Seen a lot of posts on Lemmy with vegan-adjacent sentiments but the comments are typically very critical of vegan ideas, even when they don’t come from vegans themselves. Why is this topic in particular so polarising on the internet? Especially since unlike politics for example, it seems like people don’t really get upset by it IRL
Because of the trope that vegans are pretentious twats that publicly chastise anyone not vegan.
Like most things it’s one of those situations that’s blown out of proportion and the vast majority of us will never interact with a preachy vegan. I’ve encountered many vegans in the wild and they’ve most all been decent people, and I love picking their brains for decent vegan or vegetarian foods. I don’t mind vegan/vegetarianism, it’s just not easy to do well, so it helps to talk to people who do it for real. That said, I have encountered a few that are on the preachy side, but whatever. They’re no different than the tool who has the “eat tasty animals” bumper sticker and the like.
All the vegans and vegetarians I’ve met in real life were chill dudes and dudettes. One was an engineer and semi-pro skateboarder that was always making people feel good and happy. Another one was a solid rock climber always smiling.
I know more annoying people complaining about vegans, always grumpy and being proud of always eating meat. I also know this cool swing dance instructor girl who only eats meat, so it’s also good.
I actually know a vegan engineer and vegetarian rock climber, too! Had several great dinners and lunches with them both!
Yep. It’s not the way of life, it’s the pretentious self-righteousness, and most people aren’t that way. Is like the ‘bad Christians’ fucking it up for all the ones that are basically love-and-forgiveness believers that are largely benign.
Most people - Christians, vegans, meat eaters, or whatever - are generally pretty chill. It’s the inciters that suck.
Meat-eaters support a very harmful industry (both for the animals as well as the environment).
Nothing chill about that.
Edit: Thank you! Your downvote prevented another animal from being bred and killed within a couple of weeks after feasting on corn and body parts of its parents, meanwhile destroying the environment. Good job, buddy.
Voting here doesn’t work. Vote with your wallet 🤪
Lol I didn’t downvote you, and your self-righteousness is more of a block to getting the industry changed than it is a benefit.
Swallow your pride, don’t be a dick. Be humble, be honest about how you feel, and live up to your own ideals. But being an insufferable twat just drives people away from your ideals - you should really only do that to insufferable twats, otherwise, the thing you stand for isn’t saving animals, it’s self-righteous intolerance - and people look at you and think “glad I’m not like that guy.”
Win the hearts and minds, don’t just stab people for being wrong - or you’ll keep stabbing until you finally stab yourself to death.