Vegans, why calling people murderers and rapists isn’t the best way to get them to listen to your arguments.
Reason cannot be cultivated in a mind consumed by emotions.
Yes, I agree with the ethics and moral standing of the vegan argument. It is not right to take the lives of sentient beings that have the same desire as us to enjoy life and procreate. Yes, I and many other meat eaters agree that factory farming is abhorent at the very least and alternatives methods of cultivating animal based protiens, if people insist upon or require them for health reasons, need to be devised and implimented. Methods that cause no harm to animals and do not require them to be kept in the conditions they are.
Methods like the ones used at impossible foods inc, where genuine animal protiens are being grown in laboratory conditions using grass. The same food that the cows eat is now being used to grow cow meat without ever needing to kill or harm any animals. Or at least thats their end goal.
However, when you start attacking people, calling them murderers and rapists and issueing them death threats or even perpatrating acts of phisical violence against them I can tell you without a doubt, they are not going to be comtemplating the ethical and moral superiority of the vegan diet and philosophy.
They’re going to be fearing for their lives and the lives, health and well being of their loved ones!
As I’ve mentioned in another post on religion, fear leads to hatred, anger and violence. In the context of religion and culture differences this fear typically stems from ignorance and misinformation. In the case of veganism however, the root cause of this fear is not ignorance but the violance perpetrated by vegan extreemists.
I understand the emotions that vegans have about the way that animals are being treated, but if your objective is to create a world where animals are no longer being harmed unnecessarily, then you should know that your anger and violence can often have the complete opposite effect. For example I remember once coming accross a meat eaters meme on facebook where someone had made giant roasted vegetables out of meat.
They roasted meat in a way that made the meat look like giant vegetables like carrots, broccoli etc. This I believe, can be considered as a response to the attitudes and actions of extremist vegans.
So, in your efforts to reduce the harm that is done to animals, by attacking and alienating meat eaters you’re actually indirectly causing more harm to be done to animals and making it less likely that ardent meat eaters would even consider veganism as an option.
Often, people consider the actions of a community to be a reflection of the opinions, beliefs and philosophies of those communities as a whole, even if they only witness the actions of a few extremists, not representative of the communities as a whole.
This happens with religion to where Islamic extremists are quickly plastered accross the front pages and tv screens of every media outlet in the world anytime an act of terror is commited by muslim extremists. That extremism is not representative of the Islamic world. Similarly, I would like to believe the same is true for veganism. That the extremists are only a minority and that their attitudes and opinions that farmers should be killed for example are not representative of the larger vegan community.
In both cases however, regardless of how small a percentage of extremists exist and act on their beliefs within veganism, Islam or any other idiology (the KKK would be another example), both the people who commit these acts and the fact that these acts are commited, need to be addresed. Yes along with the many, many issues and atrosities commited in the world of factory farming.
But they need to be addresed with civility and a respect for peoples basic humanity. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, positive change will not be made in society unless, in dicussing contrivertial & sensitive topics we first…
Respect each others humanity!:
Regardless of how intensely you dissagree with someone, what you think of them or their lifestyles. It is a matter of fact that they, and you, are human first! If you decided to become vegan on your own volition, remember the times when you used to enjoy eating meat yourself.
Remember how you felt about it, what you knew and didn’t know about the conduct and deception of the meat industry. Think about the weaknesses and exusess you may have made up or had to battle past on you journey to becoming vegan.
In other words EMPATHISE with the people you are tying to talk to.
I know for a lot of you it might be hard to avoid directing anger to enthusiastic meat eaters when you’re trying to convice them to at least consider veganism but that’s not a reason not to try and control it. I mean comiting violence and making people fear for their saftey isn’t really going to convince people that your morals and ethics are superior to theirs.
After all, is it really logical to use violence to protest against violence? No, not at all. This is the same reasoning that the governments of the west have used to justify the war against terror without realising the deadly irony that war itself, creates terror!
Be honest with people!:
All to often I watch vegan food reviewers and chefs cook or taste vegan meat alternatives in dishes say, “I can’t tell the difference, it tastes just like meat!!” No, it absolutely does not! Either vegans taste buds have changed from being vegan for so long or they’re just outright lying to people.
