A reminder to Vegans, about the people who oppose us

Fellow vegan activists, this one is for you. Have you recognized these behaviors in nonvegans when they realize you’re a vegan?

- Refusing to try vegan food, or restaurants, go to vegan events, meet at vegans homes, specifically only choosing nonvegan places to meet when gathering

- Lying or manipulation of facts, such as claiming the earth would use more resources if everyone went plant based

- Excuse-making, such as “i could never eat vegan food” even if you have seen them happily consume unmarked non-vegan food

- Being two-faced, such as pretending to support animal rights while still consuming animals

- Blaming the victim for causing their own victimization, such as blaming animals for their own imprisonment over their supposed lack of intelligence

- Understating the usefulness of veganism, despite peer reviewed science stating that reducing animal products alone would produce a 28% reduction in all global greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors and actually remove 8.1 billion tons of CO2 every single year

- Withholding key information, like saying that cows may be in pain if they are not milked. If the cows were not force bred and separated from their children, they would not need to be milked by humans, and they are still being exploited.

- Exaggeration, such as claiming that vegans are the sole consumers of agave, despite it not being specifically marketed toward vegans and consumptive issues with it were around long before 3% of the population became vegan.

- raising their voice and being aggressive, such as the people who yell at vegans or start arguments with vegans completely unprompted

- Dismissing, ridiculing, or marginalizing, such as how animal rights activists are the acceptable joke target and are socially ostracized to the point that many vegans feel the need to say they’re “not like other vegans”. Even vegan theory and established terms like “carnism” are derided

- Criticizing vegans for not ever being good enough, despite the accepted definition of veganism literally being “as far as practicable and possible”. For example, you may be a devout vegan but own a refurbished cell phone, and this is used to attack and demean your moral ideology as not being totally cruelty free

- Focusing on the negative without providing genuine solutions or even offering to help, such as pointing out imperfect vegans or imperfect activism but still contributing to the mass industrial slaughter of innocent animals.

- Distancing from the vegan, even if you used to be friends. Refusing to engage with them whenever they discuss veganism or hear them out

- Pretending they don’t have a problem with any animal exploitation, or pretending animal exploitation is not a problem at all.

- Finding a grey area and baiting you into feeling guilty that you cannot avoid exploitation in that area, even though you’re objectively doing more harm reduction than the baiter

- playing the victim when veganism is brought up. Acting deliberately frail, weak, and powerless, as if they are a member of a marginalized group that does not have full control over their own purchases. Sometimes they will even draw on abelism like pretending disabled people are not capable of being as vegan as far as possible and practicable.

- Tone policing, a tool of fascists everywhere, which is critiquing the emotionality of the message rather than the message itself.

Well my vegan friends, those are all signs of psychological and emotional manipulation. Do not let them gaslight you.

This is the definition of veganism:

Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practicable — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose;

Animals are being killed for pleasure at rate of billions per year. People who consume animals are doing unfathomable objective harm that could easily be stopped in almost all cases. We are begging animal abusers to stop, and they are reacting by manipulating us into feeling like the bad guys for even bringing up their moral crimes.

We are not wrong. Animals, including humans, should not be exploited. We are not being toxic by calmly and peacefully stating the facts and asking people to stop. In any other manner of activism, we could easily recognize the mechanims of the antivegan carnist as manipulative, anti-progress, and anti-science. Do not let them manipulate you, the person actually doing activism for the good of others, into apologizing for wanting to end oppression.