WHy is it vegetarians can force vegetarianism?

I’ve never had a vegetarian try to force vegetarianism on me.
shrug

i think its because of a majority/minority thing. if the majority force the minority to do something its considered “politically incorrect”, but if a minority forces something on a majority, then its called “being helpful to the community”. everyone takes the side of the little guy, just because they are the ones who can call a “foul”.

I’ve been veg for 18 years now. I never try to push my dietary habits on anyone. They know where I stand on eating animals and I leave it at that. I often get the eye roll when people find out my reasons for being vegetarian. But that does’nt bother me as I feel that I’m the enlightened one.

non vegetarians eat vegetarian food too. so i don’t see how they are forcing it on others. unless they are saying “NO NO you can’t eat any meat. here, take some vegetables!” but if they are just saying “would you like a bite of this?” or if they invited you over for dinner, then obviously you would expect them to cook only vegetarian food.

I live in vegetarianland and have never had someone try to convert me. I have had people request that I don’t eat meat in their presence. And I am cool with that.

I would the same thing that I do to people that try to convert me to Christianity. A healthy “Fuck Off.”

@pnl I’m talking about the crazy vegetarians that get on people about eating meat at all. I run into them a lot I’m thinking it is having a lot to do with my age group. I’m 17 and a lot of the people my age seem to want to make a revolution, and prevent everyone from eating meat.

@Chuck I have been a vegetarian for 3 years now, so I still get kindda picked on a lot. I have never forced my vegetarianism on anyone either. I mean why bother? People should eat what they want right? And good for you 18 years. =]

I can’t help myself, I must tell this story.
I had a wonderful but very very self-righteous friend who was a veg and was pretty annoying about it – had to cook the dinner when he came to YOUR HOUSE, to make sure you didn’t put lard in the refried beans you made especially for him, see what I mean?
So he got invited to Argentina to do a little poetry tour, very exciting, and he came back after 3 weeks and I asked him, What about the fact that people in Argentina eat a lot of meat?
He said, They eat nothing BUT meat. They eat steaks with garnishes of chops and decorations of sausages. They don’t eat salad, they don’t eat vegetables.
So what did you do? I asked.
Oh, I ate it all, he said. It was
DELICIOUS!!!!

… But vegetarians are right and we all know it.

Thank you veges for not eating my steak. You can
drink! my! milk! shake! any time you like.

@susanc haha very funny.

@ Trance – aaaaaaah i get your drift now. okay, i have a close friend who was vegetarian and is now Vegan. Okay, now i am not against either but let’s just say it’s REALLY hard to cook when you are inviting her for dinner. Whenever we eat together, she used to say stuff like “ugh gross meat. do you want to know how they treated those chickens?”. the first time she did that with me, i told her that she needs to respect my eating habits as i respect hers. and that was the end of that. i feel vegetarians do this because they feel they are on the right “moral” path and thus they can try to convert everyone else instead of respecting their decisions. Basically, its the same with religious people. they think they are on the path to salvation and feel there’s nothing wrong with trying to convert others so they can eventually lead that path too. In short, they think they are helping you by forcing their views on you.

But it’s the same with any group. Besides myself, my wife and two of my three daughters are vegetarian. None of us try to come off as morally superior. We don’t try to convert. And I’m real sorry if, when invited over to eat, we don’t eat your lard bean’s or jello salad. Boo boo.

@ AC – i agree about it being the same with any group. I meant the people who TRY to convert others do it because of the feeling they are on the moral path. As for the cooking, yes it is a lot harder to cook for a vegan (not vegetarian). Questions like “is there onion in it? what about high fructose corn syrup?” etc etc can be cumbersome. But i have the best strategy for cooking for vegans/vegetarians. Whenever they are over, I cook Indian food…perfect!

My ex-husband was a vegetarian. I still refer to steak as dead cow as I’m chomping away on it. My current husband will not eat anything green. Anytime we’re out to dinner with friends & I tell them this they all start listing vegetables, saying “really. What about asparagus? How about peas? I love peas.” etc. We have friends sending him health articles about the benefits of veggies, etc. I try to tell people nothing you say or do is going to get him to eat vegetables. And, the kicker, he’s in perfect f’ing health. The dr is surprised to learn he doesn’t eat anything green!

@PnL yea sorry it’s hard cooking for us. I usually tell my friends in advance that I am veg and give them an idea of what I like and what is easy. But I’m sure your used to it by now with your friend.

