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AIBU?

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Original poster

To get annoyed about Vegan friend putting slaughtered animals on Facebook?

75 replies

Faerie87 · 01/06/2018 08:20

I have been a vegetarian for going on 18 years now, started when I was in high school due to my own personal feelings about eating meat.

I would never call anyone out if they were to eat meat, my DP and family also eat meat and I have never had a problem with that.

I would have liked to go Vegan however I have never had the will power to do it, but I’m happy with my choice of diet and have never felt the need to judge anyone else for theirs.

I have a couple of Facebook friends who are vegan, who have been for a couple of years now, pretty sure they were meat eaters before that. They are constantly putting pictures up dipicting animal cruelty with captions such as cows milk is for baby cows not humans!

Is it unreasonable for me to want to stop following these people because it’s annoying and I don’t like seeing pictures like that? I am friends in RL with them and they are nice people but I have never been a fan of preaching.

Thanks

OP posts:
JacquesHammer · 01/06/2018 08:22

If you want to remain friends, just unfollow them. That’s the beauty of social media; you can control what you see.

YANBU for wanting to enjoy your own timeline!

Opheliah · 01/06/2018 08:24

New converts always do this sort of thing. You could always say "this is so grim and as a vegetarian I would never preach and upset people like this" maybe they'll stop.

Are the posts getting liked?

Having said that, I wouldn't mind myself because everything they are posting is actually true. The dairy industry is in many ways far more cruel than the meat industry and milk is actually quite bad for you.

baxterboi · 01/06/2018 08:25

I really hate this, depending on who it is I either hide the post and unfollow or if their someone I'm not particularly bother about I just delete them as a friend.

MrsJayy · 01/06/2018 08:25

Just unfollow them or hide the picture function is great I do that with a vegan friend she was fond of PETA pictures.

Meralia · 01/06/2018 08:27

Just unfollow them. You won’t have the awkwardness of having to explain why you unfriended them then.

I agree though, people post some nasty stuff on Facebook!

lljkk · 01/06/2018 08:27

you don't have to ask permission to unfollow anyone who annoys you.
I have low tolerance for evangelical people, too

ShatnersWig · 01/06/2018 08:28

Christ why do people stress about this? It doesn't need asking opinions from all and sundry on MN. If you don't like what someone posts, you just unfollow them; if you find their stuff totally against your principles, you unfriend them.

Simple.

Summersnake · 01/06/2018 08:28

I'm vegan,and I'd have to unfollow them...I get too upset at the photos,they would have the potential to ruin my day,so yeah I would unfollow

SuburbanRhonda · 01/06/2018 08:28

milk is actually quite bad for you

In what way?

lljkk · 01/06/2018 08:29

probably belief that yellow milk turns into yellow mucus.

CatchIt · 01/06/2018 08:29

I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian but I have a friend that does this with images & videos of dogs in China. It's fucking grim and I personally feel no amount of petitioning will stop it. I do like her so I put that I don't want to see posts like this. It seems to have worked.

RedDwarves · 01/06/2018 08:30

It's so redundant. Posting these photos and shaming people who eat meat etc. is not going to convert them to your way of life. It'd be like me saying, "Christians are so stupid. How could you believe in such bullshit?" and expecting that that would "convert" them to atheism.

Daft, nonsensical rubbish.

YANBU to unfollow them.

4littlebirds · 01/06/2018 08:31

Just unfollow. Same advice for any of your other Facebook friends that post things not to your taste. Don’t get why you have to ask though.

MrsJayy · 01/06/2018 08:35

Oh the dogs in China or the racoon dogs being used for fur is horrific why would anybody post that on their facebook.

puppywithattitude · 01/06/2018 08:36

Milk is bad for you?

Original poster
Faerie87 · 01/06/2018 08:37

Think if it happens again I will unfollow it.

They don’t get notification of that do they?

It just kinda bugs me that they have only recently become vegan and have the attitude that everyone who is not a vegan are uncaring people who support animal cruelty. I thought being a veggie for 18 years might have counted for something?

Sorry personal feelings showing through. I just hate seeing pictures of animal cruelty, similar ones are when you see people who have injured a dog or a cat on purpose I get really angry and feel really bad for the animal.

The only problem with the vegan ones is they ask you to give up part of your diet in order to stop the cruelty.

I did debate this with my partner who is a meat eater and he made the point that if everyone in the world stopped having dairy and became vegan, the dairy farmers are not going to just keep the animals as pets and there would be a mass slaughter! I see it from both sides but as mentioned not sure I like preachy posts x

OP posts:
overnightangel · 01/06/2018 08:37

Q: How do you know if somebody is a vegan?

A: They’ll tell you

ThrillitDontkillit · 01/06/2018 08:39

I have a FB friend that does this, and she has recently upped the amount of pictures and "facts" she feels we NEED to see. When someone commented that as a vegetarian, they did not want to see this stuff, they were subject to a a load of abuse calling them ignorant, hypocritical, cow raping, murdering monsters. Vegetarians are, apparently, just as bad as meat eaters.

I think, like others have said, yanbu, but your friend won't see it that way. So just unfollow. This is another case of what is a good message getting lost in the noise of it being made.

MrsJayy · 01/06/2018 08:40

The friend won't know you have unfollowed them.

Candyflip · 01/06/2018 08:40

I am conflicted with this, because I do think that many vegetarians don’t actually see that using milk products is every bit as bad as using meat products, yet they think they are making a difference. I think vegans kind of have a right to call us out on this.

tomhazard · 01/06/2018 08:40

I unfollow the couple of friends I have that do this. Whilst not a vegan I do support this way of eating and lifestyle. I don't think the endless pictures are the way forward for the vegan movement.

RainbowFairiesHaveNoPlot · 01/06/2018 08:41

I just filter the source page they're sharing from - there'll be an option to "hide all from obnoxiously share share share this shite source" and I click that. No friend has ever twigged I've done it and I've got a militant lactavist who shares umpteen things about formula I find offensive with all her shite pages filtered, another who's on the trans-women are women too and women are just cis-women cause of the week with loads of that stuff blocked, and some fairly militant veganism blocked.

Decent people - and in the real world we agree to disagree on differing political views (so I don't want to block the friendship) - but when the FB share button is concerned they lose all common sense sometimes.

Mousefunky · 01/06/2018 08:42

I had lots of people unfollowed when I was on Facebook for all manner of reasons. They’ll have no idea you’ve done it so not sure why you haven’t already.

I am also vegetarian but have been vegan for year+ long spells in the past. Did turn into a bit of a preachy vegan at one stage, even had a tshirt... then I realised what an arsehole I was being and stopped. Veganism gives some people (especially new converts) a bit of a superiority complex.

MrsJayy · 01/06/2018 08:44

That is what I do Rainbow just stops stuff popping up.

ToadOfSadness · 01/06/2018 08:53

Hide them, you can still remain friends if you want to. Or snooze them. I find I am hiding things a lot more that are regarding animal cruelty and one vegan friend keeps bombarding the feed with pictures, nice ones about nature but they fill up the page.

I hate animal cruelty but I don't want to see it, I do as much as I can to help but I can't bear the photos and rarely look on FB now. You could reply with articles about palm oil and orang utans because a lot of vegan (and vegetarian) food contains palm oil so if they are vegan for ethical reasons they might be missing the point.

I am vegetarian, and also can't manage to be vegan, however I buy as few items as possible that do not contain palm oil or derivatives which is very difficult.