Not vegan, but to play the vegan’s advocate—vegans are acutely aware of the level of cruelty in the factory farm system, as well as it’s affect on the environment and don’t want to partake in those systems of harm and taking without consent. To them, it’s not just a dietary choice but an ethical stance against suffering and exploitation. To someone who sees the life of a cow as just as sacred and important as a human’s, you can imagine why it would upset them to see you eating a steak. Just like you might be upset if you saw someone eating a dog or a fellow human. To them there’s no difference.
It’s similar to how evangelical Christians genuinely believe they’re trying to save people from eternal damnation when they get preachy. Just as annoying. The difference is that one is rooted in observable reality—documented animal suffering, environmental damage, and ethical concerns—while the other is a matter of ‘faith.’ and the latter is given a lot more leeway. So when vegans speak out, it’s not necessarily about policing your diet; it’s about trying to reduce harm in a world where harm is often hidden or normalized. And for what it’s worth I have known a lot of vegans and not one of them was ever preachy or judgemental, in fact most tend to keep it to themselves because vegans are so often the subject of ridicule, the butt of played out jokes, or made to host a session of 20 questions and feigned health concerns from people who eat nothing but processed meat and carbs.
I believe everyone should be able to do and live as they want as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s ability to do the same, and I can fully understand how to a vegan someone eating a steak would break that rule.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
The cow
WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Well, here’s how it is, and I offer no apologies that you don’t like it:
You say the cow cares? I say the cow never asked for your advocacy. And we both know you cannot prove it has. So, in reality, it’s easily just as safe to assume that the cow never asked for your support as it would be to assume they did. And it’s also safe to assume they are entirely clueless about the concept of meat consumption, and even if they were, they’d be entirely indifferent to it because they lack the ability to conceive even the slightest notion of their own mortality- because they’re cows.
Look… People love to install human emotions and complex thought processes in everything we see. Up to and including inanimate object. It’s how we can connect with the world around us. If it feels what we feel, we can understand it better.
It’s a cow. It doesn’t think about shit. It has a natural preservation of life because that is built into survival instinct because that is part of how propagation of species works.
And no one asked your opinion on the moral responsibility of consuming meat either. You just offer it. So when I say that people should butt-out of others legal decisions regarding dietary habits- it’s shit like what you’re song here that illustrates my point.
What someone wants to eat, provided it is legal- is only considered to be your business to you and you alone- not to them. So your opinions of their consumption of cheeseburgers is every bit as important to an omnivore as the opinions of Christian fundamentalists are to the LGBTQ.
They don’t care.
Done arguing this. It’s obnoxious and a waste of time to bother. The only lesson learned here is a neutral stance doesn’t exist in a discussion with vegans.
Mistake only made once. Trust me.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
I can prove pretty easily that cows can suffer. I can’t prove that any individual cow wanted to live any more than I can prove that any murder victim wanted to live, but it’s a safe fucking assumption that they did.
And a child doesn’t know what sex is, but it turns out that the victim not being able to comprehend the crime being committed against them is not a justification for committing that crime. I know, you don’t think your logic can be expanded to cover things outside of dietary decisions, but it does whether you like it or not.
Something being legal does not mean it’s okay, and my opinion of me consumption is a bit more meaningful than the opinions of Christian fundamentalists to the lgbt, on account that your perfectly legal dietary decisions actively cause harm in a way that being gay doesn’t.
WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 37 minutes ago
…… k
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
>inb4 some room temperature IQ replies with “are you really equating eating meat with slavery?”
No, slavery is worse than animal agriculture. That doesn’t mean that animal agriculture isn’t wrong for the same reasons that slavery is. You’re driving a demand for unnecessary harm to be done to sentient beings for a product you don’t need to survive.