Why do debates between vegetarians and meat eaters get so hostile?

Question

Earlier today, I came across a conversation about vegetarianism that started off normally, but somehow turned into insults, swearing, and personal attacks from both sides. 😕 Over food choices.

I completely understand why some people choose to be vegetarian or vegan. 🌱 Some care deeply about animals, some do it for health or environmental reasons, and others simply feel better living that way. Whatever the reason, I think people should be free to make that choice.

But I also think respect has to go both ways. ❤️

Eating meat doesn't automatically make someone cruel or uncaring. For many people, it's simply part of their culture, family, upbringing, or everyday diet. Different people grow up eating differently, and that's okay.

At the same time, people who eat meat shouldn't mock someone for choosing not to. If someone feels strongly about being vegetarian, why not simply respect their choice without trying to convince them otherwise? 🌱

And yes, caring about animal welfare is completely understandable. 🐾 But I don't think someone's entire character should be judged by what's on their dinner plate.

Honestly, food is such a personal thing. What feels completely normal to one person might feel completely wrong to another.

We don't have to agree. We don't even have to understand each other's choices completely.

We can just disagree and still be kind. ❤️

There are already enough things dividing people. Maybe what we had for dinner doesn't need to be one of them. 😂🍽️

OneViewpoint · Accepted Answer

Here's the problem with millennial and Gen Z vegans. Both my sons were brought up being exposed to veggies, fruits, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. My ex and I were Boomer omnivores. Variety was good. Somehow both my kids discovered the holy crusade of veganism in their 20's. I don't really care as long as they eat healthy. The younger one has actually become a pretty talented cook. The older one and his wife live off "Door Dash" vegan food (facepalm).

Here's the problem. If I'm at a house party, a cookout, or out to dinner with friends, I'm flexible. I eat whatever the host has prepared and say thank you. Or I go with whatever the group feels like doing whether that's Italian, Chinese, Indian, a Steakhouse, Greek, Pizza, or Vegan. I don't really care. I like it all.

But the holy vegans can never compromise their sacred principles to fit in socially for even one meal. So everyone else is forced to accommodate the holy vegans. Fuck that. And to top it off, all of my kids friends are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, lactose intolerant, gluten allergic, halal, kosher, or suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. it really starts to seem like screaming for attention and manipulation.

Well here's another one. Irritable Boomer Syndrome. If we can only go to the places you want because you're holding the group hostage to your food beliefs, fuck off. I guess we won't be going out to dinner any more. As Fleetwood Mac said, "You can go your own way". If you come over to my house for dinner or a cookout, I'll let you know what the menu is. If that doesn't suit you, show up with whatever the hell suits your beliefs or starve. I'm not cooking for 17 different diets just as I'm not catering to 72 fantasy genders people have invented. And you're not taking over my fridge with all your specialty foods. Bring a cooler.

It comes down to social skills and navigating diverse social circles. And I think this is yet another case of younger generations losing touch with reality to belong to a group they found on the internet. So be it. Actions have consequences. If you can't accommodate me occasionally, I feel no need to accommodate you. Simples. Human social interaction at the most basic level.

EzraIsShy76028 · Accepted Answer

I would assume it's because this is a topic people feel strongly about. A lot of vegetarians have strong personal ethical reasons to avoid meat, meanwhile meat eaters love their meat and meat has always been a massive part of their lives since they were children and they aren't willing to let it go no matter what. Neither side will really win in the end.

Though worthy of not it seems that these days I come across meat eaters being hostile to vegetarians or vegans WAY more than the other way around regardless of what people seem to say. Some meat eaters have even done "pranks" of sneaking meat into vegetarian's/vegan's food without them knowing which if you ask me is pretty fucked up. You never know if they could be allergic to meat and even if it's not an allergy per se if you eat meat after a super long time of not it can be bad on the body.

ThisDudeHere · Answer

Honestly, sometimes if I'm utterly bored, I like to debate on why eating meat is bad with meat eaters. Mind you, I eat meat myself and have never been, nor ever will be vegan.

Because there is one thing that I have to admit that vegans have gotten right and it's that 99% of meat eaters have cognitive dissonance in regards to eating meat and could not actually argue their reasons for why they eat it without mental gymnastics.

