this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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Vegan Circlejerk
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Uh, I know this is a meme community but what's with vegetarians? Surely reducing the use of animal products is better than nothing
Better than nothing but still views animals as resources to exploit. It's still ok with serious injustice, just a little less
I think going full-vegan from an average diet with several meat-based meals a week is quite a drastic change. It needs some time to learn new recipes, discover new food, new restaurants, develop new patterns in live. I appreciate everyone who at least acknowledges the problem behind animal products and every small step towards vegan is a great progress. Most vegans I met, including myself, went from omnivore to flexitarian to vegetarian to vegan. But sure, hate the people that are working on themselves. If the vegetarians are being hated, they'll for sure enjoy and continue the transition.
Overall, it would be far better for the planet if all omnivores just reduce their consumption of animal products by 20% instead of 2% more vegans.
If they recognize that they're in an intermediate step that's one thing, but people who don't think they need to keep changing can use a wakeup call. I know I still have a lot of improvements to make
Also if they don't recognize (yet), it's still a great thing. I originally just planned to eat less meat. After some time I noticed it's quite easy, so I decided to vegetarian. And after two years I decided to go vegan. Would have never declared that as my goal.
Apart from that, there's many aspects in life other than just veganism. Just because one's vegan doesn't mean moral superiosity. If you're looking at the environmental aspect, you can travel less, consume less products, move to a smaller flat, lower the heating/airconditioning, have less children, avoid plastics, pick up trash etc. From a social point of view, you can donate money, engage in charity, do social jobs (firefighter, care worker, ...), support your local community and businesses.
For all these things, there's not just black and white and no one is perfect. Using less plastics is better than not caring at all. Picking up trash twice a year is better than never and eating less meat is better than three times a day.
I'd say veganism is - in general - morally superior to non-veganism. But that doesn't automatically make all vegans better and all non-vegans worse people.
You can be a vegan and still (in)directly hurt animals.
You can be a vegan and still destroy the planet.
You can be a vegan and still be an asshole.
*'you' is not meant to be you, @iiGxC@slrpnk.net . ;)
I generally agree with most of what you're saying, it's is still stricly speaking better. That said, I have anecdotally seen a lot of people saying vegancirclejerk style memes making fun of vegetarians were the push they needed to go vegan, but I don't know whether the people who get turned away by anti-vegetarian memes outweigh the people who had a positive reaction
There are all kinds of different people, so I 100% agree theses cases exist. But be assured there are also cases where vegetarians feel bullied by both sides. The omnivores mock them for skipping the good stuff and the vegans for not going full blown.
At least in my experience, it's more effective and motivating to praise people for their efforts and progress than to blame them for what's still bad.