The secret is out: vegetarians are ‘tougher’ and more ‘power-hungry’ than meat eaters, according to a study in the Times this morning. Well, as a vegan I suppose I must be even tougher and more megalomaniacal. I’m surprised, then, to not find myself doing a whole lot of street brawling or holding any subterranean meetings to discuss how I’ll overthrow Keir Starmer with my bare hands.
I was actually as surprised as anyone by the findings. Not because I subscribe to the caricature of veggies as gentle, pathetic creatures, but because my experience of vegetarians and vegans is that we are a bit less impressed with clout and power than most people. We’ve seen the horrors that mankind’s dominion over animals has led to in factory farms, slaughterhouses, laboratories and on racing tracks, and we’ve understood viscerally that might is often not right.
Ironically, the meat eaters who lash out at vegans and vegetarians might be the most similar to us
But one of the study’s findings today did ring true. Professor John Nezlek of SWPS University in Warsaw, who led the research, said he suspects the conclusions reflect how vegetarians in western societies have historically felt like a ‘besieged minority’. Noting other studies which show that vegetarians and vegans get much more negative feedback about their lifestyle choices than meat eaters, he said that:
If you look at it through that lens, it starts to make sense: to maintain a vegetarian diet, a certain psychological toughness might be required.
It’s true that when you stop eating meat, you can face a breathtaking avalanche of defence mechanisms, weird questions, pseudoscience and outright antagonism from some meat eaters. Yes, some vegans can be annoying too, but I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve sat at a dinner table with meat eaters and they’ve been rattled by the fact I don’t eat meat – even if I’ve said not a word about my lifestyle as I quietly tuck into my bean burger.
Everyone says they’re against cruelty to animals but meat eaters pay people to be cruel to animals. So I think the mere presence of someone who’s thought sincerely about animal cruelty makes others want to talk about their own take and try to justify their own actions, even if nothing has been asked of them.
Vegans and veggies generally understand that the root of this is guilt. People at ease with their choice to eat meat aren’t even momentarily bothered by veganism. Why would they be? But those less at peace will be triggered and lash out, just like people who are insecure with their own sexuality can’t help but be nasty to gay people.
So ironically, the meat eaters who lash out at vegans and vegetarians might be the most similar to us. Except that where we deal with our horror at animal slaughter by giving up meat, they deal with theirs by shrieking at us for reminding them that they haven’t quite resolved how they feel about eating animals.
Well may they shriek. More than 92 billion land animals are killed each year for their meat, usually at a minuscule fraction of their natural lifespan. Around 85 per cent of the UK’s farmed animals endure their short lives in industrial factory farms.
It has become increasingly fashionable to pretend that all opinions and positions are equal, but I’d argue that the obvious, if inconvenient, truth is that paying people to enslave, mutilate and kill animals is a less moral lifestyle than not paying people to enslave, mutilate and kill animals.
I suppose that putting up with people’s defence mechanisms about all this does give vegans and veggies a certain strength, but I’m still not quite buying the study’s conclusions. There’s no more systematic wielding of power on the planet than chaining animals up in factory farms and then dragging them to a slaughterhouse to put a bolt in their head or a knife across their throat as they tremble and cry out. Vegans and vegetarians are the only ones who reject that power.
Having said that, overthrowing Keir Starmer sounds like a very good idea to me, as I’m sure it will to many readers of this magazine. So perhaps if enough of us give up meat, we’ll be able to have him out by Christmas?
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