Can Meat Eaters be Easy to Offend?
- Thread starter Dizchu
- Start date
This. A million times this.FoolKiller said:
I sincerely don't care how every other single human being on the face of planet Earth lives their life so long as it doesn't infringe on other human beings' rights. It's all their business, and none of mine, as far as I'm concerned.
But by that same token, I expect to be extended the courtesy of being allowed to live mine as I see fit.
to build off this, I've seen very few vocal vegan/vegetarians in real life, but when they do, they actively attack "meat eaters", rather than attacking the meat + processing industry, and that's pretty much what causes someone to go from 0 to 60 pretty quickly when you're actively attacking them about what they eat.Parasondox said:
I personally have no problem with people attacking the meat/production industry, I'm sure there are plenty of things that could be done for it, but that's hardly what I usually see, even in studies revolving meat vs vegetarian lifestyle/diets.
otherwise I'd say meat eaters are mostly humanist, humans come first, animals come second...really not that hard to comprehend, even if you vehemently disagree with it.
Vast majority of people are meat eaters to some degree. The default state of diets around the world include some form of meat, thus it is not a signifying trait held. A difference to this trait signifies a group, where as the rest would be the remaining portion of the whole.
This is important to note, as it makes the question asked a very silly one. "can everyone who is not a vegan/vegetarian be easy to offend (with regard to eating/not eating meat)?" Sure some are I imagine, though literally some of every group or collective would be considered as such. The way the OP is worded though suggests it is more than just a simple "are there people easy to offend" and instead goes towards "aren't people who eat meat as easy to offend as vegans/vegitarians?" And that is a worthwhile question to ask I suppose, but one with a simple answer.
No, they aren't.
Now I could go into specific behaviors and reasons why vegans as an overall group might have earned the reputation of being easy to offend, and likely that would encourage a lot ofneedless bickering and political apologist ideologue-ing colorful discussion, but I don't think that is needed at this time.
Instead I merely refer back to the first point I raised. Meat eaters are the norm behavior of the vast majority. In order for them to be easy to offend about people not eating meat, it would require the norm behavior about those not eating meat to be one of being offended. The behavior not being the norm is the sole reason this thread itself exists as a discussion, since otherwise it would be stating the obvious, no? Pretty obvious then that no, it really is a far cry from normal for people who eat meat to be offended by those who don't.
So we established that the norm of those who eat meant is to not care if someone doesn't eat meat. Now ask yourself, how often do people who don't care if someone does eat meat? Considering there are organizations dedicated to stopping people from eating meat or changing people's minds about eating meat, I have to say that it is more common at least (I'll make no claims as to it being the norm of that subgroup of people, I do not have any way to measure that, but it does show an increase over the norm in the behavior of "being offended by someone who doesn't share the same perspective on eating meat"). It is more common for someone who doesn't eat meat to be offended by those who do than those who do eat to be offended by those who do not. I will say that the more common aspect might well be what has fueled the "you know who's a vegan" thing).
So there we have it, to answer the general question raised, no, meat eaters are not as easy to offend about people not eating meat as those who do not are about those who do.
This is important to note, as it makes the question asked a very silly one. "can everyone who is not a vegan/vegetarian be easy to offend (with regard to eating/not eating meat)?" Sure some are I imagine, though literally some of every group or collective would be considered as such. The way the OP is worded though suggests it is more than just a simple "are there people easy to offend" and instead goes towards "aren't people who eat meat as easy to offend as vegans/vegitarians?" And that is a worthwhile question to ask I suppose, but one with a simple answer.
No, they aren't.
Now I could go into specific behaviors and reasons why vegans as an overall group might have earned the reputation of being easy to offend, and likely that would encourage a lot of
Instead I merely refer back to the first point I raised. Meat eaters are the norm behavior of the vast majority. In order for them to be easy to offend about people not eating meat, it would require the norm behavior about those not eating meat to be one of being offended. The behavior not being the norm is the sole reason this thread itself exists as a discussion, since otherwise it would be stating the obvious, no? Pretty obvious then that no, it really is a far cry from normal for people who eat meat to be offended by those who don't.
