Vegetarians - how much would you press your views on someone else?

Its not relevant. Sure, we may have had to hunt to survive, but that was when our diet consisted of very infrequent meals of high fat, high protein meat. But then we also used to kill each others children and live in caves, i dont see you living in animal furs drawing on cave walls in clay and refusing all modern inventions. Weve just transcended the need now, if you want to keep eating it fair play to you, enjoy it. Just not everyone feels that they should if they dont need to.

For non-veggies: There is a thread here that has been created for if you want to discuss how far a veggie could impose their views on you before you were unhappy about it.
I'm specifically interested in how vegetarians feel, so if you want to discuss the issue from the meat-eating perspective then I'd appreciate it happening outside of this thread. Thanks

For mods: I've put this in General Discussion rather than Food & Drink because I'm more interested in moral/social issues than I am in recipes etc.. Please move it if it belongs better elsewhere though

Back to the question...
I'm assuming there is a moral factor in your decision to be vegetarian, as I'm specifically interested in this aspect. I know vegetarianism is an individual choice but if I saw someone actively hurting an animal then I'd probably intervene, and I'm interested on how strong that urge is for you in 'smaller' instances (specifically other people eating meat). I'm interested in how far you'd go in telling people facts, telling them your personal reactions to those facts, if you'd tell them what you think they should do, if you'd tell them what they definitely should do and if you'd actively force them to do that - if someone was beating a cat in the middle of the street, I'd probably want to take one of the last two options. If they were just eating a burger then I'd probably not do anything.
Obviously it depends on who the other person is. I'm most interested in how you feel about friends/family/colleagues.
What's motivated me to ask this is eggs. I know caged eggs are cheaper and that the rest of my family eats a lot of them. The 'OMG poor chickens' part of me wants to tell my family how bad caged eggs are, and to switch to a kinder type, and if that's too expensive, then just eat fewer eggs. The 'but this is my family' part of me wonders if it's any of my business and doesn't want to hurt or upset them. They respect that I'm vegetarian so I should probably reciprocate and respect their diet choices... but I know their diet is causing unnecessary suffering. It's a situation where I can't easily see what the 'right' thing to do is, which intrigued me.

Its not relevant. Sure, we may have had to hunt to survive, but that was when our diet consisted of very infrequent meals of high fat, high protein meat. But then we also used to kill each others children and live in caves, i dont see you living in animal furs drawing on cave walls in clay and refusing all modern inventions. Weve just transcended the need now, if you want to keep eating it fair play to you, enjoy it. Just not everyone feels that they should if they dont need to.

I've only recently become veggie. I used to be one of those self-absorbed carnivores who was convinced that eating meat was totally justifiable because it's "natural". I enjoyed it and hated people who preached at me about my "sinnful" or "immoral" behavior.

Since converting, I've totally changed my tune. I think it is a ridiculous double standard to care about animals and hate them being abused and hurt and yet still eat mean that has been produced in commercial abatoirs and where the animals have been kept in the industrial-scale farms that supermarkets are contracted with.

My vegetarianism isn't so much about whether or not we have the right to kill animals - it's more about how the animals live and die.

If people care about the suffering of animals and about their quality of life, then eating meat is very often a direct contradiction. There is "ethical" meat - animals that have been kept in a natural manner, killed very quickly and lived a healthy life in a suitable environment with their social needs met - but it's expensive and hard to find. Even "free range" is a farce in many cases.

Given that I feel that caring for the environment and animals is a moral imperative, I believe that telling people about my diet and asking them to consider their own ethics I am doing the equivalent of directly helping animals in distress. Would most people just walk on if they saw someone beating their dog or dumping kittens in a river? No? So why do we walk on when animals are kept in cramped conditions, shipped live across entire countries to face a botched death?

I don't preach to people because the double standard is so engrained in society that subjects such as abortion, vegetarianism and religion are seen as taboo. If you try to convince people of the moral imperatives involved, you are nothing more than a self-righteous twit who needs to stfu. I know that trying to convince friends and family will just make them less likely to see things in the same way as me.

I used to have very, very little time for preachers, pro-lifers and "ethical" veggies/vegans. Now I realise that they see their way as life and views as not a matter of choice but as a matter of morality. Do we argue with people who say murder or child abuse is immoral? But somehow when someone feels equally strongly about something else they're just being preachy and annoying.

I'm not a pro-lifer - I've actualy become a lot more liberal about abortion - and I'm not religious. But now I make an effort to understand these people and talk to them on a human level since I now know what it is like to strongly believe something and have people see you as a snob and intolerant because of it.

To cut a long story short - not all choices are made equal. The choice between this CD or that CD, this dress or that dress, this film or that film - they are matters of taste nd personal judgement. They have little or no moral dimension. However, some choices are literally matters of life, suffering and death. I don't think there is any shame in trying to save a few lives and convince others to do the same and that is literally what it comes down to, saving lives.

I really liked your post and i completely feel the same way as you do about the life and death of Animals. Have you ever seen PETA'S 'meet your meat' video? (DONT watch it isf your sensitive to gore, its really heartbreaking) and it makes you realise how bad it can get. Not saying all places are like this and you can get ethical meat, but i just prefer not eating it now

Surely eating meat can be cheaper so for poorer families its the better lifestyle choice.

In what way is meat cheaper than eggs, lentils or beans? Have you ever shopped for yourself?