[douche]

> I was a vegetarian for ~3 years from late in high school to junior year of college

Observationally, this seems to be a stage that many young people go through at that time of life. At least on the surface - I've seen far too many "vegetarians" and "vegans" wolfing down greasy pepperoni pizza, blacked out at 3AM in my college days.

[ASpring]

> I've seen far too many "vegetarians" and "vegans" wolfing down greasy pepperoni pizza, blacked out at 3AM in my college days.

Why is this still a trope? Being vegetarian or vegan does not require perfection. Think about how absurd this standard is. If you've ever done something unkind you are no longer a kind person. If you've ever written poor code, you are no longer a good programmer.

This kind of thinking is a huge deterrent to people being vegan or vegetarian. If they ever have a lapse in judgement or decision making they just give up completely because of this line of thinking.

[antisthenes]

There are people in this very thread calling for perfection and calling the vegans and vegetarians who relapse into eating meat as described in the article as "failed".

Even you're falling into the trap of labeling people as X or Y or Z.

Why can't the goal be "eat less meat" ? If you want to quantify it, make the goal "eat ~50% less meat" than you used to.

Alternatively, bring down the meat consumption to the level of Norway or Switzerland or Japan, countries just as prosperous as the US, but with even better health outcomes.

Even something as simple as "order a mostly vegetarian dish every other time you eat out" would go a long way.

[cmdrfred]

I think the idea stems from the holier than thou attitudes you find from some vegans. The majority probably aren't that way but some are so insufferable that pointing out the hypocritical nature of their actions feels warranted.

[douche]

Because the next morning they were back on their high horses, sneering down their noses at you for eating some delicious bacon, or bitching because you wanted to go somewhere that didn't have cruelty-free quinoa or something equally ridiculous.

I'm not saying that all veg*ans are hypocritical holier-than-thou assholes, but it's not a stereotype that was invented out of whole cloth.