by Herbidacious » February 28th, 2020, 10:37 am
Recent converts, especially young people, to anything may have a tendency to evangelism. Maybe some of you will have encountered the Christian Union lot at university. I'd have them trying to convert me even though, at that point in my life, I went to church twice a week (but not to their church/meetings.) It's just the rabidness of youth.
I have never been an evangelical vegetarian (or indeed evangelical anything.) But over the years I have frequently (decreasing frequency as time passes, attitudes change and I become an older person) had uncalled for adverse comments from people, sometimes quite aggressive when my vegetarianism has cropped up in conversation. Comments have ranged from how my diet must be poor - not getting enough protein et. To jubilantly pointing out that I am wearing leather shoes - they've caught me out! to arguments about why it's good to eat meat - for the environment, animal welfare - the old 'well these cows wouldn't exist if we didn't eat meat etc argument, as expressed by our big boss at work the other week. Maybe some of these points and arguments are valid ones, or at least deserve discussion, but the point is that they have been thrown in my face merely because it comes out in conversation that I am a vegetarian (my ethical motivation often presupposed (correctly) in the past rather than stated, I imagine.) Not because I am trying to talk about it, certainly not because I am evangelizing. It's tiresome. What I eat does not really affect any individual I ever talk to (apart from being a very slight pain if they think they need to feed me) so why make a big deal about it if I am not doing so?
My theory is that diets that are adopted for ethical reasons make people who don't subscribe to them feel either judged or challenged and that puts them on the defensive which is often expressed as an offensive. Although maybe there is more to it than that. Maybe less.
What I am saying here is a general point about my experience over the years, and does not refer to anything said in this conversation.
Scully, yes I feel a bit judged by vegans now. It’s ironic, having taken all this flack from omnivores over the years, now I am not good enough! I am not going to go on the defensive though.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." Albert Camus