It can be hard arguing with carnists day in and day out and yet when I finally get the chance to hangout with other vegans irl some of them also find the need to give me a rough time for not doing activism their way. Its so exhausting, as communities should save energy when being in them.
The vegan community needs to support one another more often to prevent burnout in the movement as the main reason why people quit is the lack of support as it is daunting facing social exclusion.
All forms are activism are valid, I don’t mind being given advice if I ask what is the best form of activism but when I do activism my own way I should be encouraged as going against the grain is difficult enough. The bare minimum for being vegan should be someone who doesn’t eat or use animal products for the sake of the animals and the extra stuff should be optional as everyone has different circumstances. You want to encourage protests, volunteering for animal sanctuaries, signing petitions, writing campaigns, building vegan organizations, participating in direct action, cooking lessons, doing boycotts, creating guides and informing others? That’s great!
We should celebrate one another for placing the animals first and for making the world a kinder place.
There are surely more options than causing burnout and encouraging everyone regardless of what they’re doing. If someone creates yet another veganism organization with conditions conducive to abuse and oppression, obviously they should be criticized regardless of whether they ask for it or whatever. Like if someone is stomping on someone else, it makes no sense to let them because they don’t consent to you stopping them.
Be supportive, yes. Show solidarity, yes. But never if it is only reinforcing and instantiating dominance structures.
It’s hard to say much more without a concrete example of what you mean, but there are surely ways to be supportive of your peers without uncritically supporting literally anything they do. Sometimes you need to let a friend know they’re doing something fucked up and they need to cut it out. At some point you have to look at the fact that every Food not Bombs chapter is run by abusers and think, maybe aversion to criticism makes like no sense. Not to mention that many of the things you should criticize and resist would themselves cause burnout for more vulnerable activists if they aren’t.
I run a vegan Minecraft server. I see that as a form of activism.
I also do some other activism, but I’m just saying anything you can do to help is nice 🙂
You’re doing a great service as we gamer vegans need our hangout spots! I suppose you’re only allowed to grow wheat to make bread for food.
If you dont mind me asking, could I join your minecraft server?
We have a bunch of rules listed and custom recipes. You can see them when you join.
I love this, is it encouraged to play the game without harming the digital animals?
I think it is funny how (usually Americans) don’t think judgement is a good thing and are always back pedaling about not judging someone or assuming judging is wrong.
I judge everyone and everything. I’m judgemental. It helps. If you have no judgement then you have no personality or personal boundaries.
I wanna feel inspired and empowered by other vegans to improve.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of others as vegans are constantly approached by meateaters for endless debates and often told by them that our food is “terrible”.
Its not easy facing discrimination for being different that is stemmed from the false negative portrayal from mainstream media. Even the BBC misrepresents the dairy industry by putting a positive spin on calves being forcibly separated from their mothers and cbc has an meat eater author outright claim with unprofessional bias that “veganism is not the future”. The media should accurately report the truth and strive to take a neutral prospective.
This is a vegan instance so obviously we’re going to focus on the vegan perspective here.
So while it’s good you’re supporting your vegan friends you must know you’re feeling judged because their choices are causing less harm towards sentient beings than the ones you’re making now by choosing animal products that demands the sacrifice of the innocents in the form of suffering and untimely deaths. As it’s important to inform everyone in society about what is occurring within animal agriculture to ensure accountability for their actions.
Your cognitive dissonance has a conflict with veganism as you’re not being morally consistent because why is it wrong to eat dogs but not pigs?
If I was being a chauvinist everyone should harshly judge me as I need to be quickly held accountable for causing harm onto others and I must be stopped before I become worse.
