+3
I'm not a vegetarian, but this thread is kind of sickening. The hilarious thing is that you have people saying things like "vegetarians try to force their opinions on everyone else" and then you have people who say that they are actually mad at vegetarians. My sister and mom have both been vegetarians for about 2 years now, and they have not had any health problems. In fact, my mom has said that her wrist used to hurt all the time, and she hasn't felt it since she stopped eating meat. I know several other vegetarians who have had no problems, and I don't know a vegetarian who has. It's also been proven that vegetarians live longer on average. How much of that is from vegetarianism is still up for debate, but in this day and age, it's pretty ridiculous to say that vegetarians aren't healthy. Yes, vegetarianism can cause problems, but if you're not stupid about it and you aren't an incredibly picky eater (which I am) then you can easily be just as healthy as a meat-eater.
Also, that story about the kid who couldn't eat meat at home so he snuck it at school is a completely bullsh!t argument. Yes, those parents are awful, but I'm sure you could find several more stories about parents who wouldn't let their child become a vegetarian, but that isn't reported on because nobody cares about vegetarians. You can't just use little pieces of anecdotal evidence of a vegetarian being bad to prove that all vegetarians are bad. And yeah, as Miss Vicky said, I would much rather have my kid be a vegetarian than eating the crap food they have at schools.
And anyone who says that there is no moral basis for not eating meat is an idiot. Harmless animals are dying for your pleasure. You don't have to eat meat, but you are, at the expense of innocent lives. Yeah "it's just a dumb animal and they're tasty," but that doesn't mean killing them for pleasure isn't awful. And yes, it is basically just for pleasure. You can live a good life without it, as I explained earlier, but you like the taste. They feel pain. They don't enjoy dying just so you can have a marginally better taste in your mouth. Who cares if they''re ugly? You're ugly. Does that mean it's okay to kill you? No, because I'm not a cruel person who determines an animals worth based on how cute they look. Not to mention the horrible conditions they have to live in before they're slaughtered, which I hope nobody needs to be convinced is awful.
I don't even think I need to address the kids in Africa argument. If you don't see how that's really f**king stupid, there's something wrong with you.
Again, I'm not a vegetarian, and I'm not trying to convince you to become one, believe it or not. If you are one, that's great for you, and I do recommend it to everyone. Usually I would be more sympathetic to meat-eaters, but this thread got me really pissed off, and I hate the way that "animal rights activist" has become a dirty word.