A person has united the internet against them, after confessing to making their vegetarian boyfriend eat meat at a family meal.

The bearding internet user, who didn't share their gender, posted to popular Subreddit "Am I The A**pigsty," where people head to find advice on whether they are in the wrong.

Sharing to the Subreddit, they told an anecdote from a contempo visit to their family unit ahead of Christmas day. The couple take been together for two years and visited their family unit on Thursday to drop off Christmas presents. It was also the kickoff time their boyfriend met their family, "so it was kinda important," they said.

"Here'south the matter," they began. "I forgot to tell them that my boyfriend is vegetarian, and then my mom fabricated a turkey and there wasn't really anything else to eat, beside some snacks. When I realized that, I quietly asked my beau to delight not cause a scene and just eat the nutrient and compliment my mom on information technology.

"He tried to argue back, maxim that he doesn't desire to prevarication to my mom but I told him that he would come across as rude if he didn't at least try to it, and I didn't want him to brand a bad impression. So he sucked it up, ate an unabridged plate and told my mom that information technology was delicious, which obviously fabricated her happy.

"Nosotros had a practiced evening and everyone seemed to like him, but when we drove dorsum home he brought it up again and said he thinks it was kinda fucked up of me to wait him to consume meat, when I know how much information technology disgusts him. I go his point and I apologized to him, merely I still don't think that it's that bad to eat a bit of turkey once, to non make a weird first impression on my family unit," they finished.

The fear of making a weird impression by refusing to eat meat isn't one born from nowhere. In a 2015 study, researchers found that vegans and vegetarians are perceived far more than negatively than many other target groups, with just drug addicts being viewed worse. Not-meat eaters motivated by brute rights or ecology concerns were particularly viewed negatively.

Of course, finding out exactly why vegans and vegetarians are viewed and so negatively can be hard, but many have varying ideas as to why. One initial presumption is that non-meat eaters are oftentimes described as smug, with pop jokes and memes surrounding just how quickly they're willing to let you know they don't consume meat.

Couple arguing in kitchen
Stock epitome of a couple arguing while cooking. A person has angered the internet after forcing their boyfriend to eat meat. Getty Images

Researchers however have different theories. Social psychologist Hank Rothgerber told the BBC in 2020 that he believed facing vegans makes people unwillingly confront their own habits. Essentially, more and more information is accepted most the negative impacts of eating meat, especially by those who claim to yet love animals, then people are left with the "meat paradox" or "moral schizophrenia," in which a person holds the two contrary views, only acts on one of them.

According to Rothberger, humans accept a number of strategies to make them experience less confronted by the meat paradox, including imagining we eat less than nosotros do and willful ignorance. The presence of a vegan or a vegetarian however forces them to face their feelings, booting them from being just someone who follows the mainstream diet to a highlighted "meat eater" when with a non-meat eater.

In this case though, information technology was both meat-eaters and non-meat eaters akin that united in their stance confronting the original poster—unanimously dubbing them "the a**hole."

"Respecting your boyfriend's feelings, beliefs, and personal decisions should be more important than avoiding A slightly awkward state of affairs, especially one that would take been your fault for not mentioning he was vegetarian in the beginning place," commented one user.

I user ranked her as "the a**pigsty" for "fifty-fifty asking, let bullying him into actually doing it. I'1000 surprised that he (a) went along with it, and (b) hasn't dumped your sorry a** already.

"How do yous 'forget' to tell your family that someone you lot've been with for two years doesn't swallow meat? 'Forget' my ass. You don't agree with his vegetarianism, and yous intentionally didn't tell them," they added.

"Vegetarians shouldn't be expected to just drop their conventionalities and dietary lifestyle because information technology'due south convenient to non crusade a scene. You 100% should have told them right then and there that he is vegetarian (I mean ideally much earlier, simply mistakes happen)," agreed another Reddit user.

"I experience really bad for your young man, you obviously don't care about his beliefs and choices, and think you're all that matters."