Maybe someday you’ll get invited to the party so you can stop speculating about what’s going on at it.

I don’t expect you to change because you read my comment. I just know that as time goes on, you will be hearing this more and more from more and more people. Eventually, it will come from people you know and care about. At some point, you may decide to be self-reflective and begin to think about your place in this world and what the consequences of your actions are. Maybe you won’t though, I have an elderly neighbor that literally spits every time he sees an Asian person, maybe you will double down on your behavior into old age and be someone else’s old neighbor that is stuck in the past being endlessly bitter towards the world for evolving without you.

At any rate, comments like mine are just sign posts on the road. The younger generation is already pissed at the selfish older generations. It’s just the beginning, more signs are coming.

Yeah, absolutely, you’re totally right. That’s definitely the most common way to go about it, and maybe the most effective, I really don’t know. There is a bunch of gentle nudging going on, though, and everyone responds to different things. For some people, no amount of loving hints will get them to do anything. Some people just need the genuine blunt truth to get them to actually think about something. Honestly, it’s like any other addiction, the desire needs to come from within, nobody can force them to get better.

I dont buy that many people are unaware or never thought about it before. It’s brought up all the time. The issue isn’t a lack of information, it is that most people just have almost no personal moral compass, they just rely on the behavior of the masses to dictate to them what is right/wrong. The more people remind them that what they are doing is disgusting, the more likely they will be to eventually change. I figure just machine gun 'em with all various forms of reminders, and we’ll get through to some. Eventually, we will hit a critical mass, and the sheep will follow. The most pathetic will cling to their cruelty addiction until they are dead, but that’s the same as what happened to the racists, rapists, child abusers or anything else that used to be more accepted.

Ever wonder why those old racist people who are stuck in the past are how they are? It’s because they think the same as you do. Unable to learn from those around them, obsessed with never growing, and utterly self-centered. You’ll be tolerated, not respected. As increasingly more and more people point this out to you, the more likely you will be to change.

You know you can’t actually argue against it, so you point to a small hypothetical edgecase as if that will excuse your behavior. You are the one who lacks perspective and demonstrates extreme entitlement. You think because there may be some people forced between starvation and factory meat that it somehow gives you moral superiority and permission to destroy the lives of others. I go out of my way to make things better, you desperately search for anything you can to distract from all the harm you selfishly cause.

You don’t even have the strength to let other people do the work. You feel like you need to go out of your way to attack and intimidate them because it makes you feel so inferior. Lucky for you, there are people on the planet to take care of things for you while you just sit by and moan and complain. We work for a better world despite you while you complain about our efforts, you entitled little brat.

You are right. Meat-eating won’t go away. Meat-eating is not the issue. Factory farming is. Pumping animals full of drugs in tiny cages and forcing them to live unnatural for your own selfish pleasure. That is what is going away. The fact that you’d defend it so viciously is what makes you so disgusting and pathetic. That is what will make future generations of school children laugh at their unevolved, brutal, self-centered ancestors. They will all deny that it was their bloodline that had people like you in them, those despicable people who knew what they were doing, saw the effect on the world, had the power to resist it, but were too weak and selfish to care and would rather make future generations deal with your mess. All so you can get a cheaper hotdog.

You want to talk about who is “religious” in this equation? It is undeniably YOU. Instead of grappling with moral issues with your own, you defer to the group. Your only excuse for your objectively disgusting behavior is the fact that “other people do it too.” You inflict harm on the less fortunate for your own selfish reasons and when challenged you don’t even attempt to use logic or reason to defend yourself, you simply go and run behind unrelated insults and a defense of group mentality. You are the virus that decent people people are inflicted with because you are too afraid of what you might realise if you were to try to think for yourself. You are the worst aspects of religion with any ounce of love or kindness surgically removed. If you ever have the guys to think clearly, you will be repulsed by who you once were.

You are still alive, you can change. It’s just a question of whether or not you have the strength to do so.

Other people have handled you naivety well. Now, please do your part and fix your diet for the sake of everyone on the planet. You want to stand up for people, so stand up for them by showing some self-control.

I would be unsurprised by the natural progression of your selfish depravity. Hopefully, you take it far enough that you just eat yourself to death, and we can get to work fixing the selfish shitshow that you leave in your wake.

You can try to pass the blame onto them all you want, but the obvious reality is that the billionaires can’t sell disgusting over-drugged factory farm meat to billions of people if billions of people don’t buy it. They only have power if you willingly give it to them.

The game is over, YOU are the problem, and only YOU can stop your own disgusting habits. No more blaming everyone else for your own complete and utter lack of self-control. Live in your guilt. You are screwing us all over because you are unable to admit responsibility. You are an abusive husband who beats his wife and then blames her for it. Nobody with any amout of common sense is still believing your tired old excuses.

Future generations will know what you did, and you will disgust them. They won’t even be able to comprehend how you could be so vile and uncaring. Get used to it, Grandpa. That’s your future.

