Philosophical Vegan Forum

So, a few posts ago, EquALLity suggested that I asked my younger brother about what the difference between a pig and a dog. I honestly didn't expect any form of intelligent answer from him, seeing as he is incredibly uneducated on the matter. Anyway, he went on about how dogs are better than pigs. To which I replied, "Yeah, tell that to China." So, anyway, his final answer was "It' OK to eat pigs because society 'n' stuff." Yeah. Great.

Anyway, regarding my family, I genuinely think it's impossible for me to adopt a meat-free diet while I live in this house. "Our roof our rules" and that fun stuff. My family either don't know, don't care or (most likely) just in denial about the adverse effects of an animal-product based diet on just about everything. My older brother, who will be doing medicine next year, still thinks that meat is the "holy grail" of protein and thinks that ABSOLUTELY NO other food contains all the essential amino acids. As for my mum, she's been quite quiet about my desire to be vegan; yet still insists that I have no choice but to eat meat in this house. Which, unfortunately, is true. (Just to clarify, she isn't abusive and neither is my dad. They're just both dangerously uneducated) "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

HyperSquirrel wrote:Anyway, he went on about how dogs are better than pigs. To which I replied, "Yeah, tell that to China." So, anyway, his final answer was "It' OK to eat pigs because society 'n' stuff." Yeah. Great.

If he was brought up in a culture where dogs were food, and pigs were pets, I think his answer would be a little different.

Because society, really? So is anything society says moral automatically moral? What about when slavery was accepted in society?
But then, if you mention slavery, even though you're not equating slavery and animal abuse (just giving an example of something obviously wrong that was once acceptable in society to show why society =/= arbiter of morality), heads will explode.

"Oh my god!!!1!11 How dare you compare human and animal suffering!11!!!11!!1! Analogy, what!? Lalalalala I'm not listening!!!!!"

Jesus, your family is really thick. I don't know... maybe ask your brother if he thinks it's ok for China to eat dogs, because that's apart of their society?
And I'd suggest trying to be really calm whenever you discuss this stuff with them, because I get the sense that your family isn't very rational, and making them angry would probably make their reasoning skills worse. You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar!

HyperSquirrel wrote:My older brother, who will be doing medicine next year, still thinks that meat is the "holy grail" of protein and thinks that ABSOLUTELY NO other food contains all the essential amino acids.

How does he think vegetarians are even alive?

HyperSquirrel wrote:As for my mum, she's been quite quiet about my desire to be vegan; yet still insists that I have no choice but to eat meat in this house. Which, unfortunately, is true.

If that's the case, you could just be vegan whenever possible (like when eating out).

I'm not really sure what you should do about your parents.
"My house, my rules." So closed-minded. You could say something about how you truly believe that you're doing the right thing (and you are) by trying to not eat meat etc., and that your parents should want you to be your own person and have principles. But it sounds like, no, they don't want that. And I'm not really sure how you solve that.

Hm... Maybe try to have a heart to heart with your mom?

Maybe someone else has a better solution.