i am so aggrevated!

in the store--shopping, buying my typical LC meats, veggies and groceries. what do i get in the line? a young "i am going to save the world" vegan! who proceeds to tell me (prob cause i'm fat) that meat is killing the animals and me etc. etc. etc.

i am so steamed and mad--i asked if she ate organic veggies. "of course" she said. i asked if she realized that most organic farmers (i am an organic gardener/farmer) use blood and bone meal to enrich and build the soil. she looked stunned - and shutup. then i couldn't help myself - i said so who's blood and bones do you think it is? packed up our stuff and left!

ally

that's intersting...i'll have to use that on all the vegans at my work. I raise funds for charities and that seems to attract vegans like a tofu burger.





Jon

If this was the cashier that was making the comments, I probably would have complained to the manager. It's very inappropriate for a cashier to comment on what the customers are or are not purchasing and make moral judgments about it out loud (what they think is their business).
If it was a fellow customer, on the other hand, I would have done exactly the same thing you did.
While there's nothing at all wrong with being vegan and everyone is entitled to their views and opinions of the correct way to eat, I think it violates personal boundaries to make comments to a perfect stranger on their grocery purchases regardless of whether you have a moral objection to them or not. I don't think too many people would go up to a person purchasing condoms and start preaching to them how morally wrong birth control is if they happened to believe that and yet some people think there's nothing wrong with making comments about something as personal as what a person chooses to eat.

is that at one time i chose to eat lacto-ovo-vegetarian...BECAUSE i believed like many people that low-fat etc was the way to go! of course, i became hypothyroid, damaged my metabolism and am overweight. and it was all BECAUSE of that "medically recommended lifestyle". now i have personal experience and know better and have to be attacked--such a shame.

IT IS DIFFICULT TO BE A COGNIZANT PART OF THE FOOD CHAIN.

ally

Sorry, but being vegetarian is a legitimate life choice - you can't go around dictating other people's beliefs, and most people are vegetarian because of ethical reasons, not low fat dietary reasons.

I don't like when people preach at me, no matter what the subject, and that is what that person did wrong. But shoving something she didn't know about her food in her face was truly unkind. I'm sure she meant well, even if her overture was not appreciated.

Anyway, next time people are intolerant about Atkins/LC, remember how intolerant you were, and how easy it is to get defensive about something you deeply believe in.

SCREW THAT! You TOTALLY did the right thing! If they want to preach their views on you, then you have every right to defend your own WOL.. AND to tell them something they may not know, such as using blood and bone meal or whatever to enrich the soil.. Im damn proud of you..!

Most vegans dont 'mean well' when they preach.. they do it to try to make you feel bad about the way youre choosing to live..

I have a friend whos a diehard vegan/activist.. The only reason we're friends is because we knew each other from 8 years ago when she WASNT vegan.. anyways, its neat to have her as a friend because she certainly offers her side of the story.. but once in a while she'll start to go off on a rant about meat or something, and I have to tell her,
"Sarah, I dont want to hear it.. I dont want to argue with you because it wont do us any good.."

and she'll stop.. now maybe in my case shes trying to 'help' me.. but when she goes on and on about others who do things she doesnt like or believe in, shes definitely belittling them, accusing them of doing the wrong thing.. because they dont agree with her.. shrug.. just offering my two cents..

I'm not defending anyone getting in your face... If I were vegetarian I wouldn't want to be preached to about Atkins, either!

But I really don't like wholesale disparagement of others... to me talking about "those vegans" is no different than talking about "those Jews" or "those Arabs" or - fill in the blank. People are entitled to their belief systems, and deserve respect. What the person in the supermarket did wrong was try to thrust her views on another. Period. The fact that those were vegan views is irrelevant.

