Vegan police

Whenever we take over a conversation to state our case for veganism or animal rights we seem like the moral police force, at least that’s how it looks to people who consider what they do, eat or wear to be quite okay. In their minds there’s no obvious damage being done (!!) when they’re only doing what others do … and which is anyway legal to do. Vegans may want to win points for being brave and forthright but our image precedes us, and our behaviour is always being measured against that.
If we go around opening fridge doors and disapproving of what we find inside, we’re no better than peeping toms. We are stepping over the line, or more importantly we are showing a fundamental misunderstanding of people’s freedom-of-choice: and some of the ‘free-choosers’ will understandably react badly. Perhaps they’d be too polite to object to our face but later, privately, they might get quite upset about it. And that’s the feeling associated with the pushy vegan activist, who tries to barge their way into people’s private lives.