In regards to eating meat

[Monica]

It just doesn't add up for me...and my life and occupation brings me into contact with people all across the spectrum. Trophy hunters, conventional farmers, people who don't really care about the conditions animals are raised in to produce meat...these are the people that tend to rub it in the faces of vegetarians. Contrarily, the people I see who do show care for animals are the least likely to confront a vegetarian in this way. Generally.

Maybe so. Those who care about animals are less likely to be rude to vegetarians because they're just all around nicer people.

Conversely, some otherwise very nice people might not care about animals. A lot of evangelical Christians I know, are in this category. It isn't because they aren't good, nice, compassionate people; it's because they've been taught that animals are 'things' and don't matter. It's a blind spot for them.

The threat doesn't have to be from a suppressed sense of guilt. There are plenty of other reasons to feel threatened. Someone who feels an innate sense of judgement from a vegetarian isn't necessarily feeling the judgement because they themselves are guilty about eating meat (even though that is very possible). A lot of people care what anyone thinks about them in any context, and vegetarianism can easily be viewed by a non-vegetarian as a self-proclaimed superior point of view. Also, alternative lifestyles or just being different in any way can rouse emotion as well, it doesn't really matter what the context is.

I actually agree with you here. I would add to that, that many people don't have any suppressed guilt, because they aren't even sensitive enough to have any registering of guilt at all.

They may hear the message of the vegetarian but still disagree with it, and have emotional charge from some other distortion.

Possibly. All of the theories presented may be true in some cases.

I live in rural North Carolina, I'm assuming that the people you qualify as "redneck" are the same people I see every day...the conventional farmers, the trophy hunters...

Here in Texas, the term redneck is used by non-rednecks in a derogatory way, to refer to narrow-minded, beer-drinking, pickup-truck-driving bigots, who usually aren't farmers at all.

and while they may love their house dog, I simply do not sense any sort of expression of love for animals in general. It's a conscious decision to keep your dog chained up outside in the heat. It's a conscious decision to go hunting for the biggest buck (instead of for food). It's a conscious decision to raise pigs in gestation crates. It's a conscious decision to raise 10,000 chickens or turkeys in a single building, never seeing the light of day.

I wonder whether it really is conscious, or if they just haven't even evolved to the point where they even consciously recognize the animals as beings who are suffering. These people might barely be beginning to recognize the suffering of other humans, and haven't yet gotten to the point of recognizing animals.

I really don't know...