Shocking News: I Am Not PETA

I have an earth-shattering secret to tell some people. It might just disrupt their perception of the world forever: Just because I am a vegetarian, does not mean I'm a member of/support PETA.

This seems to be an incredibly  difficult concept for many meat-eaters to grasp. Apparently, in their minds, one radically offensive organization represents the whole of an enormously diverse group of people. Maybe this is because their only experience with vegetarians and vegans is news about PETA's latest screw-up. Maybe they're just jerks.

Whatever the reason, it seems to be a widespread opinion that, when someone tells you they're vegetarian, you are absolutely obligated  to reference PETA in some way. I have been told the "People Eating Tasty Animals" joke more times than I can count (and often two or more times from the same person). I have been asked "Oh, so you call fish 'sea kittens' and all that crap?" (Oh boy did my lunch table love  to bring that one up.) On the rare occasion that I meet with someone who shares a feminist outlook, I can expect to immediately be called a hypocrite because of PETA's overwhelmingly sexist ways.

Only, of course, I hate PETA. As does, oh I don't know, every single other vegetarian I've met. And I think I can accurately say, most of the ones I haven't  met. And I don't know why this is so difficult for so many meat-eaters to understand.

This also happens in a sense even outside of just PETA: People will often feel the need to tell me about other ways that not-so-positive vegetarian groups or people have been offensive/violent/what have you.

Here's the thing: I don't give every Christian I meet a history lesson on the Crusades.

I don't tell every white person I meet "Oh, you're white? You know, I heard a lot of white people did this horrible thing called 'slavery'..."

I don't inform every male person I meet about the shitload of sexism that is the world.

And why? Because not all vegetarians are the same, just as not all men are the same, not all white people are the same, and not all Christians are the same.

And let me repeat for the record: Just about everybody hates PETA. We clear? Good.