Oh yeah, the 'ol “mmmm, meat!” while waving a forkful of steak in my face never gets old.
:rolleyes:
I’ve figured out the best way to handle that one is to look at them like they are the stupidest person to ever walk the face of the earth and say very slowly “if I wanted it, I’d eat it.” That usually shuts them right up.
Of course I notice when vegetarians do it to omnivores, Miller. Who wouldn’t?
There’s a certain type of vegetarian who tries to push their beliefs on others. They are assholes. Thing is, a lot of normally friendly, reasonable, pleasent people turn into jerks when they’re sitting at a table with a vegetarian. It’s become commonplace. Pick on the person who’s different, it’s typical “pack” mentality. I love my stepdad and my brothers, they’re wonderful people but even they think it’s perfectly okay and just “in good fun” to harrass me about my dietary choices. So do a lot of people.
They’re different situations.
Then why do you assume I don’t notice when omnivores do this to vegetarians?
Sure, and there’s a certain type of omnivore that does them same thing. They, too, are assholes. Or, possibly, relatives. I don’t know your brothers, obviously, but I know brothers in general, and I’d be willing to bet they pick on you for being vegan because your their sister, not because they have something against vegans in general.
I’m not arguing that there aren’t more asshole omnivores in aggregate: there are more omnivores in general, so the subset of omnivores who are assholes is going to be larger group than the subset of vegetarians who are assholes. My argument is that, as a percentage of the group, there are as many asshole vegetarians as there are asshole omnivores.
You talkin’ about ME? YOU talkin’ about ME? Am I your dinner? Do I look like a supper to you?
Joe Pesci, Foodfellas
I never assumed any such thing. I said you don’t notice all of the vegetarians who don’t give omnivores a hard time.
You’re totally missing my point. My point is that while vegetarians who harrass omnivores are generally assholes, omnivores who harrass vegetarians are not. It’s generally not considered assholish behavior, where when a vegetarian does it to an omnivore, it is.
For example: I called in sick the other day. And I recieved the obligatory “well, you just need some meat!” responses. This is considered normal. Now, if a coworker called in and I said “well, you just need to stop eating that horrible meat!” I’d be considered a bitch. But in the former scenerio? Not so much.
Forgot to add that because it’s generally not considered assholish behavior to “tease” the vegetarian but it is considered “assholish” behavior to “tease” the meat eater, it’s not too big of a logical leap to assume that it’s generally more commonplace behavior.
Well, this omnivore considers them to be assholes. All the omnivores I personally know would agree with me. The only omnivores who wouldn’t consider this to be assholish behavior would, themselves, be assholes. I think you’re generalizing from a diseased sample.
Well, considering all my friends, coworkers and family, save for one or two, by your definition are assholes, I guess so.
I think we may be thinking of two different types of “teasing”. See my example about calling in sick.
Ah, but I met a really miserable example of the human race the other week…I was at a get-together and encoutered another TV (Trendy Vegetarian) who did nothing but rant and rave about the health benefits of the lifestyle while looking down her (rather long) nose at us omnivores.
Here’s the kicker: she has a cocaine habit.
It’s not okay to eat meat, but it’s okay to shove huge quantities of expensive cocaine up your nose?
She was also a Republican, which made sense.
Well, coke is the rich white boy (or girl) drug of choice!
with Miller, we’ve all gotten bent out of shape over this discussion and the truth of the matter is that the subject of the OP was being a complete asshole by maligning those around her who did not believe what she believed about the morality of one’s diet. Some people really do hold this as a moral issue. That’s totally respectable and even admirable because it is uncommon and often misunderstood. It’s a moral position and should be respected.
However most of the world doesn’t think of diet as a moral issue. The woman in the OP was being an asshole because she sought for whatever reason (although attention-seeking would be my guess) to take the moral high ground and speak ill of people who were doing what they did (eating meat) in all good conscience. Being a jerk is never acceptable and when you appear to being hypocritical on top of that you should expect to get jumped. Especially if all your moral posturing comes down to the fact that “it’s only wrong to eat the cute ones.” That’s a rediculous statement to make after saying “eating animals is wrong.” That is almost literally the same argument the Nazi accepted when Hitler asked them to murder blacks, Jews, and homosexuals. They weren’t the “cute” ones. It’s a disgusting display and I totally understand the anger it generated.
