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Effective_Scale7650 t1_jaay4vs wrote

Reply to comment by TurbulentArea69 in Someone in Richmond hill is torturing cats. by bedbuffaloes

I hope some people can extend this caring philosophy to the vegan movement as well

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3DPrintedCloneOfMyse t1_jabi9qy wrote

I've almost certainly been vegan way longer* than you and I'm downvoting this.

It's off-topic but that's almost secondary.

This behavior doesn't win people over, because it's annoying. If anything it reinforces the "annoying vegan" trope.

I appreciate the effort you're putting in, but I think it's best directed elsewhere.

*a bit over 27 years.

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Effective_Scale7650 t1_jaccb5x wrote

Nice assumption, so vegan guru, what behavior does win people over?

And thats 27 years of no exceptions?

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manticorpse t1_jacjmyn wrote

Hi there, my purity-testing vegan friend.

I've been living the life for almost 16 years now... and I agree with the other guy that you're not really helping the cause.

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Effective_Scale7650 t1_jaco192 wrote

Ya I'm figuring out if they "most certainly has been a vegan way longer than i"

He makes a good point but in a condescending way and preaches to not reinforce the vegan trope.

I'll propose the same question to you as well: what have you found does help the cause?

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manticorpse t1_jacsmyx wrote

Honestly... giving people breaks. Obviously being completely vegan "no exceptions" is more impactful than occasionally slipping up, or by being vegetarian, or by being a "Tuesday vegan" or whatever. But people get very, very defensive about their dietary preferences, and a person doing something is better than doing nothing, so you gotta give people breaks sometimes. When you hop into conversations preaching veganism with (I'll be frank) an air of superiority, you will make some contrarians reading the conversation shift their mindsets from "maybe it's okay to eat vegan once or twice a week" to "fuck vegans, I'm eating a steak at every meal".

So you gotta be careful. You need to praise people for doing what they can, and you can't shame them for "not being vegan enough". Because the purity-testing BS will turn people against you.

(This is a level of tact that extends beyond online discussions on diet, and if it's a skill you haven't learned yet then it might serve you well to practice it. Catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, etc.)

As for proactive things you can do... honestly, learn to cook delicious vegan food that appeals to omnivores, and then serve it to them. Bonus points if they don't know it's vegan until you tell them. There's this thing in teaching called a discrepant event, which is when you shock someone out of their preconceptions by presenting them suddenly with a surprising situation which challenges their assumptions. In this case, the assumption would be "vegan food is boring and gross" or "a meal doesn't feel complete without animal products in it". So don't give them a salad. Learn to make an awesome, delicious curry with some vegan naan, something hearty and filling... serve it to them, let them give you accolades about how great your cooking is... and then tell them casually that it's vegan. Surprise them into learning that eating vegan doesn't have to be a sacrifice.

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3DPrintedCloneOfMyse t1_jaczaml wrote

If the assumption is about whether I've been vegan longer - it's statistically almost certain, but I did qualify myself. If the assumption is that the behavior is off-putting, we can look at our respective up/downvotes.

> And thats 27 years of no exceptions?

Define "exceptions". I don't have a personal purity test. I'd eat meat every day if it meant ten omnivores went vegan in my place. So if my order is screwed up in a minor way - e.g. I forget to specify no egg in my bibimbap - I'll pull out the big pieces, but it's not helping animals to throw away the food instead of eating the tiny egg bits.

Perhaps more importantly - I don't ask everyone who baked cookies whether their sugar was made with bone char, and I don't avoid beers/wine who might have been fined with isinglass. But: I used to. Until a vegan friend mentioned that they didn't, because it makes veganism look impossible. I'd rather be 99.5% vegan if it causes someone else to become 99.5% vegan instead of being 100% vegan and someone else 0% vegan.

This approach works. I can say with certainty that multiple people became vegan with me as the primary influencer, and far more folks who will eat vegan food who previously didn't.

You want some vegan propaganda that actually works? Learn to cook vegan food that doesn't use ingredients they're not comfortable with (even tofu) that tastes amazing. Back in the 90s commercially available vegan cookies sucked because the market was filled with health nuts. I changed a lot of minds about vegan food being "too healthy-tasting" by making unhealthy vegan foods.

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