Please Stop Preaching Veganism: A Response
Why vegans need to be louder, and more direct.
“please stuff your mouth with lettuce and don’t preach about your greatness.”
I’m sure every one of you has had this same thought about a vegan at some point. It’s a very common stereotype meat-eaters (and vegetarians in this case) throw at vegans to dismiss their point of view.
But in doing so, you are (intentionally) missing the point.
Attack the messenger, not the message.
The entirety of the vegan message is to reduce suffering as much as possible. That’s kind of a hard message to argue against. So you don’t argue the message, you attack the way vegans are spreading the message.
If only vegans had been nice to you, you would have gladly given up eating meat and dairy. Damn vegans! It’s their fault you continue to harm animals!
You claim we are forcing our views on you. Just as slave owners said to those who wanted to free the slaves; just as men said to women who wanted the right to vote.
Veganism “forces” you to consider the victim. Something you are desperately trying to forget.
In that sense, the Animal Rights movement is the same as any other social justice movement. We want you to consider someone other than yourself.
“So, you changed your preferences and now you expect the world to follow in your footsteps?”
“let people eat what they want”
Since there is no way to argue the ethical or environmental impacts of veganism, you fall back on “personal choice.”
But is it?
How can it be a personal choice when there is a victim? In this case, billions of victims worldwide.
The short answer? It’s not and will never be a personal choice when that choice is negatively affecting the entire world.
Not only are billions of animals suffering because of your “personal choice”, but what about the vast ecological problems the animal agriculture industry creates. It is, after all, the number 3 leading cause of climate change, and the number 1 contributor to rainforest deforestation and ocean pollution.
Let me give you just one more example of the negative effects of your “personal choice.”
A 2013 study concluded that slaughterhouse work has been linked to PTSD and PITS (perpetration-induced traumatic stress), as well as higher incidents of domestic abuse, plus alcohol and drug abuse.
That shouldn’t be surprising, given what they have to do, day after day.
Your personal choice isn’t seeming so personal anymore.
“People are not gonna change their diet because you posted a stat about climate change and a sad picture of the caged pigs.”
This is probably true.
But I don’t see that as a reason to stop posting stats about climate change or sad pictures of the caged pigs. I see that as a reason why it’s so important for vegans and animal rights activists to be even louder and more direct with our message.
No social justice movement was ever successful by being meek.
All faced heavy opposition. But they pressed on. When told to be quiet, they got louder. When told to give up, they took to the streets.
Non-vegans do not want to hear the truth about the animal agriculture industry. They want to believe that the animals live happy lives and give their lives freely for us to eat them. It’s a happy picture everyone can feel good about.
But it’s a fictional story.
And to face the facts would mean to accept that you have been participating in an unethical system. That you have contributed to the torture and murder of billions of animals. As every vegan can probably tell you, it can be very hard to come to that conclusion about yourself.
But we did.
We accepted that we had caused harm and took steps to reduce that harm in the future.
Would it have been easier to hide behind religion? Or personal choice? Of course, it would. This is why so many people take that route.
But it doesn’t solve the problem. And neither will staying quiet about it.
So no. I won’t stop preaching. I won’t stop broadcasting my views. Because the animals are screaming in the slaughterhouses and you’ve gone deaf to them.
So we will be their voice.
Until every cage is empty.