Are you a vegetarian? (poll)

Aye. I try not to be a dick about it as I suspect I was a *bit* like it before.

And y'know, plants are living things too and it's narcissistic to use humanity as the standard to judge which other species are capable of feeling or deserve good treatment, but it's the animal condition to consume living things to get enough energy to live ourselves, and we all have to draw our line somewhere. Personally, I would have a really hard time giving up eggs & cheese.

what point are you trying to make?

― rob,

oh, just that I've seen some *extremely shitty* posts on here re: animal rights

I think Deflatormouse was punning on "animal rights" and "I bought a monkey"?

LOL thanks for trying

ah sorry I completely misunderstood you there! yes, all the animal rights and veganism threads looked depressingly hostile and defensive and some are sexist

plants are living things too and it's narcissistic to use humanity as the standard to judge which other species are capable of feeling or deserve good treatment, but it's the animal condition to consume living things to get enough energy to live ourselves, and we all have to draw our line somewhere

Maybe on an abstract philosophical level this is true—and the cultural hypocrisy over which animals deserve rescuing and which should be slaughtered or exploited en masse bothers me for this reason— but humans are the only species engaged in large-scale animal agriculture, which is also destructive to plants, so if you really think plants and animals should be treated equally, you should still not support animal agriculture. At any rate, I encourage to read the essay if you didn't already, it raises some very specific issues with animal breeding that do not apply to horticulture

That said I am not a vegan (though I have involuntary intolerances of both eggs and lactose), so I'm not trying to personally shame anyone. The best thing about that article is framing it as a politics rather than a lifestyle!

I was a vegetarian between about 1989 - 2007 but gave up at an Argentinian owned steak restaurant in my early 30's. But I still go through periods of not eating meat. At the moment I have a tender gap in my gob where used to be there a molar and am doing lots of green soup made from broccoli/spinach/kale/spring greens. I actually got angry when some dickhead tory foodie dismissed kale as "cattle food" recently. But still I'm decidedly NOT a vegetarian any more.

It's a very insightful article that takes into account a lot of the misconceptions and unfortunate truths around veganism. Like the authors, I can't take an aggressive attitude when discussing other people's meals; it's something that is so central to the self-conception of many people. I'm also hyper-conscious of not wanting to harm things for "our side" by being called out as either a hypocrite or a scold from one side or the other, so I try simply to eat as best I can.