Confederation and meat consumption

[rva_jeremy]

How then would you suggest we canvass the subject here? Words are all we have on an Internet forum.

It's nearly impossible to talk about this from the vegan (plant-based eating) standpoint without causing offense. Please share any suggestions as how to engage in this conversation from the standpoint of a vegan who cares about animal suffering. 

I don't really believe there's a lot of reasonable doubt about the respective positions of the participants in these (many) conversations at this point.

I definitely think it's possible to talk from just about any point of view and reasonably avoid giving offense. You just have to accept what you hear. If you say "I think killing animals is wrong" and you give lots of reasons, but the other person still doesn't buy it, you have to accept that even if it feels bad. Similarly, if that other person rejects your argument and you come back with "then I think you're bad", then they have to accept that even if it feels bad.

If there's one suggestion I'd make, it's to suggest that we spend more time getting to know each other, so we'll be less inclined to a militant approach and more inclined to an open, sharing approach. This subject is touchy and personal, and that's not always obvious to everybody going in. But we should recognize it now and maybe understand that any mind-changing we want to do has some prerequisites.

I'm ok if you guys want to continue; but I know it feels bad to a lot of the participants and I just wanted to reflect on why a little.