A response to preachy vegetarians

You know, for a time, I was contemplating a conversion to a vegetarian lifestyle — but I was worried that the consumption of an exclusively vegetarian diet might cause me to become smug and self-righteous.

Here's a (smug and self-righteous?) suggestion for all you preachy vegetarians out there with your Googled statistical factoids: Why don't you try doing something really difficult to make a difference in the world? We live in a world fairly brimming with suffering, injustice, war, death, privation, squalor, corruption, corporate malfeasance, economic inequality, overpopulation, etc.

Ever heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? The long and the short of it is that even those of us who really care about the world don't really care what you have to say on this subject so long as we have bigger fish to fry (mmm, fried fish). Irritating us meat-eaters isn't going to get any of us any closer to saving the world from the perils of global warming, or any other peril for that matter.

Nobody likes to be preached to about how wrong their own behavior is — but if you ever want to get together to complain about how wrong everybody else is, give me a call.

— Matt Rawlings
Weaverville

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