Seen a lot of posts on Lemmy with vegan-adjacent sentiments but the comments are typically very critical of vegan ideas, even when they don’t come from vegans themselves. Why is this topic in particular so polarising on the internet? Especially since unlike politics for example, it seems like people don’t really get upset by it IRL
I said this on another thread posted by a very antagonistic vegan: Acting holier-than-thou, smug, and hostile is not a good way to convince people of your arguments. It pushes people away and biases them against you and the argument you’re making.
Far too often I see vegans outright shaming and harassing people for choosing to eat meat, or acting smug and superior because they are making “the right moral decision” and everyone else is lessor for thinking otherwise. I often see them call people “stupid” and “lazy” for not making the same choice they did.
Now, if I came here acting the same way, but I was championing eating only meat and shaming others for eating vegetables, I’m sure vegans would be upset for the same reason.
It’s gotten bad enough that a lot of people (admittedly myself included) are put off by vegans and their arguments. Not because the arguments don’t have merit (they certainly do) but because enough vegans have acted antagonistic or smug that they get shunned for it when the discussion gets brought up, because it’s what has become expected.
If you really want people to listen to you, you need to frame it from a friendlier and more down-to-earth position and not come across as hostile. The human mind tends to close itself off immediately when faced with hostility. This doesn’t just apply to discussions about veganism, but any discussion in general really.
I have absolutely encountered way more smug meat eaters than vegans or vegetarians… They go out of their way to make sexual jokes about forcing some sausage down people’s throats, too.
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And I have yet to encounter a single smug vegan. Not online, not offline.
But I’ve seen countless people like you fighting the just fight against vegan windmills (awesome Rügenwalder double reference for the German people here).
So where exactly are those vegans? Are they in the room with us right now? Or are you defining every mere mentioning of veganism as an attack because you deep down are afraid of actually having to confront the cognitive dissonance you’re living under?
With the Kirsti Noem controversy going on I’ve seen quite a few smug shit takes about veganism including (paraphrasing) “why are all you non-vegans outraged by this, it’s no different than murdering a cow for their meat”.
How is that smug?
i mean, a great many people don’t appreciate being told they are murderers. it provokes defensiveness rather than an openness to pro-vegan arguments.
It completely disregards other people’s feelings.
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Well, it’s not actually that different. There’s no consistent moral principle that explains why the animals we treat preferentially ought to be treated preferentially, it just comes down to cultural norms and which animals you think look cute. It’s worth examining whether our behaviors are grounded on what we actually think makes sense.
Thanks for your advice, but just to be sure it actually works, may I ask how many people you have convinced to go vegan?
Surely your advice is based on actual experience, right? You’re not just saying this because you disagree with veganism and want vegans to phrase their arguments in a toothless and ineffective way, right?
As someone that has been Vegan before I assure its far far far far far far more common for it to be the other way around.