Why are vegans so preachy?

[Anonymous]

So here's a question: why is a chicken so much more valuable than a tree? Trees communicate with pheromones and try to avoid harmful stimuli. That stalk of wheat you ate was home to countless small critters that are now dead or homeless. Because one creature looks more like you than another, because it will look into your eyes and give you a warm fuzzy feeling, that creature is more valuable and you won't eat it but it's okay to eat creatures that are less like you? My friends who admit this and are vegetarians because they don't want to eat "pet-like" animals because it's personally disturbing to them are much different than those people who mistakenly believe and won't shut up about the fact that they are doing something useful for the earth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So here's a question: why is a chicken so much more valuable than a tree? Trees communicate with pheromones and try to avoid harmful stimuli. That stalk of wheat you ate was home to countless small critters that are now dead or homeless. Because one creature looks more like you than another, because it will look into your eyes and give you a warm fuzzy feeling, that creature is more valuable and you won't eat it but it's okay to eat creatures that are less like you? My friends who admit this and are vegetarians because they don't want to eat "pet-like" animals because it's personally disturbing to them are much different than those people who mistakenly believe and won't shut up about the fact that they are doing something useful for the earth.

This is indeed a circle of life dilemma. We are all part of our habitats, going by this logic we should all live in mud huts, eat bare minimum to sustain life. As you say, why is it ok to destroy trees and plants to build your house, to raise your crops, to have your farm, to eat them? But, it is not ok to kill that animal? How do we define sentient life? After all, it is us, humans who define it. But, are we right, or just stupid? If there are too many deer, habitats of trees and plants will be destroyed, correct? Leaving these same vegans without food source. I would think we all are ready to be morally superior and ethical....to a point that suits us. Because animals have brains, right? Because they are a life form closest to us? Right? I think the point where we cross the line is horrendous livestock farms that are appalling. That is where I see we are cruel and in the wrong. I think we can all agree with this? We should go back to more sustainable farming, but as of today humans are destroyers of everything that is not in service to them, we can just pretend to be morally superior when it suits us. You won't find me living in a forest and sleeping under the skies, just as you won't find any DMV vegans living in nature.

[Anonymous]

And then there's this:


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/27/butchers-living-fear-vegan-attacks-rise-says-countryside-alliance/


"Meat is murder".... and apparently some vegans are calling for the murder of those who eat meat.

Such nice folks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And where do we get the fertilizer for all those veggies? They'd rather have petro-chemicals sprayed all over the ground and feel good about eating tofu? Makes no sense.

Rather than feeding the crops to animals instead? It takes a lot more plants to produce a lb of beef than you realize.

cows eat grass silly

No, not the vast majority of them. https://www.npr.org/2010/04/08/125722082/the-truth-about-grass-fed-beef

Nope, we get all our grassfed beef from local farmers. We've been to their farms.

That’s great, but it does not mean that all cows eat grass just because you buy grass fed beef. Perhaps you’re just humble-bragging, but in case not this is an informative article about where crops go. FWIW I try to do the same thing as you but recognize most meat is not grown this way. Going back to the first post in this chain, being a vegetarian does not mean that you are responsible for more petroleum-chemicals being used than meat eaters.

https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053187/cropland-map-food-fuel-animal-feed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually saw a Chevy Volt with DC plates "GO VEGAN!"

Seriously? Can you get any more smug and sanctimonious??!

I could, you know, cut off the Volt while riding my bicycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So here's a question: why is a chicken so much more valuable than a tree? Trees communicate with pheromones and try to avoid harmful stimuli. That stalk of wheat you ate was home to countless small critters that are now dead or homeless. Because one creature looks more like you than another, because it will look into your eyes and give you a warm fuzzy feeling, that creature is more valuable and you won't eat it but it's okay to eat creatures that are less like you? My friends who admit this and are vegetarians because they don't want to eat "pet-like" animals because it's personally disturbing to them are much different than those people who mistakenly believe and won't shut up about the fact that they are doing something useful for the earth.

Chickens clearly have more advancd nervous systems and can feel more than trees can.

You may continue your quibbles now

Signed
A meat eater, but not an idiot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, I'm a vegan. My kids are vegetarians, but eat a lot of vegan meals. We don't care what other people do or eat, but we don't buy meat, so if someone wants a steak, they aren't getting it here for dinner.

We eat a lot of different kinds of foods. One big thing is that we eat tons of Asian, Indian, West African, and tex-mex meals. I think cooking requires looking beyond meat, start, veg, fruit meal planning. I cook lentils, quinoa, beans, tempeh, seitan (I make amazing seitan wings inspired by City o City in Denver that even my meat eating friends requests). I like cooking and for me being a vegan requires some creativity, but it can be a great thing.

I don't like the meat industry and like a PP has issues with dairy. So, it was a combination of social and health concerns that led me here. But I'm happy, I make food that I think is yummy, and I don't begrudge anyone else's choice.

What's weird about this time in our world is that there is this sort of zero-sum view of life choices and a view that if someone isn't doing what you're doing, it's wrong. I don't think this is the case, but I see that in so many different contexts. Politics. Religion. Sex and sexuality. Racism. I wish we'd just spend more time focusing on our own happiness and less time caring about what people do.

