Indifference

Being part of the vast majority allows people to get away with things, like downgrading the importance of something which is obviously important. We can then dismiss certain issues as if we were brushing a fly off our sleeve. The meat-eater will always try to observe the golden rule of never letting ‘the subject’ get a foothold. These issues about how we treat animals must never become the subject of polite dinner table conversation or any conversation come to that.
To stop vegans from shouting their mouths off, they must be sprayed with a little social ostracism, just as we would spray an annoying fly. It can be done by belittling, ignoring or avoiding. Each indifferent or hostile response is really just a refusal to waste time listening or participating in this kind of talk. Meat consumers (who represent at least 95% of all people on the planet) reckon they have a mandate to refuse to be bothered or intimidated by it all. They don’t want to hear this ugly information about animals, and believe that they have the right to their view that “it’s essential to eat meat”. Whether it’s true or not is quite beside the point, as any smoker who ignores the warning on cigarette packs will confirm. It comes down to human rights and a blind belief in authority - if a product is available we want to believe it can’t be harmful, otherwise the authorities would prohibit its sale. Tobacco, meat, booze, it's all is on sale and sanctioned … and that’s good enough for most people. It’s something most of us learn as youngsters and it gains strength from continued practice – “as long as most people do it, I can do it”. The norm overrules ethics.