To have pointed out to super enthusiast vegan where pearls come from?

[listsandbudgets]

I went out with some friends today and one of them bought a friend of hers we'd not met before. She would not let up with the vegan stuff - kept lecturing us about where our meat came from, how cows were tortured to make our cheese, how hens were mistreated to lay our eggs etc. etc. it was embarrassing - our poor friend who'd bought her along was obviously mortified. She said later that she knew they were vegan but had never heard them talking like that before.

Finally I'd had enough and asked her about her necklace saying it was beautiful and were the pearls real... she confirmed they were and I said "Oh that really surprises me that a vegan would wear something from a living creature round her neck"

Astonishingly she didn't know where pearls came from and believe me we took some pleasure telling her how oysters were cut open and the pearls were taken from their bodies....

We all ate our ice cream in peace

*here

I always like to remind them of the deforestation in the name of veganism planting all the soya plants!

Not here for the troll hunting or vegan bashing but just to say that I genuinely cannot remember the last time I saw someone wearing a pearl necklace (no tittering at the back!). Are they back in fashion? I lady wore one in the 80s á la Princess Di.

Mmmmmm bacon.

And the burning of plastic bottles ( cheaper than wood) to boil the water to make tofu thats then shipped thousands of miles for the sanctimonious to eat.

The beef and dairy industry causes far more deforestation than soya beans for human consumption so that's a pretty weak argument. (I'm a meat eater btw)

Did you mean to sound so rude @WildOutThere?😆😚

A fair bit of thought, tbh. We have quite a lot to look at, the threads a person has posted over more than ten years, their interactions with us, their interactions with fellow MNers, as well as some other stuff that we could tell you but we'd obviously have to kill you... 😎. Also, we do talk it over in the office, for a sense check with our fellow mods.

One thing we know for certain is that we're in no position to decide what's what on the likelihood of a story. The truth truly is stranger than fiction a lot of the time and we have seen many an "obvious troll" turn out to be a real and suffering person at the end of the day, especially if they've been on the receiving end of a vicious pile-on.

So, best avoided. If you see a thread or poster that concerns you, and you think they're talking nonsense (and some are, no doubt!) simply report the post and hide the thread. It won't benefit from negative accusations (as you can see from this particular spiral) but it will benefit from MNHQ taking a wider view.

We just want this place to be fun, engaging, entertaining, supportive; you know what it's like when Mumsnet is at it's best - there's simply nowhere better! We're all proud to work here and admire our users so much, with your enormous brains and hearts. All we ask is that everyone behaves in accordance with our guidelines to make the community run as smoothly as possible.

Nice chatting to you, now sadly it's back to the hundreds of reports that have built up while dealing with this thread. Apologies in advance to those who are waiting for a response, we're a bit flat out right now. Cheers, all!

It’s that age old joke “How do you know someone is vegan? They tell you”

Only the vocally-preachy vegan clearly stems primarily from people’s own uneasy consciences. It used to be the ‘self-righteous vegetarian’ was the same, largely imaginary bugbear, but this appears to have evaporated as vegetarianism went mainstream.

98% of soya production is for feeding farm animals.

That's not really a good argument though as the majority of soya grown goes to feed livestock.

I support people who wish to be vegan (we all should be ethically really) but my friend is quite lecturey. Loves cocaine (hardly ethical) wears leather shoes etc

Thanks for responding. No, I wasn’t trying to be rude, just trying to understand.

So a long term poster can post something completely unbelievable and will be given the benefit of the doubt, even if loads of other posters say it’s unlikely?

That’s an interesting way to approach moderating. Good to know and it certainly explains a lot.

Thanks again for responding.

I agree. I accept that MNHQ can only check someone’s record, but that in no way suggests a poster isn’t a longterm fantasist, or the type to post ‘How I stood up to the nasty lady and the whole bus burst into wild applause’ posts.

I reckon almost everyone knows a vegetarian or vegan who carries a leather bag or has a real fur pom pom on their bobble hat. I personally wouldn’t humiliate them in front of others for being hypocritical or uneducated.

Illpickthatup · Yesterday 21:18

As a vegan, I can promise you, we are not all pushy arseholes like this.

I'm a meat eater and am on friendly terms with two vegans, we just agree not to talk about it. I think most probably want to get on with life hassle free, like everyone else.

Some people have a pet subject and no filter, which can, of course, include vegans! (And any other group you can think of).

A couple we're friendly with invited us out for dinner a few years ago, along with another couple. She knew the woman half of the other couple, but hadn't met her boyfriend ... who turned out to be a massive preaching arse. He banged on about the fake salamis and hams on the wall etc and how meat is murder, how there was nothing on the menu he could eat.

When my daughter (5 at the time) asked for a ham pizza, he tried to berate her. That was the point at which I snapped and told him to shut up and asked why he'd come knowingly to an Italian restaurant if he was a vegan. It ruined the night.

I wore mine yesterday. They are originally a gift I chose as a teenager for dad to give to my mum for her birthday. My dad passed a couple of years later, and I occasionally wear them when I am missing him. Not wishing to derail the thread, 🙂

Exactly, pretty embarrassing for you @WittiestUsernameEver, and anyone else who parrots that garbage without really thinking about it.

See also: food miles, water consumption, UPF being trotted out as exclusively vegan problems.

We were on holiday for a family wedding years ago, with DH's newly "vegan" cousin who was too lazy to get up for breakfast.

We were sitting in the dining room when he phoned his mum to ask if she would bring a plate up to his room on her way back.

Aunt: "Of course, what would you like?"
Cousin: "Eight sausages and some toast please"

Vegan my arse 😆 apparently he wasn't vegan on holiday?!

I think you need to go back and re-read that post.

She thought fish roe was akin to eggs from a chicken - i.e. expelled from the body and not part of the meat. As most vegetarians think eggs are ok, she thought the dip was ok.

Capiche?

Hi @WildOutThere , not at all. As Hope said, membership length is just one thing we look at. We’ll also consider the type of posting, how they interact with MNHQ/other MNers, and many other factors we can’t talk about. This is pretty standard with online forums.

You could be on the site for 15 years, but if you’re posting on Monday about your alpaca farm when the week prior you had an AIBU about your fatal allergy to camelids, we’ll probably ban your account until you can sufficiently explain the discrepancy.

What is or isn't deemed believable is, we find in our many years of doing this, largely subjective, and, as moderators, we are working with what we have to make as informed a decision as possible. But all of this comes back to not allowing troll hunting as it's derailing and destructive. We understand that some posters have good intentions in 'warning' others, but when you troll hunt, actual trolls love it, but genuine posters are driven away.

If you have specific questions, please drop us a line as we'd prefer this thread to get back on track now. Thanks.

Aswellisnotoneword · Today 10:40

+ +98% of soya production is for feeding farm animals. + +

Exactly, pretty embarrassing for you...

The figure is 80%, in fact.