Is there any point to being vegetarian? Are vegetarians simply misguided?

I turned vegetarian a couple of weeks a go after watching this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THIODWTqx5E

I realise being vegan would be morally better if you want to change your lifestyle because of that video, if that's what you're thinking, and one day I might become vegan, but I'm taking it in baby steps - can't do without milk or cheese just yet ;)

Thoughts?

The only problem I see with vegetarianism is that it makes no difference at all when it comes to animals being treated badly. Not eating meat won't make the bad things happening to animals not happen.
But if people are vegans because they don't like eating meat that was once in lots of pain, I can understand that. As long as they don't treat me like a heathen because I eat meat myself, they're cool.

I don't see anything wrong with eating meat. It's just part of the food chain and we happen to be on top. Also, restricting yourself to a certain nutrient can be unhealthy.

If animals aren't supposed to be eaten, then why are they made of food?
Vegetarians: 0
Real Men: 10000000000

Quote from Fusion

If animals aren't supposed to be eaten, then why are they made of food?
Vegetarians: 0
Real Men: 10000000000

Vegeterians and vegans are a bunch of pretentious assholes that think that by switching from a healthy and natural mixed diet to an all plant diet, they are being morally correct.
Guess what: You're not morally correct.

You don't think plants go through the same shit that animals go through? You probably don't and you'd be right. Because it's far worse. Plants endure chemical burns on a daily basis from the day they are fucking born. They are cut each and every day to prevent them from growing. They are placed in horrible environments that don't give them any good air or water at all. And when they're ready, they are torn apart like they never even mattered at all.

You want to know what is the single difference between animals and plants? Animals can express their pain. Just because you don't hear plants scream out in agony doesn't mean they don't feel the pesticides and the insecticides and their roots being ripped apart.

And what does it matter if the animal suffered while it was in the farm or whatever. Everything you have eaten or ever will eat will have had a shit life. Not because humans did that to whatever it is, but because life is shit. That's part of reality. Another part of reality: Humans eat flesh.


Now shut up and eat your steak you wannabe-hippie.

@lolipops
It depends on what plant your talking about. Magnoliophyta? synapomorphies? be more clear next time.

Quote from lolipops

You don't think plants go through the same shit that animals go through? You probably don't and you'd be right. Because it's far worse. Plants endure chemical burns on a daily basis from the day they are fucking born. They are cut each and every day to prevent them from growing. They are placed in horrible environments that don't give them any good air or water at all. And when they're ready, they are torn apart like they never even mattered at all.

You want to know what is the single difference between animals and plants? Animals can express their pain. Just because you don't hear plants scream out in agony doesn't mean they don't feel the pesticides and the insecticides and their roots being ripped apart.

How do you know plants feel pain if they can't express it? Do they have senses that detect pain like most sentient beings do? I'm not so sure.

And what does it matter if the animal suffered while it was in the farm or whatever. Everything you have eaten or ever will eat will have had a shit life. Not because humans did that to whatever it is, but because life is shit. That's part of reality. Another part of reality: Humans eat flesh.

So because life is shitty, we should NOT try to prevent it from being shitty?

Quote from lolipops

Vegeterians and vegans are a bunch of pretentious assholes that think that by switching from a healthy and natural mixed diet to an all plant diet, they are being morally correct.
Guess what: You're not morally correct.

You don't think plants go through the same shit that animals go through? You probably don't and you'd be right. Because it's far worse. Plants endure chemical burns on a daily basis from the day they are fucking born. They are cut each and every day to prevent them from growing. They are placed in horrible environments that don't give them any good air or water at all. And when they're ready, they are torn apart like they never even mattered at all.

You want to know what is the single difference between animals and plants? Animals can express their pain. Just because you don't hear plants scream out in agony doesn't mean they don't feel the pesticides and the insecticides and their roots being ripped apart.

And what does it matter if the animal suffered while it was in the farm or whatever. Everything you have eaten or ever will eat will have had a shit life. Not because humans did that to whatever it is, but because life is shit. That's part of reality. Another part of reality: Humans eat flesh.


Now shut up and eat your steak you wannabe-hippie.

I love you. trollllololol

Quote from Preserve

So because life is shitty, we should NOT try to prevent it from being shitty?

And how does vegetarianism prevent it from being shitty, even in the slightest?

@lolipops - plants don't have nervous systems or brains. Next point please. and @"doesn't matter if they suffer" - I guess it doesn't matter if we torcher humans because they live shitty lives anyway. There's a difference between a shitty life (of which you have no evidence that they do have) and physical and mental abuse.

@"it accomplishes nothing" - many years a go someone could have said the same thing to a black man overtly opposing the slave trade, do you see where that logic fails?

@"it's unhealthy" - I'm under no misconception. I know it's not as healthy. I smoke and eat loads of chocolate, and cheese, and unhealthy shit. I'm now vegetarian because it fits my moral compass better, not because I think it's more healthy.

And I try my hardest to not be pretentious... about anything. I'm not going to believe or act like meat eaters are inferior to me, and I expect them to return that courtesy.

Opposing the slave trade and not eating meat are two very different things.

I wouldn't be such a douchebag if people like you started working at farms and started looking for solutions that actually prevented these kinds of animal abuse. Do you?
No, you don't. You just don't eat meat to feel better about yourself.

That, my friend, is egotistical and quite frankly, I'm not impressed.

When I go to a restaurant with with a vegetarian I set a meat level for our combined meals in advance. If he eats some meat, I eat less. If he eats no meat, I get a great meal. I consider myself to be lending a hand to disadvantaged people who've been crippled by a sense of morality.