+1.

I would love the seitan wing recipe if f you don’t mind sharing!

Here you go! It's basically this (but I add nutritional yeast to the breading). https://www.theedgyveg.com/2014/01/20/vegan-buffalo-wings-recipe/

I stand by my main point: the entire point of this thread is to divide people and judge people's choices. It's to make someone a victim at the expense of someone else instead of looking at reality and shrugging at other people's choices. This thread is an exercise in division, judgment, and oddly, bashing of people who are claiming to be the bashers. This thread is everything that is wrong with the world in terms of how we speak with each other as people and how we treat our fellow human.

I am a happy, healthy vegan. I don't think about other people's choices. I don't care because we are all evaluating and engaging in a moral calculus, weighing what's right and wrong and that is a good, personal thing. We should have have the freedom to define our own choices and we should leave it at that (and I mean it for everyone judgy vegans or judgy meat eaters...maybe we can stop being judgmental, huh?). When we denigrate other people's choices, we put them down, we de-legitimize them -- that is the first step of taking away people's freedom. Like I said, I see it across our discourse, but I do think we ought to call it out and protect our right to live the lives we believe are the best for ourselves.

I like you. What you said is right.

Signed
Flexitarian meat eater

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many animals are NEEDLESSLY killed during the farming of those veggies and grains. Vegans are so disconnected from actual nature that they don't realize that there's death and destruction regardless of what they eat. At least when I kill that chicken I eat that chicken, but when farmer runs over a cute little family of bunnies harvesting grain for that vegan hot dog, that's the real needless killing.

If we were all vegans, we could grow less grain, because animals (esp beef cows) are inefficient converters of grain, so even in terms of bunny killing there would be less

Signed
A meat eater who doesn't need to attack vegans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many animals are NEEDLESSLY killed during the farming of those veggies and grains. Vegans are so disconnected from actual nature that they don't realize that there's death and destruction regardless of what they eat. At least when I kill that chicken I eat that chicken, but when farmer runs over a cute little family of bunnies harvesting grain for that vegan hot dog, that's the real needless killing.

If we were all vegans, we could grow less grain, because animals (esp beef cows) are inefficient converters of grain, so even in terms of bunny killing there would be less

Signed
A meat eater who doesn't need to attack vegans

Im a bit confused. Don’t cows just eat grass? And chickens eat scraps or grubs or something? I guess I don’t know about pigs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, how often do you ask people why they don't eat meat? I'm a vegetarian. Over the years, I've had so many people ASK me why I don't eat meat, then get all defensive and huffy with me about why humans should eat meat. In my younger years, I felt the need to stand up for my beliefs, thereby becoming preachy. Now days I don't engage. It's very strange. It's like somebody asking you why you don't like XYZ restaurant, then getting all bent out of shape about it. Dude, why did you ask me about it if you can't handle the answer?

For those who think vegans are preachy, pay closer attention to what you're saying to them.

Yeah I think some people are just....preachy. I’ve run into more meat eaters who are preachy to me about why I should be eating meat (I’m a vegetarian, not a vegan) or that I’m not legit because I still eat dairy products. I had a college roommate, who was on the Atkins diet at the time FWIW, who insisted that if he couldn’t do a full vegan diet he wouldn’t make any modifications at all. He’d nitpick me over everything- I buy all vegan shoes except at the time I had leather running shoes because I just couldn’t find good non-leather running shoes. He’d remind me of it all the time. It was so bizarre.

I did join a vegetarian meetup group when I first moved to the area and had a couple vegans try to convince me to go vegan, but most were accepting of variations of vegetarianism. Again there are just some people across the spectrum who cannot fathom differing beliefs/opinions from their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many animals are NEEDLESSLY killed during the farming of those veggies and grains. Vegans are so disconnected from actual nature that they don't realize that there's death and destruction regardless of what they eat. At least when I kill that chicken I eat that chicken, but when farmer runs over a cute little family of bunnies harvesting grain for that vegan hot dog, that's the real needless killing.

If we were all vegans, we could grow less grain, because animals (esp beef cows) are inefficient converters of grain, so even in terms of bunny killing there would be less

Signed
A meat eater who doesn't need to attack vegans

Im a bit confused. Don’t cows just eat grass? And chickens eat scraps or grubs or something? I guess I don’t know about pigs.

This is sarcasm, right?

Cattle are fed grain, hugely. So are chickens. And pigs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many animals are NEEDLESSLY killed during the farming of those veggies and grains. Vegans are so disconnected from actual nature that they don't realize that there's death and destruction regardless of what they eat. At least when I kill that chicken I eat that chicken, but when farmer runs over a cute little family of bunnies harvesting grain for that vegan hot dog, that's the real needless killing.

If we were all vegans, we could grow less grain, because animals (esp beef cows) are inefficient converters of grain, so even in terms of bunny killing there would be less

Signed
A meat eater who doesn't need to attack vegans

Im a bit confused. Don’t cows just eat grass? And chickens eat scraps or grubs or something? I guess I don’t know about pigs.

This is sarcasm, right?

Cattle are fed grain, hugely. So are chickens. And pigs.

Sorry I was going by my grandfathers farm, I’ve lived in a city all my life and that’s the only farm I’ve been too sorry if I offended.