Why do so many people criticise vegans?

[trunch]

I'm a meat eater!

However, I don't understand why people criticise vegans so much.

They aren't hurting me and are trying to save animals and the environment.

What's wrong with that?

Surely people should be more critical of me because animals are killed for me to eat?

By existing we do harm, sp the logical thing to do is to work on minimising it. Not go 'fuck it, I'll just kill everything'

Hopefully, if you acknowledge that your existence is causing harm, you aren't having children. That would be hypocritical of you.

So it’s just the name calling you’re worried about and none of the actual important issues you mentioned? Ok then.

It is an absolute lie and fallacy that eating veg and grains is somehow worse for the environment than eating meat.

And it is entirely possible to use vegan fertilisers that are safe for the soil and add minerals without causing an environmental impact (seaweed, for example).

Plant-based compost, seaweed, alfalfa meal, and green manure crops are generally considered environmentally sound and unlikely to cause pollution when used responsibly and sustainably.

And lets not forget that raising animals causes way more damage overall as it wastes epic amounts of water, requires overall more insecticides (for crop production for animal feed) and deforestation, waste products etc than people alone eating vegetables and grains.

Out of interest in real life who is doing any of these things to you, directly and personally?

A dear friend got prostate cancer and a vegan acquaintence of mine told me it was his own fault because of hormones in dairy.
So that was nice.
She has also cut out family members for not agreeing to go vegan.

Sorry to hear it - I can imagine - and I am really empathetic! Sorry to hear this but hopefully this thread will educate some people a bit.

Oh yes don’t forget the “you must be perfect then” defence.
You’ll be complaining that vegans all have iPhones next. It’s just so banal .

Oh, so, one person.
One horrible person.
Is she also blonde? By your logic if that one vegan is horrible then so are all vegans, are all blonde people horrible too?
Is being vegan what made her horrible or is that just her personality?

edited as laptop was being glitchy

Do they though?

Because lots of us here have said the industry is evil. But no one has said 'you are evil for eating meat'. That's just something people who struggle with their conscience INFER from it.

EVERYBODY contributes to evil in some way. Our job as humans is to minimise it.

Being told 'this thing you pay towards is evil' is not the same thing as calling a person evil.

And if something is evil, why wouldn't you want to know? Surely its at least something you'd want to be aware of. And it seems like the vegan activists are the only people going undercover behind the scenes in these places and finding out.

Lol because of this superiority complex demonstrated so beautifully above.

'We show those savage meat eaters that they are selfish and awful'

I don't care how people live their lives, people do the best they can. But I don't want to be lectured about it endlessly. I get it, they're fighting the good fight, you make your choices and let others make theirs.

Possibly because it's seen as a healthier lifestyle, a bit like fat people hating thin people, maybe it shows up their inability to self discipline?

This is exactly what I came to say from the same perspective.

I have absolutely no issue with anyone following a vegan diet. I do have an issue with it becoming someone's whole personality.

I don't limit this to vegans though. I feel the same about people who want to plaster their social media feeds to tell me they are now pansexual, or have completed a quiz and have diagnosed themselves with ADHD. And now every post must be about that, every inspirational quote shared etc.

I did have a couple of friends who went very deep into the vegan but a few years in it seems to have calmed down and become normal humans again. Perhaps it is a bit all encompassing to start with but as someone who never really liked meat it wouldn't be a massive change (though I would miss cheese!)

And it has ruined a lot of eating out but have noticed a bit of a return in the separating out vegan and veggie options again so hoping that continues.

Oh yes don’t forget the “you must be perfect then” defence.
You’ll be complaining that vegans all have iPhones next. It’s just so banal .

Ah okay, so you're okay with "harm reduction" rather than perfection (which btw is fair enough), but don't extend the same grace to omnivores. Got it. Not hypocritical at all.

Yet again, that poster never said that.

She said the act of killing animals for food is cruel.

It is.

