Vegan Meat and Olympic Villages

I feel bad about eating meat. Once, in college, someone handed me a pamphlet about how poultry farmers inject chickens with hormones that make their breasts so big they can’t even stand up.

Apparently, that is no longer true; the U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits the use of hormones in raising poultry. But there are still plenty of other problems with chicken production, including that they’ve been bred over generations to grow abnormally quickly.

This information makes me sad, but I still eat chicken. Worse, I only eat chicken breasts. Don’t come at me with bones or tendons or skin. I don’t want to be reminded that I’m eating an animal. It’s gross, and it makes me feel bad that an animal had to die. Ultimately, my denial that it’s an animal leaves me feeling even worse because people like me are the reason the poor chickens are bred so large in the first place

Some of my friends are more ethical meat eaters. They eat animals that have been allowed to grow normally, and/or they eat more of the animal’s parts. Or they don’t eat meat at all, which lowers the demand for meat, which means fewer animals suffer and die. On the survival show Alone, I saw a lady trap and eat a rabbit, but she survived on it for days, used the pelt for warmth, and thanked the rabbit for giving its life so she could survive. Now that’s an ethical murder.

Similarly (stay with me here), I am obsessed with the Olympics. I host a watch party every Olympic Games. The internet is replete with excellent Olympic-themed snack ideas: a blue Jell-O swimming pool, a Cheeto & ice cream cone torch, Olympic rings made out of M&Ms. Really, the possibilities are endless.

In 2024, when a guy from my town (Go Bryce Hoppel!) competed in the Paris games in track & field, my friend and I went to the city-wide watch party wearing homemade track bibs with his name on them. We even got on the local news. For the 2028 Summer Games in LA, it won’t just be a watch party; I’ve already registered to buy tickets. 

My friend and I attend a city-wide watch party for Olympic runner, Bryce Hoppel. Midland, Texas, 2024.

I feel bad about all this, too. I have heard rumblings for years about the ethical problems with the Olympics: The people who are displaced from their homes to make way for giant stadiums. The expense of building facilities that the host city can’t afford and that will barely be used after the Games are over. The sex workers who are exploited to meet the huge demand from the influx of tourists. 

When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I almost lost my mind. Could I survive the Olympics being cancelled for ethical reasons, or modified to better address these humanitarian concerns? Don’t make me think about that.

Meat consumption and the Olympic Games are two areas in which my actions do not align with my values. My default response to the resulting twinge in my conscience is to explain away the inconsistency. 

The chickens probably like having unnaturally large breasts. They probably feel sexy.

At least the host country gets some national pride out of the deal!

Anything to make myself believe that the problem is external, not internal. It’s the world’s problem, not mine.

Why do I do this? Because it was ingrained in me early in life that hypocrisy is bad. We should live out our values! We should be consistent! We shouldn’t say one thing and do another.

Agree, agree, agree. But honestly? That was before the internet. It was when we had the luxury of not immediately knowing every ramification of every event that ever happens. 

Nowadays, it’s different. There’s always a journalist (or “journalist”) happy to point out the dark underbelly of current events or cultural institutions. And that’s great! This type of public accountability is a good thing.

My anti-hypocrisy ideal was also formed before the entire world order began to shift under our feet. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. Historians and analysts of all stripes are banging their gongs, trying to get our attention to say: Everything is changing. Artificial intelligence, the rise of totalitarianism, the fraying of longstanding alliances…our paradigms from the 1990s about how the world works simply aren’t holding up.

Things are confusing to begin with; add to that a hyperawareness of the ripple effects of every choice, and it’s become impossible to hold a totally cohesive set of values and live them out consistently across all areas of life. 

I’m pro-life but I vote for pro-choice candidates.

I support sustainability but I buy a bunch of crap from Amazon.

I believe in public education but my kids attend private schools.

I know processed foods are unhealthy but there’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my pantry.

I rag on my kids for using their phones too much but I use mine too much, too.

I’m a feminist but I spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to be skinny and pretty.

Faced with inconsistencies like this, we have a few options:

1. Deflect. This is a popular strategy. By pointing out other people’s inconsistencies, we can distract from the gaping hole in our own logic. For example, “Why are you worried about me giving my kids Cinnamon Toast Crunch when you’re busy giving your kids orthorexia?”

2. Laugh it off. Glory in our shame. Throw up our hands and say, “Being consistent is too hard. Forget it.” For example, “Sure, I’m on my phone too much, but what else are we supposed to do when the world is on fire?”

3. Acknowledge the inconsistency, tolerate the uncomfortable feelings of guilt, and make small changes when and where we can to more closely align with our values.

You can probably tell from its specificity that I think Option 3 is the best approach.

Maybe try sitting with your hypocrisy for a while, and allowing other people to sit with theirs. You’ll exhaust yourself trying to repackage all your life choices into a seamless narrative. Trust me; I’ve tried. 

I’m wrong about a lot of things, and so are you. That’s okay. The world is complicated.

I’m not gonna jump down your throat if, for example, you thought schools should have stayed open during the pandemic, but you also don’t love Donald Trump’s batty aspirations to take over Greenland.

I’m not gonna be mad at you if you’re concerned about racism, but you’re also concerned that some DEI initiatives create more problems than they solve.

Some people on the internet probably will jump down your throat. They'll shame you and demand that you swear allegiance to one side or the other. You can mute them.

There is a lot of wiggle room within every big idea: freedom, justice, peace, prosperity. Nobody has a monopoly on how those things should play out, even if they tell you they do (especially if they tell you they do).

This is a good time, in the grand scheme of history, for all of us to reevaluate our paradigms. Toss out what doesn’t fit anymore. It will be gradual, and subtle, and not make sense to the ideology police on the internet or in your own home. That’s okay.

Consider this post your permission to make peace with a little hypocrisy. Don’t forget to make changes when and where you can, of course! But don’t become so overwhelmed by competing values that you start saying weird stuff to explain away your inconsistencies. Or worse, freeze up and ignore your values altogether.

So what changes am I making personally? Ugh, I knew you’d ask.

Well, in response to well-founded fears that thousands of homeless people will be cruelly displaced for the LA28 Olympics, I’ve made a donation to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which is committed to working with the city of LA to provide safe housing alternatives for unhoused people. I’ve also written to California Governor Gavin Newsom explaining that I do not support the mass displacement of homeless people for the Games. Finally, I will continue to express compassion towards homeless people in my own community and financially support organizations that care for them.

Okay, fine. I will also try using chicken thighs instead of breasts at least once this year. (Gag me.) And at some point in the future, when I’m not responsible for feeding four picky people in addition to myself, I will do a deep dive into the ethics of meat production. Who knows?? Maybe I’ll go vegan.