Why is everything a veg has to say considered propoganda?

I'm not a vegetarian and don't intend to become one, but I think the fact that people who are, tend to go a bit overboard in trying to convert others. I personally don't want to hear how eating meat is terrible and that I'm killing animals because of my choice of foods. While I believe that people should be allowed to eat whatever they please and that includes cutting meat out of their diets, I don't want to be subjected to being called a killer or told that I am hurting animals because I am not. Vegetarians just need to eat what they feel is right for them and stop calling those of us who chose to eat meat inhumane.

edit: I understand how you feel and I appreciate your calm and thoughtful manner of speaking about this, you dont seem to be a fanatic, and are mainly concerned with animal welfare. I understand this,and I dont think anyone is ignoring the fact that animals are used as meat. Basically my point is, many animals were put here to provide nutrition for those of us who choose to eat meat. What would be the appropriate way of handling the overcrowded animal population if they weren't used as food.

Most Indian vegetarians believe that eggs are non-veg because they contain animal cells (the female genetic material). I think that because Indian vegetarians generally don't eat eggs, the egg industry there is not as industrialised, and fertilised eggs are sold along with unfertilised eggs for food (although this is all changing with the advent of supermarkets). Edit: I would just like to point out to Mr Extrasoft (who still doesn't get it) that the motivation for people to become vegetarian was always to do with feelings of equality with animals and it is only in recent times that people have really taken to it for health reasons. Also, if you'd cared to check, this question was asked from India where they view eggs in a different light to the West.

Is everything a veg has to say considered propaganda? Most likely you'll mostly hear from those who consider what vegans say to be propaganda (of course some of it is - most, if not all, ideologies have their propaganda).

The reason many people label ideas they don't agree with as propaganda is that doing so relieves them of having to take the idea into consideration. They can then stay comfortably in their ideological tracks.

Changing a view that is important to you is an uncomfortable process and we like to be comfortable.

Addition:

I just watched the Earthlings video... very uncomfortable. Yes, I managed to sit through the whole thing... the sicko that I am :p

Katie, what else do you expect? They dont know anything about the subject, they are not willing to change...ignorance is more comfortable than the truth. So if they call it a lie and propaganda, then somehow they can continue living their own lie.

We just need to take a look at meat and dairy industry to see true propaganda and dirty tactics of brainwashing ppl, selling them disease (because that is what meat gives you: cancer, heart condition, obesity etc)...

Like you say video doesnt lie. Those are not "exceptions" or special cases either. That is reality. But McDonalds nation doesnt like information. They prefer advertisement and staying passive.

But the truth is becoming too dangerous to ignore, their children, or maybe more realistically great grand children will be ashamed when they look back.

Just keep spreading the word! You're not doing it for your own benefit, so how are you "pushing your opinions on others"? Every creature has equal rights- That is all we are saying. Unlike the meat industry, we're not trying to sell anything.

EDIT; for Depp: That's a lovely pic indeed! Your question: >>What would be the appropriate way of handling the overcrowded animal population if they weren't used as food.<<

There is a very simple solution. Stop breeding them. Cows, pigs, chickens etc would naturally not reproduce in such great numbers or produce as much milk or eggs as they do now, simply because their nature has been manipulated by humans. Farmed animals are bred to be exploited. People dont exploit many other kinds of animals and bugs, and those are not taking over the planet.

To the person who replied here that "vegans make us feel inferior" : No one but you has control over what you feel !!! No one can make you feel inferior but you...if you feel guilty over eating meat, projecting your guilt onto others and saying they MAKE YOU FEEL guilty...that is not true. You are the one who is the only one with control over your feelings.

If you need to feel less inferior, do something to change that. Get a student loan, go back to school to educate yourself so that hopefully you will feel better about yourself. Or do some volunteer work to help others. Take some cooked food to a homeless shelter. Help out at a hospital as a volunteer. You don't have to be the same as anyone else, but you don't have to attack others who are minding their own business either. That will not help you feel better about yourself.

