Comment by nova@lemm.ee on When somebody asks why you're a vegan

ITT: A bunch of non-vegans complaining that content posted to a vegan community makes them uncomfortable.

Also ITT: A bunch of people who haven’t been convinced to go vegan asserting how to convince people to go vegan. Not them, but other people of course.

For the second group, I always like to ask "Why should I use your argument to convince people when it didn’t convince you?"

Seriously, non vegans need to shut the feck up unless they’re willing to make the effort to stop hurting animals. Otherwise I’m not interested in their opinions.

I know I’m going to piss off every single group with this unpopular opinion, but I view veganism/vegetarianism and religion similarly.

Both of them come with benefits and downsides. The extent of these benefits and downsides differ from person to person. There’s no “right” answer, talking about your choice is perfectly fine and I don’t really care what you do either way, but I don’t like it when you try too hard to convert me.

People that want to convert you to their religion are usually concerned about YOU (saving your soul, etc.), so it’s reasonable that it’s YOUR choice to decline. The only concern is about your own well being.

People that want to convert you to veganism, on the other hand, are only concerned about the animals you’re exploiting - it has nothing to do with you personally. Your choice to decline means you’re condemning hundreds of animals to die every year for the rest of your life. This is a hard pill to swallow for animal sympathizers, so you must understand why arguments by vegans tend to be quite passionate.

But the two really aren’t similar, other than the fact that they both make you uncomfortable.

I’m completely on your side, but I disagree that declining veganism condemns hundreds of animals to die. If someone goes vegan, does that mean that those animals will then live?

Those animals wouldn’t be born. It’s supply and demand. The less demand there is for meat, the cheaper it gets, and the less incentive there will be to breed more of them. The goal is to reduce suffering as much as possible, and that can only happen if people stop paying for it.

I get the theoretical point, but I highly doubt that if one person goes vegan, it will cause the meat industry to produce 100 less cows. It will just create slightly more waste.

Don’t get me wrong, more people absolutely should go vegan, I just never liked the view of “you single person can change something”, because that’s just false. It should be marketed more as being part of a bigger group that can create change.

Do you also not vote, because one single vote doesn’t change the outcome?

And that’s besides the point anyways. Me not murdering humans also doesn’t stop them from getting murdered worldwide, but that doesn’t mean I can just walk around and kill people, the same way you have no justification to torture and murder non-human animals, just because they will keep getting killed by others.

This is rationalization. You are experiencing cognitive dissonance and trying to rationalize a narrative that relieves it.

and I don’t really care what you do either way, but I don’t like it when you try too hard to convert me

Internet apathy politics in a nutshell.

If you aren’t and won’t be converted anyway, why should anyone be quieter to please you?

There’s no “right” answer,

That’s where you’re wrong kiddo. Murdering innocents who are just trying to live their lives for no reason other than your pleasure is actually wrong and makes you evil.

If your belief is that people shouldn’t try so hard to convince people of their beliefs, then why are you trying to spread that belief to others instead of just keeping it to yourself?

I’m saying that’s what I believe in, I didn’t say you have to agree.

Cool, I don’t agree.

when your understanding of philosophy is so poor that you can’t conceive of secular ethics

Do you hold any strong ethical beliefs at all? Would you also say they are religious? Would you also say that it is up to each individual to decide what is right for them and we should respect that and not push too hard?

What are your reasons for comparing veganism to religion? Aside from having a strong opinion I see no real similarities. To me it feels like non vegans want this comparison to be valid to be able to make it about personal choice when it really is about respecting others.

Also the “there is no right answer” argument is always in favor of the status quo which is factory farming animals. Is that really something you want to preserve?

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