Sorry ya’ll, but if you are still shoveling these idiots money for most of your meals, then you personally are the problem. You should feel guilty every time you do it. You are hurting yourself. You are hurting your children. Tou are hurting your granchildren and future generations. You are hurting strangers. You are hurting everyone you care about. You are doing this all out of addiction and laziness. Not to mention the extreme torture that you are inflicting on the animals. It is time to grow up and take responsibility. You are not innocent because “other people do it too.” You are guilty. Please admit this very clear fact to yourself and do better.

Ohhhh, I see this one big time now that you mention it!

My guess was Lousy or Sorry, but I’m not sure. It’s a bit of a mystery. This was under a bridge in the Scottish highlands if it helps any internet detectives out there…

Yeah, I feel lucky to have had it occur to me to think about this stuff. I can’t put into words what a weight was lifted when I stopped supporting that stuff. It is just an all-around emotional lightness that permeates every aspect of my life. It’s like discovering that I had been dragging a sack of rocks for so long that I had just assumed it was a part of life. I can remember how bad it was, and trying to convey this to people always seems to be taken the wrong way. I don’t know why I got lucky in this way, and it is very frustrating to be unable to explain how much better it is since it really feels like a choice that most people could make if they only knew.

My other response to you was so long-winded, and there was even more that I wrote that maybe wasn’t directly relevant to your comment, so I removed it. I did write it, though, so I figure I’ll just go ahead and paste it here:

I’m actually not even philosophically strictly vegan, although I am vegan in practice. I just weigh the cost/benefit when making decisions. I decide if the questionable nutritional benefit of drugged up animal parts and 20 minutes of pleasure to me is worth a lifetime of cruel conditions and misery for this animal. It just happens to be the case for me personally that I think whatever potential health benefit I get from it isn’t worth such an extreme cost to the animal since I am fortunate enough to be able mantain a healthy body without that. I would feel much better if I could verify that the animal has had a happy life.

For instance, in scotland, there are sheep that are free to roam the unfenced highlands anywhere they like with their babies, and they choose to go back to where the farmer they are used to feeds them in the winters. When they get old, the farmer will quickly kill them, and this is very much in line with their life over countless generations. Philosophically, eating that kind of meat has a much lower cost to me than the cruel factory farms where much meat/animal products come from. That said, at this point in my life, even that cost is not worth it to me, but maybe some day that will change. I can see the argument that maybe killing them at a certain point could be seen as mercy, but still, I’d just rather not at this point in my life.

Yes, I pretty much exclusively travel abroad. I really don’t find it difficult anymore. Maybe early on, it was annoying, but now I don’t even think much about it.

I don’t regret missing out on the aspect of cultures where people abuse those less fortunate. There are many aspects of peoples lives and cultures that I don’t take part in, but I still have a rich experience when visiting them. I don’t intimidate women into being uneducated, or try to take child brides, or mutilate the genitals of babies, or get blackout drunk and provoke fights, or many other things that are a part of various cultures that are just not for me.

I understand that different people are in different economic situations, and for some people, they have no choice but to eat processed factory farm products to be more healthy than without. It is a shame that that is the case, but I don’t see people in that situation as being immoral. They just have their own situation to weigh.

On the practical side of things, it is easy to refuse food, I am fine just saying that I can’t take it for health reasons if I dont want to get into it with someone. If I want restaurant food, it is generally easy to find Thai, Indian, or to eat a simple salad. Honestly, almost all decent sized cities have specifically vegan restaurants these days, and even more have restaurants with some vegan options. On top of that, I try to do a few week long water fasts each year, so If I ever do find myself in a situation where I absolutely can’t eat a meal or something, it really doesn’t bother me much.

I do eat food from locals. Even the most meat obsessed cultures still have plenty of traditional foods that don’t include animal products. If I am around locals who want to make food for me, then I often get to have a wide range of dishes because they want to make sure I am full. I am very fortunate to be able to travel like I do, so not squeezing every ounce of pleasure out of the misery of others is a small price for me to pay.

Thanks! I’ve eaten vegan for about 5 years, and B12 is the only supplement that I make sure I’m always taking. I’ve gotten some nutrient blood tests over the years to make sure things are fine. Right now, I’m also taking magnesium and omega3s. I was recently taking vitamin D as well, but I’ve been doing long-distance hiking lately and been outside for 16 hours a day, so I think my vitamin D is doing alright.

A nurse was actually just telling me about how crucial B12 is, and not in a vegan context, but actually because the “whippets” drug depletes it like crazy and it can cause people to just completely collapse.

I just happen to eat a vegan diet because I travel a lot and refuse to pay people to do things to animals that I wouldn’t feel morally comfortable doing myself. Maybe if I settle down somewhere, I would find a farm that allows me to personally verify the ethical treatment of the animals. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything, though. I’m in great shape, not deficient in anything, and am routinely assumed to be 10 years younger than I am.

From my experience, the people who think meat is required to be healthy usually have the worst diets and are addicted to eating the most low quality processed garbage meat available. It’s never people in good shape that go on and on about how crucial meat is.