Strong anger towards meat-eaters

[StardewValley]

Videos like these make me angry because of how the animal rights people is labeled a "nut" and all of the comments are sticking it to them, saying that they're crazy and the problem with the world. The animal rights people are clearly the right ones, from my perspective. In general I've become angry at people who treat animals poorly and don't care about slaughterhouses.

I'm having trouble moving forward because I'm stuck on being angry at such people. I want to make my peace from this so I can actually go out and do something to fix it. I am expecting an answer such as "meditate more" or "good luck transcending stage green," which I would accept.

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by StardewValley

[Gabriel Antonio]

Read my signature.

Or as Leo like to put it, “Turn inwards.”

[Michael569]

Realise that anger is like whipping your own back. It never hurts anyone else besides you. It clouds the judgment, compassion and understanding and is a purely egoically driven response regardless of how humble the cause might be. It does not matter who is right and who is wrong in any case. 

You can forgive by understanding where these people come from. Everybody is just doing the things that they believe will make them happy...even if they seem like the most evil person, they have their reasons. You don't have to like them, just understand them -> this is the first step to remedy. 

People treat animals poorly because they don't know any better, remember when you were once the same. Many dairy and meat farmers have been doing this their whole life, their dad and grandad did, nobody showed them any other way. And when a band of vegans marches in forcing their agenda, everybody gets emotional because they all lack understanding for each other. Believe it or not, most people do not realise that the piece of steak on the plate once had a heartbeat. We unconsciously filter these facts out because they are disturbing. 

I am not defending the meat industry, just like you, it concerns me and it is one of the reasons I have gone plant based but at the same time realise that these things happen for a reason and have to be there because its just the way world is right now

Edited August 15, 2018 by Michael569

[dude]

The way it should be. vs The way it actually is.

You aint gonna win that battle.

Stop trying to manipulate reality, these people are perfectly imperfect and so are you. A combination of upbringing, genetics and 100.000 other factors made them the way they are and if you had these same factors you would behave the same.

[CreamCat]

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I don't like animal slaughter. I want it to end someday.

Edited August 15, 2018 by CreamCat

[Athena]

Mehn I love you all on this forum, just such good people/trying to be genuinely better people. This is how the world should be. The comments on this post are just filled with love. 

@Leo Gura it would be nice to meet everyone at some point. Perhaps an actualized retreat??  You'll provide 5-meo-DMT  for those of us that don't have access to it.

 

[PsiloPutty]

@Michael569  That post was out-of-the-park perfect. 

[Forestluv]

@StardewValley You are perceiving a relative truth as if it were an absolute truth. IME, this can run really deep and often includes ingrained thoughts and emotions. For me, it's been a process of gradual and continuous steps back to the point of awareness.

The statement "The animal rights people are clearly the right ones, from my perspective." is a step deeper. The key is that you added the qualifier "from my perspective". The next step is to acknowledge: "The meat-eaters are clearly the right ones, from their perspective." The next step is to let go of the idea/feeling that "my perspective is more right than their perspective". Until then, you will likely be immersed in trying to convince yourself and others that you are more right and be filled with tension. (As I was for many years on this topic).

If you can let go of your attachment to your perspective, you are simply left with two perspectives. With time, you might get curious and ask contemplative questions such as "WHY might someone have one perspective rather than another?". "What type of conditioning/input may have promoted the appearance of one of the perspectives?". Or. . . "these are only two perspectives. could there be other perspectives? What might those be"? 

Letting go includes both the mind and body. I was able to let go mentally before bodily. For a while, I was mentally OK with having a meal with a meat eater, yet my body still felt tension.

[CreamCat]

I guess most meat eaters acknowledge selfishness of eating meat. Most people don't like killing animals.

[exhale]

I think that every vegan/animal-rights advocate goes through the stage of being overly-critical of others; I know I did.  Saying that, some vegans/animal-rights advocates entrench themselves in that mindset, and others transcend it with time.  This can be described through spiral dynamics, in ascending from stage green to stage yellow.  

A (very counterintuitive) facet that I think is important to recognize is that the most effective and impactful vegan/animal-rights advocacy comes through accepting/respecting/loving of others (and their choices) and focus on living a great life yourself; you can do this, and promote a vegan lifestyle without being critical of others.  This should not be done in a strategic or manipulative way, there is tremendous value in getting to a place of love and acceptance for others to make their own decisions.  

Not only is this form of advocacy more effective for the vegan/animal-right movement, it allows you to approach your life, the people around you, and that causes you care about with more humility, love, compassion, and frankly less stress.  It is important to not take yourself too seriously.  You will also experience less fractured relationships due to your hard-line advocacy stance.  

It will seem that if you "care-less" and are not consistently pointing out the problems with animal consumption/factory farming, that you will not be doing anything for the movement.  Rather, you will soon see that if you genuinely change your approach (and intensity) in which you approach this lifestyle choice, you will influence more people to make positive changes in their life.  

There is a ton of weight to the phrase: "you will catch more bees with honey than spice".  

If you are looking for an example, people like Rich Roll has single-handedly influenced more people on planet earth to go plant-based by using a mature, respectful, systematic (stage yellow) safe landing place for people than all of the previous militant vegans over the past 30 years that have been throwing paint or condemning friends and family over dinner tables.  (this is completely anecdotal)

Consider lightening and maturing your approach to not only have a more pleasant life and relationships, but to also be a more effective advocate for the animals.  

