidence do they have that plants don’t deserve to exist according to their own wills and intents at least as much as animals do? Is this a case of simple reasoning or simple mindedness? Is plant life “worth” less than that of animals, just because animals seem more familiar? - MC ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/2 "2000-03-14T15:38:00Z")
Are you trolling? Or do you seriously not understand the differences between plants and animals? ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/3 "2000-03-14T15:46:00Z")
You might consider actually getting to know some vegetarians. It might lead you to understand that the reasons people choose a particular diet are quite varied and do not necessarily conform to teh preconceptions of your OP. Or were you perhaps arguing that the only truly ethical diet is autophagic? * * * - The best lack all conviction The worst are full of passionate intensity. \* ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/4 "2000-03-14T17:33:00Z")
Spiritus said: > [@](#): > > Or were you perhaps arguing that the only truly ethical diet is autophagic? This raises whole new questions about “Don’t feed the trolls!” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/5 "2000-03-14T17:37:00Z")
My only argument with “vegans” is that they mispronounce the goddam made-up word. It should be with a hard “g” (as in “vegetable”) and not with a soft, hippie, tree-hugging “g,” as in someone from Vegas. Eat whatever you want but for pete’s sake, pronounce it correctly!! ---
**Author:** ![Iago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Iago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iago)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/6 "2000-03-15T06:25:00Z")
**Eve** , I hope you’re making a joke here. Otherwise, I’ve lived my whole life with a serious misunderstanding of hard and soft g’s. Which wouldn’t be all that much of a surprise. * * * I done run for president. Didn’t win, though. ---
**Author:** ![TNTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@TNTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNTruth)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/7 "2000-03-15T06:28:00Z")
Eve, It should be pronounced vay-gan because they talk like someone from the Vega system, located in the constellation Lyra . Iago, I believe you’re right; Eve just reversed the meanings. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/8 "2000-03-15T06:48:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Is plant life “worth” less than that of animals … ? The answer’s _yes_. Any more questions? ---
**Author:** ![TNTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@TNTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNTruth)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/9 "2000-03-15T06:53:00Z")
TomH, Yeah, why? ---
**Author:** ![egkelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@egkelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egkelly)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/10 "2000-03-14T19:56:00Z")
How DO YOU KNOW that a zucchini doesn’t like to be eaten! ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/11 "2000-03-14T20:02:00Z")
Reminds me of what I think was an SNL “Deep Thought”: Would be so cavalier about cutting down trees if they screamed? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no reason. ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/12 "2000-03-14T20:03:00Z")
Would **we** be… Curses, foiled again! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/13 "2000-03-14T21:27:00Z")
I don’t know if this helps, but there are people, certain Rastafarians, I believe, who will not eat anything that involves taking a life and subsist (or claim to) solely on fruit. Also some Hindus try to eat as low on the food chain as possible, whatever that means. (mmmmm, algae, droool). Obviously merely by being alive we cause a certain amount of damage. What people from vegetarians to fruititarians try to do is minimize that damage. The real ethical question is whether animals (or plants) have rights you must respect. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/14 "2000-03-14T21:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > originally posted by TNTruth: > why? Well, what is it that makes life valuable? There are a number of possible answers: (a) intelligence / self-awareness; (b) the ability to make moral choices; © the ability to experience pleasure and pain. This is not an exhaustive list and I’m sure that others will come up with other reasons. But all these things apply more strongly to animals than to plants, to the extent that they apply to plants at all. If you believed that _all_ life were _ipso facto_ equally valuable, then you’d have two choices: starve or be hypocrite. If you don’t believe that (and I don’t see any compelling reason to believe it) then the question of whether some life (animal) is more valuable than other life (plant) turns on what you value about lief in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![nebuli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/0ea827/32.png) [@nebuli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nebuli)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/15 "2000-03-15T02:11:00Z")
