"Why do you dislike vegetarians?" Topic

I notice that many people (at least in the areas I tend to live, work, & play) have a rather vocal disdain for vegetarians.

What is the cause?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm a vegetarian, although not the evangelical sort.

I think it's a reaction to the evangelical sort trying to tell omnivores that it is wrong.
Of course I take issue with those who won't eat their veggies either

Well, I was going to post a few off the wall reasons in a attempt to be funny. Fortunately, I reconsidered because my 'reasons' were not funny. Par for the course.

So, my real reason…I've no idea, eat what you want, I will.

I was vegetarian for a bit and found it rather disheartening that people would get in my face about why I didn't eat meat.

I don't dislike vegetarians.

Why would anyone dislike a person because they were a vegetarian?

I dislike anyone who is overly vocal about how my personal choices are wrong. I have had a fist full of rabid vegetarians and vegans who preach about their various beliefs that meat is murder. As a Jew I've found it very similar to overly evangelical Christians who's argument about why I should convert is that I'll go to hell for not believing in Jesus. There is a very direct parallel there for me. Shut up and let me eat my bacon cheeseburger!

That being said, I know and interact on a regular basis with several serious vegetarians who don't mention it at all. My brother in law is getting married later this month to a vegetarian and she's fine with us eating meat, even cooks for us.

I'm with several of the previous posters – evangelical in-your-face 'vegetarians' area PITA, in some cases I think they are just doing the vegetarian/Vegan thing to be annoying. That said, most of the real vegetarians are unnoticeable until you invite them for a meal at a good meat eaters restaurant.

Love them, eat them all the time.

My Vargr and Kzinti ("find out what the leaf-eater wants") associates tell me that vegetarians taste better than omnivorous humans, and for that reason, they like vegetarians.

Hitler was a vegetarian. I always tell vegetarians that because it freaks them out. I also tell that to white supremacists, with the same result. (Credit to Stephen Colbert for the joke.)

I told my vegetarian nephew that I have always kept to a fairly strict vegetarian diet. Almost all of the animals I eat are vegetarians. The exceptions are fish, most of which are carnivorous, fowl, most of which eat insects, and pork, which eat anything.

Anyway, I don't dislike vegetarians.

My sister and her family are vegetarians – and a little prissy about it – no leather for instance. It gets a little tricky to organize big family meals. At one point they were full on Vegans and most of the food my brother in law fixed was inedible, despite the fact that he claims to be a foodie.

I do dislike anyone trying to push their lifestyle choices. I essentially don't drink, but have no problems with others drinking nor do I claim that my choice is "better" it just happens to be mine.

I also happen to be religious. If you want to learn more ask me, otherwise I might mention I am not available on Sunday mornings, but that is about all I will volunteer.

I don't want to hear about your diet, exercise routine, choice of bedroom partners

I was vegetarian (actually pescaterian) for a time. My friends disapproved for some reason.

I like vegetarians, as long as they treat me and others like people. But I say the same about Communists, Muslims, and Whites (as well as every other labelled group,) as well. Treat me and others like people, I'm ok with you.

None have ever bothered me about. Do what you want.

I like many of them.

Some are delicious………..

I have a college age nephew who is a vegan. I was okay with his choice until he moved into the city and everything gradually became about how to accommodate to him and his.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when we went to a restaurant we all had known for years and he tried to preach to their poor waitress about how they should provide "vegan options". The girl was obviously getting very uncomfortable, and so were the rest of us on what was supposed to be an enjoyable gathering.

He was such a reasonable kid until he converted. Now it's like talking to a toddler. And the friends we've met are exactly the same way too. And if you put your foot down about their preaching suddenly they act like they're under persecution.

Now, if he wants to eat at our house, he either eats what the rest of us are eating or he brings his own. That's his "vegan option" now.

Dan

I don't dislike vegetarians.

I don't.

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I have no problem with someone as won't eat meat. Just so long as they have no problem with my meat eating ways.

I think Anthony Bourdain said it best

"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Oh, I'll accomodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine."

Most vegetarians are fine. A bit of a pain to cater for, but otherwise no problem!

A few try to take the moral high ground. The 'meat is murder' types. This irritates me because humans evolved as omnivorous creatures. It is natural for humans to eat meat. If we had originally evolved as pure vegetarians and then taken to eating meat in some sort of fit of moral debasement, then they might have a point. But we didn't. So they don't.

I don't dislike vegetarians. In fact, I admire them, and wish I had their discipline.

My mother has cycled through just about every dietary restriction you an think of either by choice or by a couple of medical needs.

She's been every kind of vegetarian you can think of, mostly by choice but she also had a decade or so where she had a lot of trouble digesting red meat, something that happened to me for 3-4 years at the end of my teens and into my early 20's. She's been every flavor of kosher also, converted into orthodox Judaism, married into an orthodox family years later. Relaxed to just no pork, relaxed further and finally dropped it about 30 years ago years into her second marriage.

