Going in for the kill

Judgements shock, especially when we judge someone’s values. “You are wrong doing what you do, eating what you eat”. It’s a heavy judgement that implicates both meals and snacks, every day. It’s a criticism of the mindlessness of every chocolate bar eaten, every ham sandwich and anything else making use of animals. It’s eaten because it tastes good.
“You are wrong ...” - to hear that hurts. It undermines a person’s sense of being right. Vegans, who judge out loud, cause some shock. Perhaps up to now “no one has ever spoken to me this way before”. No one, before, has actually criticised what one routinely eats, from a moral point of view.
Along the way, maybe we’ve met a few vegetarians who’ve advocated healthier food or better animal welfare. We’ve heard of battery eggs and some people switching to free range. But never before have we been confronted about the wrongness of all foods connected with animals, including by-products.
To almost everybody, eating is like breathing, it’s not something we question when young or when older. The foods we eat are what Mum fed us. How can they be “wrong”?
Vegans who judge an omnivore’s diet usually provoke anger. Provocation is a blunt instrument to get people to change. How else do we do it? It seems the most obvious thing to do.
It’s a trap though. Many omnivores aren’t stupid, and they know precisely what we’re up to when we provoke them, and if they’re not ready for us immediately they sure to be next time. These days it’s unlikely the average Western educated person will be unaware of veganism or at least that there is an ‘animal-rights’ angle. If we vegans come along and spring a heavy message on a person we’ll have an impact, but we might not get away with it for long. People will wise up to us (as one does with Jehovas Witnesses knocking at the front door - we see them and shut the door straightaway perhaps). They’ll shut off.
A kindly, non-quarrelsome omnivore will put up with what we’re saying and even say some nice things (perhaps to shut us up). The may reckon we’re caring and compassionate, even tell us they think we seem wise, and do so because they want to come across as polite, friendly and interested … but inside their heads – what are they really thinking?
When we point out something important - “Do you know that that meat you’re eating, it was once a …” - we don’t always realise how we provoke not only anger but fear.
“You know it will destroy your health? …”
It’s so easy for a vegan of even average public speaking skills to say what needs to be said and in effect make fools of people. And then it’s not so difficult to go that step further to corner them. Then the omnivore tries to escape by saying something indefensible, untrue or just plain foolish. And then ... we’ve got them. It’s similar to any attack and therefore a strong defence is not unexpected.
Is this the way omnivores see vegans, as “right” yet obnoxious? I think they probably do. And they’ll tell their friends, “If a vegan come along and has a chat with you, watch out! Be afraid of saying something really stupid, and beware the (nasty) vegan, who’ll seize it, amplify it and then go in for the kill!”