So we established that the norm of those who eat meant is to not care if someone doesn't eat meat. Now ask yourself, how often do people who don't care if someone does eat meat? Considering there are organizations dedicated to stopping people from eating meat or changing people's minds about eating meat, I have to say that it is more common at least (I'll make no claims as to it being the norm of that subgroup of people, I do not have any way to measure that, but it does show an increase over the norm in the behavior of "being offended by someone who doesn't share the same perspective on eating meat"). It is more common for someone who doesn't eat meat to be offended by those who do than those who do eat to be offended by those who do not. I will say that the more common aspect might well be what has fueled the "you know who's a vegan" thing).
So there we have it, to answer the general question raised, no, meat eaters are not as easy to offend about people not eating meat as those who do not are about those who do.
I don't think you can call that being offended. I call that not giving a shit.Dizchu said:
If a Vegan comes up and says "You're all horrible people and need to stop eating meet, it hurts the animals", do we really expect everyone to sit down and go "Oh god, you're right! Lets be Vegans!"?
'cause thats kinda arrogant if you do, TBH, everyone has their own views. And if a Vegan comes out to try and preach that you shouldn't eat animals, of course those that don't care are going to respond that, well, they don't care.
Its also taking the piss out of someone that often comes out with a holier-than-thou attitude because they think they have a moral highground, and looks down on you for eating meat. When that's what you're getting treated to, of course you're going to respond by taking the piss out of the person who's trying to tell you that they're better than you, as again, you don't care.
I hardly call that 'being offended'.
I'm not sure if 'easy to offend' is the right way to describe it but in my experience I have seen way more shit dished out by meat eaters at veggies/ vegans than vice versa and yet the veggies seem more capable of keeping their shut together. Sure there are some veggies who go all militant trying to convert people (which is daft IMO) and a lot of what meat eaters say is meant as a joke but the frequency of these 'jokes' makes them grating at best.
I don't think I've ever told someone I'm veggie without getting immediately interrogated on why (as if it's anyone else's business) and/ or being the butt of a joke of two. When that happens you pretty much have 2 choices: try to pretend the 500th joke about being protein deficient is funny and shrug it off or engage in a conversation on the topic defending your choice. Now I don't give a crap what other people eat- that's their choice- but choosing the second option always gets the "oh, you're one of THOSE veggies who want to convert the world" reaction so you're basically forced to go with option 2 which only gets more frustrating every time. The best way I can explain is if you've ever worked retail you'll know how incredibly unfunny if is when an item doesn't scan and the customer goes "oh it must be free then hurr hurr hurrrrr". That's how funny most veggie jokes are but they have the added kicker of mocking a lifestyle choice you make that doesn't even affect anyone else.
I only mention all this to contrast the way some meat eaters react to their eating habits being questioned. In the past I used to occassiinally take option 2 and try to have an actual discussion about it however the reactions I've gotten have ranged from shrugging off what I say to personal insults to, on one occasion, death threats. That's the reaction I get explaining benefits of being veggie as opposed to condemning eating meat or just straight up shit slinging. What's more the average meat eater won't have had much cause to look into this stuff (since they're in a huge majority and most likely never made a specific choice to be a meat eater) so actual facts get dismissed as lies for convenience. It's totally possible I've met particularly easily angered individuals however this kind of grumpy, dismissive, or even aggressive response has accounted for most of these conversations (hence why I don't typically bother any more).
So yeah, my experience has been that (most) veggies put up with a constant low level stream of crap/ jokes at their expense fine but suggesting being vegetarian may actually be beneficial is apparently just a step too far for some meat eaters to put up with. The fact so many responses on this thread amount to "lolwut?" kind of suggests people aren't even aware that this is a common occurrence.
I don't think I've ever told someone I'm veggie without getting immediately interrogated on why (as if it's anyone else's business) and/ or being the butt of a joke of two. When that happens you pretty much have 2 choices: try to pretend the 500th joke about being protein deficient is funny and shrug it off or engage in a conversation on the topic defending your choice. Now I don't give a crap what other people eat- that's their choice- but choosing the second option always gets the "oh, you're one of THOSE veggies who want to convert the world" reaction so you're basically forced to go with option 2 which only gets more frustrating every time. The best way I can explain is if you've ever worked retail you'll know how incredibly unfunny if is when an item doesn't scan and the customer goes "oh it must be free then hurr hurr hurrrrr". That's how funny most veggie jokes are but they have the added kicker of mocking a lifestyle choice you make that doesn't even affect anyone else.
