Vegans can really be annoying and preachy. Self righteous jerks who think they're morally superior because they've chosen not to eat animals. It's hard to enjoy a good steak when some vegan next to you tells you it's a dead cow that's been abused before it was slaughtered to become this juicy tender meat you now savor. You may feel it's okay for others to make odd personal choices such as shunning dairy products and eggs but they should definitely let you enjoy your ice-cream in peace without talking about dairy factory farming. "Live and let live", right?
Well, not exactly. If you consume animal products (meat, fish, dairy, eggs and so many more...), please read on to understand why it's hard for many vegans not to share their perspective and try to change your "personal choice".
Everything we choose can easily be labeled and protected as a "personal choice". However, not all personal choices are accepted and allowed nowadays. Clearly, acts of harming other humans (robbery/slavery/rape/murder) are illegal today in most places in the world. A drug-addict's personal choice to steal property to get money for the drugs he really needs, isn't an acceptable personal choice. A slave-owner's "personal choice" to own a slave as it makes the owner more wealthy and happy isn't acceptable anymore. Killing another person is, in most cases, strictly forbidden and shunned upon. However, non-human animals are not truly protected by our social or written laws. Vegans don't think that knowingly harming, torturing and abusing non-human animals or supporting such acts should be an acceptable personal choice or social norm. The fact that it is still the norm in most of the world doesn't mean it should continue this way. I think each person should be able to make any "personal choice" that doesn't harm others directly. I personally include non-human animals in my definition of "others".
So why be pushy about it? Well, you'll be surprised how many vegans are not pushy about it. They often wouldn't even mention they're vegan so as not to start a useless debate with people who are not open to accept change. When offered foods made of animals, they'll simply refuse without mentioning it. Some vegans I know would even eat meat to avoid a conflict with people they love.
But not all vegans are like that. Many times the process of understanding the horrors committed by humans to other animals is not an easy process. The realization is accompanied by strong emotions. Empathy to the suffering means that the person feels that pain. Have you ever seen a dog kicked and heard it whimper? If you did and empathize with dogs, you had probably felt a physical pain caused by your feeling of the situation. In such a case, how would you feel towards another person laughing at the situation or kicking the dog again? Would you feel that person should be taught differently? Might you feel enraged? Or perhaps you could label it as the other person's "personal choice" and go on about your day ignoring it? These are questions vegans are faced with each and every day as most people support the leather, meat, dairy and egg industries without thinking twice about it. These industries are INHERENTLY full of animal abuse and torture that makes the dog-kicking situation I've described seem like the dog got a loving hug.
So all non vegans are disgusting people with appalling moral values? Of course not. There are many good reasons why most people are not willing to change their habits, especially when these habits are the acceptable social norm. Changing habits is hard and justifying our current ones is easy. Talk to a person who has been smoking for more than 10 years if you're not sure what I mean. Many people are exposed to partial facts and wrong information which makes them think that animal products are healthy and a necessity for them and that animal torture isn't related to what they have on their plate or the leather jacket they're wearing. There's often a cognitive dissociation between the what you consume and the way it was produced. When eating KFC, you often don't think of chickens that are born into small cages and killed when they are a few weeks old, you think about it being tasty. When eating a cake with eggs, you don't think about how all the day old male chicks are all thrown into a garbage bag and choke to death or being tossed into a machine that grinds them to become pet food.
Choosing not to support non-human animal killing and torture will not really harm you, it'll likely even be healthier for you. However, in a meat-eating society, it's not an easy choice to make so most people refrain from even considering it. Personally, I've been denying my direct contribution to the suffering of animals and ignoring this suffering even when I was aware of it. It seemed like a fine thing to do as most people do it. However, when I tried to look at the choice from the outside, I couldn't really justify myself anymore. I couldn't again understand how my joy of animal-based foods justifies all the horrible things that are done to provide it. If having a plant based diet would have rendered my life miserable and my health and taste buds would have suffered, I would have found the justification. But it isn't so. There is so much to eat and enjoy eating that does not involve killing or torturing innocent sentient beings. Later I've found this choice would also help my health and reduce the harm to environment and this just helped supporting it.
I'll conclude on a personal note. On one hand, I feel I'm not doing enough to prevent the currently ongoing animal holocaust. On the other hand, most of the people in the world support it and most of my efforts would simply hurt me. So for now I'm left with expressing my opinions at times and trying not to feel too badly at the dissonance of people telling me how they love animals while eating milk chocolate and buying new leather shoes. My wish is that some day animal abuse would be illegal everywhere and that violations of such laws would be prosecuted. It might take many more generations, but I hope it'll eventually happen.
