[Cavernio]

"priority should be respecting the people serving you because by not doing so you are disrespecting their culture. When comparing culture vs making a statement against practices of the meat industry, I think that culture certainly comes first."

Let me first say that we will both be arguing that one value is higher than another, so no responding with 'but now you're not considering my value'. You are saying that to respect a culture is more important than making a statement about the practicies of the meat industry.
However, if you put yourself into a vegetarian's or vegan's shoes, they are not merely making a 'statement'. They are saving a life, or half a life, or whatever amount of meat they refuse, as well as making a statement. Surely we can agree that 'saving a life' is clearly a higher moral than respect.

It is sad how true your argument is though. I don't refuse meat from my bf's family, and they have no idea my switch to eating only animals that I feel have had an untortured life, because it would be awkward to say so, and I seem to have a stance on the whole issue that most people don't share, or at least don't practice. (Ideally, I'd be vegan purely for ecological reasons, but I am weak.)

It really is sad that societal expectations can trump other values, sad how much power they hold over us, regardless of logic, or a higher morality someone may strive for.

Stargroup: Pretend we are all stupid and spell it out for us nonetheless. You disagree with many things, yet expect us to change without telling us what it is we are doing wrong. Pleading people to change without asking people how to change is, well, stupid.