I only mention all this to contrast the way some meat eaters react to their eating habits being questioned. In the past I used to occassiinally take option 2 and try to have an actual discussion about it however the reactions I've gotten have ranged from shrugging off what I say to personal insults to, on one occasion, death threats. That's the reaction I get explaining benefits of being veggie as opposed to condemning eating meat or just straight up shit slinging. What's more the average meat eater won't have had much cause to look into this stuff (since they're in a huge majority and most likely never made a specific choice to be a meat eater) so actual facts get dismissed as lies for convenience. It's totally possible I've met particularly easily angered individuals however this kind of grumpy, dismissive, or even aggressive response has accounted for most of these conversations (hence why I don't typically bother any more).
So yeah, my experience has been that (most) veggies put up with a constant low level stream of crap/ jokes at their expense fine but suggesting being vegetarian may actually be beneficial is apparently just a step too far for some meat eaters to put up with. The fact so many responses on this thread amount to "lolwut?" kind of suggests people aren't even aware that this is a common occurrence.
I'm incredibly biased due to being a fan of tasty murder, but I haven't really seen any meat eaters being easy to offend, myself included.
You're more or less describing retaliatory snark to vegans who preach to carnivorous persons. All in good fun, of course.Dizchu said:
This all honestly just comes to personal experiences. I've not seen any meat eater be offended by a vegetarian's/vegan's comments, usually just annoyed. Because all but two vegetarians I've met and been aware their vegetarians, are the total preachy kind that act like you just slaughtered, cut into bits, and started eating it in front of them whenever you eat meat.
Most of what I've seen from people who eat meat is confusion and/or jokes.
Most of what I've seen from vegetarians is "This is my choice!"
Neither group seems to be that aggressive and/or defensive. They're just trying to deal with the fact that when they are or someone they know chooses to not eat meat, the vegetarian is making a dietary choice that, to many, is unusual. The same thing could happen for any other unusual dietary choice, even if it is a well-known one.
Most of what I've seen from vegetarians is "This is my choice!"
Neither group seems to be that aggressive and/or defensive. They're just trying to deal with the fact that when they are or someone they know chooses to not eat meat, the vegetarian is making a dietary choice that, to many, is unusual. The same thing could happen for any other unusual dietary choice, even if it is a well-known one.
This is essentially the end post.DementedSheep said:
Because that's what most of humanity boils down to.
"You're not like me?! What the FUCK is wrong with you?! That offends me!"
I fly in the face of so many norms, people literally don't know how to handle me.
As in the quoted post, I do not drink. I also never have had sex just to have sex. I only have sex with women I care about. I believe Good is way cooler than evil because evil is so common place. I don't like chocolate. I'm a 6'2 athletic black man that doesn't like sports. I'm hopefully going back to McGill for Electric Engineering and I have Faith. I rarely eat candy or sweets. Street Fighter 3rd Strike is the best fighting game ever made, followed by Virtua Fighter 5 final showdown. I listen to Drum and Bass and love it more than most forms of music... yet Dubstep is just noise to me. I'm an active prepper. My biggest ambition right now is to get a Tesla S car. Sonic the Hedgehog sucks. I absolutely love porn, but I can't stand fan service in animes. I also started to actively hate anime with only a few exceptions here and there.
Any... three of those things in a day I'll have to answer to. And once you get enough arguments about these different topics, the faces blur away, the attitudes blur away, even the topics blur away. It all comes down to the one idea:
"Why aren't you intelligent enough to have all the same opinions as me?"
OP, the answer is most people aren't open minded any more. For everything someone can be, there's a rival group out there that wants to question their reasons why. Don't stress it. Move on and enjoy your life.
As an omnivore, I rarely get offended by what people choose to, or not to, eat. What bothers me, and only because its happened before on many occasions, is people who get up in my shit about what I choose to eat. Rattle off your factoids, and why you're against meat and such, but the mere act of getting up in my face about my life choices is something I define as "being an asshole." That overall is offensive to me, period. Doesn't matter the topic, when someone jumps up in my shit, and gets preachy about something I'm doing I will inevitably take offense to it.
I don't like others trying to run my life, acting as if I'm unaware of what I'm doing. I understand consequences, I understand a lot of things in life and I take offense towards people who think they know me well enough to assume I don't.
Do I know everything? No, but I also didn't ask you to "educate" me either. If I wanted to know what you thought, I'd ask. No, not ever vegan is like this, nor vegetarian, etc. But there have been a significant amount of them in my life that have decided it was OK to jump my shit over a steak (which I eat on very rare occasions, mostly I'm not a red meat fan having grown up on a mostly tropical fish diet).
