Vegan picks a fight, meats his makers

I just want to shout you out for your attitude! It really pisses me off to read threads like the linked one here because so many people outright dismiss veganism and can be so petty in the way they just dismiss you. Sorry to vent all over your comment but I just have some thoughts I want to collect!

The whole "how do you know a person is a vegan?" joke and the attitude around that is so infuriating. Hating vegans has become such a meme that people absolutely will not hear you out even if they start the conversation. I've brought up the fact that I'm vegan with my friends exactly once, and every time it's come up since them has been them taking the piss out of it. I don't think they're doing it to be cruel, or that they don't care about ethical issues, but it's just a societal reflex at this point to associate any vegan with preachiness and a holier-than-thou attitude. So people will not engage with you on a serious level at all, it's just "muh bacon" jokes and that sort of stuff, so the confusing thing to me is why bother bringing up veganism if you're going to respond to facts about the unethical treatment of animals and horrid ecological impact of meat with shitty memes?

I'm an outspoken advocate for animal rights, I support local vegan businesses and attend community events, but I never try to convert someone at the table because I know that's the worst environment to have the discussion. If someone asks me a question about it, I'll happily answer, but I'm respectful enough of other people's feelings not to lecture them while they eat. But as soon as I turn down a meat dish, or ask if there's cheese in something, everyone becomes a comedian or thinks that they must be the first person to tell me that veganism is stupid and doesn't make a difference.

It's like you say, it's because people know deep down that there's grounds for criticism. Just the fact that you are a vegan for so many people constitutes a criticism of them and their ethics, so people get extremely defensive and petty. Everybody knows that the meat industry and all related industries are abhorrent, but so few people really want to face it. So they get to a point with 3 choices

  1. Be vegan
  2. Accept that they are making an unethical decision by eating meat and animal products, and realise that while their position is comfortable, it is not ethically defensible, or
  3. Refuse to confront their own cognitive dissonance and become angry at anyone or anything that brings it to their attention.

The funny thing is that I absolutely don't think meat eaters are bad people as a rule. The fact that they get so defensive is proof that they're not, because the thought of being complicit in suffering is so horrible to them so they deny it. The example I use is my grandmother. She eats meat, I don't. However, she volunteers and I don't. She sponsors children and donates to charity, and I don't. Is she a bad person because she eats meat? Absolutely not. Am I a good person because I don't? I like to think of myself as a good person, but for more reasons than that alone, you can absolutely be a vegan and a manipulative, lying asshole and therefore a bad person.

So that's why I don't hate meat eaters or think they're all bad people like so many meat eaters assume I do. If a meat eater wants to hear me out on why veganism is a good thing, and decides that it's more than they're willing to do, it upsets me but that's that, as long as they've listened to the facts and are making that decision in full light of its weight. That also entails respecting me for my decision, and not belittling me for it. However, the thing that really pisses me off is when people not only ignore the arguments for veganism, but insult and belittle me and other vegans and become the self-righteous self-important dropkicks they've convinced themselves are their enemy.

Sorry that got so long and tangential, but yeah again thank you for being so reasonable.

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