Are vegetarians justified in asking meat eaters to stop eating meat?

S

shylock

Legacy Member
Argument 1 : Just because animals cannot protest does not mean they can be killed for our pleasure.

Argument 2 : That is how nature works. Animals higher up in the food chain eat the ones lower. You never ask the lions to stop killing the deers.
 
I think vegetarians are justified in ASKING meat eaters to stop eating meat, as I believe they're entitled to formulate and defend their own opinions.

What I don't agree with is when "asking" becomes "telling", with some militant vegetarians thinking they're superior to meat-eaters just because they think they took the right decision when deciding not to eat meat. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion and their own way of life, and if you want to tell me about yours and try and convince me that meat-eating is wrong, fine, I'm okay with that. But if you're going to actually tell me what to do and tell me that what I'm doing is wrong without any arguments, I'm going to completely ignore you.
 
I think it has to be that way. You have made a choice you have to live with and I have made mine. I agree that I am fine as long as others do not impose their ideas and ideologies on me.

I am a vegetarian and a few of my friends force me to eat meat no matter how many times I deny. After a point it gets frustrating. However, I have learned to laugh it off instead of getting frustrated and straining our relationship.
 
No one should be trying to force anyone else to do anything, meat-eater or otherwise. Even though I eat meat, I definitely support better conditions for animals in general. Things like free-range chickens and that sort of thing are fine by me as long as they aren't being pumped full of steroids and hormones.
 
I feel like this is not a clearly established and reasoned moral principle. It isn't completely established that vegetarians are morally superior to meat-eaters, primarily due to the fact that the Earth itself does function in a food chain where consumption of meat is part of nature. There can be arguments made against the industrialization of meat production as inhumane and immoral, but they, again, not established as absolutely immoral. Therefore, this isn't like asking someone not to kill someone, which is universally regarded as the morally right course of action. In a scenario where there is significant moral ambiguity and uncertainty, I feel like this is more of a matter of personal liberty. People should be able to choose for themselves, and for someone to impose their own preferences as a moral principle is wrong.
 
Vegetarians are justified in asking people to stop eating meat if they can prove their case with evidence and argument first. There must be a philosophically sound and logical reason why people should make such a change. Because the reasons for being vegetarian are not self evidently true. The reasons presented in this thread so far are only subjective.
 
There is a difference between ASKING an individual to do something as opposed to simply proposing an alternate viewpoint to an individual. Most people have no idea how to differentiate between the two. A vegetarian lifestyle is a personal choice that should be respected, but is in no way applicable to all parties. The underlying moral code is not a universal entity and shouldn't be assumed as much.
 
Imposing your beliefs and lifestyle on others is rude and disrespectful; it's like a backhanded way of saying "the way I'm doing things is better than your way of doing things, so you have to do them how I do them." Besides that, not everyone is capable of going vegetarian.
jose26425 said:
A vegetarian lifestyle is a personal choice that should be respected, but is in no way applicable to all parties.
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This! I know some people who can't go vegetarian because their bodies can't work on a diet like that. More than personal choice, it can also be for health reasons on either side.
 
Honestly I don't think anyone should be asking anyone to stop doing anything when it comes to how they eat, and what their diet consists of. If you approach me and ask if I would like to hear reasons as to why I might like to consider going vegetarian then I am more likely to listen to you, but if you come out right at me with reasons as to why I need to change my diet, I will not listen, or will more likely respond back in a negative light.

Now if someone were to approach me with ideas and facts about how we could make eating meat an overall better process for the animals, then I would be all ears. I don't think I would be able to go full out vegetarian, but I also don't have meat with every meal (maybe twice a week at most). So if there is any way that I could help support the environment so everyone wins (more-s0 the animals than myself), then I would do so.

I don't like the thought of killing animals for their meat, but I also don't rule it out. Other animals eat other animals, we are animals too, hence we eat meat sometimes too. I don't see this as wrong, but I do see mass killing of animals for food as immoral.

Everyone has a preference. However, I will note that if you are a vegetarian and have strong opinions against eating meat, then I wouldn't serve meet at dinner if you were my company - that's out of respect. I would find that asking me not to serve meat at an event such as this would be appropriate. But asking me outright to stop, would not be as such.
 
I think that Vegetarians are justified to ask meat eaters to not eat meat. It is simply a request and fighting for a belief that one has. I find it that I would listen and hear out the the person requesting me to stop. Listen to the points that they make within their arguments, evaluate what they have said then finally rule out whether or not I would like to become a Vegetarian or not.

