fuck that server though. what if instead of a voluntary dietary restriction you were allergic to meat?

The BBC has a good article on this concept

The tension that results can make us feel stressed, irritated, and unhappy. But instead of resolving it by changing our beliefs or behaviour, it’s quite normal to blame these feelings on something else entirely – all without realising we’re doing it

In the case of eating meat, Rothgerber suggests we have a number of strategies – around 15 – which allow us to avoid facing up to the meat paradox. These include pretending that meat has no link to animals, imagining that we eat less of it than we really do, wilful ignorance about how it’s produced

[...]

Unfortunately, most of these are derailed by the presence of vegans.

According to Rothgerber, people tend not to think of meat eating as an ideology. The dominance of meat eating around the world helps the omnivores among us to avoid the idea that it’s a choice – it’s just what everyone else is doing. But when a vegan turns up at a dinner party, suddenly we’re bumped out of the comfortable “mainstream diet” category and into the unsettling “meat-eating” category. By their mere existence, vegans force people to confront their cognitive dissonance. And this makes people angry.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200203-the-hidden-biases-that-drive-anti-vegan-hatred

I hear you. I was raised vegetarian (mom is awesome) and have flip flopped between that and veganism my whole life. Growing up meatless and male has been a weird experience, with countless people telling me I'm not manly be cause I don't eat dead animals. Wtf.

Sadly, I've also received the opposite, telling me I don't really care because I'm not vegan enough (sigh)

I think it partially has something to do with the internet brainrot propaganda against veganism/vegetarianism

A good friend of mine is vegan and has been actually assaulted (old lady slapped him, which isn't exactly being attacked with a tire iron, but it's still fucking assault) because of it.

Another good friend is vegetarian, and when we went out for pizza, he ordered this one fancy pizza, and told them to hold the meat (entire pizza is veggie except for prosciutto). They brought it out with prosciutto on it, and when he said "I don't eat meat" the server replied "it's very thin" as if that made a difference to it being meat. It was genuinely quite funny in the moment. Lol. They did replace the pizza without any qualms or attitude, but I'll never forget that moment. It's thing, so it doesn't count!

... Also, I do wish they'd left that pizza instead of taking it back. It looked so good, and whenever I visit them they like to starve me to death because they're all tiny people with caloric deficits D:

Because your lifestyle choices are an affront to their lifestyle. In many places in the world eating meat is an important part of the culture. Saying that you don’t eat meat is seen as a rejection of the culture. And they will immediately label you as “the other”.

It’s like if a person says they are an atheist in a country where everyone is religious and religion is an important part of daily life. Even when the atheist isn’t judging anyone the atheist will receive negative reactions and even violence.

Hugs.

This is why I don't bring it up to other people.

The same goes for the vegan/vegetarian side too, tbh.

Like, it's something more related to group dynamics. Give people a way to distinguish themselves and they'll build all of their identity around it, then they'll discriminate the out-group and suck the in-group's balls even if they're wrong.

As of myself, I'm omnivore and I can't get carnists nor vegetarians and/or vegans points, but I do respect them as long as they respect me too.

It points out how shameful and lazy meat eaters are to their face, and people don’t like having their poor choices pointed out to them.

It is the same when telling people that you dont drink or take other drugs..

Someone couldn't just be trying to be funny after they've gone vegan?

I'm positive on veganism as a whole, but consuming corpses to grow stronger is kind of metal as hell

That's also a bit of a peculiar feeling after being vegan for a while. My whole body consists out of plant matter and the occasional mushroom. I'm practically a plant at this point.

(Obviously irrational, though. Meat, dairy, eggs etc. are also just pre-digested plants. We'd all be practically plants by that logic.)

Pigs aren't vegan though. They'll eat your dead corpse in a heart beat.

I've known some real asshole pigs too, though most I've interacted with are usually pretty chill.

My cat would put me in an air fryer if she could.

Natural does not mean we should do something? Cannibalism is also natural, but we rightly find that horrible