What I would like to know is, on average, how many fieldmice, moles, earthworms, grubs, etc. are killed when plowing an acre to grow crops? If we consider all animal life equally sacred, then would eating free-range cattle be less unethical than eating soybeans? ---
**Author:** ![Suzeanne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Suzeanne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suzeanne)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/16 "2000-03-15T02:26:00Z")
No … here’s a hypocritical vegetarian: Can’t eat animals, because they’re too “cute,” and it’s inhumane. Didn’t stop her from walking off the airplane in leather boots and a big leather jacket. Didn’t stop her from trying on the suede leopard-print miniskirt, either. Fish, shrimp, and all seafood is fine, because it isn’t “cute.” Eggs are just fine, because the goop inside the egg isn’t as cute as a baby chick … HELLO??? Riiiight. * * * I just haven’t been the same since that house fell on my sister. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/17 "2000-03-15T02:27:00Z")
Oh sigh. The old tired “plants have feelings too” arguement being trotted out. Like I have _never_ heard that one before. (Yawn) The way I see it, (the way a lot of vegetarians see it) is to try to do as little damage as possible. Eating the flesh of an animal means that someone had to _feed_ that animal lots of plants throughout the animal’s life. Which can add up to a lot of plants. So, in essence, you are responsible for the plants fed to the animal, and then the animal fed to you. Some vegetarians figure that there is less “waste” by just eating the plants. Sure, they are still causing the demise of a plant, but at least it’s just the plant…not an animal, _and_ the plants fed to the animal. Also, some vegetarians eat meatless because of dietary reasons - low fat - wanting to avoid the chemicals in meat… It does not follow that _all_ vegetarians are refraining from eating meat for philisophical reasons. Years ago, “Vegetarian Times” had an article on “unorthadox” vegetarians - one was a furrier. These vegetarians just thought eating meatless diets was healthier. It was not because they wanted to spare animals’ lives. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/18 "2000-03-15T02:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Fish, shrimp, and all seafood is fine, because it isn’t “cute.” People who eat seafood (or poultry) are **not** vegetarians. They may think they are, they may insist they are, but the major vegetarian organizations, publications, cookbooks, disagree. > [@](#): > > Eggs are just fine, because the goop inside the egg isn’t as cute as a baby chick No, eggs are not fine for all vegetarians - Ovo-Veggies (or Ovo-lacto) only. Vegans do not eat eggs, because it is an “animal product” (just like milk is.) The vegetarians who do eat eggs do so because (news flash!) an egg is not an animal. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/19 "2000-03-15T04:39:00Z")
There is nothing wrong with being a vegan, but it’s nothing to be smug about either. Unfortunately, vegans often are quite smug, holier-than-thou. But if some Birkenstock wearing flower child gets lippy with me about how much more moral he is, I give him the icicle haircut because he’s asking for it. What I don’t do, anymore, is bait them. I suspect that all of us who like to eat rare steaks have felt that imp inside of us to try and gross out some baby-seal-painter as we revel in succulent taste of flesh. But it is an immature impulse which should restrained until the hippie asks for it. Let us, the red blooded, democracy loving meat eaters show how tollerant we can be. And quit trolling vegans. You call this freedom? ---
**Author:** ![Suzeanne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Suzeanne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suzeanne)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882/20 "2000-03-15T05:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Unfortunately, vegans often are quite smug, holier-than-thou. But if some Birkenstock wearing flower child gets lippy with me about how much more moral he is, I give him the icicle haircut because he’s asking for it. **YosemiteBabe,** this was sort of MY point. I’m more than aware of what it’s SUPPOSED to mean. The individual in question in my post is one of the smug, holier-than-thou LEATHER Birkenstock wearing hypocrites that claims to be a card-carrying vegetarian. “How DARE you eat meat!?!?! It’s wrong wrong wrong! Excuse me while I change into another pair of leather pants and go out for sushi.” Kinda what makes her a hypocrite about the whole thing, yes? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-vegetarians-vegans-hypocrites/17882.md?page=2)