Vegan food can taste really good. I don’t fucking care if its vegan. I eat stuff because it tastes good.
If you want to convince people to become vegan,–or even vegetarian–you need to be inviting to them. The same goes for any political or religious movement; if you actively alienate people and tell them that they aren’t welcome before they can even try to join, then they likely never will.
I was a Mormon missionary. Yeah, it’s a cult. And you know how they recruited new cult members? By being extra loving and kind to people that were considering joining (and also hiding the really weird shit, like how they believe they eventually become gods themselves). It’s called “love bombing”. Mormons are absolutely, 100% convinced that they have the only correct religion, and that all other religions are false. But they will be your best friend ever while they’re trying to lure you in.
Vegans could learn from this.
Mormons are absolutely, 100% convinced that they have the only correct religion, and that all other religions are false.
It’s always the non-vegans that know best how to get people to become vegan, lol
Almost like the people being sold something are telling the sellers exactly what they want to see. I wish selling stuff was always that easy.
When vegans can’t sell the idea of being vegan to people–with the exception of selling it to people that are already inclined that way–maybe, just maybe, they should look at their sales techniques. Think about street corner preachers that use a megaphone to tell everyone that they’re going to hell because they’re fags, whores, sodomites, trannies, baby killers, whatever slur you want to use; have they ever, even once, managed to make you consider that maybe being an evangelical Christian was right for you?
Directing slurs at people that aren’t vegan isn’t going to convince people you’re right; it’s going to make people hostile and defensive. You’re creating an in-group and an out-group; you’re reinforcing your own status as a member of the in-group, while being exclusionary of everyone that is not already part of that group, or is not sufficiently committed to that group. It’s not even effective as form of negging, because negging has to be subtle.
If you want to sell ideas to people, you need to take advice from people that successfully sell ideas from people. If you don’t, well, good luck, 'cuz your gonna need it.
Do me a favour: Construct a form of activism so good it turns you vegan, then tell us about it.
Otherwise whatever ideas you have don’t seem to actually work on you either huh?
Start by not making it appear to be activism.
Start by presenting options that are as appealing as options that have animal products and cost less than animal products. Make equivalents that have similar flavors and textures so that people aren’t experiencing a significant shift when they’re eating, because food is often very emotional for people. (…Which you demonstrate so aptly in your activism against animals as food; it’s an emotional issue for you, even if it has intellectual aspects.) You need to create conditions such that people can eat less meat, and titer down their consumption, without attempting to shame them while they reduce their consumption.
There’s a restaurant in Atlanta that I highly recommend called La Semilla; they do Cuban food, and the entire restaurant is vegan. They understand that if you want most people to even consider being vegan, they have to be presented with food that looks, smells, and tastes appealing, and it must be presented in a welcoming atmosphere. They aren’t loud or angry in their message; they’re doing good food and being a good example. Every meal that a non-vegan eats there is one less meal made with animal products, and that, sir, is progress. And it’s more progress than they’d see if they told everyone that wasn’t already a vegan to fuck off and get the fuck out of their restaurant.
This is the most reddit thing I’ve read this year.
“Sir” lmfao.
Apparently you’ve been exposed to some restaurant that didn’t make you vegan so we should all do that which will continue not making people vegan.
That’ll save the billions and billions of innocent earthlings! Good job, you selfish, lazy, arrogant cretin. I’m so glad the world is full of people who will change when it requires no effort!
A discord server Im in is mostly vegan, exactly the same response. They genuinely believe being militant and alienating will actually work in the long run. Cant fix stupid
I doubt it’s a genuine belief that it will work, to be honest. People just love to feel superior. I’m convinced the hostile vegans have joined the cause simply because they found a club to make them feel superior over others in much the same way radically religious types use that cause to do the same. They believe with such vigor because they need to for their own sense of self-worth rather than because they actually believe in the cause. If they really believed in the cause then they’d be welcoming of new members. They’re not welcoming and downright hostile to new members because that would expand the in-group and shrink the out-group they get to feel superior over.
I assume they mean harm as in reinforcing the “snobbish” stereotype that vegans are known for, and OP’s screenshot demonstrates the same thing- potentially turning people away from considering the diet themselves.
You’re helping the planet and animals by not eating them, but if your snobbery turns 10 people off from adopting that diet, then I’d say you’ve hypothetically done more harm than good too lol
“They accidentally used regular milk in my latte instead of oat milk, and I didn’t want to waste it and force them remake it.”
Online vegans: #ABUSER ANIMAL-RAPIST!!!
Wow a omnivore who can’t form a sentence without mentioning bacon, haven’t seen one of those before.
It’s a special category of food for them. They don’t even consider it meat. It’s some sort of icon. To be fair, I have witnessed a pair of vegans fawn over carob chips in exactly the same way. I’d love it if we could eat rationally without the fetishizing.
