Posted by Diarmuid (194.125.207.91) on January 28, 2003 at 09:09:23:
I am sure many of you are hurt that you get such little regard from us on the carnivorous left. Where's the love? Why can't we join you? Is it so hard for us to give up eating animal flesh? Don't we all want a better world with less cruelty to man and beast?
Fact is, I have the exact same vision of the world of 2200AD as you do: it's illegal to eat animal flesh; not only that, but the very thought of doing so is regarded as universally abhorrent as cannibalism is today.
But we know that meat-eaters like me and Bill Clinton are doing more to make that happen than all the vegans put together.
That future will NOT come to pass without persuading the majority, and you never persuade majorities by calling them murderers.
There is a very long way to go: the majority at the moment is prepared to accept mass slavery, torture and death by curable diseases.
It's time for you to face facts: this majority will only cease to tolerate the killing of animals AFTER they have ceased tolerating cruelty towards their own species. But fried chicken-lovin' Bill 'n' Hill are making a teeny bit of progress towards this. The happy animals of 2200 owe their existence to their efforts, not yours.
Unfortunately, though you are galloping down the road to nowhere, you think you are winning. This is because the number of people giving up meat grows each year at present. To you, this looks like the war is turning in your favor.
In reality though, all that's happening is more 99c double cheeseburgers. No drop in meat supply, just more poverty and infant mortality among the poor 3rd world herdsmen.
There's no plant-based food on earth as orgasmically delicious as a good T-bone and there never will be. Every time you give some put-upon wage slave a hard time for enjoying it, you defer the day when animal life is respected as equal to human by six months.
You guys really, really really need to organize a "Meat-eaters and Vegans United" coalition fast. Wanna bet that if you don't, 20 years from now the number of meat-refusers won't be dropping, not growing?
As long as the message remains "save the animals NOW!!! oh yeah, and some people too if we have time, maybe..." you're not going to interest anybody who isn't temperamentally attracted to extreme hard-line positions. And nonhardliners are a big, big majority.