Vegetarianism and Veganism.

I can only see this being a respectable option if:

(1) It's due to religious reasons.
(2) It's for your health e.g. you need to follow a specific diet for health concerns

It's a good thing the first vegan and vegetarian I met were cool people, not at all preachy about their diet. The vegan was a vegan because her mom raised her that way. The vegetarian grew up eating meat but stopped because she realized she didn't like the look of cooked meat, that the brown coloring was just off putting. Fair enough.

After the meeting of the third vegetarian things went downhill and I became suspicious of the movement. The third was my sociology professor who, during his MSW internship, was preparing food for an after-school program and was disgusted by the meat sandwiches he had to make. Meh. His move to not eating meat was more of a moral choice, but as with most secular moralizing I'm usually never persuaded. As with most things secular urging to do "the right thing" it's just creating a moral philosophy out of indignation (my atheist English high teacher said this about religion, but he was actually a cool guy and was nice about it).

The rest of the non-meaters? Cult like. Moral reasons. How about health reasons? That was on the bottom of their list. 

Many will point to the popular, if somewhat obscure (not a contradiction), China Study. I say it's popular because it's widely known by those who advocate for a non-meat diet; usually in such circles it's a common source to use.

I don't buy the "sentient animal" talk. I truly don't. I believe it's the abuse of the narrative of Enlightenment. Of course there's Food Inc., but I also don't give a damn about that because as long as my ground meat is fresh I don't really care if the cow was slaughtered like Olivia in Scream 4 (a straight-out horrible death). I feel morally sick when humans are killed given the circumstance. For example I don't get morally indignant when humans are killed during war. Why? Because it's war. War is complex. I do get get sad and upset when I hear stories of innocent lives being caught in crossfire in gang territories. But animals? Unless it's some psycho chopping up dogs for fun or Peter Wiggin skinning squirrels my heartache for animals being slaughtered for food is near nonexistent. Sure, kill them humanely, don't inject them with hormones and treat the cows to a beer diet, but don't tell me they're "sentient animals" equal to humans. That guilt trip just doesn't work me - I'm immune to it.

Did I cry when the horses were shot in Atonement? I was a little taken aback, but no. I felt sorrow for Cecelia and Robbie. I thought Briony was a sympathetic little bitch.