this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm a vegetarian.

I was, and still am, surprised by how often people will go into a long rant justifying why they eat meat to me as soon as they find out I'm vegetarian. All the while I'm just sat there, not saying anything, because I literally do not care whether or not they eat meat.

Me being a vegetarian is a personal choice for me and myself only. You do you. I don't care. You don't need to explain yourself to me. It makes me feel so awkward.

People will often ask me why I'm a vegetarian too. But it feels like a very personal and heavy question to ask someone immediately after finding out they're vegetarian... I don't especially want to talk about animals dying all the time and how it makes me sad especially to strangers.

Edit/Addition: It feels like a lot of focus is brought on how vegetarians/vegans force their views onto other people but my experience personally is non-vegetarians/vegans trying to force me into conversations about this topic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

There are a lot of people who take it personally when confronted with the idea that someone else is making an ethical choice that they, themselves, are not. When they hear someone say "I made this personal choice," their ego warps it into "I made this personal choice and if you don't, you're a bad person."

It's simply low empathy behavior. They struggle to contextualize other people's thoughts and decisions outside of their own personal experience and beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is my experience as well

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I hate that this used to be me.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

:)

It's especially ironic considering I've gone vegan this year.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Personal growth++

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Good for you. Although your choice doesn't befit me, I understand and respect your decision as long as you also respect mine.

It is sad some people need to belittle others over stuff that literally doesn't even personally affect them. I mean, unless they're the cook, I guess.

[–] Marduk73 3 points 1 year ago

Im about a month in eating fruits vegetables plant based whatever. Im eating eggs cheese and milk.

I'm a meat eating buddhist. I'm all over the place. I'm only doing this because of hypertension and desperately trying to loose weight.

Surprisingly not hard to do. I don't preach it. I never want to be that guy. I'm just doing whatever i can to fix my health.

I don't miss the meat yet but i do a little bit. I don't think this is permanent for me. We'll see if my numbers change.

[–] NewDark 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This kind of thing always reminds me of this video from innuendo studios that really nails why this is a thing. https://youtu.be/ExEHuNrC8yU

[–] cardboardchris 3 points 1 year ago

yes! I was trying to remember where I saw that. I get the combative attitude from people sometimes 'cause I don't drink, which as I recall, he mentions in that video too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ended up watching the whole series that video's a part of. Certainly rings true

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

While the initial reasoning is respectable, veganism is t without it's flaws, several plants are not ethically sourced and either cause a lot of pollution, destroy habitats to be grown, or are grown via slavery, or a combo of all 3. The real issue is the systems that are in place across the food industry, plant and animal based.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That being said, they still come out ahead in comparison to animal-based foods due to the fact that you need to grow massive amounts of feed crops to raise other creatures. It turns out that pretty much every environmental metric comes out ahead

Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits

[...]

Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/htm

In terms of workers, the meat industry is arguably worse on that front. It's one of the most dangerous industries anywhere for workers

US meat workers are already three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker, and pork and beef workers nearly seven times more likely to suffer repetitive strain injuries

[...]

Amputations happen on average twice a week, according to the data

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/amputations-serious-injuries-us-meat-industry-plant

And there's great risk of PTSD from the workers that you don't see for harvesting crops

There is evidence that slaughterhouse employment is associated with lower levels of psychological well-being. SHWs [slaughterhouse workers] have described suffering from trauma, intense shock, paranoia, anxiety, guilt and shame (Victor & Barnard, 2016), and stress (Kristensen, 1991). There was evidence of higher rates of depression (Emhan et al., 2012; Horton & Lipscomb, 2011; Hutz et al., 2013; Lander et al., 2016; Lipscomb et al., 2007), anxiety (Emhan et al., 2012; Hutz et al., 2013; Leibler et al., 2017), psychosis (Emhan et al., 2012), and feelings of lower self-worth at work (Baran et al., 2016). Of particular note was that the symptomatology appeared to vary by job role. Employees working directly with the animals (e.g., on the kill floor or handling the carcasses) were those who showed the highest prevalence rates of aggression, anxiety, and depression (Hutz et al., 2013; Richards et al., 2013). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380211030243

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Not do be pedantic but wouldn't this imply you HAVE to grow feed for livestock? There's lots of regions where you don't feed your livestock but let them graze. It's part of the reason why 100% of those with Irish decent are able to digest lactose as it was crucial for survival for thousands of years.

I think overwhelmingly you have the correct position here however.

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