Its rude as hell to insert yourself into someone else's shit like that.
Enjoy life your own way, just don't hurt others in the process. And don't be a dick.
I don't like others trying to run my life, acting as if I'm unaware of what I'm doing. I understand consequences, I understand a lot of things in life and I take offense towards people who think they know me well enough to assume I don't.
Do I know everything? No, but I also didn't ask you to "educate" me either. If I wanted to know what you thought, I'd ask. No, not ever vegan is like this, nor vegetarian, etc. But there have been a significant amount of them in my life that have decided it was OK to jump my shit over a steak (which I eat on very rare occasions, mostly I'm not a red meat fan having grown up on a mostly tropical fish diet).
Its rude as hell to insert yourself into someone else's shit like that.
Enjoy life your own way, just don't hurt others in the process. And don't be a dick.
I don't think I'm easy to offend, but I can be deeply petty when the mood strikes me. Once I had a vegan or vegetarian, I won't say activist but campaigner maybe, came up to me and asked if I wanted in on that action.
So far so polite, but I was standing there eating a three-meat kebab, so I just looked them right in the eyes and took the biggest bite I could muster: I appreciated she wasn't a cabbage thumper but you would have had to be blind and unable to smell to miss that I was eating meat and loving it.
So far so polite, but I was standing there eating a three-meat kebab, so I just looked them right in the eyes and took the biggest bite I could muster: I appreciated she wasn't a cabbage thumper but you would have had to be blind and unable to smell to miss that I was eating meat and loving it.
I used to take care of injured snakes. They seem pretty quick to take offence. Not so bad when you know how to pick up and hold them properly. For any full blown carnivore I always recommend not touching them unnecessarily, and never against the scales when picking them up. When in doubt use a snake hook, and when bitten by carnivores use a clean bandage. Their mouths tend to be pretty full of the nastier variety of bacteria, so be sure to use proper antiseptics.
In all seriousness, I don't get why people eat meat so much. I mean it's kind of annoying and expensive. People tell me it's tasty, and I ponder that. I stioll eat meat, but it 's like any food group. And more often than not it's a luxury depending on where you are. Me personally? It might be years of smoking, but people go on and on about taste of meat being something they're attracted to, and to me a nice bit of cheese and a bottle of wine is tastier. Also more affordable.
I don't get what's so wonderful about meat products. It's food ... a decent amount of pork is lovely in tamarind soup. But the tamarind soup over rice is still the staple of the meal. The pork is there to give it more body and add some protein and animal fats. Something that you can get from cheese ... and more often than not by animal fat and protein counts ... a hunk of cheddar packs more nutrition than a similar hunk of meat by price in Australia.
I don't get it. In short. Humans aren't even apex predators apparently, according to a scientific survey examining diets and food chains. Debunking a whole lot of bad pseudoscience that points to meat intake being responsible for our evolution. If anything, our teeth are better designed for tearing apart digestible plant matter, and that polymorphistic changes within the species to accomodate a high animal fat diet are more extreme than a largely vegetarian existence of most native pre-Sapien and modern Man uprising.
I'm no health Nazi. I used to smoke, I still drink, and I used to do a metric fuckton of narcotics. Not anymore ... and not because of guilt tripping or because I was 'out of control' ... my medical regimen won't let me. But itr seems stupid to then at least stop putting mountains of meat into my body when there is no pleasure benefit, nor an increase in vitality. I did drugs because it was fun, not because I needed to. I don't enjoy meat. And yes, some people mnake a point to that, grill me about it when I haven't done anything other than abstain from eating a bowl full of dead animal, and then have the gall to then accuse me that I am 'guilting them' by choosing not to eat said bowl of dead animal.
It's bizarre. If people wouldn't say you're guilt tripping them by wearing a simple tunic top and they're wearing a cheap off-rack shirt, then why the fuck should anybody say otherwise in terms of food?
Give me a delicious bowl of vegetarian antipasto (anything with pickled eggplant, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, pickled capsicum and artichoke), a bottle of cheap red, some crackers and (any) cheese, and I'm happy. It's all I want in a meal. Doesn't need to be warmed, doesn't need to be dressed, doesn't need to be further cooked, it's instantly available, easy to share with others, and I prefer the taste, and you can dip bread into the olive oil and balsamic vinegar residue. I fail to see how it's so mystical that a person can favour that over a pan friend hunk of meat.
