Vegan bullying makes me sad

Honestly, as some one who loves to cook and loves meat (though I was planning on going at least vegetarian for a little bit just to see what happens.) I will admit that a lot of Vegans online haven't really done the best job endearing themselves to the general public. (I remember one time I made a light-hearted crack about bacon and vegans on a Facebook food page about burgers and the vegan responses were some of the most self-righteous and insufferable things I have ever seen as it eventually just devolved into the vegans throwing incredibly hateful insults my way for some reason.) That, and with people like PETA on the prowl, the Vegans honestly don't have it the best when it comes to PR it seems.

That, and as someone who was raised vegetarian for most of their childhood, I can tell you that vegan replacement meat just wasn't that good back in the day. (I still shudder remembering Morning Star "Bacon...") Thankfully, we seem to be getting better with that stuff as time goes on.

Honestly, everyone has their own unique dietary needs and tastes and that's fine. Some people just don't get why someone likes or doesn't like some foods and that's normal as well. But I do think that it is incredibly bad to be stuck up and smug about it, especially if you feel the need to belittle and hurt others for something like that as well. (Especially over something that is relatively trivial like food.) That, and I just hate food snobs and elitists in general...

I have a cousin who definitely became an extremist vegan threes years ago (along with his wife) and they make the rest of us feel very awkward and guilty for eating meat. Just because they became vegan doesn’t give them a right to be so judgmental of us or pushy about it.
My best friend is also a vegan and she doesn’t say anything about it to me at all. We just make sure to go eat at places that have both options available. I appreciate this about her.

tl;dr the only real problems I've ever had with vegans are the ones who attempt to continually guilt trip me to change my life style into something that I cannot really be asked to do.

May I first and foremost explain that vegan and vegetarian are not the same thing, see vegetarians don't eat meat, but they will still drink cow's milk and eat chicken's eggs for example, while vegans don't eat animal made products period which isn't really all that allergy related unless you were somehow allergic to all animal products, but somehow I think that's a pretty rare condition that most vegans don't actually have. That said, it also means that someone who's lactose intolerant doesn't = vegan automatically. Now baring this in mind, you can see how I would find it somewhat annoying when someone tells me that I should actually drink almond milk or something because apparently their life style is superior to mine by using arguments like "humans are animals too" or something like that (the words of an actual protest sign I've seen before). It's almost like those weird glutton free fanatics who aren't actually allergic to glutton trying to get me eat shit tasting bread when I don't have to.

I will say that i'm fine with vegans and vegetarians who actually don't try to force their life style onto me, and are really just asking for alternatives in restaurants and all that though. That's just their life style, and like a religion, or a way of life, I can respect it. That said, they should in turn also respect my life style choices as well.

However... If there is one thing we can all agree on regarding Vegans is this....

IF YOU WANT A PET THAT IS JUST AS VEGAN AS YOU, THEN GET A HAMSTER OR SOMETHING! DON'T BUY A PET THAT HAS BEEN BIOLOGICALLY DESIGNED TO RQUIRE SOME FORM OF MEAT IN ITS DIET AND FORCE IT TO BE VEGAN ALONG WITH YOU! IT IS CRUEL AND NO DOG, CAT, OR ANY OTHER CARNIVOROUS PET SHOULD EVER BE FORCED INTO SUCH A LIFESTYLE LIKE THAT!

THIS!!!

You can sometimes give cats and dogs some vegetables as a snack, there are some that are COMPLETELY safe for them to eat (for example, potatoes are ok for cats to eat, some cat foods even have potatoes in it). But giving them a diet of only plants is cruel.

Dogs and cats are carnivores and get the necessary nutrients from eating meat, especially since they're high-energy animals. If you make your pet dog a vegan, then you're essentially just sending your pet to an early fucking grave.

Okay my "love for all animals" filter is off, rant done.

Yeah, sorry about that if it seems like I was over-gneralizing. I get kind of passionate when it comes to animals' well-being. Especially pets.

Personally, i respect people`s decision to eat or not to eat meat or animal based products. It could be a personal,religious,health reason or even just plain pickyness, but as long as they respect my eating choices i am chill about it.

I`m a carnivorous dude, but when having a meal with a friend/family member/girlfriend/guest/whatever, i want to make sure they can eat something they like and are comfortable eating.

Ironically, being a picky eater sort of helped me to be more empathic about people`s personal preferences.

But gotta say i heard stories of preachyness and jerkassery on both extremes of the spectrum, be it vegans/vegetarians, meat eaters or whatever.

