The Myths of Meat … an Introduction
“ Awareness is bad for the meat business . Conscience is bad for the meat business . Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business . Denial , however , the meat business finds indispensable .” ~ John Robbins
I was recently languishing in a bit of a quandary : It seemed that every time I engaged others in open & honest discussion about the basic merits of veganism ( or the innate injustices of the meat & milk industry , or even the general “ rightness ” of animal rights , or the patent “ wrongness ” of animal cruelty ); almost every time I finished making a particularly salient point , my meat-eating &/ or dairy-imbibing " opponent " would simply ignore my previous statements and change the subject …
" But I need to eat meat to be healthy ", he would say ... so I would calmly show that we humans most certainly don ' t …
" But we humans are omnivores ; we are designed to eat meat ", she would often counter ... so I would explain gently that we most certainly are not …
" But I need to eat meat to get my protein ", he or she would then offer , changing the subject once again ... so once again , I would slowly & clearly explain why that position too is not at all correct .
And on & on & on this “ dance ” would continue – mostly for a only few minutes ; sometimes for a few hours – until at some point my discussion partner would make one final new argument ; shoot out one final meat-eating myth – and then hastily depart before I could respond .
And this “ hit & run ” dynamic happened not only a few times , but repeated itself over & over & over again – resulting in me earnestly chatting with people for hours & hours while never seeming to have any real exchange of information . And this was mostly because there are simply so many distracting arguments out there ; so many popular myths in support of the meat & milk industry that it was too easy for folks to keep hopping from one to the other ; hoping while they did so that they would land on one that would somehow justify their continued support for a practice that is patently inhumane , undeniably unnecessary & per se cruel .
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