Ok, so not many of you know me directly, although a few do, so hello, ya`ll. This thread is related to the whole bacon-vegetarian-juvinile pissing contest that is going on elsewhere. I`m not going to directly go into that bit because mostly I think Kaycee`s original point (which was "Meat eaters freak out for some reason when confronted with vegetarian ideals" or something akin to that) was proven perfectly . I don`t know the true answer to her question and neither do you, so save your breath. However, I do think her point was proven by the fact that several vegatarians made points backed up by information and all the posts by meat eaters bascially involved pissing all over their arguments by using cliche stereotypes of vegetarians (which, by the way, I am not).
The really disturbing thing that I found while reading those posts is the narrow mindedness of so many otherwise liberal people. I suppose I am assuming that many of you are liberal, but bear with me. I was astounded that so many people would be oblivious to how similar their arguments were to those of right wing fanatics. Seriously, while reading the posts my eyes began to glaze over and the words "vegetarianism" began to look a lot like the word "homosexuality". Basically, the same arguments that were made on the board are the same arguments shitheads use when dealing with gays and other minorities. "It`s natural/we're designed to eat meat (or make love to the opposite sex)" , or the indication that "Vegetaians/gays are cool, but they really piss me off when they start talking about the emotions of animals (or enter a loving union between two people of the same sex under the law)." or " I like meat/women but I don`t need to see pictures of the slaughterhouse (or Mapplethorpe pictures or diagrams on how to have anal sex)". I am aware that these analogies aren't perfect in every respect but I am trying to highlight and illustrate how easy it can be for us to become what we hate, so to speak. It becomes very scary when we, whom I assume to be clever, rational people, begin to assign our own rules for what is natural, get uncomfortable when we bring emotions and feelings into an issue, or when we become so nieve and isolated from the real world that pictures of dead animals unnerve us.
This last point in particular is worth going into a bit. The pictures that started the entire discussion were completely true, journalistic pictures. That there is even talk about "vegetarian shock tactics" and their effectivness in regards to pictures like those is pretty fucking stupid. When confronted with a true image of pain and suffering I would like to think that most people would asses the relationship between the picture and themselves. In a perfect world everyone would also take responsability and act on that assesment. My point is this- there is no "shock" to pictures like these aside from how shocking the truth may be. These pictures aren't a crucifix in a jar of piss.
As an example, graphic images from Iraq rarely make the mainstream media largely because many people find them disturbing. If they did, be assurd that a bunch of assholes would cry "shock tactics" from the "liberal" media. Probably we should have pictures of burned Iraqi babies in the newspaper everyday. Of course, we should disturb the fuck out of people, afterall, our relationship with Iraqi victims is pretty tight seeing as how its our country doing the killing. For meat eaters the relationship between their actions and the suffering those actions inflict (and please don't be retarded enough to think the animals aren't suffering) is even closer.
In a nutshell, I'm saying that if we want to improve anything on this planet then we need to witness and experience as much as we can, in this case, whether it is killing the animal oursleves or seeing how those people we pay to do the dirty work are handling their responsability. Then asses how we feel and if we should change or not and then repeat it all over again. Of course, this includes not only diet but our relationship with the environment, other races, and damn near anything, really.
So you like eating meat? Fair enough, but remember there are plenty of people out there who like SUVs and rubber and don't care how many "sand niggers" suffer as long as the lifestyle we enjoy doesn't end. And that's what most problems are really about, isn't it? Balancing a lifestyle we enjoy with the suffering of other creatures. Let's not pretend otherwise. We're all assholes here, right? Admittedly, it is a sad situation that we are all aware of and that most of us try very hard to improve but, no matter how you cut it, eating meat is paying someone to inflict pain on another creature. Unlike war, there is practically no middleman in this situation. Its a hard pill to swallow but that is the basic fact. If it makes you feel bad, sorry. I'm as guilty as you, but I certainly don't feel obligated to bask in the suffering as many of you seem to do. I always wondered what it would take to turn a bunch of supposedly open minded, free thinking people into complete rednecks. I think I was just shown.
I've been inspired by a couple of things to revisit my high school interest in the outlaws of the old west. I'm really excited. I ordered a bunch of books off of half.com and I keep checking to see if they've been sent yet.
For as long as I can remember I've been really into the whole gun-slinging, horse riding western idea. Seriously, since a very young age. When I was thirteen I wrote an entire historical fiction novel on it.
When I was a junior in high school, my ap history teacher asked us all to go to the library and pick out a book on a person from America's history so we could read it and do a review on it and the subject matter. I enthusiastically went to the library with my mom and picked up biographies of Butch Cassidy, Jesse James and because my mom insisted, Sam Houston as a safety. When I presented my books in the order of interest, my teacher rejected all but Sam Houston. I asked why and she said, "because the outlaws were part of a brief and romantic period of american history". I didn't think this was a good enough argument at all. I was really dissapointed. So at lunch I found every person I could that had this teacher during another period and gave them little notes that said things like "Outlaws are people too!" and "Don't deny the existence of Jesse James!" and passed them out to people and told them just to give them to her sometime during class. I also began collecting signatures on a petition stating that I should be able to cover an outlaw as a noted figure in American history. Once I had over 100 signatures, I gave that to another student to give to the teacher. My whole protest took about a week. It was much talked of. I sat in class silently and took notes without mentioning anything and recieved reports that either she laughed when recieving the notes or was getting annoyed or some such. Anyway, that Friday during class, she walked by my desk and placed the petition on it as she passed. She had written on it, "You are very stubborn. You must give your parents fits. Okay, Jesse James." And I was all triumphant and pleased.
Anyway, I told Jeremy that story over dinner on Sunday and he started asking me questions about various outlaws and I realized that I'm still really interested in this and I ordered all these books and I'm really excited and I wanted to share.
I filled up yesterday, but was with Mom when she wanted to top off her tank. We passed one house that had its windows boarded up, but we are sort of in a weird position here. There are mandatory evacuations in the parish below us, Cameron, and in the south of our parish, Calcasieu because they are on other water sources. Otherwise we are on Hurricane Watch and are advised to keep supplies for five days in case the power is out that long. Temperatures have been a record high this week. How can you really say, don't evacuate, but there will be scorching heat and no power for five days, maybe? Dude, mom booked a hotel room in Mississippi, and is making us all pack a bag to leave in the AM if it really moves closer towards us. Dave is in Houston, and I am sure he has mentioned in other pages what he is going to do. Dude, Dave, what's up? Be safe! I mean, nothing could really happen, but the words, category five, are sort of like, "click," ROLL. Except!!! my dad has to stay no matter what which is NOT cool with me, and we have five dogs which are also staying because dad is staying. He is a pathologist and has to stay for work and I understand, but that's MY dad. You can't replace MY dad. I have suddenly had this chip on my shoulder and started to insist that I am going to stay home and man the fort. Do you realize how insane this is that I am thinking this? I just want to punch that hurricane in the face. It's like the same feeling I get when killing a roach...die motherfucker, you cannot live in this house, this is my house! even though i really feel sorry for the roach.
