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From Closet Vegetarians To Ex-Vegan Hate Mail: Can We Just Eat Meat In Peace?


Six out of 10 vegetarians admit to eating meat in the last 24 hours. Vegan Sellout List encourages ex-vegans to commit suicide. What is wrong with this picture?

Your race, religion and political party affiliation aren’t the only markers we use today to sort people into groups. Now, food ideals are playing a huge part in how some people identify with others and how they define themselves.

For those who live in “meat and potato” communities, it may seem odd to hear folks call themselves things like pescatarians, vegetarians, vegans or fruitarians.

As the obesity epidemic gets worse in the U.S., however, we're seeing a surge of new diet trends ranging from Atkins, to paleo, to South Beach, to Weight Watchers, to the Master Cleanse. While some diets are more extreme than others, it’s quite obvious that Americans are trying to trim their waistlines and reduce their health risks.

But what happens when the diet is used as a political platform? What happens when it switches from a meal plan to a religion? What happens when a diet has zealots for leaders who expect others to blindly follow?

Sound extreme? You bet, but it’s happening.

When it comes to those who abstain from eating meat, I often see it as a short-lived youthful trend. Perhaps it's due to rebellion, the need to feel trendy, or a desire to be more healthful, mindful to the environment or somehow saving animals. These folks have good intentions, and even though I disagree with their reasons, the great thing about America is we all have right to make choices. I still think I can convince many who are on the fence regarding meat that it’s okay, but even if I don’t, it doesn’t mean I have a “beef” (pun intended) with those individuals.

According to Politix, the folks I described above -- vegetarians -- are actually closet bacon-eaters, not that I blame them, of course.

The article reads, “Over half of self-described vegetarians ate something perhaps lean - but very much not green - as recently as yesterday, according to a new survey. Business Insider reports on two polls revealing that the minority of American eaters who fancy themselves vegetarians aren't living up to that label. "Six out of 10 of those polled by CNN who called themselves 'vegetarian' confessed to having had meat in the prior 24 hours. A full two-thirds of those surveyed by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition admitted the same, giving researchers reason to believe that no agreed upon standard of vegetarianism is at work among Americans.”

Don’t tell the folks who run about these secret meat lovers. The consequences for giving up the “religion” of living a vegetarian and vegan diet are quite harsh if these people find out.

A friend of mine, Kelly Rivard, posted this website on her Facebook page.It reveals a very concerning group of people who need their site shut down immediately, if not sooner.

Ex-Vegan’s mission statement reads (warns), “If you’re no longer vegan, you’re going on the list. The spirits of the billions murdered have risen to deliver: The Vegan Sellout List – an online directory of those who have regressed from moral consistency to moral depravity. The Vegan Sellout List is our answer to the epidemic of vegan sellouts – those who are aware of the suffering caused by meat, dairy, egg, fur, and leather production, yet choose to look away while the animals suffer. Selling out veganism is a trend on the upswing, bringing with it swarms of haughty, nose-turning carnists uttering nonsensical buzzwords re: veganism being ‘privileged’ or ‘trendy,’ critiquing themselves into ethical degeneracy and paleo-terrorism. To those who have regressed from veganism, yet display symptoms of a soul not fully blackened to its core, we ask you to remind yourself why you were what you were.”

A link to “Meet Your Meat,” an animal abuse video that has gone viral, is listed for sympathetic viewers to watch. (Note: the link is broken.)

The mission statement continues with this deeply troubling closing statement: “And if that fails to stir your conscience, we ask that you go here and follow the directions closely.”

The “here” they refer to is a link to a Wiki article on “How to commit suicide.” I find this more than utterly offensive. In an age where more people are ending their lives due to bullying, it’s certainly not something to joke about. Here is some more food for thought on this topic.

Frankly, I think the anger found on this vegan site perfectly illustrates the fanatics I described as coverting their dietary choices into a cult. This is classic bullying at its most extreme, and my heart aches for the folks who decided to add meat back into their diets, only to be publicly blacklisted for their choice.

