I Am A Meat-Eater

I've mentioned that before, right?

I eat meat. I also don't eat a lot of flour or sugar. Most of my diet is eggs, whole meat (beef, pork, and chicken), fruit, nuts, and vegetables. And that's not on a most-to-least basis, like a food ingredients list. I eat a lot of vegetables. I ate about a cup of coleslaw for dinner just now, no exaggeration.

And yet no one - with the exception of close family members and a few like-minded people on the Internet - is okay with my diet. It doesn't matter who I talk to. Low-fatters think I'm going to die because I'm not eating "enough" grain (even though eating grain is what caused me to gain weight in the first place). Vegetarians think that I'm going to give myself cancer, or that I'm just plain immoral, or whatever. You'd think that everyone else would leave me alone, but no - the average, snack-food-eating American would like me to know that I am too extreme and "everything in moderation" is the best choice for me.

But it's the vegetarians that anger me the most. They and I both know what it's like to be marginalized. To have Conventional Wisdom-touting dickheads telling us that we're killing ourselves, that our diet isn't possibly sustainable, that we're insane because they could never eat that much broccoli in a day. Having people constantly tell us that we're killing ourselves when our own experiences show otherwise.

And yet I end up slammed by vegetarians regularly, and always for the following reasons:

1: Eating meat is unethical. Isn't it obvious? You're killing a poor, defenseless animal just because it tastes good! You heartless beast!

WHAAAAAARGARBL.

Yes. I am SUCH a monstrous individual that I deliberately contribute to the death of animals JUST so I can please my palate. Instead of the more obvious solution, which is "I tried it, and I can't sustain my body without animal products." Which is true, incidentally. Even though the average vegetarian will not believe me because they don't have this problem (yet). I know that there are cool things like free-range, grass-fed beef and high-protein stuff (like tempeh and other awesomeness) that I could be eating... if I could afford them. It's no accident that most vegetarians are middle-class.

2: But eating meat is wrong! Look into that poor animal's eyes! How can you say that you have more of a right to live than it does?

Because I am not it. It's that simple. The law of the jungle and all that. Some argue that humans are exempt from the law of the jungle because they are capable of viewing meat consumption as wrong, which is a fancy way of saying "eating meat is wrong because I said it is." BULLSHIT.

3: You're ruining your health!

By eating fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, and a few servings of whole meat (we're not talking hot dogs here) in a day, I am giving myself cancer/a heart attack/a stroke/whatever? There is absolutely no evidence to support this outrageous assumption, aside from some really sketchy stuff from the 1970's.

4: Meat farming trashes the environment!

Yeah, it does (except for the few organic and otherwise well-managed farms that take care of their stuff). And I hate that. Almost as much as I hate the fact that responsibly-raised beef causes $16 a pound. There's a technique someone of my income level can use to afford that. It's called "live on eggs."

In many ways, the arguments against eating meat remind me of arguments against homosexuality and transsexuality (despite some vegetarians' insistence that it's the other way around.) It's a lifestyle choice. It's immoral. It will make you get sick and die. Other unsubstantiated bullshit. Like your average gay/bi/trans person (which, incidentally, I am - all three, even), I have nothing against straight people, even Christian straight people. As long as they mind their own business. And I feel the same way about vegetarians. Eat what you want, but spare me the insufferable self-righteous lectures. I've heard them all.

5: The existence of this post indicates that you are desperately trying to justify your meat eating and secretly you know that vegetarianism is right!

The existence of this post indicates that I am fed up with self-righteous vegetarians telling me who I am and what I am thinking.