if you want to be a vegetarian and start explaining you'd like to ingest fewer dead animals, people ask you why you aren't vegan. why you use any animal products at all.
if you want to help the world and start explaining the great disparities in the world, people ask you why you don't quit your job and volunteer in africa.
if you want to be environmentally conscious, people ask why you drive, why you order take-out, why you use anything disposable, and why you don't live in a cave instead.
they're not trying to have a constructive conversation here: they feel threatened by the fact that you might actually be right and hence prefer to throw out all-or-nothing arguments to demoralize you. (they're not wrong either, by the way, there is more that any one could be doing)
of course, the preachy people who smugly tell people that they're on a higher moral plane aren't helping either - they're suspicious and annoying.
well, no one ever said it was easy...
