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.
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Great post, D! I get really irked by the "you CAN'T have _______" commentary, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gena! Yea I had u in mind half the time I was writing that because of something you wrote on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI will have respect for the pro-"carnivore" argument when I see someone chase down game with no weapons, kill it with no weapons, and eat it unaided (just their teeth and nails) raw, guts and all. True carnivores do this.
ReplyDeleteAmen! I hate how people get all "oh, you can't eat there" before we've even looked at the menu. They think they are being nice but they're not!
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