A Query.

I think it may have been a joke....maybe?
Though still I don't understand where that came from, and it wasn't funny  

Random humour.

Again I say that we should be supporting vegetarians. Whether they 'know' about the dairy industry or not, they are still doing some good.

(Sigh) Really getting tired of these pushy vegans.

EDIT: It's a matter of choice, and it's their choice not ours.

I do think though, that if you're committed to living as cruelty free as possible, you should be at least working toward veganism. But vegetarian is a big and important step towards that and we should never, ever, ridicule anyone or make them feel lesser because they haven't gone the "whole way" yet. You don't know their circumstances, home issues, lifestyle, etc. Giving up something like milk might be absolutely nothing to you but milk to someone else may have been a source of comfort through a traumatic childhood event for another person. (just as an example)

If you don't know someone's situation you've no right to judge. I do strongly believe in educating people about a vegan diet though, through leafletting, etc. I don't think that's pushy at all, especially if you cover the personal health and environmental aspects of it along with the animal rights aspect.

Also I'd just like to add that I'm not a fan of the "choice" argument. Because where does the animal's choice come into it?

I think you can respect that someone has a right to choose without respecting the choice itself.

By your very language you have made it more than debatable. You're assuming the lifestyle choice is about animals at all. Secondly, "vegetarians still advocate animal cruelty by consuming dairy and other animal products" is just plain ridiculous. They don't advocate any such thing by doing it. Don't use words you clearly don't know the meaning of otherwise your arguments will be read in the wrong way. I don't like people picking on others for spelling and sentence structure, but this isn't that - it's about a choice of word that completely changes (falsely) the nature of the argument.

Oh, and my original thoughts on the whole matter are pretty much summed up by Kirrilly above anyway - especially the part about respecting the right to choose, even if you don't agree with it.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'd consider paying for dairy products and by doing so supporting those industries advocating them.

When did 'vegan food' become the single most expensive thing on the planet? You could get a heck of a lot of veggies and even some chickpeas or something for like $5. Also, everyone eats 'vegan food'. If you live with parents, they just need to buy veggies (which, hopefully they'll be doing anyway) and not processed sausages and crap. Voila!

(Having said that though, I don't think you could necessarily be vegan whilst at Boarding School during the week.)

I think people need tough love, not necessarily name-calling, but everyone needs to hear stuff that places them out of their comfort zone. Heck, if we didn't receive the information we didn't want to hear then we'd all be carnists still. Bleurgh.

My understanding of the word was that you needed to speak out in favour of it, or publicly speak in favour of it or defend it to be advocating it. 'Supporting' it (by buying it) and advocating it are two completely different things. I would suggest that vegetarians aren't helping to stop the industry, but I don't think they are actively advocating it's continud existence.

Giving money to an industry such the egg or dairy one is advocating for that industry. We say time and time again to 'vote with your dollar'. By buying these products we are supporting the industry and publicly at that. There is no way to hide your purchases of these products from the company or even those that you consume them in front of. If you're drinking milk in front of anyone at all, you're sending the message out that it is okay to do so and therefore publicly advocating and in a way promoting it to others.