Veganism has bad apples too
Hello, yes I am back and yes I revamped the blog a bit. These are both due largely to the fact that I have been ill with the flu (complete with fever, nausea, headaches and the feeling like I've been exercising for the past 24 hours straight judging by the muscle pain) for the past week and so I have gathered enough annoyance with the world to bless you once again with a piece of writing.
This time, I'm gonna do a good old complainy-post, because this something has been bothering me for the last eight months and I've ranted about it to my flatmates enough times to warrant writing about it on here.
So, I've been a "full-time vegan" since May last year and so, with these sweet 11-months behind me I think I'm allowed to make some complaints about our community. That is, the 'vegan community' whatever you take that to mean. Mainly these annoyances have risen from being a part of a number of vegan-groups on Facebook and realising that there are people I will never understand.
Firstly, I will never understand vegans who, by definition are against animal cruelty, feed their pets a vegan diet. When I say pet I mean cat or dog, that is. Time and again I see posts pop up with "what should I feed my dog I'm transitioning him into a vegan" and "how to affordably feed my pet a vegan diet" and I feel like beating someone over the head with a biology book and photocopying the "canines have teeth for meat-eating"-page and wrapping all of their belongings in it. Sure, there will be people who have "successfully" done this, meaning their dog isn't dead, but just because it has technically worked for one person does not mean that you should do it. If you want to skip out on the pet food industry then get raw locally sourced meat for your dog, but dear lord no wonder it looks sad if it's eating lentils every day. My ray of hope is the people who comment on these posts with the facts, trying to drown out the comments suggesting the "vegan dogs"-Facebook group. Until your dog learns to speak and tells you it feels bad about global warming and that it would like to go vegan don't assume it's canine teeth are there for no reason.
Secondly, elitist veganism. This one needs a bit of a back story I'm afraid.
I'm a part of a Finnish vegan Facebook-group called "Sipsikaljavegaanit" which translates into "Crisps and beer-vegans". We currently have over 42,000 members. The idea of the group is to share yummy vegan food that is classed as "junk food". So, pizza and burgers and sugary desserts etc. However, it has evolved from this to a group that has a voice in the Finnish food community because we are united under the same idea which is to not judge what others are eating, rather celebrate if someone has found something deliciously unhealthy (or even just unhealthy looking) that is vegan. The idea is to break the mould that vegans only eat greens. The Facebook group has lead to new vegan products coming out in Finland almost weekly, pizzerias around the country are trying out vegan cheese, and companies are consulting the group specifically to find out more opinions on what we want to see as products. There is very little in-fighting in the group despite the large amount of people following it, because it is a no-judging space.
That was the good part. The elitist part is what I discovered when I joined some UK-vegans groups on Facebook after moving back to Edinburgh. No matter what you posted, there would be someone there lecturing you about palm oil, or hydrogenated fats, or honey, or "that's just not very healthy". Since when did people feel like their approval of my consumption of something that isn't purely made out of uncooked vegetables is needed? Newsflash, if I stop eating palm oil where do I stop? Legitimately give me a list of what I am allowed to eat that isn't destroying the planet in some way. We are wrecking the place because we are overusing its capacities. Being vegan is already doing a huge part so lecturing to us about how we should stop eating palm oil is basically preaching to the wrong crowd. Its your personal choice if you want to, but there's always going to be another thing we should stop eating or using and there's only so much I can do until I get tired. This is surely one of the things putting off a lot of people from trying veganism. The idea that you have to be a perfect vegan. Hell, no one is perfect and there'll always be more we could do but we are all human and I don't want to live off of carrots. I understand the issue with honey, and that there are many points of view, I just happen to believe that in order to save the bees we need to keep eating what they're producing to keep beekeepers in their jobs (taking care of the bees so they, you know, LIVE). Which is to say I haven't been stupid enough to post about honey on a vegan page thank you very much.
This health-policing though is what really drives me round the bend. The idea that there is a set of standards that need to be met in all of your vegan meals or otherwise you aren't doing a very good job. I'll have you know I live off almost exclusively meals based on spaghetti, instant noodles or rice with various vegetables scattered on top, and Susan on Facebook telling me that the additives in my ramen aren't "very healthy" is the last thing I want to hear. I posted about these lovely vegan mochi (traditionally ice cream coated in rice-dough) that I found in Asda a few weeks ago, and lo and behold among the positive comments there was one person who felt the need to do the "oh gosh make sure you don't eat those too much, there's so much hydrogenated fat!"-thing. Now, if we use the what she actually meant-filter we'll find out the true meaning of this comment. Basically, despite knowing very well that I do not in fact eat expensive mochi for breakfast every day because I am not Marie Antoinette, and knowing full well I had read the list of ingredients (because I was posting to show other vegans what I had found so obviously I had checked the ingredient list), she wanted to let everyone know that she understands the dangers of hydrogenated fats and palm oil. That she is better that those mean fats and for some reason I needed to know that, and why not add a bit of self-righteousness in there, make this random person feel like what they found could still be MORE VEGAN.
I'm sure you can tell I am sick and tired and taking things a bit too far in true Rebecca fashion. But I swear, today I witnessed a full on Facebook comment fight because a lady was trying to make another vegan feel bad about eating instant noodles and I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm having to make this group the 4th UK-based vegans Facebook group that I leave, because it depresses me too much. It makes me genuinely angry that there are people like this around the world giving veganism such a bad name being the most annoying policing individuals to the point where I feel hesitant including myself under the same umbrella term (though I do fit the basic requirement). I know this is the same with all groups in anything really, where a small amount of people give the whole movement a bad name, but this was my two cents on the phenomenon in veganism. I'm definitely going to keep trying to get people to try it out by being a low-key approachable vegan and drown out the bad voices.
