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a vegan driven to 'extremism' by carnies!

4K views 30 replies 22 participants last post by  Helen_Back 
#1 ·
I've been vegan since '96. To keep the peace and as a courtesy to the host/hostess in a family dominated by deeply religious, far-right-wing, enthusiastic, dedicated carnies, I used to have a little meat at holiday meals (Thanksgiving, Christmas). Unfortunately, a few members of my family used to greatly enjoy publicly pointing out the supposed-vegan eating meat.

After last Thanksgiving, I finally decided that I had had enough and vowed that I would never again be a 'courteous' guest. I brought some black-eyed peas to Christmas dinner last night rather than eat a little of the turkey. The cousin/host who had enjoyed taunting me in the past looked like I had punched him in the stomach when I said that I had brought my own dish - poor guy (raised in a small, rural, Missouri town, where xenophobia and all types of intolerance flourish).

So the lesson to all carnies who might be reading this post: back off!!
 
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#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by RWF2 View Post

I've been vegan since '96. To keep the peace and as a courtesy to the host/hostess in a family dominated by deeply religious, far-right-wing, enthusiastic, dedicated carnies, I used to have a little meat at holiday meals (Thanksgiving, Christmas). Unfortunately, a few members of my family used to greatly enjoy publicly pointing out the supposed-vegan eating meat.

After last Thanksgiving, I finally decided that I had had enough and vowed that I would never again be a 'courteous' guest. I brought some black-eyed peas to Christmas dinner last night rather than eat a little of the turkey. The cousin/host who had enjoyed taunting me in the past looked like I had punched him in the stomach when I said that I had brought my own dish - poor guy (raised in a small, rural, Missouri town, where xenophobia and all types of intolerance flourish).

So the lesson to all carnies who might be reading this post: back off!!
Sorry but I've got to agree with your family there. I don't blame them one bit for pointing it out. Do you seriously find it "extreme" to simply say "no thank you" to meat and bring your own dish?
 
#5 ·
If they are very religious no problem, just speak about the bible ( since you speak about right wing i guess it's likely this religion )

There is quiet a lot of interesting quotes, such as

you shall not kill, wich is pretty easy to understand, is it not?

Isaiah 65:25
"The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither hunt nor destroy on all my holy mountain,"
This is supposed to be the better times, the heaven on eart thing. Why not try our best to have heaven on earth now rather than waiting?

Man received dominion over animals, but also over his chlidren. Do you eat your children? Dominion is autorithy, not oh you will be my breakfast.

Jesus was a member of the Nazarene Essenes, who were vegetarians ( no, jesus wasn't a catholic or a protestant lol ). There is a lot of things saying that he was vegetarian in the apocryphes especially, and as you know the only diffference betwee, the apocryphes and the bible is a concil wich separated them because of a lot of contradictions in order to unify the church by majority.

Daniel 1:11-16
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over him: "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their meat and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

All the fish story can be translated from the greek by "fish weed" (a dried seaweed )

Most of the word meat is misused, it means food or nourrishment, John (4.8) it states: "For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat." The word meat was taken from the Greek word trophe, which actually means nourishment. This is exactly the same case in Acts (9.19): "And when he had received meat, he was strengthened." When translated accurately it means that by receiving nourishment, he felt stronger.

In Luke (8.55) we find, "And her spirit came again and she arose straightaway: and he (Jesus) commanded to give her meat." The word meat in this case was translated from the Greek word phago, which translated correctly simply means to eat.

It makes this quote very interesting In Romans (14.20-21) the verses are: "For meat destroy not the word of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." The word for meat here is broma, which again is a general word that means foods, and the word for flesh is kreas, which does mean flesh. Therefore, this verse is another that is not necessarily supportive of eating meat, but makes it clear that flesh eating is unacceptable.

And this one If the Bible explains that eating meat is wrong, then what is the proper thing to eat? Genesis (1.29) clearly states: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." This makes it quite obvious that the recommended food for human beings is herbs, seeds, grains, and fruits.

But my favorite quote is from Mohammad, when he says something like do not transform your body into cemetaries.

