Well, I'm sure you're in good company. Link?

(Is it the hippie/commie veganism? Or maybe just believing in things like "math" and "science"?)

ETA:

What's the alternative? Quiet desperation.

Hey, you can do both.

Is it the hippie/commie veganism? Or maybe just believing in things like "math" and "science"?

It's the veganism. This happens all the time on the NY Times Health Blog -- they publish a post of vegetarian or vegan recipes, and people freak out in the comments, getting all defensive about how they're not going to go vegan, and they like their meat, and vegans are all weird and unnatural, so there. This is the second year in a row that they've done a lead-up to Thanksgiving with a series of vegetarian recipes that they say could be full meals for vegetarians or side dishes for meat-eaters. Last year, I remember a few comments along the lines of "Anybody who came to my Thanksgiving table and wanted to eat stuff like this would be kicked out of my house."

Things like this make me really appreciate my family. I know several vegans who won't go home for Thanksgiving, because they've got family members who yell at them and tell them they're ruining the holiday by not eating turkey. At my house, every dish except the turkey is vegan. (Most of this is because I cook almost everything.) And since the time I started crying when I saw them cutting into the turkey when I was 13, my dad carves the turkey in the kitchen so that I won't have to look at it all dismembered.

Sometimes people are so WTF. I come from a clan with *strong* feelings on thanksgiving food. We still talk about the Stuffing Wars of '82, or the year someone bought unsalted tortilla chips. But there are now a couple of vegetarians in the mix, and we just...add some dishes. I'll admit the year they were doing the raw thing was a little eye-rolly, but basically everyone just said "we can do crudites, but otherwise you're on your own to make what you need". And reserved the right to give them shit, but everyone gets shit about everything in this group. I really can't fathom the kind of mentality you hear about in those kinds of stories.

How can people not see the ridiculousness of being rude to your family on Thanksgiving?

This year I'm using facon in the sweet potatoes when 1/12 of our guests are veggies.

How can people not see the ridiculousness of being rude to your family on Thanksgiving?

Wait. What? Isn't this an essential part of the holidays? Usually though, it happens after dinner.

Oh sure. But not over stuff like that.

This happens all the time on the NY Times Health Blog -- they publish a post of vegetarian or vegan recipes, and people freak out in the comments

Ugh. I much prefer their (I think) food section where articles on meat have a link where you can go discuss vegan/carnivore/omni/only eat purple food issues because it's NOT allowed on other articles.

I know several vegans who won't go home for Thanksgiving, because they've got family members who yell at them and tell them they're ruining the holiday by not eating turkey.

Ruining it by not eating the turkey? I can see families having issues if they were told they couldn't serve turkey or have turkey around but just not eating it? Weird.

Oh my... look what just landed on my doorstep, y'all.

The real, honest-to-Murgatroyd finished product.

And it's sooooo pretty.

[link]

Ruining it by not eating the turkey? I can see families having issues if they were told they couldn't serve turkey or have turkey around but just not eating it? Weird.

Just sitting there not eating turkey makes the turkey-eaters feel guilty about eating it, and thus the holiday is ruined. Or some older relative asks why the person isn't eating the turkey, person responds, "I'm vegan," older relative starts talking about how you should be thankful to have meat, because there wasn't any during the Depression, and somehow this becomes a whole battle.

People can get weird about stuff like that. My mom's cousin once asked me why I was veg, and when I answered, "For animal rights reasons" (which is my usual answer when someone asks me this at the dinner table) and she was confused and asked me what animals have to do with meat. A few years later, my mom was bragging about how the turkey she was serving was a local free-range turkey from a farm nearby where the turkeys get to run around and stuff, and this same cousin told her to stop because she didn't want to think about the turkey being an animal while she was eating it.

I just - wow.

I mean, my family is far from perfect. I spent last night crying because of family crap that has me in a really shitty place. (When I can figure how to express it without sounding all butthurt I will try.) But at least my family's insanity is still sane, you know?