If anything I fail to see why anybody likes animal dishes when cooking is quite literally a chore. Cooking is for people who don't have anything better to do ... like be on the internet and complain about cooking.
In all seriousness, I don't get why people eat meat so much. I mean it's kind of annoying and expensive. People tell me it's tasty, and I ponder that. I stioll eat meat, but it 's like any food group. And more often than not it's a luxury depending on where you are. Me personally? It might be years of smoking, but people go on and on about taste of meat being something they're attracted to, and to me a nice bit of cheese and a bottle of wine is tastier. Also more affordable.
I don't get what's so wonderful about meat products. It's food ... a decent amount of pork is lovely in tamarind soup. But the tamarind soup over rice is still the staple of the meal. The pork is there to give it more body and add some protein and animal fats. Something that you can get from cheese ... and more often than not by animal fat and protein counts ... a hunk of cheddar packs more nutrition than a similar hunk of meat by price in Australia.
I don't get it. In short. Humans aren't even apex predators apparently, according to a scientific survey examining diets and food chains. Debunking a whole lot of bad pseudoscience that points to meat intake being responsible for our evolution. If anything, our teeth are better designed for tearing apart digestible plant matter, and that polymorphistic changes within the species to accomodate a high animal fat diet are more extreme than a largely vegetarian existence of most native pre-Sapien and modern Man uprising.
I'm no health Nazi. I used to smoke, I still drink, and I used to do a metric fuckton of narcotics. Not anymore ... and not because of guilt tripping or because I was 'out of control' ... my medical regimen won't let me. But itr seems stupid to then at least stop putting mountains of meat into my body when there is no pleasure benefit, nor an increase in vitality. I did drugs because it was fun, not because I needed to. I don't enjoy meat. And yes, some people mnake a point to that, grill me about it when I haven't done anything other than abstain from eating a bowl full of dead animal, and then have the gall to then accuse me that I am 'guilting them' by choosing not to eat said bowl of dead animal.
It's bizarre. If people wouldn't say you're guilt tripping them by wearing a simple tunic top and they're wearing a cheap off-rack shirt, then why the fuck should anybody say otherwise in terms of food?
Give me a delicious bowl of vegetarian antipasto (anything with pickled eggplant, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, pickled capsicum and artichoke), a bottle of cheap red, some crackers and (any) cheese, and I'm happy. It's all I want in a meal. Doesn't need to be warmed, doesn't need to be dressed, doesn't need to be further cooked, it's instantly available, easy to share with others, and I prefer the taste, and you can dip bread into the olive oil and balsamic vinegar residue. I fail to see how it's so mystical that a person can favour that over a pan friend hunk of meat.
If anything I fail to see why anybody likes animal dishes when cooking is quite literally a chore. Cooking is for people who don't have anything better to do ... like be on the internet and complain about cooking.
I think its far easier to be a vegetarian nowadays, you have things like "meatless mondays" that are catching on, and there are tons of vegan/vegetarian athletes and celebrities that show that you can be just as healthy not eating meat as you can be eating meat
I still run in to the occasional person who seems to totally lose their shit when I mention I don't eat meat. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to just be annoying. Every time I'm with a new group of people and have to mention it, it's a roll of the dice. Most of the time people are like "Whatevs," but every once in a while you'll get that batty person who thinks your trying to one-up them and really wants to take you down a peg.
It also doesn't help that the "face" of vegetarianism for a while was PETA. Having those batshit crazy people being the only animal rights group people knew of for a long time I think stuck in peoples brains. I almost want to make up T-Shirts that say "I'm a vegetarian but I think PETA are a bunch of fucking nutters!"
I still run in to the occasional person who seems to totally lose their shit when I mention I don't eat meat. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough to just be annoying. Every time I'm with a new group of people and have to mention it, it's a roll of the dice. Most of the time people are like "Whatevs," but every once in a while you'll get that batty person who thinks your trying to one-up them and really wants to take you down a peg.
It also doesn't help that the "face" of vegetarianism for a while was PETA. Having those batshit crazy people being the only animal rights group people knew of for a long time I think stuck in peoples brains. I almost want to make up T-Shirts that say "I'm a vegetarian but I think PETA are a bunch of fucking nutters!"
In my experience, the only time I've been offended by a vegetarian, was when they insinuation was made that I was responsible for animal suffering.