She's been on a low sodium diet for almost 40 years now, she retains a lot of water so she's just about cut it out of her diet.

Her diet now is mostly vegetables with a piece of fish or chicken with dinner. She's eat red meat if it's being served and loves bacon for breakfast despite how she blows up with water weight afterwords. when she's in the hospital she orders vegetarian meals mostly becuase she hates the food and its hard to mess up a salad.

When she comments on vegetarianism at all it's simply to mention how hard it is to get a variety of protein in without eating the same beans non-stop, which was the main reason she relaxed her diet. She's never been vegan, but that became popular long after her strict vegetarian days anyway. She's pretty much my ideal interaction with vegetarians, she'll make due with whats offered as long as it's not literally 100% red meat on the table.

My brother in law, his wife and one of my nieces are vegetarians, so I like vegetarians. Except for the time he brought tofu turkey for Thanksgiving.

As others have said, I don't care what dietary choices people make, as long as it is not cannibalism(*), I only mind when the ones that preach to others – usually at dinner. Only met one of them however.

(*) – Including Cat/Dog, etc. Someone said it was horrible that they ate cat/dog in other countries and asked if I would try it, I said sure and they were horrified.

Who knows?

Maybe the human species will one day divide and the radical vegans will develop huge multiple stomachs, ruminate their kale and grasses and pass gas all day long.

And the rest of us will simply add them to our omnivorous diet. :)

Dan

warwell hit the nail on the head. We need to change our attitude.

If you didn't look before, do it now.

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I don't dislike vegetarians. I dated one for several months, and one of our gaming buddies was a full-on vegan. As above, the issue occurs when they are evangelical about their beliefs ("meat is murder!"). But the two I knew were about a personal choice rather than a choice they felt the need to persecute others with. For the record the one I dated reverted to a meatatarian later on (she was doing it for health reasons).

Damon.

I am an equal opportunity hater.

All I will say is that I belong to P.E.T.A.
People Eating Tasty Animals.

There is often an air of moral superiority about vegetarian thinking that is disagreeable, but it doesnt' rise to the level of hate inducing.

I go on a veggie diet once a year for three weeks. By the end all I am thinking about is eating meat again.

As many above, I don't dislike vegetarians. I like a lot of vegetarian food.

In fact, I come from a long line of ancestors from the Old Country with a distinguished tradition of vegetarianism filled with tasty and creative veggie dishes. In the Eastern Europe under the Soviets they called it "poverty".

As many above, I do dislike much of the douchebaggery, and especially people who want to talk health and can't discuss biochemistry or even understand the concept of a clinical trial or statistical significance. Same with moral douchebaggery and the inability to construct a rhetorically or logically sound argument. But that behaviour stems from being a douchebag, not a vegetarian.

I don't dislike vegetarians……I dislike zealots, be it religion, vegetarians, vegans, politics etc.

Providing your not trying to push your beliefs onto me, I frankly don't give a flying err….fudge.

I know lots of veggies and vegans and I have no problem with them. Some folks are just intolerant of others living a different lifestyle.

I have nothing against vegetarians. I have everything against dipsticks of any stripe or persuasion whose primary goal in life is to inflict their own beliefs on other people.

LT

I should add… if I had to slaughter and clean my own meat, I'd be a hippie kale-stuffing vegan 3 seconds later.

I've done all that, cattle, chickens, fish, its gross and I refuse to do it myself.

I was a vegetarian for 2 years, needed to eat meat. I don;t dislike them at all. However when a vegan mentions that they are vegan 4 or 5 times in a 2 to 3 minute conversation, their ego is involved here.

Depends on the person. The ones who won't eat meat because Daisy the cow looks cute I have little time for, especially when they criticise me for eating meat. Those, like a former colleague, who cut out meat because it eases their health issues, fine. Have to say that I will always be suspicious of someone who doesn't eat bacon, that's just wrong.

I'm a meat-eater.

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I have no issue with vegetarians, just means I need to plan a bit more if I'm cooking for them. As long as they are ok with my own choices, I have no issue with theirs'.

Eat whatever you want; nobody cares.

Just don't push your social/political ideas on other people.

Q: How do you kill a vegetarian?

A: A steak through the heart.

If it doesn't have blood dripping from it, it ain't worth eating.

Red Forman
on eggs and bacon

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If you want to eat veggies, go ahead. It causes me no pain. It does make you more like Hitler, however.

As with others above, I reserve my dislike for those who act obnoxiously be they vegetarian or DAESH…

Have a vegetarian tell me that I cant eat meat,and I'll happily feed them a knuckle sandwich.