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[Arc]

... I'm a vegan already.

How's this been working out for you? Legitimately interested.

My vegan cousin has prepared enough scrumptious dishes that I can now conceivably envision myself making the leap. That's likely the best method PETA should lean towards.

[Misha]

frankly I find it hard to give a shit about what chickens or cows think and feel, and while needless suffering is bad, I can't help but think that they would be no better off without us. Release them into the wild and they die of starvation or predation anyway.

[Brentai]

Do we have an emoticon that conveys  to a greater degree of  ?

 

My vegan cousin has prepared enough scrumptious dishes that I can now conceivably envision myself making the leap. That's likely the best method PETA should lean towards.

Exactly!  Don't fight 'im, feed 'im!  Something spicy, ya know what I mean?

[MadMAxJr]

Wake me up when veggies taste like meat.

[Arc]

Does anything actually die of predation these days? Hunting levels are as low as ever. Wolves and Deer are flourishing in my neck of the woods.

Without breeding farms, the numbers wouldn't be anywhere near the levels they are today. Would starvation be an issue if the numbers were brought down to a quarter of themselves?

Ah, to dream.

[James Edward Smith]

I'm thinking of taking up a stance where whenever I'm cooking for myself, I will avoid preparing meat when I really don't need to and try to stay away from it whenever possible. But, if I go into a restaurant and I can't see anything on the menu that I want that doesn't have meat in it, then I'll just order one of the meat things that I like. If I'm going over to someone's house, they will never have to prepare a meatless meal for me and can just cook whatever they want and I'll enjoy it.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems like almost no vegetarians do that, they all make a big deal about never eating meat again. Does it have to be all or nothing like that? I don't see why meat eating has to be treated like it's alcoholism, are people that weak? It's just a steak.

Like, I suppose the obvious response to this is that if you aren't eating meat because of the basic moral principle that killing animals for food when its not necessary is wrong, then you never want to eat them at all because you never want to be involved in that whole messy business in any possible way. But, I don't really respect that mentality much. I think that if you are trying to avoid it when doing so isn't being obnoxious, then you are doing enough to stop the unnecessary slaughter of animals and acting like it's unthinkable to eat a plate of Shepard's pie at someone's house when we live in a society that slaughters quatloos of animals by the cubit every galactic year is being silly and naive.

[Misha]

if wolves AND deer are flourishing presumably some of deer are being eaten by wolves.

and cows might not have a problem but all the chickens and turkeys would probably be eaten by foxes and stray dogs.

[Niku]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems like almost no vegetarians do that, they all make a big deal about never eating meat again. Does it have to be all or nothing like that?

yes because otherwise you are not a vegetarian so much as someone who does not cram their gullet full of meat at any given opportunity.

See also "vegetarians" who eat seafood.

I could go vegetarian if meat wasn't so delicious.  Vegan, probably not.

[James Edward Smith]

Well, I guess that's not really my point then. Sorry for wording it wrong.

Why do people have to be completely vegetarian, why can't we just be people who don't stuff our gullets full of poor dead animals? Is that not cool enough or something?

[Brentai]

The best vegetarian I knew claimed that the reason she didn't eat meat is simply because she does not like meat.  Whether this was the actual original reason or not (though it was clear that she honestly didn't, it's not clear whether this was a cause or symptom of her having been a vegetarian for years), it led her to have a rather nice non-head-up-her-ass attitude about it.  She didn't care if you chowed down on flesh in front of her, she'd quietly order whatever vegetarian option suited her at whatever restaurant you were at, she'd politely decline if you managed to forgot and offer her some kind of meat-snack, and she made lots and lots of awesome bean dishes.  Girl could make tofu taste good.

Best part was when her usually super-carnivorous boyfriend's parents decided to go on Atkins, and he would show up at her place constantly desperate for carbs and vitamins.


As an aside, I think Thad cites health reasons for his vegetarianism, eats fish occasionally, and is about to stab some of you.  LOOK OUT!

[Arc]

Does it have to be all or nothing like that?

A rabid meat eater friend of mine was angry at another acquaintance for suddenly going vegan. Said meat eater lamented on and on about how it was a life decision, and that there was no middle ground, believing the acquaintance wouldn't follow through.

All the vegans I personally know have been very mellow about their decision. It's the meat eaters that are beginning to itch my shit. Their persecution complexes are starting to rival that of evangelicals.

all the chickens and turkeys would probably be eaten by foxes and stray dogs.

You do understand that there are untamed populations of both that thrive throughout the world, correct?

[Brentai]

All the vegans I personally know have been very mellow about their decision.

Vegetarians, yes.  Vegans, no.  They operate under a flawed moral assumption and are not hesitant to get angry at you for forgetting about it.

Though all the true vegans I've ever known were Pat types who'd get angry at you for whatever they could, so that's anecdotal.

[Arc]

Anecdotally, they've been vegans.

I've been direly impressed, yet still await for that day when one of them flips out on me for munching on some black diamond cheddar. Nothing yet.

[Kayma]

I don't know who took up the reigns of translating this ship captain, but they're doing a bang up job.

Anecdote: I didn't eat red meat from the ages of 5 to 20, since my mom is a  kind of pseudo-hippy vegetarian. It was weird being that kid who would never eat at cookouts and picked off pepperoni.

I can appreciate not wanting to eat animals, but I'd rather these PETA-folk work toward, as Kazz said, better treatment of livestock rather than trying to guilt us for eating critters. And likening my culinary choices to something as horrible as someone getting psycho stabby on a Greyhound? Get right fucking bent.

[Kayma]

And of course, then there are jokers like this. I understand not wanting to rub deodorant in some rabbit's eyes, but I think you're sending the wrong message here. 

[Catloaf]

I think we should focus on treating humans humanely first, then delicious things.  PETA is an organization that could only exist in a peaceful (within itself anyway) society of plenty.  I don't think any sane human being would care that much about animals when they are witness to human death and suffering on a daily basis.  It seems to me that their philosophy is quite arrogant and ignorant.

[Arc]

PETA is an organization that could only exist in a peaceful (within itself anyway) society of plenty.

It's about not shitting where you sleep, and not many people sleep in Darfur.

[Classic]

The most sensible argument I've heard for being semi-vegetarian is based on a  paranoia over the conditions that meat is processed under from birth-to-plate. But that's neither here nor there.

Mostly I avoid PETA's publications because

• They killed Gordito's Dad.
• Like Chick Tracts, they can really only serve to make me want to die.

[Niku]

Why do people have to be completely vegetarian, why can't we just be people who don't stuff our gullets full of poor dead animals? Is that not cool enough or something?

BECAUSE THEN YOU'RE NOT A VEGETARIAN

the other way is called "healthy eating"

[Cthulhu-chan]

I can appreciate not wanting to eat animals

I can't.  They're too full of delicious meat!

edit:  I could probably do without meat for the most part, but eggs and dairy products will only be taken from my cold, dead hands!