I love animals. I had several pets. And the reason I'm fine with my omnivorous diet (meat and two veg) is because I know for a fact that before the meat ends up in the shop for me to buy and throw in the pan it looks like this (I know, I live in a different country, so this might not be the case for other people)
You can practically see the smiles on their cute faces.
I love animals. I had several pets. And the reason I'm fine with my omnivorous diet (meat and two veg) is because I know for a fact that before the meat ends up in the shop for me to buy and throw in the pan it looks like this (I know, I live in a different country, so this might not be the case for other people)
You can practically see the smiles on their cute faces.
Sigh, I don't know where you live or if the farms you're describing are actually factory farms, so I can't really dispute your claims that the farms are "entirely ethical" (though forgive me if I am skeptical). But I gave you the definition of factory farming as well as their common traits and you had a knee-jerk reaction to it. Which just makes me wonder if you are aware of what factory farming even is. I'm not trying to sound patronising here, the common perception of farming is still the image of cows prancing around open fields and pigs having fun rolling around. This sort of farming makes up around 1% of all farms in the USA.madwarper said:
Factory farming by definition restricts the comfort and health of its livestock. That's not me being preachy, that's me literally looking at the encyclopedic definition of the term. I'm struggling to understand why your issue is with me and not the encyclopedias and dictionaries that have defined the term.
This isn't even me debating the ethics of meat in general, for the sake of argument let's just assume that extensive farming is 100% ethical and environmentally sustainable. Can you not see the difference between extensive and intensive/factory farming? It's not a matter of opinion, these things have definitions. To be honest I'm baffled that you think I've made these terms and their definitions up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensive_farming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_animal_farming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_animal_farming#Animal_welfare
That does appear to be the main motivation, though. It's like recycling, people don't do it because it's convenient or fun. Dividing waste into plastics/glass/paper etc. is time-consuming and can be a pain in the ass. They may not even personally see any benefits. I know that sucks and sounds really unappealing, but the other "positive aspects" are secondary.sonicneedslovetoo said:
I'm not a vegan because I find it difficult to make such a huge compromise, at least at the moment. Admittedly, the guilt-tripping from vegans is not gonna help and I wish they'd realise this (the same with social justice warriors). But were I to become vegan it'd be for ethical/environmental reasons, because giving up eggs and dairy will put a lot of restrictions my diet (and damn I love cheese). It's about sacrifice, ultimately.
Personally I think it should be encouraged rather than used as another stick to beat people across the head. At the end of the day it has to be a personal choice.
From my own experience as a vegetarian i had very similar experiences than OP, though i would not quite put them like this. It's generally not a good place to discuss this here, because the majourity of people won't get that response from "meat eaters" since they're not vegetarian/vegan themselves.
Personally i experienced that people can get really defensive about eating meat. I personally try not to mention that i am a vegetarian, because very often people do take it as a sort of attack at them. They seem to feel that the fact that i don't eat meat, means that i am accusing them of being horrible people for eating meat. So evertime it comes up that i am a vegetarian and the other person didn't know before theres typically the same conversation:
"Well, i try to eat not too much meat myself"
"But we're meant to eat meat!"
"But how do you get Protein!?"
One time i even got "Just Vegetarian? Too pussy to go Vegan?", while the other person stuffed his face with steak. He was a hunter, though, so i can kind of understand why he was so defensive.
It gets old pretty fast. I don't care whether other people eat meat or not, just let me be a vegetarian in peace, please.
This is not an accusation though. Before i became a vegetarian myself one of my friends became a vegetarian and i reacted the exact same way when i found out. It seems like a natural reaction.
Personally i experienced that people can get really defensive about eating meat. I personally try not to mention that i am a vegetarian, because very often people do take it as a sort of attack at them. They seem to feel that the fact that i don't eat meat, means that i am accusing them of being horrible people for eating meat. So evertime it comes up that i am a vegetarian and the other person didn't know before theres typically the same conversation:
"Well, i try to eat not too much meat myself"
"But we're meant to eat meat!"
"But how do you get Protein!?"
One time i even got "Just Vegetarian? Too pussy to go Vegan?", while the other person stuffed his face with steak. He was a hunter, though, so i can kind of understand why he was so defensive.
It gets old pretty fast. I don't care whether other people eat meat or not, just let me be a vegetarian in peace, please.
This is not an accusation though. Before i became a vegetarian myself one of my friends became a vegetarian and i reacted the exact same way when i found out. It seems like a natural reaction.