Debate: Are vegans morally superior?

This is something that really grinds the gears of many of my meat-eating friends. They’ll always start the statement with “Not you, but so many vegans really get on my nerves with their self-righteous, morally-superior attitude that they’re better than everyone else because they choose not to eat meat”. 

And this is not a conclusion non-vegans have come to on their own. I was out with a group of hunt monitors recently, and we were being heckled by some hunt supporters. The hunt supporters got into an argument with one of our members, and one of the supporters asked what she really thought the difference was between us and them. She replied “We’re morally superior!” (Because of our choice not to harm animals and our actions to try and protect them). This seemed to amuse the hunt supporters, and they asked me something that no one had actually thought to ask me before: “Do YOU think you’re morally superior?”

 Which brought on an interesting thought process. On the face of it, I’ve never liked to think of myself as morally superior to people in general, but when I think about it, I’d be offended if someone suggested I was on the same moral level as Osama Bin Laden. Therefore, I must acknowledge I think I am superior to Osama Bin Laden. And when I think about why I believe that, I realise this thought process must be applied to everyone. If I condemn the actions of someone as being wrong (using Osama Bin Laden as an example) I therefore believe I am morally superior to them. It is as simple as that.

The real issue is that people don’t seem to understand what morally superior actually means, and people really don’t like the sound of the word superior. It makes you think of “better”… Since that’s exactly what it means. But people don’t like that. No one can call themselves better than anyone else, it’s just not right. But we acknowledge that some people are better or worse than others. Unless you maintain that everyone is equal, meaning that everyone has the same morality as Kim Il Sung, the infamous North Korean dictator. Yea, doesn’t sound so nice when you put it like that, does it? So it’s not fair to say you’re better than anyone, but if you don’t acknowledge you are better than anyone, you’re basically agreeing that you are dirt. And that’s not particularly something we want to do either.

Morality is the principle of discerning the distinction between right and wrong. If you believe an action is wrong, then it is immoral. If it is right, then it is moral. Seems pretty basic.

And everyone seems to be able to grasp that vegans are vegan because they believe it is wrong to harm animals for your own gain. Regardless of whether you agree with it, generally people understand that this is what it’s all about.

So, if people are able to comprehend that being vegan is about deciding that exploiting other species is wrong making the decision not to, and if we all understand that morality is the line between what is right and what is wrong, why is it so hard to understand that IF you are an ethical vegan you must automatically believe that eating meat is wrong, and that doing it is immoral, therefore being vegan is morally superior. That’s kind of the whole reason we’re doing it!

It strikes me as odd that people would, knowing this, get offended that vegans think of themselves as morally superior. “Oh, those vegans! Always on their high horse!” (Again, for clarification true vegans don’t ride horses, but more on that later) “Why do they have to go around acting like they’re better than everyone else!” Is it really so hard to understand that if a vegan believed they weren’t better than others and being vegan doesn’t make you morally superior, it would mean they see nothing wrong with eating meat and would no longer be vegan?

The only logical conclusion I can come to is people honestly don’t understand what the term “morally superior” actually means, and are just getting offended because their pride is hurt by the idea anyone might think they’re better than them. Now, I will always preach humility and a humble nature, but people in today’s society seem unable to acknowledge moral superiority, which leads to an inability to change. So I’ll just quickly spell it out for you: Yes. Some people are morally superior to you. No matter how good you feel about yourself, the chances are somewhere in the world there is someone who is a nicer and more thoughtful person. And if you live a lifestyle that supports the suffering, exploitation and death of other beings that are proven to feel, then you are on a level of morality lower to someone who doesn’t. 

If you still don’t get it, here’s another parallel to be drawn: You, if you are the standard, non-homicidal person, who hasn’t committed a murder or string of murders, most likely view yourself as morally superior to serial killers. Why? Because they have chosen to kill people, and you’ve never done that. That makes you a better person, and you don’t feel guilty for thinking it, because it’s just logical.
This is exactly how a lot of vegans view the situation. They also don’t kill people, but they don’t support the death of animals in addition to not killing people, which puts them again on a slightly higher level of moral superiority. By this line of thinking, a vegan serial killer may very likely be viewed as morally inferior to your standard meat-eater, but when just judging dietary lifestyle choices, if you have two people identical in every way, but one eats meat and one doesn’t, logically, by a standard code of ethics, the one who doesn’t must be morally superior.  In the same way, two serial killers who have murdered the same amount of people, one of whom is an animal abuser and one of whom runs an animal sanctuary, even though I think we can all agree they’re probably both horrible people, the one who also abuses animals is more than likely just a tad more horrible. No one is totally and utterly moral or immoral, we’re all more shades of grey, but if you subscribe to a standard code of ethics it is only reasonable to acknowledge there is always room for improvement: if everyone believes everyone to be on the same moral level, then no good deed is truly a good deed, and no bad deed is truly a bad deed. Everything shares the same moral consequences, and pushing someone in front of a bus makes you no better or worse a person than pushing someone out of the way of a bus.

I originally went vegan because I came to the conclusion that I WASN’T morally superior to other species, and that my worth was not more than their own, and I believe the only way to truly inspire and live a selfless, moral and ethical existence is to be humble, and though I don’t always follow through on that, I try not to boast myself as morally superior to my friends and family: it’s not such a good way of keeping them around and therefore not such a good way of influencing them towards your lifestyle. But in truth if I didn’t think being vegan made me in some way morally superior, it would mean I didn’t think eating meat was wrong and I’d still be doing it. That’s not to say I think my family and friends who still eat meat are total immoral beings (they’re scum! Scum scum scum! Spit), but I do believe that their actions are immoral, and when it comes to diet and lifestyle choices, I therefore must logically dictate that I live a more morally superior lifestyle. A person who knows the suffering the animal industry causes and chooses not to change their ways must be seen as morally inferior to someone who sees the suffering and takes action to not contribute towards it.
Now, I try my best not to class myself as personally morally superior to others. I’ve done things I’m not proud of and acted selfishly. But the one thing I feel most guilty about is eating meat and dairy and contributing to animal suffering for the first nineteen years of my life, and I am very much of the belief that being vegan is morally superior to not being vegan. And if you don’t agree, ask yourself this:
Do you think of someone who is kind to animals as superior to someone who doesn’t?
Would you frown upon someone beating a cat in the street?
Have you ever read an article about a man who physically abused a pet dog and judged him? Or saw a picture in the news of a hunter killing off an endangers species and thought how terrible it was?

Do you believe animals can feel pain?

If any of these are even slightly true, then you acknowledge that not harming animals is better than harming them, and even if you don’t realise it, technically speaking you believe someone who doesn’t eat meat is morally superior to someone who does. I’m not saying that you want to be vegan, or that you believe everyone should stop eating meat. I’m just saying that on some level, you acknowledge that there is a moral superiority in choosing not to do it.

So, to sum this whole thing up in one sentence: being vegan is morally superior to not being vegan. That’s not to say 100% of vegans are morally superior to 100% of meat-eaters, but one lifestyle clearly has the moral superiority, and on first impression I will always look more favourably on vegans than I do on meat-eaters, as I look more favourably on people who don’t try to murder me than people who do. 

Do I think meat-eaters are all bad people? Of course not. I just think a lot of people have yet to make the connection. But I pray and I hope every single day that they do soon, because unfortunately lives are being lost while they stay in the dark.

(I feel like I should state that the majority of the pictures in these blogs are not my own creation. I tend to just google phrases from the blog and fit in the most fitting, most eye-catching or most amusing image. So disclaimer: for the record, they're not mine. Except this one of me at the end here. Hi.)