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I've been sitting here for three years now, trying to write this article. Before I give up on the project entirely, let's briefly examine the counter-argument. A recent study showed conclusively that vegetarians scored an average of 10 points higher in their IQ tests. Now, stupid vegetarians will likely spill their lentils in excitement at the prospect that not eating animal cadavers is making them smarter by the minute. Being smart predisposes one to being vegetarian, but being vegetarian doesn't make you smarter. Stupid vegetarians.
Anyway, I'm a vegetarian - note the lack of a capital 'V' as I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with eating animals. Also I do eat fish, which means that I'm not at all a vegetarian... see, thing is that fish get to be fish and swim around first; also they are more dissimilar to me than other mammals are. Did you know that vegetarians who eat fish have the highest life expactancy, whereas vegans and meat-eaters are about the same? End feeble justification.
Why go Vego?
There are quite a lot of fairly compelling arguments for why we are naturally meant to be vegetarian - teeth, digestive systems, raw meat will make you sick et. al. but I don't suspect that these arguments are what make them smarter people less inclined to dine upon the rotting flesh of beasts. No. What's more likely is that those of a higher intelligence have a more developed capacity to see things outside of convention - to think independently. And if we are to think about whether it's okay to keep animals in torturous conditions, castrate them without anaesthetic, callously slaughter them etc. then we're probably going to have to raise an ethical eyebrow or two.
Sixty years ago the idea of black people being human,