@Luna My friend Carlie is just like that, except no fruits either. She HATES them. I don’t get it because fruits are like sweet and juicy. But she doesn’t like them either, no grapes, apples, bananas, nothing. They only way she will eat strawberries is if she drowns them in sugar.

They’re pissed off cuz they can’t have a double double and they don’t want anyone else to have one either!!! LOL.
No seriously, it’s probably because they deeply believe that meat is bad for our digestive system. I did a research project on it for school once and learned a lot of negative things about consuming red meat, mostly how directly related it is to colon cancer. A lot of other scary things too.
They just want everyone to be healthy I guess. Their opinion.
Some people think it’s really unhealthy to NOT eat meat.
Personal choice.

I haven’t eaten red meat since 1996 (thank you Oprah!). Why is it after twelve years, my mom is STILL offering me meatballs, hamburgers and steak????

I’m with thebeadholder

I have been veg for nearly 21 years and to this day my mom thinks it’s a phase.

Whenever I get a cold she suggests I eat a steak, and after all this time the only way I can think of responding is, “Would youl ike a cigarette?” since she’s opposed to smoking and would never consider it, which is my stance on eating animals.

While I don’t actively attempt to convert people to vegetarianism, I do think that my beliefs have been often questioned and scrutinized by meat-eaters who are either unfamiliar with it or just curious because they are contemplating a change in their own diet. In those cases I would hope that maybe I’ve inspired a few people to reconsider their own food choices. That is strictly their own personal decision, however.

But Astro, when we’re cooking for vegetarians of course we don’t make lardy beans.
And I’m not boo-hooing about it; it’s easy to make good veg food even if it’s not how we
usually cook. What I don’t like much is being distrusted. This is
friendship. Obviously I’m not going to slip the guy some pig fat.

Why do people try to make you eat meat? That’s absurd; I’ve never heard of that happening to a vegetarian. I’ve also never really had a vegetarian try to make me stop eating meat.

well, i don’t know how things are in the states, but here in holland, you’re considered some sort of traitor, “why are you a vegetarian? that’s not a reason, you should eat meat!” it’s actually quite weird, for instance, i eat fish once a month “what, then you’re not a real vegetarian!” it’s so stupid, i mean, it’s my life, my choices, aargh, some poeple….

I am vegetarian. My partner is not. I have never tried to influence whether or not she eats meat.

I refuse to call myself a vegetarian because of all the baggage associated with the word. I tell people I’m “off meat”.

I will try to defend the proselytizing herbivores, though: if you came to the conclusion that ANY act was morally bankrupt, and you chose to stop engaging in that act, it seems natural to try to encourage those around you to try to adopt the same moral behavior.

I personally do not try to encourage vegetarianism per se, but I have engaged in many, many, many spirited debates over it because I think if people are going to continue to eat meat, they should really think it through and not do it simply because it’s something that has been done. To be perfectly honest, I have yet to hear a really good argument for continuing to eat meat, so until I hear it I’ll continue to engage in discourse about it. And if I bring someone over to my side, well, lucky for me and the chickens and the fish and the cows.

@iwamoto: consider yourself a “flexitarian”! That’s me :-)

In my spirited debates there have been several people who have based their premise of eating meat as morally correct because they believe that “G*d placed animals on Earth for that purpose.”

haha, how wonderful that people still hold that figment of imagination accountable for their actions, oh man, i should just invent my own religion that makes it correct for me to be a flexitarian

Y/you should see how they treat those veggies. Throw steer manure on them…..~smile~

I am a vegetarian and I would just like to say that I reason with people who ask why I don’t eat meat as if it was bad, but I don’t force it on anyone. I think a lot of people who are vegetarians think they are on the right side and want to make everyone else be with them. But really, in my opinion, it’s just a way of living. It’s just like if one person hates video games and never plays them and one person is completely addicted, the person that doesn’t play video games can’t say the person who does is wrong to do it. Too confusing or do you get my point?It’s kind of like a religion. Some people believe in God, some don’t. You can’t force someone to believe something. A.K.A. Most vegetarians think they are the ones who do the right thing and they try to force everyone else to do it as well when they know perfectly well they can’t.

I agree. I’m a vegetarian because I believe it’s right. I also don’t believe in God and get crap for that as well. I believe what I believe because that is what I believe. I don’t try to believe or not believe. I just do. I have no control over it. My eating habits are my choice based on my beliefs and feelings about animals. I don’t preach it and don’t appreciate it when others preach to me. Everytime a get a cold or the flu some moron is telling me that I need a big mac and that if I would only eat meat then I would never have gotten sick to begin with. Of course, these are people with cholesterol counts that are likely 300+.