this is called flexitarianism and is totally valid in terms of not wasting food and cohabitating in society. unfortunately some vegetarians would bully a person like you since ideological purity is more important than not wasting food to them

That's probably one in 100,000 vegans

Woah this got dark.

I eat whatever I am able to afford and local to me. And I continue to eat what tastes good to me.

I mean, most vegans would still commend your effort to reduce animal product consumption.

But from a moral standpoint, simply eating less animal products really doesn't have much value. Imagine using your argument for other moral dilemmas.

"Racism is wrong, so I reduced the amount of racial slurs I use to only 1/3"
"Rape is wrong, so I only rape on Mondays now" (in reference to meatless Mondays)

I hate to be so militant about it, but you either think animal abuse is acceptable or you don't.

Now, what I do think could be a moral standpoint, if you really want to still be able to eat meat, is to only eat "humane" meat. I put "humane" in quotes because even farmers with the best intentions are still killing animals young. I don't personally believe any animal product can be humane, but even then I can recognize that any animal that was raised on a pasture and ate real food is more ethical to eat than one in a factory.

So if you genuinely only ate pasture raised beef and chicken (and you were sure about it), then I would say that is quite honorable.

I find it so crazy when i stumble across a post of yours in the wild! Hi!

They're never interested.

This is disingenuous AF. The vegans I've known would have all taken this huge win

I'm a vegetarian just because it's the cheapest option. Meat is absurd in prices while going fully vegan, where I live, isn't feasible either.

So I live off a mostly vegetarian diet. It's not even for ethical reasons. It's literally a "I want to save money" motivation.

Honestly I feel like the idea of "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" is so lame. Like I understand that you could find something technically ethically wrong with everything, but that statement just feels like a way for people who don't want to give up certain things to justify themselves.

Capitalism, especially modern day capitalism where the government and companies collaborate, does lead to a lot of ethical issues. And yes, I understand that it is not liveable to give up everything that is unethical. But you can still have boundaries.

I mean like, buying oats and grains from a grocery store, which are typically grown domestically, compared to buying dead abused animals or bananas from a company that uses slave labor. Those are totally different things.

If you prioritize buying things that are made in countries that have better labor laws, and avoid animal products, then that's a pretty damn good start.

human are omnivore, it's a biological trait not a diet. Being omnivore doesn't mean that you need to consume animal products, in the contrary, it means that you can avoid them and still strive, as opposed as carnivore.

own your choices, plain and simple. don't blame other for taking action to reduce suffering, CO2 and waste of ressources.

I think our ancestors also hunted large game which is why we evolved to be endurance hunters. Not that we are bound so tightly to our evolutionary as all that. But still.

I support vegans and respect their decisions, I just have little interest in being one myself.

Although when I buy leather products (belts shoes) I tend to buy ones that last decades. So there's that. And yeah I try to reduce meat consumption and I strive to do better.

Humanity has changed a lot over the years, much of it by choice.

There's no such thing as the diet police. No one not terminally-online really gives a shit about movement-purity. Just eat as ethically as possible.

What? You're saying that because we needed leather in the past, we can't wear cotton now to keep warm? At one point we didn't have easy access to plant-based proteins so we should continue eating animal products? By that logic, we didn't have vaccines in the past, so does that mean we can't use them now? Our ancestors also didn't have the internet, so why are you here?

The past was a completely different world. Don't let it hold you back from doing better now.

Sorry, but I just don't think this attitude is useful for reducing harm to animals. It's rare for people to hear about veganism and then go straight from eating meat to eating 0 animal products, for 100 reasons. I spent like 10 years vegetarian before finally going vegan.

This overly critical attitude and stereotypes associated with it do a lot to push people away from bothering with making any steps at all.

No one is able to fully eliminate animal harm from their lives, and any steps that anyone is making on the road to reducing it should be applauded. It's our only option if we want to be anything other than a hated minority.