I can't tell you how many times I've been told that I will go to hell because I'm not born again, or that as a woman it is my job to bring children into the world, or any other number of beliefs that I don't subscribe to, but the people espousing them did. It doesn't make Christianity or Judaism wrong in my book, it just means that those particular people were nudniks ( = pains in the a$$).

well, although any lifestyle is legitimate--it does not mean that opinons should be spouted forth to unsuspecting bystanders.

meant well...i have said for a long time that when someone "means well" they do, but they mean well for themselves - not me.

unkind? intolerant? why is it unkind to reveal the flaws in any situation? is it truth i speak? if so why hide behind the truth? why cover up the truth? we would be horrified if we found out any corporation or government agency covered up the truth. should i penalized for speaking the truth?

i DON'T run around "selling" low carb - its nobodys business.

I wasnt speaking about "those vegans"... if you read my post carefully you will notice that I put MOST vegans.. and from my experience as a 4th year college student, the kids who choose to be vegan are very easily generalized and stereotyped, they all hang out together..! They look at us like.. those "CARNIVORES!!! ANIMAL KILLERS! PIG EATERS! Dont they know what theyre promoting by eating meat! Dont they know how bad eggs are and dairy products are for them?! Those Idiots! Theyre gonna have high cholesterol and DIE of a heart attack! THEY DESERVE IT!"

Thats how they think where I come from.. I dont believe ANYONE should preach ANYTHING to others, unless theyre asking for it specifically.. and a grocery store is NOT the proper place to go and be preached to about veganism..BUT if someone is rude enough to criticize what someone else has in their shopping cart, then by all means, that 'meat-eating' person has every right to defend their cart's contents.. and for Ally to throw in a fact of her own, which is this organic vegan chick obviously didnt know and was shocked by, then more power to her..

Im not going to post anymore in this thread..

Have a great day..

We are in total agreement! And really saying the same thing when it comes down to it.

However, not everyone is in college! College type behavior does not always translate to the rest of life, and the kind of activism and grouping you are talking about is usually the vocal extreme, and should not be viewed as representative of everyone who adheres to a belief system. That is really my only point.

I'll try and have a nice day tomorrow, as it's well into the night here but I hope you are having a good one

College students are always riding white horses to win some cause such as war, poverty, feed the chickens. They know more than anyone and are as clueless as a new born puppy.

Black57

Don't ask me why I'm even getting into this mix. But, the bottom line for me would be that if someone (a stranger) made an unsolicited, disparaging remark to me, not being one to mince words, I'd keep it short and sweet...

F*** off A-H!

Jones

I wish I were so blunt Jones.

I agree with how Ally handled it. I would have done the same thing. She was unjustly attacked and had every right to defend herself. Instead of preaching back about low-carb she simply stated a fact she knew to be true about organic foods. Had this girl been a true vegan as opposed to a social standing preaching vegan she would likely have known about her own way of eating --OR-- she would have said "Wow! I didn't know that. I'll have to check into it. Thanks."

My best friend is vegan. Not by ethical choice but by necessity. Her system is highly intolerant of most meats and dairy so it was simply the healthiest thing she could do for herself. She has to know her diet inside and out to find the hidden meat (sounds familiar huh?). I've learned alot from her. I never knew that there was animal derivatives in gelatin, or that bakeries often use animal lard to make their icing. Blucky!!!

I respect moral and ethical beliefs in any religion or lifestyle. If I had my way I'd prefer to be left alone about mine and not to be preached to but if someone feels the need to preach to me, they better hope they aren't hypocritical in their own beliefs, or I'll point it out. I know it sounds mean spirited but it's not intended that way. It falls under "practice what you preach" and most people who feel the need to don't.

The best I would think of is F Off (but I wouldn't).

My co-worker came in from lunch with the strangest story. He said he was eating a meat laden sub while sitting in the window of a Subway. A woman he did not know, stops at the window outside and mouths the words "you are stupid", and walks away. His best guess at this strange behaviour was that she is a vegan.

What an odd conclusion. I would have thought she had a mental illness...

Also, hurray for college students. They do ride on white horses and are super activists - even if occasionally over zealous.

How can I be agreeing with EVERYONE?? But I do...I know those vegans, vegan adult, was a vegan, would have said Yuck Fou....etc. etc...

Love you all!