How vegans/veganism are perceived

729: 

There are two things vegans are saying, firstly about  the criminal attack on animals and secondly  about the opportunity afforded by vegan consciousness. And the bonus too is that by avoiding all animal-based foods we prevent ourselves from buying crap food.

            All good, for us, if it were only a private matter of conscience and personal diet, but some of us feel duty bound to speak about it, so that anyone unaware of all this will be able to get to know about it.

In our modern day culture enough is known for there to be avoidance of the subject; when we inform people we get back silence. It’s obvious that most people don’t want to hear. And as vegans, we don’t have the power nor the right to change their minds. If we attempt to change people’s fixed attitudes we’ll immediately seem too ‘good’, too superior. If we stay silent we seem too stand-offish. Certainly vegans are open to criticism for rejecting the traditions of our culture, and crazy for ignoring the fine cuisines of the culture. At the very least it seems like self-denial to restrict ourselves to a plant-based diet.       

The usual reaction, when someone finds out I’m vegan, is that it’s “NOT for me!!”. They say. “I’d go mad denying myself all these foods, let alone the animal-based clothing”. They’ll conclude that we are “just trying to be different”. More generously they might say, so as not to hurt my feelings, “I admire vegans for what they stand for” and “I wish I could do it myself”. But what they’d really be thinking is, “Ugh! No way! Never! Not for me!”.