“The inferior “others” have often been our own kind — Jews, African slaves, Aboriginals, American Indians, women and gays, to name a few.”

[Note: The title of this blog was extracted from the article: http://freefromharm.org/food-and-culture/dealing-with-carnistic-defenses-all-this-talk-about-animals-is-making-me-hungry-for-a-juicy-steak/

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Quite often I will run up against some block-head who will make a snide remark about my being a vegan or veganism in general. Comments are either made to my face, my blog or another blogger’s site that I have made comments to. Most of the time, I ignore the remarks because I know the person is trying to taunt me.  Feeding into their childish taunts doesn’t seem to make much sense. If I haven’t said it five times, I haven’t said it once, you cannot argue with stupid.  Besides, I think Forrest Gump said it best:  “Stupid is as stupid does.” 

And then today, I received the following article from from Free From Harm and learned there is a better way to handle such remarks.

Below is a snippet of the article that I received.  If you’d like to read the entire story, please click here:

 

Dealing with Carnistic Defenses: ‘All This Talk About Animals Is Making Me Hungry for a Juicy Steak!’

By Free From Harm Staff Writers | September 25, 2012 | Categories: Food and Culture

courtesy of Bizarro Comics, bizarro.com

Have you ever found yourself in a situation with someone who completely derails the discussion with a statement that goes something like this: “All this talk about animals is making me hungry for a steak!” or “All this talk about cows is making me crave a big hunk of cheese!”

Some of us would find this so off-putting, we would retaliate with something insulting and end the discussion then and there. But that’s actually the worst thing you could do. It’s exactly what these statements intend to do, that is, shut down the discussion. And their sincere passive-aggressive hope is that you will shut it down, leaving them with the last word.

So should you call their bluff?, ask them to admit to you and themselves that animals mean nothing more to them than a cheap piece of meat? Some would argue, it’s just not worth the energy to continue at this point. I completely disagree. It’s a golden opportunity to show the conviction you have in your beliefs and to point out to them what’s really behind such a statement. Because when they realize what’s behind it, I see them backpedalling.

Put aside your emotions for a moment and instead read between the lines at what someone is really telling you when they make such a statement and then find a creative way to respond that will take the higher ground and restore the discussion back to one that takes the interests of animals seriously.

http://freefromharm.org/food-and-culture/dealing-with-carnistic-defenses-all-this-talk-about-animals-is-making-me-hungry-for-a-juicy-steak/

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Yours truly,

GE