Well, not exactly. If you consume animal products (meat, fish, dairy, eggs and so many more...), please read on to understand why it's hard for many vegans not to share their perspective and try to change your "personal choice".
Everything we choose can easily be labeled and protected as a "personal choice". However, not all personal choices are accepted and allowed nowadays. Clearly, acts of harming other humans (robbery/slavery/rape/murder) are illegal today in most places in the world. A drug-addict's personal choice to steal property to get money for the drugs he really needs, isn't an acceptable personal choice. A slave-owner's "personal choice" to own a slave as it makes the owner more wealthy and happy isn't acceptable anymore. Killing another person is, in most cases, strictly forbidden and shunned upon. However, non-human animals are not truly protected by our social or written laws. Vegans don't think that knowingly harming, torturing and abusing non-human animals or supporting such acts should be an acceptable personal choice or social norm. The fact that it is still the norm in most of the world doesn't mean it should continue this way. I think each person should be able to make any "personal choice" that doesn't harm others directly. I personally include non-human animals in my definition of "others".
So why be pushy about it? Well, you'll be surprised how many vegans are not pushy about it. They often wouldn't even mention they're vegan so as not to start a useless debate with people who are not open to accept change. When offered foods made of animals, they'll simply refuse without mentioning it. Some vegans I know would even eat meat to avoid a conflict with people they love.
But not all vegans are like that. Many times the process of understanding the horrors committed by humans to other animals is not an easy process. The realization is accompanied by strong emotions. Empathy to the suffering means that the person feels that pain. Have you ever seen a dog kicked and heard it whimper? If you did and empathize with dogs, you had probably felt a physical pain caused by your feeling of the situation. In such a case, how would you feel towards another person laughing at the situation or kicking the dog again? Would you feel that person should be taught differently? Might you feel enraged? Or perhaps you could label it as the other person's "personal choice" and go on about your day ignoring it? These are questions vegans are faced with each and every day as most people support the leather, meat, dairy and egg industries without thinking twice about it. These industries are INHERENTLY full of animal abuse and torture that makes the dog-kicking situation I've described seem like the dog got a loving hug.
So all non vegans are disgusting people with appalling moral values? Of course not. There are many good reasons why most people are not willing to change their habits, especially when these habits are the acceptable social norm. Changing habits is hard and justifying our current ones is easy. Talk to a person who has been smoking for more than 10 years if you're not sure what I mean. Many people are exposed to partial facts and wrong information which makes them think that animal products are healthy and a necessity for them and that animal torture isn't related to what they have on their plate or the leather jacket they're wearing. There's often a cognitive dissociation between the what you consume and the way it was produced. When eating KFC, you often don't think of chickens that are born into small cages and killed when they are a few weeks old, you think about it being tasty. When eating a cake with eggs, you don't think about how all the day old male chicks are all thrown into a garbage bag and choke to death or being tossed into a machine that grinds them to become pet food.
Choosing not to support non-human animal killing and torture will not really harm you, it'll likely even be healthier for you. However, in a meat-eating society, it's not an easy choice to make so most people refrain from even considering it. Personally, I've been denying my direct contribution to the suffering of animals and ignoring this suffering even when I was aware of it. It seemed like a fine thing to do as most people do it. However, when I tried to look at the choice from the outside, I couldn't really justify myself anymore. I couldn't again understand how my joy of animal-based foods justifies all the horrible things that are done to provide it. If having a plant based diet would have rendered my life miserable and my health and taste buds would have suffered, I would have found the justification. But it isn't so. There is so much to eat and enjoy eating that does not involve killing or torturing innocent sentient beings. Later I've found this choice would also help my health and reduce the harm to environment and this just helped supporting it.
I'll conclude on a personal note. On one hand, I feel I'm not doing enough to prevent the currently ongoing animal holocaust. On the other hand, most of the people in the world support it and most of my efforts would simply hurt me. So for now I'm left with expressing my opinions at times and trying not to feel too badly at the dissonance of people telling me how they love animals while eating milk chocolate and buying new leather shoes. My wish is that some day animal abuse would be illegal everywhere and that violations of such laws would be prosecuted. It might take many more generations, but I hope it'll eventually happen.
