YOU ARE NOT A CARNIVORE

Vegan Rhetoric Pt. 1

I want to talk a little about rhetoric. Here’s one I get a lot: “Are you allowed to eat that?” Or I’m with non-vegan friends and we’re thinking about where to eat, someone says to me, “oh yeah… you can’t eat that.” Maybe I am a little sensitive, perhaps OCD… it irks me every time. To the Meat Eaters-lemme set the record straight: I can eat whatever I want. No one allows me to eat certain foods or tells me I can’t. I am a vegan by CHOICE. I eat what I want, I don’t eat what I don’t want. I don’t want to eat the products of dead and tortured animals. It’s really that simple. In the future, please pay attention to your rhetoric, perhaps ask me whether a certain food is something I would eat, or whether a restaurant has something I would want to eat, and not whether your mother is going to be serving something I can eat. Because I can eat anything. You’ll never hear me say “oh- I can’t eat that.” Just “no, I don’t eat that.” Ok, it’s not that big of a deal, but still.

Now to my more serious gripe: yes I’m Vegan, but sorry, no, you are NOT a carnivore. I cannot tell you how many times I hear people refer to people who eat meat as a carnivore. It’s just gotten annoying.

Main Entry: car·ni·vore
Pronunciation: \ˈkär-nə-ˌvȯr\
Function: noun
Etymology: ultimately from Latin carnivorus
Date: 1840
1 : any of an order (Carnivora) of typically flesh-eating mammals that includes dogs, foxes, bears, raccoons, and cats; broadly : a carnivorous animal2 : a carnivorous plant

There you have it. Webster says you’re not a carnivore, you are not a carnivore. To the Meat Eaters- you don’t have sharp teeth with which to hunt your prey. You’re not a carnivore. Please stop referring to yourself as such. I don’t care if you’re on an all chicken diet. You are not a carnivore. People, stop calling yourself carnivores! The word you’re looking for is Omnivore.