Dealing With Bullies

1897:

As vegans, we need to state our case clearly but then we need to step back and see what happens, and try to understand why people are reacting the way they do. To us.

It’s because this subject is so sensitive that people are so afraid of social confrontation. It means that any vegan they know could be someone they might be afraid of, if they fear attack. Which is why it’s important for vegans to get past this ‘condemnation’ phase, which isn’t easy. But it’s only then that we can conduct robust but non-violent interactions. Our detractors aren’t the enemy! We talk carefully, if only to prove that talking with vegans can be as satisfying as conversing with anyone else. Being flexible in our conversations, especially when they touch this one subject, is what it’s all about. Choosing the right time to speak up and when not to is what it’s all about.

Our movement needs more dispassionate research into attitude, so that we can realise what we’re up against. And work from there, work with what we’ve got and only doing whatever  will work. Society’s attitude is a massive construct to deal with. But keeping it simple, even local, if I’m attempting to convince the majority that what they’re doing is wrong and dangerous, I’m also asking them to consider attractive aspects of vegan lifetsyle instead. Sometimes we can start in with ethics, at other times, health or food or environment, depending on who we’re talking to, but whatever we do speak about we’d only be telling half the story if we missed out the personal benefits of being vegan.

         

So, maybe we can start with this sort of pitch, suggesting that there’s a way to get off unhygienic, disease-ridden and unhealthy foods by simply eating from a plant-base, which also happens to takes us immediately away from being involved in the crime against animals. We could just mention health and animal cruelty but, as the ads tell us, “there’s much more!”.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of becoming vegan is the improvement in self respect, by pulling ourselves away from the brainwashed habits we’ve inherited. That will make us feel less like cowards for not exploiting animals simply because they can’t fight back.  

Veganism stands up for those bullied by the self-interested human. Vegans don’t see animals as a resource, and therefore don’t turn animals into commodities. Our lifestyle is cheaper too, simpler, market restricted, gives us the vital second reason for not buying crap food, and most significantly it encourages us to be creative with food. If you eat with vegans it’s likely you’ll discover new tastes and surprisingly delicious plant-based dishes. But above all this, the most significant of the attractions is that we’re in a unique position to recommend repairs.

Our arguments are as simple as they are unarguable. And we think, or at least some of us do, that the universal principle, so long ignored by the violent, greedy, enslaving humans, can now be taken up by the intelligent humans anywhere in the world. And through them we can transform ourselves en route to transforming our species and start to give back to the planet. And that transformative pulse could issue from the simplest of habit changes, namely for humans to become herbivorous, thus sparing sentient species from phenomenal levels of human cruelty. By the simple expedient of leading non-violent lives, by becoming vegan, we allow ourselves to take a brave stand on our own behalf as well as the animals’, and pave the way for a constructive improvement all round.

Vegans are brave in what they do, how they speak out against the odds, how we conduct our private lives, and nothing more needs to be said. Unless it is to mention those who go a bit further and are speaking with just a small touch of love, to cut through any hostility and ridicule we’re given. It is only fear, after all. And courage comes cheap when you’re wacko-ing vegans, it being easy to speak with the crowd. So, it’s sometimes hard to have to continuously stand against the status quo.