Vegan Segregation
A Problem of Labels
I found something out yesterday that I was not aware of. Did you know that there is a difference between being vegan and plant-based? In order to state that you are a vegan it has to be all about the animals period. Nothing else. Plant-based means you just eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains for personal health reasons. Saving the environment and animals is just an added bonus. This was news to me. I use both words to describe myself. There is something about this whole event that inspired me to write my first entry here on The Comma.
I saw a post on the Naughty Vegan page on Facebook (people post some strange things on there). Someone shared a post from a guy who said he was 90% vegan. Scrolling through the comments I noticed they all had something in common: all of them were negative. I usually don’t comment on posts, but this time I did to give a different perspective. I said “I think some people forget that people go vegan for nutritional reasons more so than environmental or animal reasons.” Maybe my wording was not the best to explain what I meant but it wasn’t long until I got attacked.
“vegan is for the animals period.”
“Only 10% of veganism is diet”
“You can’t support closing zoo’s and wear wool”
“Vegan is all about animals. Plant-based means you eat plants for health reasons and not animal reasons. You only save animals as an added bonus”
These are not word for word. I left the group shortly after this happened, and as it is a closed group, I can’t go back. The point I was trying to convey was simple, and these people were not getting it.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Instead of sharing this post in a vegan group and bashing the guy, why couldn’t someone message him and nicely explain these “rules”? The way I see it, it is no different than a meat eater posting something making fun of vegans. There is a lack of leadership in the vegan community.
Long before any of this happened, I noticed something among the vegan community on Facebook. There is a lot of hating within the community. Sally still consumes honey and Jill says fuck you Sally, you are not a real vegan. Another example will be a person transitioning to the vegan diet. A lot of times you will slip up here and there due to a western diet being so addictive. That is not good enough for some people. They do not want to hear it. You either go vegan/plant based cold turkey or fuck off. This kind of negativity holds back the vegan movement. It can push people away. I believe the movement would be bigger right now than it is if this negativity didn’t exist. It is almost like a religion. There is one belief that turned into a bunch of branches with other beliefs, and each branch shits on each other.
They have a never ending argument of who is right and wrong.
It has been 2.5 years since I made the switch to a plant-based diet. I guess I have to stick to that label now? I made the switch due to nutritional reasons, and I did it cold turkey. That was very hard to do. I wouldn’t tell someone who was looking to go plant-based to go cold turkey. Going that route makes it easy to have slip ups. I had a few in the beginning. Do you know what happened? I kept getting better and better. The cravings of a western diet started decreasing. My favorite all time food was sushi. I never thought I would give it up. It was the only food I still consumed after cutting everything else out. Month nine of being all plant-based except for sushi I finally gave it up. Do you want to know what else happened around the same time? I discovered two other aspects of veganism: the environmental side, and compassion for animals. I watched two documentaries back to back. Cowspiracy and Earthlings. These two movies blew my mind! I never really thought about where food came from before that. No one questions where food comes from when you are on a western diet. You just eat what tastes good, and what is advertised in society. I discovered the truth with time and became a better person.
Here are some points I’ll end with.
- ) WE ARE NOT PERFECT
Even those who are vegan/pland based are not perfect. Hating on others because they are not to your standards isn’t doing anything. Instead lead by example and help them out. It will help the vegan movement reach its main goal even sooner. Remember that people do not know what they don’t know.
2.) HOW/WHY YOU ARE “VEGAN”
It shouldn’t matter how or why someone came to this lifestyle. All that matters is you did, and now in the presen,t how can you make yourself (and others) even better than you were the day before.
3.) LACK OF LEADERSHIP
A lot of activist can come off as assholes. It is easy to seem that way when you are passionate about something. I get that. People change and how people want to be lead changes over time. I see a need for new leadership among this community. Still be passionate, but in the process try to connect with and understand others who are still stuck under societies spell.
4.) LABELS
Another problem in itself is how people generally love labels. Honestly I hate having to label myself plant based or vegan. To me I eat what my body needs. I don’t kill or eat animals because I’m not an asshole and there is no need to. It is tough writing about this and worrying about which God damn word to use! I don’t have a solution for the label problem so if you do please share!