On the other hand , the point made by Gary C about why didn't the person making the movie DO SOMETHING instead of just filming this atrocity...or go to the police, esp where the live dog was put into a trash compactor truck or the dog on the street was shot (ON A PUBLIC STREET)...that is a valid point and one that went through my mind also...although I don't approve of animal cruelty, I can't see what was going through the sick mind of the person who filmed this without doing anything to stop at least SOME of this cruelty...at least he could have helped the two dogs if nothing else. He could have said NO! Don't do that! But he didn't even do that much...

That's what people do who cast judgment on something without any knowledge on the subject tend to do.

Those that participate in this ignorant behavior want to continue believing what they want to believe, regardless if the truth is contrary to what they believe. They are totally close-minded.

They want to be allowed to have an opinion that's not based on any facts or truth, but rather it's based on lies, heresay, rumors and sheer ignorance.

I doubt they even realize how ridiculous and ignorant they come across to those of us who are NOT ignorant!

They like to label us as being,"self righteous," but that probably comes from their deep down guilt for consuming meat. Most vegetarian/vegans that post answers/questions are not "forcing" anyone to eat like them! That would be equivalent to jamming a fork of meatless food down their throats. Some of those anti-vegetarian/vegan trolls that lurk around this forum have even admitted to enjoy "tricking" vegetarians by feeding them meat without telling them! Wouldn't THAT be considered forcing one's beliefs on another??

I realize that not everyone who eats meat are vegetarian/vegan haters that come to this forum. Many have legitimate reasons to come and do not attempt to start trouble. The vegetarian/vegan hating trolls are the minority.

I wish more of the intelligent,open-minded, decent meat eaters would come to this forum and out number the immature, ignorant questions/answers that the trolls post here. Then we can return to being able to engage in mature, open-minded conversations with not only fellow vegetarians/vegans, but mature, open-minded meat eaters as well.

I have watched the Earthlings video......But you have to bear in mind that it's author was setting out to making a point...So I would assume that they set out to find every piece of negative evidence they could to drive a point home...The essence of propaganda....

I am sure that there are transgressions in the processing of foods made of animals, I do not feel that they are the rule of thumb...I pass fields of cattle every day and from what I can tell they are enjoying life as much as cows can...I mean all they ever do is to eat and poop and they can do that without moving.....

All I am saying that this video does not represent a true reality...Just a skewed one..

Since I cant reply to your email

I dont know where the "Factory farms" are located...Ive never seen one.

I live in Arkansas and one of the largest producers of chickens in

America is Tysons.

There are chicken houses all over the state where individuals can buy

chicks and raise them

to sell back to Tyson as fryers...They live in covered houses with

large fans for cooling..If they are sick they get antibiotics....A lot

of

the people that I know raise Cows pretty much as they have for a

hundred years...No over crowding...No creulity.....

As for me I have to be off the chart when others are off the

chart....It draws the pendulum back to center....

I dont mind someone choosing to be a vegan or what ever they want to

do...

But it pisses me off when I go hunting to be called a murderer...Hell

thats just stupid....

Murder is a crime of human against human....And forgive me but I do

value the human life over that of a cow or pig or deer....

And if one doesnt have the stomach to see the death of an animal I

can understand that too. But I can and do kill animals for food.

As far as circus animals or pets ...There are laws that govern

cruelty to animals. Perhaps the person filming at the circus should

have

taken the facts to the local police instead of allowing it to happen in

order to make a biased movie....Who is to blame?

Probably because it is not the "majority" view. The TV and print ads have meat and diary commercials all the time. So something different is "propaganda."

Edit- Let me just add that people who have never been in the minority may never understand the concept of looking at all things and learning from them, and it is far easier to stay in the majority.

Greetings Katie G, I watched it, start to finish, the whole 1 and 1/2 hours of it...

.... I've got nothing

Speechless... Maybe after I (no pun) digest this information I will have something to say, but for now... got nothing...

Have a good evening... and Thank you!

I think its easier for most people to play ostrich-stick their heads in the sand and pretend nothing is really wrong. I have been trying to explain the issue of how unsanitary factory farms are to my mother for years, and she simply refuses to believe it. She says farms are regulated by the FDA, USDA, etc, and that they wouldnt allow such "nonsense". She just does not want to know-she knows it would change her mind about eating meat, and thats simply not an option for her. For that reason, she calls it propaganda as well. Its just being closed minded.