[QUOTE=jackdavinci]
The thing I find interesting is that a lot of meat eaters are overly defensive of their own diets, often to the point of being preachy or alarmist, and also often preemptively. Some will ask me if I’m a veggieperson, prefacing the question before i answer with a long defense of why they feel justified in eating meat, or why they feel guilty about it but do it anyway, etc. I don’t see why they feel the need to justify themselves at all about their personal choices to someone they know only casually, doubly so when the person hasn’t even told them their own opinion yet. And in some rare scenarios, I find that some meat eaters are bullish about their diets - they make light of veggiepeople, insist that anything veggierelated is wrong, unhealthy, and pseudoscience, haggle them to try meat, etc. Or that they are somehow stronger, more macho, powerful intelligent people for eating meat. Many are also alarmist, not just about what could happen to the non meat eating person, but also about how it will affect society - as though one person choosing not to eat meat is going to inevitably lead to a constitutional amendment banning meat and a police state locking them away for having a Big Mac.
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I’ve seen that too. Maybe they just feel outnumbered here in be-hippie-d Oregon, but it seems like a lot of people have their whole identities tied up in being meat-eaters. One of my roommates had a visceral reaction when she thought about not eating meat.
Neither my Suavecaveman or I are vegetarians per se, but neither of us are into the “big slab of meat”-style meal either, so we usually say we are veggies when asked. At home we eat chicken or fish twice a week or so. I’ve also never turned down a big slab of red meat if that is what my hostess is serving.
In Oregon I rarely hear anyone proselytize about being veggie/vegan. To some extent I hear what Jack does from meat-eaters, but the **worst ** offenders are the organic/local people. We eat both organic and local because it tastes better, but I never talk about it because my god is it boring: It takes a cup of gasoline to transport one organic Washington apple to where you live, did you know that? Nobody wants to hear that! Nobody cares - if they did care, they’d already be eating local!
My (organic, local, vegetarian eating) Mother-In-Law will see someone eating red meat or something and she’ll start making puking noises in the restauraunt :o She shops at the local overpriced food co-op with the other aging hippies and they all strut about like peacocks, preening about their bird-friendly coffee and free-trade potato chips (or whatever). I really think the extra cost they pay is for the ego-stroking.
I think the evangelical analogy is apt - they go to “church” at their co-ops and then spread the good news to the great unwashed. :rolleyes:
Wow, this thread really struck a nerve. I didn’t realize this whole thing bothered me so much, but it is annoying to constantly defend your food choices.
)