Shot off the soapbox

So there's a woman in my anatomy class who tends to... lets say "sell" a healthy way of life. Which is good. She's not trying to sell an actual product, or rip you off. She just wants you to be healthy. She explains to you why you shouldn't use plastic bottles (they leach chemicals into your drink) and why its good to exercise, eat healthy foods, etc. I can feel her staring at the back of my head when I snack on my tortilla chips in class, and I want to turn around and shout at her, "They're from the health food store, leave me alone!"

Yesterday, one of the guys in the class mentioned McDonald's, in the context of a story that was similar to this: "When I was 6 we watched a movie about how bad fast food is and then my dad took us to McDonald's." I suppose she assumed he was still eating at McDonald's every night of his life since then, because she started to tell him about how inhumane McDonald's is.

"The cows are held in mass quantities in large pens, knee deep in feces, and are fed corn. Because they are fed corn, they have to be slaughtered before a certain age because corn is not good for them and they will die if they eat only a diet of corn. As long as they can physically drag the cow off the truck and have it still breathing, then they are allowed to slaughter it and put it in a burger. So when you eat a burger, you are eating parts of at least 1000 different cows (thats how processed it is) and they have all been malnourished and unhappy."

I sometimes wish I were a robot or droid or something so that every time I hear something like that, a little alarm will go off and I will start blinking neon lights and shouting "Soapbox, Soapbox!!" without it actually being considered rude ('cause you know, that's just how the programmer made me.)

At the end of her rant, she looked at him saying, "So that's why my daughter has become a vegetarian." And looked at him pointedly, as if to say that he should immediately call the girl and tell her what an inspiration she is and that he would immediately take a vow of veganism to join her in her cause.

Instead he said, "So?"

Silence.
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Nope."
More silence.

I guess it pays not to have a conscience.