In regards to eating meat

[Bring4th_Austin]

Here are some possibilities:

1. They've been preached at before, and now are stereotyping all vegetarians, to the point that they're expecting preaching and are preempting it...lumping them all in together as having a 'self-proclaimed superior point of view.'

2. They are feeling guilt because, as Diana pointed out, they really are aware of the suffering of animals and are choosing to contribute to it anyway. But rather than confront their own guilt, they use the vegetarian as a scapegoat.

3. They really do think vegetarianism is a 'superior' lifestyle, but are too weak-willed to do it themselves, so they're jealous of those who do it. And when people are jealous, they say hurtful things.

I suppose those are all possibilities. I have been preached at before plenty of times, as a consumer and producer. I've not had a single vegan friend who didn't make some snide remark at least once as I was eating meat.

But the heart of the matter: "So the question is: WHY do they perceive vegetarians as having a 'self-proclaimed superior point of view'?"

The reasons for being vegetarian are far-reaching, but I've never been in a discussion with a vegetarian who was doing it just for health reasons. It's normally along the lines of "I think eating meat is wrong." It's a logical train of thought, in my mind, to go from "I think eating meat is wrong." "You eat meat." "Something you do is wrong, and I am right." While vegetarians may not express moral superiority, it's hard not to imagine that they don't feel morally superior because they find something you do to be immoral.

I'd like to point out my very careful wording when I said that:
"vegetarianism can easily be viewed by a non-vegetarian as a self-proclaimed superior point of view"

One point I would like to make. In this time frame, we do have worldwide reach with information. The information is out there, although admittedly, the amount of information makes it confusing. Slaughterhouses, health, sustainability, are not subjects that people are ignorant of anymore. Perhaps this is a factor in the defensiveness I see.

It's not that simple. It doesn't matter how available the information is, we're still blinded by our own perception. Someone could be surrounded with information on a subject they're not ready to accept (for instance, UFO's) and not readily perceive the reality of the situation. Some people are aware and don't care, or don't have the motivation, or are stuck in dissonance, but that doesn't mean that there aren't ignorant people. There are tons of ignorant and uninformed people still.

Of all the possible insights readers of this thread might get from it, among the most important, in my opinion, is that vegetarians speak out because we're championing the oppressed, not because we're trying to 'control' others.

In this situation, they're the same thing. If I were to work actively to take away your right to eat and feed your family vegetables because millions of beings die from veggie production, picketed a vegetarian get-together accusing them of murder and hypocrisy, and formed organizations with significant financial funding to harass vegetable producers and consumers about the murder that happens in veggie fields, do you feel this is justified out of "championing the oppressed?" All I would be doing, taking this point of view, is trying to protect the plants, bugs, and other animals that are killed through veggie production. I understand that at the root of what you do is the desire to protect, but your discussion and actions are no different in the eyes of meat-eaters than the actions I described above. And if you feel that your actions would be more justified than someone doing these things to vegetarians, juxtapose that against why someone may view vegetarians as feeling morally superior.