It’s clear to me that these vegans are angry. Perhaps all that anger stems from a Vitamin B12 shortage -- something that is readily available in beef, but must be supplemented heavily on a vegan diet.

Obviously, the vegan diet is much more than a simple diet to drop a few pounds or live a more conscious and aware lifestyle. Instead, it is now showing its true colors as a manipulative political movement.

End of the day, I just want to eat my steak in peace, without feeling ridiculed or judged. And I think others deserve that same courtesy. When did what I put on my dinner plate become a topic of epic proportions anyway?

What do you think about the figures listed in the study? Do you see veganism as a political movement, or is it just another diet trend? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.


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Discuss this Blog Entry 21

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Always seems odd to me that some of the most hardcore vegans that condemn me for eating me feel that abortion is a choice. If abortion is ok for a woman to make their own choice, why can't I make a choice about eating a delicious steak? What screwed up priorities!

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

um... you have me slightly confused....abortion and eating meat??? what, may I ask, is the connection???

Zyxomma (not verified)
on Jan 22, 2014

Murder is murder, buddy - at least we put the dead cow to use.

Penny (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Beef is simply 'recycled grass' cuz I'd look like a fool crawling around out in the pasture on my hands and knees chomping on some grass stems... Besides, I don't think the rattlesnakes would like me invading their territory.

Bea Elliott (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Eating animals may have become an "topic of epic proportions" once we had so many options not to do so. Or as Matthew Scully says in his book "Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy": When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?

Or perhaps it was determined after The Kindness Trust founder Phil Wollen's eloquent and convincing speech of Why Animals Should be Off the Menu?

Or it may have happened once the Cambridge Declaration on Nonhuman Animal Consciousness was released. It certainly does become more difficult to steal the life of a scientifically recognized "aware" being than an unthinking "production unit".

Or it may have been as Tolstoy suggests that we need not look to ancient scripts for a guide as to how we should treat these helpless others but rather "It is written in our own hearts - more clearly than in any book - that we should take pity on animals in the same way as we do on humans."

But I myself wonder though... How can there be peace on any plate that includes such violence and theft of life? How can there be peace when these foods cause us to we remain at war with wildlife? How is there peace when such foods cause starvation to others? There is nothing gentle about killing innocent others, therefore the peace you seek will always allude you. Nonetheless I offer it to you on your own journey of awakening. ~Peace~

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Bea what do you mean by "Such food causing starvation to others"? Sounds like the ignorant who think starvation will cease if all grazing land is converted to people food crops. Livestock or deer, elk, or something, This process has been happening a long time will graze grass. Dinosoars grazed before there were cows. Most grazed land is unsuitable for crops, such as being too steep or erodible.

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

The peace you search for is only found in Jesus Christ. I passionately love and respect our cattle. We have an understanding of truth. Everything lives and everything dies. Including the plants and other sources of energy. Nothing lives for ever. The only thing that is truly saddening is when people let their feelings get in the way of the truth.

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 6, 2013

A number of studies have shown that plant and fungal organism give off chemical responses similar to both pain and fear. Your empathy for animal organism is the product of evolution for a social animal. Empathy allows for cooperation a social group.

Empathy begins to degrade the farther and farther something differs from oneself. Humans and other mammal suffering tends to be the most painful to us. The suffering of a spider tends to matter to most people less.

Vegans are interesting because they seem to care so much about "all living things" and yet completely ignore the fact that plants too are living organisms. Plants too feel pain and fear.

Unfortunately, plants are so far removed from us that it is hard to emphasize with them. Life, however, is a cycle of kill and consume. Just because you choose to kill something less similar to you does not make you more peaceful than anyone else.

Walt B (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Amanda (and Bea). Individuals have a right to insert themselves in the food chain wherever they feel comfortable. They should, however, recognize that they are a part of the food chain, and humans always have been.
As an aside, Adolf Hitler believed humans had no right to use animals for food (even though some vegetarians claim he snuck a piece of meat every now and then). Just because someone is quoted as saying eating meat is wrong doesn't make it so.

