You might as well be speaking Martian

The language omnivores understand can be (a bit unfairly) compared to the baby talk we use with cats and dogs; they know our general thrust but basically haven’t a clue what we’re on about. Their progress in life depends on leaving the gaping holes and dark corners ignored. What characterises the omnivore is their stop-start nature, twiddling some knobs too much and leaving others completely un-twiddled, those which are too stiff to turn. Consequently they are forever disarmed and unable to defend their values – because they can’t take on this huge problem of condoning what is insupportable concerning their animal foods and the treatment of food animals. All they can do is remain silent on the issue. It’s like the ridiculous situation of not speaking the language in a foreign country.
In contrast vegans have dealt with this by diving in deep, cleaning up their act and sticking to principle. With a quick squirt of vegan principle you can unstiffen even the tightest knob; vegans have addressed broader habit changes that advantage both the personal and the planet. That’s the positive side of vegan change.
The negative side may be that neither omnivores nor vegans can escape our own innate violence. Sure, vegans don’t do animal violence, it’s the big one we eschew, but we have our own little violences. As compensation for no longer eating and using animals we might like to indulge in attacking omnivores, by value judging. We judge others so that we don’t have to judge ourselves too closely. Our focus is on omnivores – we want to shake them. We want to shout at them, as we would naughty children. We curse their arrogance, their complicity with the violent animal industries. And yet we know we mustn’t do this because it’s so obvious, so judgemental and so ineffective. The predominant culture is strong and we’re few in number. We don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of reaching omnivores this way.
If we can’t stop judging the people we disapprove of, if we continue to judge their values, our aim of liberating animals will fall wide of the mark. I’m assuming of course that we genuinely do want this and we’re not just looking for an excuse for omnivore-bashing. One step forward two steps back. Vegans need to stop disliking people who don’t yet understand the language we speak.