And serisouly, how can one speak about a god of love and compassion, and have a complete lack of love and compassion towards the weak ? you should explain them what they do to animals...

There is plenty of good stuff, in every religion, ( they actually all have more in common than they have differences ), google is your friend. There are even associations of christians vegetarians and things like that. Should give yyou something to speak about at your next dinner.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegan cyberpunk View Post

If they are very religious no problem, just speak about the bible...
This confrontational approach would likely backfire, big-time. Already well-hardened minds would just become more rock solid.


However, it's shocking to realize that by trying to be 'courteous' all of these years it's possible that I've been unintentionally sending the wrong message to my family members. I have always just assumed that they knew that I was eating meat at holiday dinners just to get along. What if instead they perceived me as giving in to the supposedly irresistible temptations of meat and dairy? What if I was unwittingly perpetuating the myth that vegans sacrifice gustatory pleasure for the sake of wacky notions regarding animal rights, personal health, the environment, etc.? If this is true, then I should have abandoned the 'just get along' strategy a long time ago.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by RWF2 View Post

However, it's shocking to realize that by trying to be 'courteous' all of these years it's possible that I've been unintentionally sending the wrong message to my family members.
Yes, you have. You need to stick to what you believe is right, just like they, and most other people do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RWF2 View Post

I have always just assumed that they knew that I was eating meat at holiday dinners just to get along.
That is a very bad thing to do (vegans really shouldn't be doing that). Imagine a Muslim who sometimes eats pigs meat; it's just not done.

Do what you feel is right, and if people don't agree with that, then it's their problem.
 
#12 ·
It's not shocking that by trying to be 'courteous' all of these years you've unintentionally been sending the wrong message to your family members. By assuming that they thought that you were eating meat at holiday dinners just to get along, you've been sending the wrong message. Instead, they perceived you as giving in to the supposedly irresistible temptations of meat and dairy. You were unwittingly perpetuating the myth that vegans sacrifice gustatory pleasure for the sake of wacky notions regarding animal rights, personal health, the environment, etc. This being true, you should have abandoned the 'just get along' strategy a long time ago.

Victimizing yourself never wins any battles
 
#13 ·
being a doormat with the idea that people will be appreciative or respect you more for it is a terrible idea and will never work with *******s. If you're doing this in other areas of your life you'd best stop it. It will only make most people respect you less.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fadeaway1289 View Post

Sorry but I've got to agree with your family there. I don't blame them one bit for pointing it out. Do you seriously find it "extreme" to simply say "no thank you" to meat and bring your own dish?
I agree with this, I'm afraid. I'd find it strange if a veg friend of mine told me they ate meat when they were at guests' houses.
 
#17 ·
If I were the OP, I'd tell my family to f*** off. I don't need to withold or restrain my beliefs so they don't feel uncomfortable. I wouldn't find it okay to be racist or sexist for just a little bit so others don't get uneasy. Then again, I don't feel the same way about my family as most people do.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegan cyberpunk View Post

If they are very religious no problem, just speak about the bible ( since you speak about right wing i guess it's likely this religion )

There is quiet a lot of interesting quotes, such as

you shall not kill, wich is pretty easy to understand, is it not?

Isaiah 65:25
"The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither hunt nor destroy on all my holy mountain,"
This is supposed to be the better times, the heaven on eart thing. Why not try our best to have heaven on earth now rather than waiting?

Man received dominion over animals, but also over his chlidren. Do you eat your children? Dominion is autorithy, not oh you will be my breakfast.

Jesus was a member of the Nazarene Essenes, who were vegetarians ( no, jesus wasn't a catholic or a protestant lol ). There is a lot of things saying that he was vegetarian in the apocryphes especially, and as you know the only diffference betwee, the apocryphes and the bible is a concil wich separated them because of a lot of contradictions in order to unify the church by majority.

Daniel 1:11-16
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over him: "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their meat and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

All the fish story can be translated from the greek by "fish weed" (a dried seaweed )

Most of the word meat is misused, it means food or nourrishment, John (4.8) it states: "For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat." The word meat was taken from the Greek word trophe, which actually means nourishment. This is exactly the same case in Acts (9.19): "And when he had received meat, he was strengthened." When translated accurately it means that by receiving nourishment, he felt stronger.

