5 ms·

Sooo, your comment is kinda aggressive. Just saying. I don’t doubt that there are many vegans / vegetarians with a holier than though attitude. But as a veget

Sooo, your comment is kinda aggressive. Just saying. I don’t doubt that there are many vegans / vegetarians with a holier than though attitude. But as a vegetarian and ex- vegan, I have experienced more than enough lecturing on why my choice is dumb or wrong to last a lifetime, been the butt of more jokes to count (actually it’s mostly the same three jokes heard over and over), and seen many many people wear that look on their face of “how dare you threaten my sense of self that has existed unquestioned for decades and so now I will lash out at you so I don’t have to confront this scary place”. And I as a rule do not pro-offer the info that I’m vegetarian and I never proselytize and I only explain my decision if someone asks multiple times and they agree to have more than a two min discussion on it and understand that I view it as my very personal decision. Anyhow. This topic could def benefit from us all agreeing to approach it constructively.

MrLeftHand 8y ago
Sorry, if I offended you. I am not against vegans or vegetarians, but you never see a non-vegan one walking up to you and telling you that you are a shit person if you're not one of them. I think veganism and vegetarianism is slowly becoming a cult. I have vegan and vegetarian friends and I never make fun of them. I am usually curious why people chose that diet. Some do out of love for the animals, other do it because of the carbon emission and there are who just do it to try and eat healthier and such. No problem with this. I have problem with the vegan police culture.
- patagonia 8y ago
  You did not offend me. I was just making a remark about the tone of your comment, and suggesting that the conversation would benefit from a general change in tone. So you’ve never seen a PETA (people eating tasty animals) shirt? I’ve personally had people tell me I’m dumb and/or wrong. Many, many times. Sometimes in an aggressive manner. I probably experience this more than you because I’m vegetarian and you are not. That is just my experience.
  - MrLeftHand 8y ago
    I know what PETA is, don't worry. Now that is a very different kind of crazy right there. Luckily I never met one. Although I like a good argument battle.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
existencebox 8y ago
So I'm aggressively non-vegetarian, and my mom is aggressively vegan, even trying to raise me as such. I was curious to ask her what she thought about this, since she clearly has strong opinions on the subject. She _concurred_ that it felt very eerie for ones place of work starting to have these sorts of "opinions." While there's something of a status-quo in the US that "a professional should probably not be getting drunk on the company dime" I honestly don't perceive the same zeitgeist within vegetarianism. Simply but, my work should NOT be in the business of trying to influence my personal socio-economic choices. I realize this may not be a popular opinion nowadays, but I'd put it well under the bucket of "I don't trust them to use that power for exclusively good." (Nor do I necessarily think my and their idea of 'good' will always align; I feel similarly about the workplace health plans, while I realize the potential benefit, I'm scared about the implications of them having that purview and data) From my standpoint as someone who has been struggling for decades to maintain a healthy bodyweight (normally very under, stress based appetite loss) and for whom meat is often one of the few things that enables this, a company saying this is very much a "You Are Not Welcome" and feels quite "aggressive" to me; it CERTAINLY feels like proselytizing. And then on the pragmatic side, I don't think it's a lack of confronting my omnivore nature, it's that this seems like an absurd way to do so. It reminds me of the "stop showering to save california drought." There's a bit of a tragedy-of-the-commons problem with telling people Just Don't Eat Meat, and I would worry that as it does to me, it causes more people to dig their heels in further. I'm VERY WILLING to adjust my spending habits to pay for more ethically raised meat. I live in a farming community now and buy most of mine from a local farmers market. I'm VERY WILLING to see this become more expensive if we legislate effective animal treatment laws. I'm VERY WILLING to add carbon taxes and other methods to properly align externality-based-incentives. I'm NOT willing to give up one of the short list of things that brings some happiness into what is (for all humans) a very short time on this earth to make a moral point, I'd rather attack the problem from other angles. I realize this is selfish but I'd hope it's also pragmatic enough that those on the other side realize we still have the same goal; I'm concerned that this, like many of the other "my way or the highway"-sounding stances, will serve to wedge people more than Solve The Underlying Problem.

MrLeftHand 8y ago

Sorry, if I offended you. I am not against vegans or vegetarians, but you never see a non-vegan one walking up to you and telling you that you are a shit person if you're not one of them. I think veganism and vegetarianism is slowly becoming a cult. I have vegan and vegetarian friends and I never make fun of them. I am usually curious why people chose that diet. Some do out of love for the animals, other do it because of the carbon emission and there are who just do it to try and eat healthier and such. No problem with this. I have problem with the vegan police culture.

patagonia 8y ago
You did not offend me. I was just making a remark about the tone of your comment, and suggesting that the conversation would benefit from a general change in tone. So you’ve never seen a PETA (people eating tasty animals) shirt? I’ve personally had people tell me I’m dumb and/or wrong. Many, many times. Sometimes in an aggressive manner. I probably experience this more than you because I’m vegetarian and you are not. That is just my experience.
- MrLeftHand 8y ago
  I know what PETA is, don't worry. Now that is a very different kind of crazy right there. Luckily I never met one. Although I like a good argument battle.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

existencebox 8y ago

So I'm aggressively non-vegetarian, and my mom is aggressively vegan, even trying to raise me as such. I was curious to ask her what she thought about this, since she clearly has strong opinions on the subject. She _concurred_ that it felt very eerie for ones place of work starting to have these sorts of "opinions." While there's something of a status-quo in the US that "a professional should probably not be getting drunk on the company dime" I honestly don't perceive the same zeitgeist within vegetarianism. Simply but, my work should NOT be in the business of trying to influence my personal socio-economic choices. I realize this may not be a popular opinion nowadays, but I'd put it well under the bucket of "I don't trust them to use that power for exclusively good." (Nor do I necessarily think my and their idea of 'good' will always align; I feel similarly about the workplace health plans, while I realize the potential benefit, I'm scared about the implications of them having that purview and data) From my standpoint as someone who has been struggling for decades to maintain a healthy bodyweight (normally very under, stress based appetite loss) and for whom meat is often one of the few things that enables this, a company saying this is very much a "You Are Not Welcome" and feels quite "aggressive" to me; it CERTAINLY feels like proselytizing. And then on the pragmatic side, I don't think it's a lack of confronting my omnivore nature, it's that this seems like an absurd way to do so. It reminds me of the "stop showering to save california drought." There's a bit of a tragedy-of-the-commons problem with telling people Just Don't Eat Meat, and I would worry that as it does to me, it causes more people to dig their heels in further. I'm VERY WILLING to adjust my spending habits to pay for more ethically raised meat. I live in a farming community now and buy most of mine from a local farmers market. I'm VERY WILLING to see this become more expensive if we legislate effective animal treatment laws. I'm VERY WILLING to add carbon taxes and other methods to properly align externality-based-incentives. I'm NOT willing to give up one of the short list of things that brings some happiness into what is (for all humans) a very short time on this earth to make a moral point, I'd rather attack the problem from other angles. I realize this is selfish but I'd hope it's also pragmatic enough that those on the other side realize we still have the same goal; I'm concerned that this, like many of the other "my way or the highway"-sounding stances, will serve to wedge people more than Solve The Underlying Problem.