Does it happen?

[Mateo3112]

Does it really happen that vegans and vegeterians always try to push their ideologies into other people? I'm a vegeterian, and i've never really started a conversation about why i eat what i eat. In fact, it often happens the other way around, there'll be times when i'm just talking about what i'll be when i grow older, and people will just ask me out of nowhere "Why don't you eat meat?", and it kinda bothers me. They even try to prove to me i'm wrong, and it gets pretty irritating. a few days ago some friends asked me if i wanted to go for a hamburger with them and i said "No thanks.", but another one of my friends said "He's vegeterian.", and i was like "Dude, WTF?". It's like they beg for me to talk about it, and yet, in every tv show i see; vegans and vegeterians are pictured as people who will force the topic whenever they get the chance in order to push their opinions and ideologies into others. I know in tv shows it's more of a humorous stereotype, but it's still there. For example, there's this tv show called "How i met your mother", i don't know if you've watched it, but it's a pretty good show. Anyway, there's an episode where the protagonist has a girlfriend that gets invited with him to a meeting and the friends of the protagonist offer her meat and she says "No thanks, i'm a vegan", and after a while she out of nothing shouts "EATING MEAT IS MURDER!" and runs away. So, as i said, in tv shows the stereotypes are intended for comedy, i can ignore that. BUT! when i go to youtube, the comment section is full of how vegans/vegeterians are always whining and pushing their beliefs. I know to some extent it has to be true, i mean, the stereotype is there for some reason, but i just don't think it is always the case.
So my question is: Does it happen very often?

[Cirion Spellbinder]

Probably not. I try to not push the topic unless it compliments what is being discussed. People just love their stereotypes! It is very much like when a theist says "athests r evul cuz they wership stlin and satan111!1," except that its about vegans.

[knot]

The reason vegans are thought of as pushy is entirely due to the cognitive bias of meat-eaters.

Whenever vegans mention anything related to veganism, it will be stored very clearly in the the memory of a meat-eater because it contradicts everything they know to be true

What these people don't realize is that the whole culture of carnism is many times more pushy. Just think of all the commercials for animal products, the "education" kids get on nutrition from school, stories linking meat-eating and masculinity, pressure from peers to conform to societal norms, etc. All that crap is invisible to meat-eaters because they don't know of any other narrative, but I think this irrational, pushy culture of carnism is very clear to people who don't eat meat

[Fluttershy]

Sometimes I talk with some people about what it is to be vegan and everything. I would never force anyone but since it's the total opposite of what they think they can feel forced because they realize what they do and most of the time they just find an excuse to eat meat like "animals eat other animals", "we are at the top of the food chain", "we don't get enough proteins", "plants have feeling too", etc. I heard all of them. If you say for example "If you go vegan you save the planet" but they care about the planet and they don't want to be vegan I guess they would feel "forced".

[Mateo3112]

Sometimes I talk with some people about what it is to be vegan and everything. I would never force anyone but since it's the total opposite of what they think they can feel forced because they realize what they do and most of the time they just find an excuse to eat meat like "animals eat other animals", "we are at the top of the food chain", "we don't get enough proteins", "plants have feeling too", etc. I heard all of them. If you say for example "If you go vegan you save the planet" but they care about the planet and they don't want to be vegan I guess they would feel "forced".

Funny story: I was disscusing with some mates about vegeterianism and one of them said that it didn't matter what you ate, life's would be lost. His argument was that plants too had lives. To which i replied with:
1- Plants, unlike animals, are not sentient beings.
2- When being a vegeterian or vegan, i still contribute more to the ecosystem than a meat eater does. The animals you eat have to drink water and eat vegetables, so if you support eating meat, you're actually wasting more lives than i do. No matter how you see it, vegans and vegeterians still waste not as many lives as a meat eater does.
A weird silence filled the room we were dabating on.
And that was the first time they stopped talking about my change to vegeterianism, they haven't forced the disscusion since then xD