When vegetarians claim eating meat is deliberate cruelty it follows that those who eat meat are deliberately being cruel. Don't you imagine some people will get defensive when you suggest they are being deliberately cruel? Any moral argument for vegetarianism makes the claim of the moral superiority of vegetarians. That is what moral arguments do, posit one moral position as superior to another. Again, how would you imagine most people will react when you claim to be morally superior to them? The vegetarians who proclaim loudly and publicly that they are vegetarians are doing so for what reason exactly? They imagine many people are excitedly waiting to find out details about anothers eating habits? Perish the thought they might just believe they their own hype and believe they are morally superior to meat eaters. Vegetarians who, like most non-vegetarians, don't make a point of publicly discussing their eating habits aren't the vegetarians that us omnivores object to. You can eat whatever you damn well please but fuck you very much if you want to make a moral judgment about my T-bone.
John Thornton