She says it plays on the conscience of meat eaters.

Sometimes it does.

Why is this getting up your nose? She's absolutely right.

At no point did she say 'meat eaters are evil savages' though. You're imagining that up all on your own, either because of your own cognitive dissonance. Or because you hate the idea someone might be 'telling you what to do'. Even when they aren't.

Animal farming is responsible for 60% of the emissions from agriculture.
Where’s the harm reduction there?

You can easily do that for a burger where we are talking about a cheese slice. But not where the dairy products are made into sauces or mixed in the dish. So perhaps a curry sauce which might be nicer as a creamy sauce. Or where they have substituted real milk for coconut milk.
Or cote ruining their vegetarian fried breakfast for an egg free vegan one. Which they did for a short while.

Meat eaters don't cause any "harm reduction" vs vegans though?

The thing is, @Hunglikeapolevaulter what do you hope you’ll
achieve by calling vegans hypocrites?

If you’re trying to stop people from being vegan by proving them “wrong” then you’re actually working against harm reduction.

If you’re trying to be spiteful and offensive then you’re no better than the mythical preachy vegans that everyone knows.

Even if vegans are hypocrites, they’re still not eating animal products, not paying for animal cruelty, not contributing to the funding of practices that are bad for the environment.

So why, as per the thread title, are you so critical of vegans?

I know what you mean, a colleague of mine is vegan and another colleague stated they wouldn't know what to get for her if they got her for secret Santa but they'd probably buy her salad..... I mean why?!

Can you give us a run down of what you eat?

They do object, though. I've been told that they hoped I would die because I can't physically be vegan. I've been abused, mocked and hated by vegans, for arguing that not all disabled people can be vegan.

Funnily enough, all of these supposed vegans were happy to sit on their phones on social media, knowing their phones contain animal products.

Oh we got a phones aren’t vegan comment! ✅
Is that the full bingo card now?!

I'm sorry you experienced this. Whoever it is sounds like a twat! But in my lifetime (as a vegan and veggie) I have never personally known any vegan or veggie who would behave like this.

So why, as per the thread title, are you so critical of vegans?

I'm not critical of any vegans who are not critical of me. The hypocrites thing was in response to some of the comments made by vegans on this thread, such as describing other people's dietary choices as "evil".

The paradox of all the "vegans are preachy" comments (basically every other comment), is, for myself (in real life, I mean - and not on a thread like this discussing veganism) and my vegan / veggie friends, we have been socially conditioned NOT to dare raise it or discuss it with meat eaters. And so would not dream of passing comment on others dietary choices in real life (with the exception of on a dedicated debate such as this of course).

The reason being? The moment someone finds out we are vegan or veggie, we get a load of abuse and inane comments of the nature of some of those in the thread above (see vegan bingo comments), or worse. Or ridiculous hypothetical arguments about being stuck on a desert island with a pig, as another poster raised. Or called rabbits or "sickly" "ill", anaemic etc. etc. Due to years of abuse I basically never mention it to a meat eater unless it was 100% necessary in an eating situation (and even then avoid mentioning the word veggie or vegan where possible!). I expect many vegans on this thread can attest to this experience.

That said, if you're at a restaurant and start getting the third degree about ordering a vegan dish, from an indignant meat eater who saw you ask if something is vegan, sometimes you will defend your choices if pressed, or being the subject of inane comments, which many meat eaters can get very irate about, even when presented with logical arguments.

I've never seen a militant meat eater who harangues vegans / veggies, much in the same way that the vegans in this thread have never met a militant vegan.

Either neither exists or perhaps they both do, and we've all just been lucky enough to not cross paths with them (as in the opposing person to us).

TBH, I've never met a militant vegan either. There was one who used to be part of our social circle who spent most of her time moaning about how hard it was being a vegan when out and about (which it potentially was, but it's immensely draining to have to constantly listen to it), but I've not had to endure a lecture from any veggie / vegan.