In Luke (8.55) we find, "And her spirit came again and she arose straightaway: and he (Jesus) commanded to give her meat." The word meat in this case was translated from the Greek word phago, which translated correctly simply means to eat.

It makes this quote very interesting In Romans (14.20-21) the verses are: "For meat destroy not the word of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." The word for meat here is broma, which again is a general word that means foods, and the word for flesh is kreas, which does mean flesh. Therefore, this verse is another that is not necessarily supportive of eating meat, but makes it clear that flesh eating is unacceptable.

And this one If the Bible explains that eating meat is wrong, then what is the proper thing to eat? Genesis (1.29) clearly states: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." This makes it quite obvious that the recommended food for human beings is herbs, seeds, grains, and fruits.

But my favorite quote is from Mohammad, when he says something like do not transform your body into cemetaries.

And serisouly, how can one speak about a god of love and compassion, and have a complete lack of love and compassion towards the weak ? you should explain them what they do to animals...

There is plenty of good stuff, in every religion, ( they actually all have more in common than they have differences ), google is your friend. There are even associations of christians vegetarians and things like that. Should give yyou something to speak about at your next dinner.
Thank you SOSOSOSOSO much for this! I really needed a way to counteract the "God gave us animals to eat" argument!! It's sad how so many people will twist around words, in the bible and from other works of literature/people, to justify themselves...
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Green_Gentleman View Post

If I were the OP, I'd tell my family to f*** off. I don't need to withold or restrain my beliefs so they don't feel uncomfortable. I wouldn't find it okay to be racist or sexist for just a little bit so others don't get uneasy. Then again, I don't feel the same way about my family as most people do.
Agreed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Irizary View Post

being a doormat with the idea that people will be appreciative or respect you more for it is a terrible idea and will never work with *******s. If you're doing this in other areas of your life you'd best stop it. It will only make most people respect you less.
Exactly. How can you expect someone to respect you when you go back on your beliefs? I'm sure they have zero respect for vegetarians/vegans in general because you are putting forth a hypocritical image of them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whisper View Post

No doubt this is what you have been doing, as well as showing them they can bully others into doing what they want.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sequoia View Post

And all this time I was under the impression that carnies were only trying to swindle me by rigging the ball toss...
Fo show! I was reading the title thinking "what could these carnival people have done to cause this guy so much anguish?" And then I was like "a family of deeply religious, fundamentalist carnival people?!"
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Green_Gentleman View Post

If I were the OP, I'd tell my family to f*** off. I don't need to withold or restrain my beliefs so they don't feel uncomfortable. I wouldn't find it okay to be racist or sexist for just a little bit so others don't get uneasy. Then again, I don't feel the same way about my family as most people do.
We need more of you on this pale blue dot.
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fadeaway View Post

Exactly. How can you expect someone to respect you when you go back on your beliefs? I'm sure they have zero respect for vegetarians/vegans in general because you are putting forth a hypocritical image of them.
Oh, they might "respect" vegans who stand for their principles, even if they hate them. But they don't respect the OP when s/he shows s/he can be blown about by the wind. I have a close family member who is easily used by others, in order to avoid conflict. When people use him, they like him, but he can't be trusted or respected because he'll tell you what you want to hear just to avoid conflict. I don't think he's a good person, although he acts with the guise of niceness. Really it's just weakness. (My family member, I don't know about the OP).
 
#25 ·
Yeah I see your point, it's just, IMO, it's hard to feel sorry for someone when the rest of us put up with crap from our friends and family and still stood by our beliefs.

No matter what you believe in, stand by it, otherwise what's the point? But like I said, glad OP finally made the choice.
 
#26 ·
Good for you for standing up for what you believe in! It's easy enough for us to say you should have done it sooner, but none of us can know what it's like to be you. I know how hard it can be when you want to avoid conflict but you also want to be true to your ethics.

The hardest part is the first step. When people realize you are firm in your choices, it won't be as much of a struggle.
 
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