"This makes it a rejection of a lifestyle and a rebuke to the majority’s values"<p>That's the core of it, as I see it. No matter how discreet you are about it, when your choices implicitly condemn the majority's values, they won't let it go.<p>Take it from a teetotaller. Like most kids I didn't drink and avoided drunk people whenever I could. Unlike most kids I kept doing that. Strangely enough, I've never had as many invitations to parties - sincere ones, too - as after my peers found out I thought there was nothing for me in those parties and wouldn't go.<p>Even though I was easy to ignore, it was apparently preferable to get me there and get some reassurance that I didn't object THAT much to their habits.<p>I try to keep that it mind and not be that way with vegans. It should take more than the implicit condemnation of non-participation to make us uneasy; if it does, maybe we need to confront some things in ourselves.