Here is a thought-provoking data set, to say the least………
The diagram above is, to me, fascinating. It took me a few moments to grasp what it was expressing, so allow me to save you the thinking:
Each circle represents the percentage of the population that agrees it is morally acceptable to eat a certain animal. The purple dots represent those who have never been vegetarian (the normies, if you will) while the green dots, fittingly, represent the opinion of those who are, or have been, card-carrying members of the Vegetarian party.
At first glance, the data is not surprising. For example 89% of the normies felt eating a chicken was morally acceptable (why isn’t it 100%?) while a smaller percentage, 72%, of the veg crowd agreed. Thus, there is a spread of 17 points between these two opinions. Makes sense so far: vegetarians being less-supportive of eating animals.
This “spread” is tighter for some animals than others. For example, there is a tremendous spread with the Pig question: nearly a 30% difference. I suppose this is because pigs are intelligent, sociable creatures, and the veg crowd finds it particularly appalling that humans would eat them. For example, I never eat octopus, because I know a little about them and find them amazing, so I can’t abide the idea. Other animals, however, such as the sheep, have a mere 8% spread, since I guess sheep don’t evoke the same admiration that a pig does, thus the vegetarians aren’t as passionate about them not being eaten by anyone.
What startled me, however, is that in HALF of these cases, the vegetarians agree MORE than the normies about the morality of eating certain animals.
Consider the horse.
A mere 25% of normies think it’s OK to eat them, but for reasons I simply cannot fathom, a full 51% of veg-heads do. HUH? Do vegetarians have it in for horses for some reason? This makes absolutely zero sense.
The troubling example of dogs and cats also produces a big spread, with 15 percent for dog (again, vegetarians applauding the consumption of Fido) and a starling 22% for the cat.
The animal LEAST favored for gobbling down from the meat-eating crowd is our close relative the Chimpanzee, although the vegetarians are nearly three times as cool with the concept of dining on, let’s say, some barbecued chimp forearm. Or if they want to amp up the marketing, they could offer up a dish called Monkey Wings.
Frankly, the more I look at this chart, the more ape-shit I think the results are. Among the dozens of questions that leap to mind……..
- Why aren’t dogs and cats at 0% for all parties? C’mon!
- Who the hell would even consider eating a guinea pig?
- And, again, what’s the deal with horses and vegetarians? Did they all get kicked in the nuts?
Well, food for thought.
