Winning the un-won

It’s relatively easy to convince the few who are already beginning to take us seriously, but the vast majority of people on this planet are nowhere near there yet. And it’s these people who most need to be contacted. Not to change them by persuasion but to understand their fears and the ignorance behind their thinking. We have to discover the cause of their obstinacy, try to unearth their deep-set, collective prejudices. If you’re ready to let go of reluctance and admit there’s a case to answer, then vegans can speak more freely.
If we’re questioned we may have our answer off pat, sure of what we say. But we might forget how our ‘being so sure’ can come across, and not consider how someone is going to feel, when we tell them what they asked about. It’s likely to be something they didn’t want to hear so we don’t need to twist the knife. We don’t need to spark guilt. No one wants to be lectured and will react, to protect their lifestyle.
It’s just a suggestion, but whatever we want to say maybe we should halve it - surely the trick in talking animal rights is to tread carefully, even to the point of ‘throwing away’ a line or two. Anything to keep them receptive. The best way to hold people’s attention is to deliver some of what we want to say and then pull away onto something different. By pulling back just in time we avoid them being bored, losing attention and turning off. If that means putting our case more casually than we’d like to, even subliminally, then we may need to consider this approach - it might be more effective that way.
We mustn’t forget how justified people want to feel, how much they want to disagree with our basic premise (because it contradicts the whole of their lifestyle), and how little detail they really want to know. (Every new fact acts as a stinging barb of reproach).
Vegans need to hold people’s interest to educate effectively.