Is it possible to avoid feeling morally superior when becoming vegetarian?!
Answers: Is it possible to avoid asking stupid questions on a vegetarian/vegan board when you really have no interest of being either a vegan or a vegetarian??
LOL. Yes, most of us don't feel morally superior, those that do will grow up eventually.
Yeah. If you don't take yourself too seriously, it should be no problem.
I don't know how, but some people manage to have an attitude of "I don't care what other people do...it's all fine with me" even though they are vegetarians. I don't feel that way at all. It bugs the hell out of me that everyone won't become strict vegetarians. It's a flaw in our society that I hope is one day fixed.
A healthy and well-balanced strict vegetarian diet IS healthier and more ethical than eating animals and animal products. That's all there is to it.
Try doing something immoral each day until the feeling is gone.
Certainly. Vegetarian is just a diet and the reasons people become vegetarian are widely varied.
Yep, i just state my beliefs.
I personally dont care what strangers think of me, therefore I cannot feel superior to someone i don't judge.
As for people i know, i'm superior to absolutely none of them. The thought or judgement never even enters my head, why would it ? Life isn't a one-up-man-ship game over your friends
Its good that peole like "JenasaurusX" feel so passionate about thier veggie beliefs. I guess I do, but in different ways - running the veggie business is my way of spreading the word.
I was in a veggie hotel this last week and one guy turned up for a black tie dinner in a "Meat is Murder" t-shirt. I have no doubt he felt superior to the rest of us. To us, he just looked like a pratt
No one should feel as if they are superior to other people. Not everyone becomes a vegetarian because of ethical reasons. The people that want the whole world to be come vegetarian are being extremely one sided. Differences is what makes the world go around!
Hey, that's a great question. I've been a vegetarian (lacto-ovo, not vegan) for 19 years. The most important reason was because I was fed up with how our medical professionals defined appropriate diets. As an angry youth, becoming a vegetarian was my way to make a political statement in opposition to the AMA. Whatever! Right? Well, to answer your question, back then, yes I felt morally superior to everyone else that ate meat. But, as the years have gone, I have found that ignorance is the norm and not the exception. As humans, we all like to pretend we are so very intelligent. In practice, we all are only selling our performances to the highest bidder, or sucker, whichever the particular case may be. In reality, we are all far more ignorant about EVERYTHING than to be egotistical about our intelligence on such FEW things. At the end of the day, moral superiority becomes just another fantasy that makes us go to bed with a smile, wake up and face the complexities of another day, and give our children what is often not nearly enough hope for their future.
But hey, a healthy superego can't hurt.
sure if its not a moral issue for you. but most people make their decisions based on what they believe is right, and to feel good about themselves. so while you may not think youre better than other people who eat meat, chances are you feel better about not eating meat yourself.
It depends on your reasons for becoming a vegetarian. Someone that becomes a vegetarian for health reasons, or because their family members are already vegetarian, probably would not see themselves as superior because the choice was not based in morality, to them, it's strictly the way they eat, not the way they feel.
People that become vegetarians for moral (animal rights) or religious reasons may (that's "may", not always) feel superior because the choice was based upon moral decisions. If you feel that your way is truly the way things should be, then naturally you will feel like you are morally superior, because that would mean you assume everyone else is wrong.
Folks that go veggie for environmental reasons could easily fit into either category, depending on their own reasoning for their diet.
Another interesting question for the masses would be... Is it possible to avoid feeling morally superior when meeting a vegetarian?
There are a**holes on all sides, veggie and omni alike. Whether or not a person feels superior to others is a problem everyone has to sort out for themselves.
I don't, I believe what I want to and give others the courtesy of respecting their beliefs, because if I don't how can I expect them to respect mine.
Who would think otherwise?
I think everyone feels their morals are superior to anyone elses. Otherwise they wouldn't have those morals now would they. Just like you think you are moraly superior over vegetarians! If you didn't feel your morals were superior you would be a vegetarian. So either way everyone feels they are morally superior to everyone else regardless of their diet, lifestyle, or anything else about them.
i guess it depends on the person. i never preach to anyone what to eat.
I'm vegan and feel superior, but it has nothing to do with what I eat or wear, lol! I know what you're talking about, new vegetarians can get so "born-again" on everyone, it even pisses me off. I think it's a way to justify a very difficult decision, a way to protect themselves from ridicule. It's so stupid.
Nope! Vegetarians either think they're 'healthier' than everybody else, or they think they are more 'moral' than everybody else. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so picky about what they eat in the first place. I can gaurantee you that a meat eater never thinks about how what they eat impacts any thing, or anybody else. I've never met a vegetarian that didn't see fit to try and sell me on it.
Yep, i just state my beliefs" --- Mike H's believe is that you can raise hay and sell it to others so they can fatten cattle for slaughter . . .then judge others for animal cruelty. He wrote that here on YA ....
So here's a pratt for sure who is feeling morally superior while defecating on his own ethics. AND he won't post the links that he said will prove he didn't say it ... He will write what he said ... but won't provide a link to the resolved question where he wrote it. Here's a moral fraud if there ever was one.
MOST people on YA V&V are wannabes and fanatics. Their seems to be a correlation between silliness and ethusiasm . . .like JennaWTFus, Kiester or whatever, Bunnygurl, Veggie Tart, and Mikie, etc, just to name a few. For centuries the distinguishing feature between humans and animals is rationality --- then these named and a number of others truly are "animals" and their unrational affinity for their kith and kin is indeed understandable.