I think that the whole anti-vegeterian/vegan mindset developed because of how the vegetarianism and veganism first came into mass media. It was a position presumed of higher moral ground over "murderers" and "meat eaters". A lot of people didn't like it. Even now, when vegetarian diet is much more widespread, and most of the non-meat people are very adequate and positive in their approach, the myth that all vegetarian/vegans are meat hating lunatics is still fresh in a lot of minds.

Just goes to show how much power mass media has over the average mind.

I do admit though, sometimes I like to joke about the stereotypes that vegans have lmao

(again no hate on vegans)

Yes, I do disagree with this! Not only from it being life endangering but also because you are paying for a service as well and should receive what you pay for regardless of the employees views. I have noticed a trend at restaurants where they will ask if it is an allergy or a preference when you request to not have a specific ingredient in your meal. And while yes I understand that ignoring a request because of an allergy can come with more severe consequences you are still paying for a service and they should heed your request regardless of allergy or preference.

I also think sadly a lot of this lack of empathy comes from lack of knowledge. Some of these people who perform the switcheroos because they don't think the person is really allergic ( or whatever the reason ), just don't understand the consequences of their actions - or worse they don't care!

I usually don't care about this issue. If someone tells me crap about my diet I just ignore it and go about my own business. I have tried to be open minded and tried meatless products and learned I can't do that lifestyle. I've rejected those products on the factors of either flavor, texture or appearance. If someone decides to go this route I'm fine with it but It's just not for me.

I only got upset with these issues a few times in my life. Like Aquas I get angry when someone tells me to switch to a vegan pet food for my dogs. And the other time I really got upset was when I had a cousin I had not seen in ten years came over to chill.

We spent the day reconnecting and having a great time playing video games and catching up. But then came dinner. I pulled out the best steaks I had and cooked them up. Then my cousin gave me crap for not considering his vegetarian lifestyle even though this was the first time he mentioned it the whole day. I would have been cool and planned dinner around his lifestyle if he said something when I mentioned I was going to make dinner. I'm not a mind reader cut me some slack since the last time I saw this person it was ten years ago and we were all fine with bbqs.

Fair - I hadn't thought about it like that!

I only get bullied and harassed by vegans irl the same way I get harassed and bullied by various Christians groups because the ones around here seem to treat it like some kind of cult or religion. I generally don't see vegans getting bullied in the same way? But they seem to think that a LOT of things people do is 'bullying' or oppression like 'cooking meat when they're nearby' or just talking about foods with meat in it. I'd very much like to run into some normal vegans one day.

I used to been indifferent and the type that thinks 'let people eat what they want and leave people be' (even though sometimes it could get low key racist from the comments I would get from them cause my culture is more meat based but I'm also Asian so the 'I don't eat dogs like you' comments increased 100000x fold, also apparently I'm 'appropriating vegan culture' when I eat tofu), until I reached the point in my life where a vegan killed my brothers cat by putting the CAT on a vegan diet so I literally could not give a fuck about the way they get treated anymore.

I think some of the "irritation" comes from people being very well aware of the conditions that animals are being kept and killed in. Because a lot of "radical Vegans" (lmao) push the narrative, and because it is an integritive part to the movement, people get reminded of what they´re supporting with their monetary choices when they meet /see vegans.
So, sadly, instead of lashing out against those companies, or protesting the industry in many ways, Vegans get mocked to try and justify away the uncomfortable feeling everyone props has about their meat.

*and don´t get me wrong; I see nothing wrong with eating meat that comes from hunting; or Eco Farms, as well as other animal products. And I understand that a lot of people can´t afford a livestyle while avoiding the mainstream products/ and can´t do it for health reasons.
I´m not a vegan, and only vegetarian as protest against how animals are treated in most of the industry, and can´t afford "Eco meat" yet.

Am I gonna judge you if you eat meat without making educated choices when you can afford it? Yeah.

But what if I acknowledged about treating of those animals but I don't care at all about this. I just want to eat meat and that's it. I'm not too sensitive about this - result (meat which I can eat) is only thing I'm interested in all this situation.
And I don't want to avoid mainstream companies, because their product is everywhere and I don't want to go far away from my house to buy something which I can buy nearly (because in my case it would be 80-130 km traveling, so it's not even an option).

My family used to kept domestic animals when I was a kid. Adults didn't gave me opportunity to execute killing of animal, but I used to watch the process. And everything about this thing is ok for me, so I just don't care. And why I should care after all?