Laws-Of-Existence · Answer

No, it is  not  an additional thing of many things that divides people. Instead, it is an additional channel that the same division spills into as what divides by politics and religion. If you take away food division there will be something else to replace it.  ㅤ

Chazmatazz269 · Answer

Too few people participate in conversation as a simple exchange of ideas where principles are concerned. Most people commit to their principles a sense of righteousness. Therefore anyone who doesn’t share those principles isn’t merely different, but wrong. When you attack a person’s principles, you’d be foolish to expect that they won’t attack back.
My experience suggests vegans in particular are the most self righteous. They can’t seem to shut up about their dietary choices and how that makes them morally superior to everyone else. Even when i was practicing veganism, i never once heard a meat eater criticize my choices or anyone else’s and insist that they’re intrinsically better because of their choices. There are a few people online who reflexively and preemptively attack vegans in anticipation of the usual derision before it actually comes. That’s about the worst of it that i have observed.
To your point, when the topic comes up it should be perceived as an exchange of ideas, and not a debate about right or wrong. You do you and i’ll do me. We only have a problem when one of us starts trying to force the other to live differently. This goes for every controversial topic. Don’t like guns? Fine! Don’t get one. But you have no right to tell me i can’t have one. Don’t like meat? Fine! Don’t eat it. But you have no right to tell me that i can’t have it.

sage2021 · Answer

Mid-20th Century: Up until the 1900s, arguments for the diet remained purely moral or metaphysical. It wasn't until the mid-20th century, as nutritional science expanded, that vegetarianism was finally recognized and studied as a legitimately healthful dietary alternative rather than a fringe lifestyle.
Taken from the internet.

These arguments have been going on since the beginning of time it seems. The paragraph above even mentions the word "arguments".

I guess some people are still arguing about which side is right or better. Usually when there's on two sides of something to argue about, they will never agree with each other and there will never be a definitive answer.

It's like the Hatfield's and McCoy's!🙄

But people shouldn't fight with each other, but since they do, maybe the subject shouldn't be brought up in the first place. Kinda like politics or religion. People know that those two subjects are going to turn into arguments sometimes, so some people just don't talk about them.

Maybe it should be religion, politics, and veggies.

lightbulb27 · Answer

you said it, it's about feelings. some have deep feelings for the animals and the others by way of their desire to eat them, don't care, even at all. Some people care about the animals being raised and others see them like nothing.

I was veg long ago, around that group and I know meat eater hunters.

When you get to know animals closely, your feelings may change. Ask the meat eaters if it's ok to eat their cats and dogs and you'll get a diff reaction.

Levin · Answer

I saw a perfectly reasonable and balanced spiritual take on the matter:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2my3joMuLdU

And then in the comments, so many vegetarians and vegans had completely missed the point and were saying that no one should ever eat animals. That kind of stuff, rather than helping, makes meat eaters go to the other aggressive extreme.

So the answer is a lack of respect and just plain obnoxiousness. Extremes are never good. From the extreme arrogance of certain meat eaters, and the other extreme, usually vegans, who won't tolerate anything.

I was nearly entirely vegan for a long time and it didn't do me a huge amount of good. When you realise that your entire protein source is basically legumes and nuts, that can't be healthy.

Your body craves variety. It also craves the ability to have a dynamic choice of food stuffs depending on what the body requires in the moment.

aceleon · Answer

because respecting each other's beliefs and morals is a lie, you can't respect something you see as invalid or cruel or wrong. society likes to treat we can all co exist but we can't. a vegetarian sees meat eater as a sociopathic brute who kills to eat or supports killing, meat eater sees vegetarian as a deluded woke wannabe.

you can't be 2 opposites and respect each other, angels and demons don't respect each other, one is evil filth the other is prepy slaves. monotheists and polytheists don't respect each other they see each others as heratics, monogamics and polygamics don't respect each other one is restriction the other is unfaithfullness. leftists and rightists don't respect each other 1 is bigot the other is wuss.

rtj1211 · Answer

I don't find it does, provided that the two participants are mature people who understand the difference between personal choice and legal diktat.

I get very angry if a vegan tries to say that everyone on earth must be banned from eating meat. THat' totalitarian and extremist.

I wonder if those vegans also think that all carnivores in the animal kingdom should be exterminated for killing other animals to eat meat? You know: lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, coyotes, hyenas etc etc etc?

