We can't even talk in this community dedicated to vegans without someone coming along and meatsplaining.

Halal eaters and teetotalers don't try to preach as and convert as often, perhaps?

(I support vegans and I dont mock them, for the record.)

I've definetly heard plenty of people making fun of or discriminating against others with dietary restrictions due to their religions. Hell I've also heard people making fun of others with lactose intolerance or celiac disease...

We can and should strive for better, but sometimes people can just be terrible 🫤

I still remember fondly an occasion at a wedding when my friend group all got placed at the same table, and we were 90% veg with one couple who ate meat. They remarked on it, and we all spent the rest of the meal joking about how it felt to be the minority, and they had to field questions like, "If you were on a desert Island with only vegetables, what would you do?"

yeah the hardest part of being vegan is interacting with non vegans. gotta love how the default response to veganism (you know that thing we do to try to better the planet and animal rights and shit) is to argue as if doing something about the issues you care about is a negative trait.

mfs always got something to say and love attacking a thing that as far as i'm aware is proven to be better for personal health, the environment, your wallet, and animals.

Just fyi, one of the community rules is "Carnist rhetoric & Anti-vegans are not allowed." which is why so many top level replies are removed. I (and I assume many others) interpreted this post as "carnists, why do you do this?" but it's NOT and per community rules we're not allowed to explain or defend.

This is a safe place for vegans and we should leave it to them.

Sorry for imposing, I'll leave now. Mods, maybe you should pin a post for people like me who wander in here without knowing that rule? Might cut down on the carnist replies.

“Meatsplaining” made me cackle, what a word

1. People are just disrespectful in general.
2. Many folks browse all, and don't even look at the sub. So they wander in, comment, and leave. I'm doing it right now.

Never shamed a vegan, and I was one myself for 5 years. I think people get a negative impression of vegans because vegans so commonly share their reasoning, even zealously or evangelically so, unsolicited.

It gets annoying. And I felt that so much (in others) while I was a vegan that I stopped explaining why and just said "personal choice" when asked.

If someone wants the whole story, they'll ask for it. We don't need the morality, the economics, and the all-to-often (admit it) holier-than-thou diatribe vegans are so wont to subject others to.

As with any diet, moderation is the key.

Lemmy's so small I can't browse without posts from the vegan community showing up on front page feeds. Of course that'll draw in anyone/everyone.

I think it's because a good number of vegans are, shall we say, a little bit too vocal and judgemental about those that are not vegan.

If someone tells me they're vegan, and I say cool, I do eat meat, and he responds with "you're a murderer" then you are bound to get people looking weird at you

The screenshot is obviously wrong. People will make fun of anyone for anything, anywhere and anytime. Problem is the disagreement on what's acceptable.

I'm not anti-vegan. I know this sounds corny, but two of my close friends are vegan. In general I have wonderful meals with them. I will say that some of THEIR vegan friends can be pretty obnoxious and judgemental about others' food choices in some circumstances.

That very often causes back and forth (and hurt feelings on both sides). I know it can be very offputting for a vegan to eat with a carnist, so I'm usually very conscious about what I order when I'm with vegans, but I honestly think not everyone understands that eating meat around a vegan can be an affront/insulting, which (generally) makes it different from the comparisons made here.

Religious food restrictions, in my experience, don't involve disgust about others' food decisions who don't share those religious commitments. That doesn't mean vegans who are disgusted by seeing meat being eaten is wrong or worse or anything, but I do think that's partially where some of this friction arises from.

Unlike most religious or cultural reasons for not eating certain foods or drinking alcohol, veganism is often a morally "other-regarding" choice, which means it often comes along with judgemental opinions about carnists. I think that's the main reason people can sometimes be rude towards vegans: I think it's preemptive defensiveness for thinking they're going to be judged.

I generally don't eat meat around vegans simply out of respect. Similarly, if I'm eating with people who have religious or cultural dietary restrictions, I tend to just follow suit. I enjoy dining with people. I'm there for the conversation and company; eating something delicious that makes everyone comfortable isn't much of a sacrifice.

Non-vegan here. I was going to reply one time, but even tho I was supporting y'all I realized it's not really my place to speak. This community is supposed to be your safe space, and I respect that. I hope y'all have a good one and wish you all luck.

My wife and I are mostly vegetarian (vegetarian, plus meat once per week plus leftovers or every other week) just because we like it more, environmental reasons, healthier, etc. We have zero problem with 95% of vegans, I'll cook vegan meals if any vegan friends or friends of friends are coming over, eat at mostly or fully vegan restaurants if going out with vegan friends, etc. It's not a big deal and has no reason to be one.

However - I say 95% for a reason. The 5% are people like my MIL. She lectures us about how eating any animal products is wrong every time we see her, spouts bogus facts with no actual sources to anyone she can get to listen (going vegan will cure cancer, diabetes, and autism within 8 weeks), and is generally insufferable to be around now because she will bring it up out of nowhere.