Cheers for reading my ranty thing, and I'm painfully aware of the sickening amount of commas but
I CAN'T STOP,
Becks
This time, I'm gonna do a good old complainy-post, because this something has been bothering me for the last eight months and I've ranted about it to my flatmates enough times to warrant writing about it on here.
So, I've been a "full-time vegan" since May last year and so, with these sweet 11-months behind me I think I'm allowed to make some complaints about our community. That is, the 'vegan community' whatever you take that to mean. Mainly these annoyances have risen from being a part of a number of vegan-groups on Facebook and realising that there are people I will never understand.
Firstly, I will never understand vegans who, by definition are against animal cruelty, feed their pets a vegan diet. When I say pet I mean cat or dog, that is. Time and again I see posts pop up with "what should I feed my dog I'm transitioning him into a vegan" and "how to affordably feed my pet a vegan diet" and I feel like beating someone over the head with a biology book and photocopying the "canines have teeth for meat-eating"-page and wrapping all of their belongings in it. Sure, there will be people who have "successfully" done this, meaning their dog isn't dead, but just because it has technically worked for one person does not mean that you should do it. If you want to skip out on the pet food industry then get raw locally sourced meat for your dog, but dear lord no wonder it looks sad if it's eating lentils every day. My ray of hope is the people who comment on these posts with the facts, trying to drown out the comments suggesting the "vegan dogs"-Facebook group. Until your dog learns to speak and tells you it feels bad about global warming and that it would like to go vegan don't assume it's canine teeth are there for no reason.
Secondly, elitist veganism. This one needs a bit of a back story I'm afraid.
I'm a part of a Finnish vegan Facebook-group called "Sipsikaljavegaanit" which translates into "Crisps and beer-vegans". We currently have over 42,000 members. The idea of the group is to share yummy vegan food that is classed as "junk food". So, pizza and burgers and sugary desserts etc. However, it has evolved from this to a group that has a voice in the Finnish food community because we are united under the same idea which is to not judge what others are eating, rather celebrate if someone has found something deliciously unhealthy (or even just unhealthy looking) that is vegan. The idea is to break the mould that vegans only eat greens. The Facebook group has lead to new vegan products coming out in Finland almost weekly, pizzerias around the country are trying out vegan cheese, and companies are consulting the group specifically to find out more opinions on what we want to see as products. There is very little in-fighting in the group despite the large amount of people following it, because it is a no-judging space.
That was the good part. The elitist part is what I discovered when I joined some UK-vegans groups on Facebook after moving back to Edinburgh. No matter what you posted, there would be someone there lecturing you about palm oil, or hydrogenated fats, or honey, or "that's just not very healthy". Since when did people feel like their approval of my consumption of something that isn't purely made out of uncooked vegetables is needed? Newsflash, if I stop eating palm oil where do I stop? Legitimately give me a list of what I am allowed to eat that isn't destroying the planet in some way. We are wrecking the place because we are overusing its capacities. Being vegan is already doing a huge part so lecturing to us about how we should stop eating palm oil is basically preaching to the wrong crowd. Its your personal choice if you want to, but there's always going to be another thing we should stop eating or using and there's only so much I can do until I get tired. This is surely one of the things putting off a lot of people from trying veganism. The idea that you have to be a perfect vegan. Hell, no one is perfect and there'll always be more we could do but we are all human and I don't want to live off of carrots. I understand the issue with honey, and that there are many points of view, I just happen to believe that in order to save the bees we need to keep eating what they're producing to keep beekeepers in their jobs (taking care of the bees so they, you know, LIVE). Which is to say I haven't been stupid enough to post about honey on a vegan page thank you very much.
This health-policing though is what really drives me round the bend. The idea that there is a set of standards that need to be met in all of your vegan meals or otherwise you aren't doing a very good job. I'll have you know I live off almost exclusively meals based on spaghetti, instant noodles or rice with various vegetables scattered on top, and Susan on Facebook telling me that the additives in my ramen aren't "very healthy" is the last thing I want to hear. I posted about these lovely vegan mochi (traditionally ice cream coated in rice-dough) that I found in Asda a few weeks ago, and lo and behold among the positive comments there was one person who felt the need to do the "oh gosh make sure you don't eat those too much, there's so much hydrogenated fat!"-thing. Now, if we use the what she actually meant-filter we'll find out the true meaning of this comment. Basically, despite knowing very well that I do not in fact eat expensive mochi for breakfast every day because I am not Marie Antoinette, and knowing full well I had read the list of ingredients (because I was posting to show other vegans what I had found so obviously I had checked the ingredient list), she wanted to let everyone know that she understands the dangers of hydrogenated fats and palm oil. That she is better that those mean fats and for some reason I needed to know that, and why not add a bit of self-righteousness in there, make this random person feel like what they found could still be MORE VEGAN.
I'm sure you can tell I am sick and tired and taking things a bit too far in true Rebecca fashion. But I swear, today I witnessed a full on Facebook comment fight because a lady was trying to make another vegan feel bad about eating instant noodles and I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm having to make this group the 4th UK-based vegans Facebook group that I leave, because it depresses me too much. It makes me genuinely angry that there are people like this around the world giving veganism such a bad name being the most annoying policing individuals to the point where I feel hesitant including myself under the same umbrella term (though I do fit the basic requirement). I know this is the same with all groups in anything really, where a small amount of people give the whole movement a bad name, but this was my two cents on the phenomenon in veganism. I'm definitely going to keep trying to get people to try it out by being a low-key approachable vegan and drown out the bad voices.
Cheers for reading my ranty thing, and I'm painfully aware of the sickening amount of commas but
I CAN'T STOP,
Becks
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