It is as simple as that. It's like if I were to ask a friend to eat meat again who is Vegetarian. I must make an argument and fight my points on it, discussing with him the ups and downs of my side of the story. Everyone is justified at an opinion! That's the best way I can put it.

-Paul
 
Vegetarians should not be asking others to stop eating meat and no vegetarian should be forced to eat meat products. It's an individual choice and should be respected.
I do think that people should lean into vegetarianism and have at least a few meat free meals each week! It would change the way food is produced and make for a more ethical society. Humans are omnivores and not evolved to eat the majority of processed food and quantity of meat that most people eat on a weekly basis.
 
Well, vegetarians are as justified in asking others not to eat meat as those who eat meat are in asking vegetarians to eat meat. There's no double standard here; if they're willing to accept that others have the same rights to make suggestions as they do, then I see no problem with them "asking" others. I doubt many people would be receptive to their suggestions, though. Otherwise they'd probably already be vegetarians, themselves.
 
There's a difference between asking and telling. I have a few vegetarian friends that have asked I try it, and I politely declined. On the other hand, I have had one friend demand I stop eating meat or she would sever her ties with me. Good riddance, I say. A request is one thing, being downright rude and demanding I change my ways is another.
 
Aside from the 'you don't ask lions to stop eating gazelles' argument, there are inherent flaws with vegetarianism and veganism. You can not provide adequate nutrition for yourself without artificial means if you don't eat animals or animal products. This is why professional athletes don't tend to be vegetarians or vegans. That being said, if you'd like to take the extra effort to provide for yourself by artificial means and supplements in the interest of vegetarianism, I totally support your freedom to make that decision. However, preaching that this lifestyle should be widespread not only discounts the fact that most human beings are not in a position to provide for themselves ins such a high maintenance way, it also asks those who are to take on very inefficient and life-altering habits. Again, you're free to make a value judgement here and do as you wish, but clearly it is not the most logical idea to stop eating animals and animal products. As an important afterthought though, I do believe we should all take it upon ourselves to respect animal life in not torturing and degrading livestock via foods like veal and live-dissection cuisine. We are humans with human needs, but there's no reason to be a dick about it.
 
Well, sure, you can ask a meat eater to stop eating meat. But do so with the understanding that you will have to accept their response, whether it was the response that you were looking for or not. As Joker said, if a person really wanted to be a vegetarian, they wouldn't have waited to be asked.
 
yotsubanned said:
I think vegetarians are justified in ASKING meat eaters to stop eating meat, as I believe they're entitled to formulate and defend their own opinions.

What I don't agree with is when "asking" becomes "telling", with some militant vegetarians thinking they're superior to meat-eaters just because they think they took the right decision when deciding not to eat meat. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion and their own way of life, and if you want to tell me about yours and try and convince me that meat-eating is wrong, fine, I'm okay with that. But if you're going to actually tell me what to do and tell me that what I'm doing is wrong without any arguments, I'm going to completely ignore you.
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I completely agree with you. However, economically speaking vegetarians consume and utilize less resources than meat eaters. So I'd think in the future eating meat may again become a luxury as our population grows the need to feed the people increases the economic cost of meat since meat requires more resources to create. I remember reading somewhere a while back saying that a lb of meat is equal to x amount of bushels of wheat which could feed y amount of people whereas meat could only feed z persons. Just something to think about as in the future it may become a prime argument in the limitations of meat consumption.
 
I know someone who become a vegetarian now, he told me the reason why he started not to eat meat he told me "If we have a law that we cant eat the dogs so why we are eating pigs, chicken, fish, goat, cow, and many more, they are all the same so if we hate those people who kill dogs because we think that they have heart and man's best friend, we must do the same not to eat other meats because they are the same with dogs", the only difference is that we only used to pets dogs and cats because of our culture but if you think of it, my friend is right.
 
Zeus20 said:
he told me the reason why he started not to eat meat he told me
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To improve this clause you should write: "he told me the reason why he started not to eat meat was"

There are further ways to improve your written English, sit tight, we're looking at how to add a jobs section so you can contact a tutor.
 
Being a vegetarian is a personal choice. He can share his reasons to others and encourage them to be vegetarian but they cannot force it to someone. I do eat meat and one of my reason is because it was Biblical. I do believe in God and the Bible and it is written there that man can eat certain kinds of meat. He even send quails to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. So for me, vegetarians can only encourage others and not to force them as if eating meat is a kind of sin.
 
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