I know this is no where near as bad as the crimes committed by the meat idustries of the world but it’s still a contributing factor to why some people have a bad impression of vegans and veganism.
If you’re going to sell veganism to people based on moral and ethical grounds then the taste of plant based meat alternatives is technically irrelivant, but it’s still necassary to be honest as that will actually encorage more people to give it a go and the vegan community will actually gain respect instead of lose.
Misleading and lying to people will only hurt your cause in the long run.
The reason why vegan meat alternatives exist:
This is an argument I often hear meat eaters use against vegans. ‘Why don’t they just eat vegetables, grass and leaves?’ they say. Well here’s the thing, almost all Vegans were at one point meat eaters. A lot of them also like the taste of meat. It’s the animal cruelty that they dissagree with.
The way that animals are treated and killed for no other reason than to satisfy our taste buds.
Like how baby chicks in the egg industry are literally thrown into blenders alive and shredded to pieces simply because it’s the cheapest way to get rid of them. Or how the milk industry artificially inceminates female cows and then steals away the babies in order to take the milk for human consumption whilst the calves are slaughtered for the meat industry.
Real meat without the killing:
The fact that animals are raised in the meat industry for our consumption does not make their pain and suffering ok. There is no humane way to take the life of an animal that wants to live. The closest you could get to that is to think about the least inhumane ways to take their lives but that would still mean killing them and raising them in factory farms.
One alternative that might soon satisfy both begans and meat eaters alike is the idea of real meat grown on plants. There are several companies that are already doing this in the lab and some resturaunts have already intruduced some of them in their menus.
This is an industry worth investing in as the more funding they get the more closeley they will be able to replicate the meat eating experience at cheaper and cheaper costs and the less impact we will have on the enviroment as a result.
Why am I not vegan then?
I (almost) will be one day. I understand the fact that animals in the meat industry are birthed raised and slaughtered for the sole purpose of consumption by humans but from an ethical and moral standpoint, despite being a meat eater right now, I have to agree with the Vegans.
The fact that animals capacity to feel pain, to suffer and the fact they have a general desire to be alive that’s just the same as any humans (or cats or dogs, hint hint) means that this is not ok.
Things do need to change at the very least when it comes to factory farming, and it has been said before that one day humanity might collectivley look at animal consumption the same way we now look at slavery.
I’ve seen the films. The way that animals are abused in factory farms and I’m not just talking about the conditions they’re kept in but actual physical harm that’s done to them at the amusement of the farmers and slaughterers.
I think the closest I will ever get to being fully Vegan myself is bascally being Vegan at home but then eating whatever is provided if I go to eat with family or friends. This way I won’t be forcing my choices on other people or limiting their freedoms.
It can be argued that this contributes to limiting the freedoms of the animals and this would be a valid argument, however my end goal would be to contribute to making animal cruelty a thing of the past and I believe achieving that goal necessitates respecting peoples own choices and freedoms. People have to make their own decisions on how they’re going to go about living they’re lives and the more we try to force them to do so the more backlash there will be.
It’s plainly and blatantly obvious how wrong it is to treat animals the way we do but calling people murderers and rapists is not going to allow them to think clearly and critically about their diatary choices.
Maybe one day I’ll change my mind about this but this is simply the way I feel about this right now.
I also tried Veganuary in 2021 after watching lots of Vegan videos and fell prey to the false claims that Vegan meat alternatives tasted just like meat. In my experience there is only one meat alternative that I’ve had that even remotely resembled the meat it was imitating. That was subways ‘chicken’ substitute. Although it’s definitely not exactly the same it’s close enough that I would be happy to substitute the chicken in my diet with it.
However, out of all the other vegan meat alternatives that I’ve tried so far, they pretty much tasted like peas. One ‘No Bull Burger’ from Aldi tasted like beetroot as that was one of the main ingredients. Sausages, pasties, cheese, milk, everything else I’ve test tasted so far including the extortionately priced Beyond Meat patties taste almost nothing like meat.
As I said before though, taste is not the main reason why anyone should go vegan. The ethical and moral reasons should come first and foremost.
I’m planning on writing more articles on veganism in the future covering the science, ethics and philosophy in more detail but in an unbiased manner. I might also try going vegan for a month but this time doing it properly.
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