My experience has been that once a friend has gone down the “vegetarian/vegan for ethics!!” road, the next stop is dietary evangelism (like your post is full of), sneering at the food choices of their other friends, and generally making an unpleasant pestering, guilt tripping nuisance of themselves. In short, they become no longer a friend, but an irritant.

Now, I have some friends who are vegetarian/vegan who don’t get into the type of evangelism that alienates people. They just live their lives, respect my choices and I respect theirs.

But when a person comes off with “How can you be a good environmentalist/activist/feminist/animal lover/human being if you eat [fill in the blank]”, it’s time to move them to the mere acquaintance list.

I tend to have the problem with any associate who takes up a radically new lifestyle and subsequently tries to forcibly “share” it with those who really have no interest.

So, in answer to the implied “Why do people give me the third degree?”, I say “If you promote it, evangelise it or otherwise talk about it a lot, be prepared for pushback and questioning by those who don’t share your views.”

Oh, BTW, if people around me decide to do some new diet thing, or have kids, or take up some exercise thing, the same rule applies: If they keep it low key and don’t try to push it on me, I’m fine with it, it’s their life. If they try to sell me on it, they rapidly will see less of me.