Let Them Eat Meat

I admit it. I generally don't like vegans. It's not that I'm against their choice to live without meat and animal products. If that's what they want to do, then that's a perfectly valid choice for them to make, and I respect that choice. I heavily disagree with that choice as it is illogical to me (which I'll get into in a bit), but I have no problem with their right to do something I disagree with. My main problem with vegans is that they don't respect other people's choice to do something they disagree with. It's the obsessive, fascist, militant fervor with which they promote their views that seriously bothers me.

Vegans are not like more common "regular" vegetarians, as vegetarians or pescetarians are usually passive non-eaters of meat, and their ideology does not encompass the entirety of their lives. For vegans, who have to think about not only what's in their food, but also what's in their clothes, shoes, recreational items... Really every aspect of their lives must be ruled by this ideology, and it ends up being the thing that takes up most of their thinking. Because of this, vegans are militant in their devotion to veganism, and when someone is fanatical about something, they tend to push that something on all other people they meet. I've known a fair number of vegans in my lifetime, all of whom vocally vilified the people around them eating meat or wearing leather shoes. They post disturbing videos or pictures about the horrors of the meat industry. They get in your face. Some people form resentment or even hatred of the people in their lives who refuse to convert to veganism. And yet they demand respect for their radical way of life. When they give none to other people. But why? Why is it okay to condemn someone for eating meat? How is it ever okay to tell someone that they're a heartless human being because of their eating habits? (Unless they're cannibals...)

I like meat. I like animals. Those two things do not have to be mutually exclusive. I can do both at the same time, and that does not make me a hypocrite. I understand where my food comes from, and I'm not okay with the methods that I know the meat industry uses. But I also recognize that animals die for our meals. But I don't feel that boycotting is an effective way to protest anything. No matter if I choose to boycott meat or animal products, animals will be killed and eaten by someone else. Not just by one other person, but millions of others. One person can make a difference, sure. But not by boycotting. It is far more effective for that one person to start an ad campaign, educating the public on what the meat industry is doing wrong, encouraging people to write in to their Congressmen to enforce stricter laws promoting humane treatment of animals, and advocating the consumption of organic and free-range meats. By supporting organic/free-range meat, and by better regulating the treatment of animals, the quality of life for animals would improve. However, I feel that veganism promotes a negative and inflammatory method of protest, reserved for people who tend towards self-righteous obsession, much like fanatical Christians or fanatical atheists. Fanatical people take an extreme philosophy and push it onto other people, and vegans are no different. It's important for them to be right, but even more important to convert people to their "right" thinking. And that's not right. People are free to believe whatever the hell they want, including the belief that burgers and roast turkey and barbecue chicken are delicious.

To reiterate a point further, veganism denies the efforts of people who are truly making an effort to humanely provide meat and leather. They not only boycott corporate industrial meat businesses, but also the small farms and businesses that are actually doing things right. How does that improve society? What about wool? If you don't shear sheep, they can get sick with infections or overheat during the summer. Then what do you do with all that wool? Just throw it away? Imagine all that waste! Why not use what the animal doesn't want or need? Same with honey. Those bees make tons of honey, and don't need all of it. But that's off-limits to vegans as well. More waste? Meanwhile, imitation items that are often used by vegans as substitutes for animal products create pollution and suck away more precious energy in the far more involved process of production. Take wool, for example. From sheep to yarn, you don't even necessarily need any electric equipment to make enough wool yarn for a sweater. Or 5 or 10 sweaters. So, you shear the sheep with, well, shears. You clean and comb the wool. You spin it on a wooden wheel. Voila! Wool yarn. The same thing for acrylic, polyester, etc yarn or thread involves chemicals and processing facilities, requiring gobs of electricity and producing chemical waste. Most vegans are also environmentalists. But how can they claim to be doing good for the environment when they also promote waste? Okay, so maybe they only wear cotton or hemp. But they would still advocate, by their ideology, the extensive production of man-made alternatives over the light processing of animal products.

Furthermore, veganism completely ignores some pretty fundamental aspects of nature. The food chain (which any 4th grader should be able to tell you about) teaches us (roughly) that smaller organisms are eaten by larger ones, which are eaten by even larger ones, which are eaten by larger or more predatory organisms. At the "end" of the food chain, the last one standing dies, and decays, and feeds the first, smaller organism, and the chain starts again. Perhaps humans were at some point meant to be eaten by tigers or lions or bears (oh my!), but we are currently one of those who are the last ones standing. So we are meant to eat other organisms. All organisms take, in order to survive. Okay, so vegans can survive on their diet, and it works for them. That's their choice. And again, their choice, and non-reflective of the choices of other people. And then, what about those vegans who force their poor dogs to subsist on a vegan diet? Dogs are predatory animals, who are meant to eat smaller animals, like chicken or other birds. How can pets, who depend on us to take care of their needs, be expected to live by the same extreme standards that humans impose upon themselves? Dogs cannot get proper nutrition from beans and vegetables. Their digestive system works differently. And therefore, if some vegans are denying their own animals proper nutrition, how can they claim to be advocates for humane treatment of animals?

I have a right to eat what I want without being condemned for it. I appreciate the artistry of food. I already have numerous allergies that limit my ability to fully enjoy the culinary craft - why would I limit myself even further by boycotting meat and animal products? I don't try to force my omnivoreness on other people. But vegans would try to force their extreme vegetarianism on me. Veganism furthermore denies support for business who do properly and humanely treat their animals, promotes waste of animal products that the animal doesn't need, promotes pollution via the production of man-made alternatives to animal products, and endangers pets through negligent care. All of which points to extensive hypocrisy in the practice of a fallacious ideology.