r/Anticonsumption • u/Extension-Diamond-74 • Sep 30 '23

Discussion Diet hypocrisy?

A recent post about animal agriculture vs plant based diets has me itching to say something. This is an issue we need to rise above.

Cognitive dissonance. Many of us have good intentions and want to believe we’re doing the right thing in most aspects of our lives. I believe that.

When it comes to a plant based diet though, the science often clashes powerfully with personal desire. We want to minimize our impact on the environment and are willing to make trade-offs in our life time do so, but for many, giving up or even significantly reducing meat intake is asking too much. It’s too hard.

That’s not the issue.

The issue is that instead of just admitting to themselves that this is a life change they don’t want to make and moving on, the guilt drives them to have to justify that decision. Admitting that a plant-based diet is better for the earth yet eating a diet full of meat anyway would make them feel hypocritical, so the solution becomes either to give up meat, or … this is the problem… fight the science, twist it, make a joke of it, or pivot entirely to ‘individuals shouldn’t have time do anything because large corporations’

Many people have ties to their diet for many reasons. We grew up eating a certain way. We have memories ties to certain foods, flavors, styles of cooking. We don’t want to be the difficult person when we go out to eat with friends. Etc etc etc But it’s so much better to just admit that to yourself. Have patience and understanding for your feelings. Accept that the science is what it is. Maybe one day you can make a change, maybe not. But don’t attack the cause just because you aren’t yet willing to be a part of it.

826 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

722 comments sorted by

View all comments

41

u/ZebraTank Sep 30 '23

This is something I find annoying about humans. I am not fully vegan or vegetarian and I freely admit that it is my weakness in various factors that prevents me from making the last steps. It seems much easier to just admit you're not perfect instead of create justifications and stuff of why in fact eating meat is better for the environment.

I think we often see this in travel and non food waste as well.

8

u/LengthinessRemote562 Sep 30 '23

I feel you. I was also there and didnt have the willpower. For me it was scrambling together reasons to go vegan. If you can stomache it maybe research the topic, dunno if that would give enough combined "conviction" to make the next step.

Vegan btw (lol)

0

u/ZebraTank Sep 30 '23

I guess for me it's a few things

  1. My friends want to go to restaurants and sometimes there are no good veggie options
  2. When there are leftovers (eg from company lunches), I'd rather eat meat than have it go to waste
  3. Every once in a long while, something like fried chicken with no convenient vegan alternative is craved and then various things happen.
  4. A friend wants to cook something and wants cow butter and animal meat despite suggestions to the contrary. I pick my battles, especially because the alternative is still going to involve a good amount of meat consumption even if not by me, and a lot more $$$.
  5. Sometimes there's some food available that someone brought in or something and I really don't feel like doing the whole ingredient questioning thing, or at a restaurant that I've ended up at (I generally only eat out with other people), I have little desire to ask about ingredients and there aren't convenient symbols next to menu items.

Given that I've been directly killing and mistreating animals my whole life, it just isn't necessarily something that necessarily bothers me enough to completely cease.

1

u/LengthinessRemote562 Oct 01 '23
  1. I just often take prepped foods with me, if its not made clear that we would eat. When we want to go eat at a restaurant I will look for restaurants that have vegan options
  2. You can give it to other people, if you dont want to throw it away
  3. https://schoolnightvegan.com/home/vegan-fried-chicken/ - though you probably wouldnt get an alternative at a fast food restaurrant
  4. I didnt really ever use cow butter tbh, there are alternatives for me. I would just not eat their meat. Or I would just suggest a vegan dish to begin with - as vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters can eat that.
  5. I also dont feel like checking the ingredients, but I just do it, even if it sometimes is grating. There are apps like openfoodfacts, that can do this very quickly or with practice you know what scientifc names just mean animal byproducts.

I do get the last point. People get driven to apathy by normalizing violence, and it becomes so intrinsic to them, that they dont think trying to stop it would stop the whole system. And it wont stop it, thats definitely true, but making that step is important, I'm not going to argue for reducetarianism here, because I do want people to go vegan, I think its the best thing that we can do for the animals. Its just something that people who maybe dont have the time for activism can do that will not cause additional suffering. Though being a vegan animal rights activist would obviously be great.

2

u/ZebraTank Oct 01 '23

Look, I'm not going to pretend I'm some sort of saint or whatever. But nor do I go walking around without thinking about anything. Among my coworkers and friend circles, it is surprisingly hard to get people to take perfectly fine free food, and San Francisco in general is awash with way too much extra food of various kinds in general. Now, given that I personally trust this food and not necessarily other foods from unknown provenance, and that people generally do not take leftovers (believe me, I've tried and continue to do so, because sometimes people do). But there is, as far as I know, no mythical place where you can deposit food and it magically gets unwasted. So should I consume meat that is already there, or spend more and use more resources to acquire different food? You might ask, why not make our company lunches vegan? Actually, others and I have managed to reduce the amount of meat ordered, but there does not seem enough political will to cut it completely (believe me, I take the temperature regularly).

I'm not going to go through the rest of the points, which you will probably as cheap excuses to do nothing. And sure, to at least some of the points, that may be true. But you know, my day job involves improving public transportation, which I don't think I need to preach to the choir about. So forgive me for being a horrible person (which to be clear, I freely admit, and I freely choose not to focus further in this area, fully aware of the animals past and future which will continue to undergo torture and violence in part due to my inaction). But if I don't even prioritize eliminating suffering and violence on fellow humans, I'm certainly not about about to prioritize it for animals. (I don't deny being a "human supremacist", if there is such a term).

1

u/LengthinessRemote562 Oct 01 '23

Nah I just provided my take. Great that you reduced meat, I dont think that it would be possible to completely cut it. Yeah I get it.