system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Vegetarians/vegans are perceived as annoying, not because they are pushy, but because they cause cognitive dissonance.

I found it really hard to summarize this thought in a single sentence in the title.

There are a lot of jokes like "How do you recognize a vegan? They will tell you" etc, with the general gist that people who do not eat meat are annoying and have a holier than thou attitude. 

However, personally I never met someone who brought up their beliefs about whether to eat meat or not completely unprovoked. Of course you will know whether someone is vegetarian if you invite them for dinner or something, but thats reasonable. Or if you are talking about food or animal welfare or whatever. But I never had someone tell me (IRL) "you are eating meat, that makes you a murderer" or implying something like that.

So, a few years ago I did magic mushrooms for the first time and as I was tripping I realized that the leather couch I was lying on used to be a cow. A cow that had to be killed to make this couch. I realized itbwas the same for meat and from then on meat grossed me out. Not only morally, but just the thought of having to slaughter this animal and the whole shebang. But I do not judge people that eat meat, because I know it is pretty easy to not think the source if you buy it in a supermarket or something. I also respect hunters as they know where the meat comes from and have respect for the animal they kill.

Anyways, when I informed people of my dietary preferences if we were eating together, or if I answered why I did not order the meat dish or something, I would occasionally get hostile responses. It is not that I explained the complete motivation above (you know, telling how you were tripping balls is not an acceptable topic when dining with your inlaws or w/e), I just said "no meat for me please". 

But I would get things like:

"Well you are wearing clothes that were made in some third world sweatshop, so aren't you being hypocritical?"

"Don't you know that the Amazon is being destroyed to produce the soybeans used to make your vegetarian hamburger?"

It felt like they were trying to prove that I was also flawed (which I am of course, but it is not relevant at all), because deep down they felt that eating meat is wrong but they had to ease that cognitive dissonance by arguing that the person not eating meat had to be hypocrite.

So: most vegetarians are not pushy about their dietary preferences, but people feel like that because they feel some guilt aboutbeating meat, CMV.

I realize I created a post for this which in a way disproves a part of my point, but I figure reddit is the place to spout your opininion even though no one asked.

EDIT: for clarification, the point is not whether telling people what to eat is pushy or not, and if it is justified although it is pushy. It is about how vegetarians sometimes are experienced as pushy by just stating their dietary preferences.
gpt
>"Well you are wearing clothes that were made in some third world sweatshop, so aren't you being hypocritical?"

>"Don't you know that the Amazon is being destroyed to produce the soybeans used to make your vegetarian hamburger?"

Out of curiosity do you find these things annoying because they are being pushy? Or because they are inducing cognitive dissonance?

I imagine its a little bit of both. There are definitely overly pushy vegetarians out there, just like there are overly pushy meat eaters. And these people give a bad name to those who aren't. Just look at some of peta's extremism for an outlying but undeniable example of asshole vegetarians.