(Untitled)

[muero_de_risa]

EDIT: I have had a lot of very negative responses to this post. I am not one to just efface entries just because of conflict, although I do like to avoid friction as much as possible. I guess because this is an internet setting and you don't actually know me, my comment on the vegetarian eggs actually seemed to stir a few of you up

Comments

[friend_of_tofu]

Um.

While I agreed with your point about the annoying stupidity of this product - I have had sooooo many similar examples, it makes me want to tear my hair out - I also found your post a bit insulting to vegetarians. This was also compounded by your statement that being vegetarian "doesn't take[sic] much effect on the world or their health", which I don't think is true at all.

Surely vegetarians should be encouraged and supported too, because as soon as anybody stands up and objects to our assumptions about food, they ARE making a difference. Additionally, vegetarianism does have a big impact on factory farming and certainly makes a great difference to the health of the person doing it. My primary partner went pescetarian not that long ago and I am very positive about it because, while they may not be taking it as far as I might like, they are doing something and that something is effective, certainly more effective than doing nothing. I have plenty of friends who only buy organic, free-range meat, or limit their meat intake for environmental reasons. Again, it's not my approach and I'd like to see more done, but I'd rather be supportive of their efforts than make them feel as if they may as well not bother at all.

To put this in perspective, I am an ovo-vegetarian. I have been vegetarian for more than 20 years now. I have considered giving up eggs quite a lot, for quite some time, and may well in the near future (there were some quite relevant personal reasons which would have made that an insanely hard thing to do until very recently). But comments like this make me feel not only unwelcome in the vegan community but also get me wondering why I should bother, if this is the kind of attitude which prevails. Fortunately, I don't think it does, but it's still very disheartening. And yes, I know the reason should have nothing to do with what other people say, but it's stupid to pretend that the ethos of a community doesn't affect whether or not one wants to belong to it. It's not ALL about being right. Remember;

"The animals don't need us to be right, they need us to be effective."

as was posted in a good article on this community quite recently, by someone whose name annoyingly escapes me ATM.

Inclusion and helping people make small, practical changes to their lives is what's going to win the very big battle for animal rights, if anything is. Getting on people's backs for not being as ethical as you is completely counter-productive, IMHO.

[trbulnt_spnstr]

Thanks for making this lengthy response. It really got me thinking. I was vegan for a while and then I stopped being vegan. Now, I've been a vegetarian for 11 or 12 years, (some extremely long time for a 21 year old whose family isn't vegetarian). When I became vegan I started being a self righteous asshole. When I stopped being vegan it really helped me stop being a self righteous asshole. A lot of my friends tell me I should be able to be both vegan and not be self righteous. For me, though, it's hard to do that. I always say I'd rather be a nice person who accepts that she can't follow all her morals than an asshole who does. Your comment helped me see that I made a positive decision in slowing down my process to become vegan. I really appreciate that. I'm on my way to being vegan again, and without being a jerk in the process this time, I hope.

Thanks a lot!

[friend_of_tofu]

Thank you for such a nice response! :¬)