I don't hate vegans at all, I hate people that are pretentious assholes about being vegan

This is why I launched https://vegantheoryclub.org I delete the carnist posts lol

Being vegan doesn't equate with being religious. I think that a part of the problem is that some vegans truly do base their entire identity around it and people find that annoying, like when atheists are surrounded by one friend who won't shut up about god.

Dated a vegan, wonderful person, one of the finest women I've ever known. But all she could converse about was running, veganism, minimalism, veganism and veganism. And occasionally, vegan stuff.

We talked a good deal about the vegan life. I wanted to know more since I'd never known a vegan. My god. NOTHING but a strict diet was good enough.

Cutting down on meat consumption? LOL, what a paltry contribution. Vegetarians? You mean animal exploiters? What about simple organisms with a pinhead for a central nervous system? Oysters and shrimp and bugs and such. "They're still animals." I wanted to raise chickens for eggs. Exploitation! Honeybees? Slaves.

One night over dinner I suggested that solving energy issues was more important in the grand scheme. We could cut or halt global warming, which is surely causing animals a great deal of pain, not to mention extinction. If energy were near free, we could afford to explore options like lab-grown meat. Hard no from her.

She was very patient and kind, but still.

I knew it wouldn't work when she was talking to her daughter one night about this wonderful man she was dating and all the fun stuff we had done that she had never experienced.

"Um, he's not vegan?"

"No, but..."

"Mom, he's not vegan?"

Her daughter was trying to gently point out the red flag. I caught the clue.

Alt text for image:

A screenshot of a post by a user "Brusswole Sprouts" with the handle "@swolesprouts". The post reads as follows:

I've been vegan for over 10 years and I still don't understand why it's acceptable to make fun of vegans in social settings while you would never make fun of someone eating halal or not drinking for religious or cultural reasons.

Why is vegan culture less deserving of your respect?

I was at my dad's birthday last year and the meal was: sauerkraut, potatoes and an ABSURD amount of different meats. Like it was bizzare, even for someone who is used to people eat a lot of meat. It wasn't even good (i guess) because it was all greasy and just too much. It wasn't good looking or anything, it was just a lot and like half of it they threw away. At some point one of his alcoholic friends said loud: thank god there are no vegans here har har har. Are you so absorbed in your meat religion that... No, i still don't know what the point was. But everyone found it very funny, so i guess it is.

Relevant paper

Cole M, Morgan K. Vegaphobia: derogatory discourses of veganism and the reproduction of speciesism in UK national newspapers. Br J Sociol. 2011 Mar;62(1):134-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01348.x. PMID: 21361905.

https://foodethics.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_foodethik/Cole__M._2011._Vegaphobia._derogatory_discourses_of_veganism.pdf

It's the same mindset that gets mad about things being woke

Where I live its in the legal gray zone to talk shit about religion, so theres that. And so far that I know, no vegan have commited terror acts because of the ill treatment of vegans.

As a non vegan. I have the largest respect for you guys. Keep on living the good life. Maybe I can manage to hop over in the future.

I own a halal restaurant and I make fun of halalers all the time

I think this lack of respect is something new. I dont know when, but the other (pretty illogical and believe-driven) habits are all older than veganism

Don't post pictures of text

Seems like the obvious answer is that religion is a protected class and veganism isn't.

Veganism is neither culture nor religion; it is a lifestyle choice. Sorry to have to meatsplain that to you.

I don’t make fun of vegans, everyone can make their own choice on what they can eat. But I do treat people who eat halal food the same and I don’t agree with either.

Although by comparing to halal/religious reasons for diet then are you saying veganism is akin to a religion?

You don't make fun of halal or kosher? Where's the fun in that?!

Never heard of the term meatsplaining but that makes it sound like the experiences in that regard are similar on both sides. Carnivores feel like vegans like to paint themselves having the moral high ground (would that be called vegansplaining?) so carnivores condescend back? Something like that.

And I agree with my fellow commentor. Whether it's religion, race, dietary ideologies, anything and anyone can be singled out depending on who's part of a given setting. These transgressions are just a manifestation of someone's own inadequacies or compensation mechanisms. Plus on the internet there will always be trolls and haters about.

Yes we do. We make fun of everything. If you can't be made fun of, you're the bad guy.

OP just can't see it because he's not one of those other things. He's obviously fixated on his own bullshit that he does in hopes of being respected for it.

I gave an honest, inoffensive opinion and the comment was removed by a mod. Guess you're only looking for certain answers.

relating to the Title:

You guys are posting pretty judgmental, even provocative, posts which end up on the front page.

So: post evokes emotion + post is seen by a lot of people = a lot of People will reply to that

to be fair we are made out of meat

Most of us could not care less if you only want to eat vegetables for the rest of your life. I've really only ever seen /u/militantvegan get ripped a new one. That's the guy that was asking about for tips to replace other people's food against their will.

We can't even talk in this community dedicated to vegans without someone coming along and meatsplaining.

Every single social media platform in existence has the option to block people. Or you could just, you know, scroll past. You don't need to care about other people, even less so people who go out of their way to try and hurt you.

Edit: quoted OP's words.