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Hate: Food for Thought
Nov. 1 – Breakfast:
Seated alone, peacefully I was settling into my avocado toast and small orange juice when she walked in… as always over-the-top resplendent: beautiful emerald coat, spangled scarf tied in fanciful knots, full quaff, flawless skin, with bejeweled sunglasses obscuring half her face. We lock eyes and embrace like always. For reasons completely unrealized by me, I am very friendly to this woman. However, I know I loathe almost everything she stands for, from her insistence on an almost 100% carnivore diet to her cult-like love of Trump. She is the embodiment of conservative excess, fresh from a morning hunting for Halloween deals at Hobby Lobby. First words out of her mouth:
“Oh: I almost didn’t see you. You’re not eating alone, are you?”
My friendly yet mildly acidic tongue ready with:
“At breakfast, I prefer it this way.”
True statement.
I bit more banter, and she is quickly back to her table, companion waiting in equally large glasses with a lesser quaff. I watch as she orders a bloody mary and asks if it still comes with bacon. I lose interest and tuck back in. When I leave, I don’t say goodbye.
This wildly innocuous interaction, as things tend to do, sent my brain into overdrive but it reminded me of something: Right now, it is fashionable to be hateful, contrary, and anti-intellectual.
It is likely unclear why this interaction brought this to mind, so allow me to unpack these a bit.
Where this woman and I will never agree on much, there are three areas where I know she is passionately hateful: Trans-women, Muslims, and Vegans.
The first two of these are very important but are covered a lot, so allow me a moment to wax philosophical about vegans. It is SO POPULAR to hate vegans. Sure, some vegans can be preachy about their dietary habits, but this comes from a place of deep concern. I tend to agree with vegans’ views and for health and animal welfare reasons, I consider myself a “selective pescatarian that sometimes fails.” However, most want to enjoy their meals without moral outrage and frankly most of them hate feeling like they are being told what to do. Thoughts of animal welfare, environmental impacts, moralist objections be damned: They want to eat their steak in peace.
Even my husband absolutely hates vegans. He goes so far as to say:
“It’s not a meal unless there is meat in it.”
He insists he must have meat at every meal, of course I don’t comply. Interestingly enough, many of his favorites of my homemade dishes are vegetarian, if not downright vegan, but his cognitive dissonance and need to hate vegans because he thinks it makes him more interesting, prevent him from accepting it. When he finds someone else who is a “proud carnivore” he is elated to an almost orgasmic level.
As a note: he also finds if fashionable to say he hates Thai food (not true) and mushrooms (not true). Here are some of his favorite dishes that I make:
mushroom risotto (veg)
tomato soup (v) with my grilled cheese (veg)
garlic and oil couscous with fresh herbs (v)
I could go on…
Well, back to our neo-conservative glamazon. I remember talking to this woman about her choice of diet and she provided a long and detailed account about how humans were designed to eat other animals and that plants largely make us sick – smacking years of peer-reviewed scientific information in the face. However, she also happens to be proudly anti-intellectualist, so that is not a surprise. She also claims it was plants that made her fat and that her diet is what keeps her skinny now. To be fair, it was booze and sugar that caused her weight gain, and her diet may have helped her lose weight but at what cost?
To me, the conclusion is simple:
Most people make their own decisions about diet and largely leave everyone else alone about it.
Some vegans are vocally anti-meat. This is mainly due to concerns about the environment, animal welfare, and human health — well reasoned decision making based upon documented scientific and journalistic evidence and rooted in a desire to help and protect other people and the world around them.
Some others are vocally anti-vegan. This is largely a reaction to them feeling like they are being told what to do — kneejerk reactions based on feelings and a hyper focus on being left alone to do whatever they want. Also, it’s weirdly in fashion.
lw joyner 