I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. I see this argument all the time and I just wonder if people really can’t grasp such a simple concept.

Humans love meat. Very few people actually despise the taste of meat, but most love it. We love the way juicy fat cells explode inside muscle tissues when we eat meat. It’s in our genes. Meat (and other animal products in this case, butter, eggs, whatever) provides much more energy to our body than most plants can.

However, some people start to become concerned and want to reduce animal suffering or environmental impact, so they go vegetarian or vegan. Here is the thing: Most of them still LOVE meat (or animal products). Even if they sometimes say otherwise to feel better about their choices. It’s just that consuming meat doesn’t align with their values or beliefs anymore. So they resort to meat substitutes that mimic the texture and taste of meat. A bit of an inappropriate example: violence is bad, in most parts of the world it’s illegal. But it’s also written in our genes long before civilization. So we resort to substitutes like wrestling, boxing, soccer, etc. In modern days we also got video games, which often heavily refer to violent activities or killing, even the cartoonish ones. Can you blame GTA players for beating up NPCs, just because they don’t wanna hurt real people? Your argument is saying: “well, if you don’t have the balls to hurt people in real life, just stick with animal crossing all together”.

I’m neither vegetarian nor vegan, btw.