Monday 14 July 2008

Meat is murder

Which means, I suppose, that milk must be manslaughter... I see my good comrade Tom Harris has sparked something of a debate on his website with a post entitled "In Praise of McDonald's". And yes, it didn't take very long at all before someone came up with the 'Hitler was a vegetarian' line.

Somewhere in the comments section it mentions the lack of vegetarian MPs. I told Viva! ages ago I'd try to get them a list of names, as they only list the two Tonys - Banks and Benn - on their website. (Neither of them MPs anymore of course). There are actually quite a lot of us. And loads in the 'but I eat fish' category.

9 comments:

puppet freezone said...

I trust you've told the 'But I eat fish' category that they are Pescetarians, and not vegetarians.

Fancy that... MPs being as careless at categorising and labelling themselves as they are at labelling the rest of us.
On some minor level, I'm strangely relieved to know that.

Terry said...

Kerry

Yet another straightforward question:


Why are you happy to lock up pensioners if they refuse to pay their Council Tax, yet let people roam free that carry knives? Please go before you totally destroy this country.

adamskirving said...

Who was the person to first bring up the Hitler was a vegetarian line?

Anonymous said...

But Hitler wasn't a vegetarian:
http://www.slate.com/id/2096259/

Kerry said...

Great quote: "You can't be a vegetarian and eat liver dumplings". I like that.

Kerry said...

Actually now that I've read the rest of the piece....

It says "none of the vegetarian activists I spoke to could recall a specific example of being taunted with the "Hitler was a vegetarian" line." Well I've heard it absolutely loads of times. Almost as often as the vegan/ Vulcan "joke".

The piece then goes on to say: "After all, what vegetarian doesn't cheat? It's not much of a challenge to prove that even the most devout herbivores fall off the fruit cart every once in a while. One vegetarian friend stopped by a deli a few years ago for a ham and cheese sandwich. She hadn't eaten meat in 10 years and hasn't since. Another vegetarian buddy in Los Angeles eats the chicken broth from wonton soup, but not the meat-filled dumplings. I even got her to eat a hot dog once. Still, she considers herself a vegetarian. Like Hitler, many vegetarians cheat on their diet. Does this make them like Hitler? Of course not. It only makes them crappy vegetarians."

Admittedly I do know a self-described "vegetarian" of several decades standing, who I caught eating a bacon sandwich. He said he occasionally succumbs when he's hungover. But I've never felt remotely tempted. (I do gaze longingly at cheesecake sometimes though...)

puppet freezone said...

Yes, I found the 'what vegetarian doesn't cheat' line somewhat offensive, as I've never cheated in 25 years. Never even been tempted.

Still, it's only one person making a stupid comment borne out of personal bias. It's not that painful.

Nowhere near as painful as seeing the elderly thrown out in all weathers just to have a cigarette.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I've heard the Hitler line so many times it's unbelievable. I think the article's written by someone who hates vegetarians and loves historians.

And, neatly combining two key themes of your blog this week, have you ever seen Cats that look like Hitler?

Kerry said...

That Leonardo has the stance and the demonic look in his eye too...

I'm sure there's a fur-related Führer joke in here somewhere. Can someone help out?