[Recursoinominado]

I am a vegan and don't like angry vegan activists because:

1. The vegan movement is based on compassion for our fellow animals and failing to be compassionate towards humans is just pure hypocrisy and lack of self-knowledge.

2. Until you became vegan you were eating animal products, you had to go through a process, let other people go through their, who are you to judge someone process if you yourself were in his position until you had your insight?

3. What are the chances of you changing someone's opinion by screaming at them and calling them names?

 

On the other hand, some vegans see animals as equals to human beings so if they see a pig getting his throat sliced, it could be a human child and it will be the same for them and if you see the world like this, it isn't surprising that you would freak out every time you see an animal getting tortured and killed. 

[sgn]

@StardewValley I know, I know
It's a tough awakening.

People wonder why some vegans are angry.
I think it's basically because one realizes that it's so much cruelty to animals in so many ways in these industries and almost everyone supports it.
Even thou the majority of people would say they are against animal cruelty and that they are animal lovers.
You wake up and see this hypocrisy and ignorance everywhere.
Even in family and friends.
It becomes so clear that every excuse is just a selfish way of defending animal cruelty.
Vegans want to end this cruelty, and they are called the crazy ones
I can understand that people don't like aggressive and militant vegans and I don't think that's the right approach. But I can't blame people who act that way. They're just passionate.
 

Her book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DHK9P5K/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

[Leo Gura]

@StardewValley Sounds like a shadow issue.

In other words, the reason you are angry at them is because you have actually disowned this meat-eater part of yourself. You've told yourself it it wrong, but this was really a denial rather than a genuine transcendence.

Contemplate with a journal how you have disowned this part of yourself and created an identity around being a moralistic non-meat-eater.

What is your ego getting out of hating meat-eaters? It's getting something! There's some secret payoff.

Meditation actually tends to not resolve shadow issues. You need to contemplate, not meditate this issue.

[sgn]

@Leo Gura I know that many people just don't know enough, just as I didn't know anything before I started researching these industries either, so I can understand and accept that easier. So I feel it's more forgiving when people don't know any better.

But when people do know.. that's when I get triggered. When people get educated but still comes up with excuse after excuse

Edited August 17, 2018 by sgn

[Leo Gura]

@sgn It's got nothing to do with reality or facts.

If you get triggered, that's ALL you! It's all about how your mind is failing to understanding the complexities of reality, denying reality.

The reality is, people eat animals and you don't like it. That's not the world's problem, that's your problem. Don't project it on them. Own it.

Triggering is never in the situation, it's in YOUR interpretation of the situation. If you were fully awakened, Hitler himself torturing kittens would not trigger you.

[sgn]

@Leo Gura You're right. Thanks.

[CreamCat]

I think sentience is different from intelligence. Cows have big enough brains to have ego which is responsible for perception of sentience.

Cows do not have enough intelligence to figure out what is going on.

[CreamCat]

50 minutes ago, Feel Good said:

@CreamCat

Whatever concept you need to keep your egos significance in tact...please continue it's your life, nobody is going to take that away from you if you want to keep clinging to it...

@Feel Good That's not convincing. Your argument is as conceptual as mine. How do you know your argument is right and mine is wrong or vice versa? I can't trust you for judging your own arguments because that's like judging yourself in your own murder trial. That applies to me, too. Sometimes, one needs to admit that one doesn't know for sure.

The fact is that cows are not scared in slaughterhouse. There are two equally conceptual ways to interpret the fact. However many justifications you bring to the table, it is a knowledge graph in the end. A knowledge graph is not truth.

This means I don't take my own argument or your argument seriously.

Edited August 17, 2018 by CreamCat

[sgn]

26 minutes ago, Feel Good said:

A close friend of mine is a farmer and we talk about animal rights activists and how the avrivists actually create the animals distress by turning up at the slaughterhouses and surrounding the trucks and taking their photos. The activist in their imagination think that the animals are stressed because "they know they are going to be slaughtered" which could not be further from the truth. Livestock are not sentient, if they were they would be planning their escape from the moment they realized they are captive and being reared for consumption.

I don't eat animal products for health reasons, I'm not a "vegan". 

I don't believe that. That this causes more stress. Maybe. I definitely believe that the animals in those trucks are very stressed already. For many reasons. Not because they think "oh I'm going to get slaughtered now".
More that they don't know what the fuck is going on and feel unsafe and uncertain. New experience.
Also the ride can be very rough I heard. Some get hurt.
Bouncing around, often in darkness, in a small space, jam packet with others to the sound of a big truck.
And it probably wont take long before they smell blood and hear screams outside the slaughterhouse.

But let's now say that they do get more stressed when activists do this.
Then congratulations . ONE thing is found of what activists do that puts stress on animals. ONE thing to pick on.
But then to be fair we must also mention that farmers and butchers puts the animals under stress in sooo many more ways. And it suddenly diminishes in comparison.
Also remember how many ways activists fight for reducing and eliminating stress in animals.

[exhale]

Lets be careful to not devolve this thread from the posters question from "why am I so mad at meat-eaters" to pushing our own personal agendas of "is it acceptable or not to eat animals, or are animals sentient, etc".