Jake (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

I am very much at peace with my decision to eat meat. We are part of the world, designed to consume animal protein. I choose not to deny my nature, and that brings me peace.

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

Read the book "Food Police" by Jayson Lusk. It is the foodie elites that try to force these thoughts that eating a certain diet is "holier than thou," which is completely ridiculous.

Ag Teacher (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

We have to eat something don't we? If we don't eat we will die. It's really very simple. I prefer to treat the plant and animal kingdoms with equality while vegans choose to exploit only the plant kingdom. How unfair to the plants! Why should plants have to bear the burden of feeding the human race alone? Give me a break! If we want to talk about fairness in our diets there are only two choices...1) eat both plants and animals or 2) die ourselves so that the plants and animals may expeience self-actualization. Veganism it unfair. Omnivorism is fair.

on Jul 3, 2013

Vegans place all animal life on the same level. If that is so, all animals are acountable to the vegan police. Time for them to start bullying the tigers and wolfs

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 5, 2013

Humans are herbivores (they can subsist without meat) and tigers are carnivores (they need to eat meat to survive since they need taurine) and wolves are omnivores but need to eat whatever they can since they're just surviving in the wild without grocery stores and fast food. Don't compare humans to animals!!

Kimberly Egan (not verified)
on Jul 17, 2013

Humans are not herbivores. We cannot process cellulose efficiently and we have not got multiple stomachs or extremely long guts to help us in the process. We have sharp tearing teeth as well as grinding teeth. We have eyes in the front of our heads--a trait we share with other predators. Our offspring are born helpless, as are other predators' offspring and they nurse from breasts on the front of our bodies instead of from udders between our legs.

Tell us again how we're herbivores? I need another good belly laugh.

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 3, 2013

While managing a cow/calf ranch I met a girl that was a vegetarian, not sure why she was even attracted to me other than the fact I was a cowboy. Over time the truth came out. It began, " I don't eat meat." As time progressed it became an animal rights thing. Then after a year or so it became an agenda, full-blown " Vegan" I then was the bad person for raising animals as food. Needless to say it didn't last., but it did open my eyes to the very ugly cult of
"Vegan". Just thought I'd share & remember "Beef it's what's for Dinner"

on Jul 4, 2013

Hundreds of brave men and women serve and die for our freedoms in the U.S. If you choose to not eat meat so be it that is your right and freedom. I choose to eat meat that is my right and freedom.
Bea our bodies need the same nutrition today as our bodies needed hundreds of years ago that has not changed. I'm sure your options include the millions of dollars that people spend each year on multivitamins, protein shakes and various other nutritional products. I wonder if you have ever considered that in your journey of peace you have become a slave in bondage to these pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to keep your body from shutting down because of lack of proper nutrition. While the pharmaceutical leaders are eating their medium rare steaks and wearing their Italian leather shoes you and others like you are making them millions and making yourself's some very expensive pee, which is where most of the multivitamins are going!

Anonymous (not verified)
on Jul 5, 2013

It's unfortunate that the loudest and most obnoxious of any group is often the most heard. Please rest assured that the vast majority of vegans do not condone the vegan sell-out list in New York.

on Jul 8, 2013

Radical opposition to eating meat is a form of mental derangement. It can assume any degree of intensity, from erratic ethics to fierce fanaticism. Its advocates are given unwarranted consequence in present western culture. Most of the time, they should be either ignored, referred to mental health care or brought to justice.

Cmcrare (not verified)
on Apr 3, 2014

I was vegetarian for about 15 years and although I thought my diet was healthy, I was quite overweight and had many stomach issues. It wasn't until I changed my diet and became vegan that all of my health issues disappeared. Milk, cheese, eggs are just as bad as eating the flesh of a cow. Don't listen to the meat industrie's protein health claims, everything has protein. But What cows and pigs have is injected hormones and antibiotics, cruelty, and terror, and all of that is supposed to be healthy??? Do the math!

on Apr 4, 2014

I believe if cows were not meant to be eaten they wouldn't have been made out of meat and that meat wouldn't taste so good.

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Amanda Radke


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