That said, it has nothing to do with vegetarianism as a practice. It has to do with a nasty hypocritical attention-seeking bitch. So don’t take it personally unless you’re guilty of the same. I’m sure none of the vegetarians here are guilty of this. It’s pretty extreme. So let the woman get flamed, she deserves every word of it.
Pastor, no one is defending the woman in the OP. The general consensus is that she’s a bitch.
I think one of the things that’s slipped past other posters on this subject is the fact that she went vegetarian because “of the poor animals”, yet eats fish because “they’re ugly, and don’t have feelings.”
I was always under the impression that fish was an animal. It’s certainly not vegtable, or mineral, or liquid, or gaseous.
Had she claimed she went vegetarian because it’s a healthier way to go, then I can see the fish.
Personally, it looks to me like she’s nothing more than a lemming, and a wannabe PETA member.
I’ve had vegetarian friends, as well as vegan friends. They never once tried to take the moral high ground with me, and I didn’t try to take the moral high ground with them. We mutually agreed that we liked what we liked.
Of course, had any of them given me the evil eye, or made a snide remark when I was eating a steak about eating meat being equivalent to murder, I would probably paraphrase Dennis Leary: “Meat tastes like murder? Then murder tastes gooooood.”
Well, if they keep doing it when they know it bugs you, then yeah, they are. Except family, who have a free pass to annoy you as much as they want. But if you don’t mind it, then that’s entirely different. I joke around with my vegetarian friends, but only because they know I’m kidding and (inexplicably) think I’m funny. They do the same back to me. On a dare, one of them read aloud to me out of Fast Food Nation while I ate a hot dog. (“Mmm, you can really taste the pig anus!”) I’m talking about deliberately confrontational comments by people you don’t know very well, if at all.
Well, then we’re talking about different things. I’m talking about the initial puns and “jokes” told at my expense whenever anyone finds out I’m vegan. Then, periodically, whenever they’re feeling “funny.”
And no, I’m not going to throw a big 'ol hissy fit. It doesn’t bother me that much, I’m used to it. That doesn’t negate my point that omnivores harrass vegetarians a HELL of a lot more than vegetarians harrass omnivores. And vegetarians are expected to just deal with it and laugh along. It doesn’t work the other way around though.
Well, if it’s just people telling dumb jokes, then everyone has to put up with that, whatever they eat. Most people aren’t that funny, and worse, most people don’t know they aren’t that funny. I can certainly sympathize with having to hear the same dumb jokes over and over, but if you weren’t a vegan, you’d probably just be hearing different dumb jokes.
That said, these people still need to shot. My dad should be the first one up against the wall. We had a couple of steaks for dinner tonight, and he made that lame “utterly/udderly” pun. Twice. He also accused me of ruining a perfectly good steak by ordering it well-done, like he does every time we eat red meat together. Just so you know I’m not totally unsympathetic to people criticizing what you like to eat.
Yeah, try hearing the same 3 jokes about 4 times a week for 6 years.
THEN tell me you can sympathize.
It’s just different. You can’t compare it.
Again, let me tell you about my dad…
Same three jokes, four times a week, FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE!
His mom was the same way. I fear it may be genetic.
As I said the first time, I mean amoral, not immoral. If what you eat for dinner has no ethical dimension for you, then you are amoral about it. Unmoral, if you like. For example, the choice of operating system is for most computer buyers a totally amoral decision. But for hardcore computer geeks, there’s an ethical dimension there… moral vs. immoral.
I’m telling you how it is and your conclusion is that I have a persecution complex… who has the problem here? Based on my experience, unless people’s bitching about judgemental dining companions accurately reflects the real numbers… that it is an overwhelmingly carnivore phenomenon… I’m just going to assume they have an irrational dislike for vegetarians and dismiss their arguments. To be quite honest, I think a lot of times people just make up stories about vituperative vegetarians because they know nobody is going to call bullshit on them.
I never said the woman in the OP was an example vegetarians should strive to emulate. She isn’t. My hijack is that I think the carnivore outrage over these incidents is bullshit. It simply isn’t justified if the real transgression is being rude at a dinner party.
No, that’s your fantasy interpretation of my argument. My concern is the people complaining, not people in general.
-fh
I’m not sure somebody saying my morality is stupid is really all that different from somebody saying that I’m immoral.