Vegans who condemn

Wednesday 12th August 2010
From a vegan’s point of view, protesting is right. We know we aren’t a bunch of oiks. We know the aggro image is not fair, well, perhaps for some vegans, but for the majority of us it’s a false image. A nicer people you couldn’t meet. Some are shouters and some are a bit aggro … so if there are vegans who are aggressive … aggressive schmaggressive, yes, it does harm the cause but (in fairness) the aggro activist feels passion and isn’t afraid to show it. They would say, “Why not? The lounge lizards need a wake up call”. This leads on to justifying the dubious use of “aggro”; or it lets us be outrageous which almost gives us the right to be aggro. We say, “You fools, don’t you see how many lives are at stake… (both animals being murdered and humans eating poisoned food)” … and with that justification we keep up the aggressive approach. But it gets us nowhere.
The subject (veganism) is a tricky one to handle. When we speak too passionately, especially with a whiff of aggression about us, it puts people off. And because ‘animal matters’ have to be explained in serious tones (necessarily, it’s a very dark subject) this makes the whole matter “unattractive”; it has an inbuilt yuk factor. Without trying too hard, omnivores can easily dislike a “vegan”. It often suits them to … but is that partly because of our own prickliness, our routine condemning, value judgements? It’s almost as if we dislike anyone who has the audacity to put up an opposite argument.