Anonymous · Answer

The same reason why people who talk about losing weight starts off as positive then quickly devolves. Because much like vegetarians, vegans, or carnivores, people can't just lose weight, be proud of it then move on. No. a lot of people who are PROUDLY these things have to tell you you're living life all wrong. Or the petson who lost weight has to talk about it every 10 minutes. At that point it isn't a lifestyle, it's an obsession.

There was this one pink account on here who was proudly banging the vegetarian gong. Good for her, eating veggies is healthy. But she had to go a step further and tell everyone meat causes cancer and started calling every meat eater a "f*cking lizard".😆

Bottom line some people just cannot contain their zeal. And that's when it becomes a problem.

David318578 · Answer

Because generally meat eaters have never cared what you eat. But Vegans have a history of attacking and trying to shame meat eaters. So know there is no chance of any kind of civil debate about it.

exitseven · Answer

If God didn;t want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them so tasty.

DonaldDarko · Answer

It wasn't that way before. People were vegetarians for their health then it got weird with people calling themselves "vegan". You can tell right away the weird baby talk sounding word that something's wrong. These freaks weren't just not eating meat they were trying to force others to stopveating meat. They blocked roads to food processing plants dairys caused all kinds of trouble. Fuck people like that.

SamIam96 · Answer

I think the conversation between people who eat meat and those that do not, isn't really about food. As you said, it's about life view. The two just don't see eye-to-eye. It turns hostile because it literally is the fiber of their being. The arguments boil down to "I'm moral and you're not"

NathanDavis · Answer

because these are not debates...

these are just people taking things to an extreme.. which is stupid, so they do get stupid

vegan VS meat eaters has little to do with it too... it will happen with everything else as well, lol

and G@G is the best example of it...

ohsheeT · Answer

For real you would think they would all come together for the greater good and use that energy to put a stop to what is being made will chemicals and the stuff that we are allowed to put in our bodies because they the government doesn't seem to do anything about it

But you have a debate In the way that they do Knowing That each one of them Have good qualities and bad qualities but none of them will tell you that they'll fight to the death so their team wins there no winners

ChicoFromThe305 · Answer

I think it's probably cause neither side understands the other, meat eaters believe that it's an important part of a human diet and the other believe it's inhumane, meat eaters think vegetarians are hypocrites cause they eat plants which is a form of life as well and vegetarians thing meat eaters are cold and dangerous cause they kill animals to eat them

Anonymous · Answer

This has only been my experience so it’s not 100% across the board, but the ones who usually get hostile first are the vegans. Like someone said vegans will let you know who the vegans are. The funny thing though is even though they’re not eating flesh, a number things that vegans consume kill billions of bees a year. So they’re not so innocent either, they just don’t eat the bees.

FreyaRed · Answer

One fraction loves juicy animal fat enclosed in proteins. Another fraction has sympathy with animals and wants to forbid meat eating because caring about their own plate isn't enough others have to suffer too.

strateguy632 · Answer

because vegetarians are cruel. they use animals as an excuse to vent hostility. if they were sincere they would hold a sign. but it is just a costume like the name blm etc.

Snakeyes7 · Answer

Challenging anyone's core beliefs or worldview will always be heated, as you are essentially telling them the world isn't what their eyes have been telling them.

shish_kebab · Answer

There's really nothing to debate about. If the good Lord didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?

Just_Ken · Answer

Vegans seem to tell everyone they vegan every 5 minutes

RavVid · Answer

Some people have too much free time

Shiprex · Answer

If your food choices actively seek harming others, then you're a f#&5)? abomination.

TonyMetal___1986 · Answer

Idc about what others say, my bbq will be on fire mostly every Sunday 🤣

Ariesman81Nshiiit · Answer

I don't get why everybody hates on tofu. It makes wonderful crack sealer.

AgentG111 · Answer

Hostile wow? I just know that vegetarians eat my meats food

Paige2006 · Answer

Because nthey don't know how to debate like adults

fishbone77 · Answer

know how you can find the vegan in the room? Don't worry they'll tell you.

Anonymous · Answer

In my experience it's typically because vegetarians / vegans are judgmental of people who eat meat. That's really the root of it.

fish5505_87 · Answer

My wife just turned vegetarian over the last year, I am getting nightly lectures!

Dullie · Answer

Because they can’t honour others lifestyle of choice thats why it gets heated

Taranis_Thunor · Answer

What argument did you have with a vegan?

Bklynbadboy12 · Answer

I honestly dont know just eat what you want

Why do debates between vegetarians and meat eaters get so hostile?

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