Is there anything more important than Being Vegan?
We can do better than being dead
Greetings new subscribers! I write about more than just animal issues, especially at my actual blog, but my substacks that mention veganism get the most traction. It is what it is.
I Love Everybody, Especially vegans
One of One Step for Animals’ very first supporters recently left the organization because I “disparage vegans and veganism.”
Now, I’m not here to argue – this is a completely understandable take. But I do want to clarify:
The people I love don’t eat animal products, even if they don’t publicly identify as vegan. Nearly all of my close friends would say they are vegan. There are probably dozens if not hundreds of vegans (although no longer thousands) who consider me a friend.
Morality Is Simple
As I have tried to make clear, my only goal is to reduce intense suffering. When it comes to morality, the only thing that matters is our ability to reduce intense suffering.
The real-world consequences of our thoughts and actions are what matter. Not our intentions. Not our logic, our consistency, our lack of hypocrisy.
But for many, a decision originally made to help animals mutates into “Being Vegan” with a capital “V.”
This is a “lifestyle,” a philosophy, a dogma, a religion. Being Vegan matters in and of itself, rather than a set of real-world choices to oppose factory farming and reduce intense suffering.
Being Vegan becomes a personal identity, rather than one tool among many that we can use to actually reduce intense suffering.
This is easily enough seen in the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit. “Vegan Advocacy” is separate from and equal to Animal Advocacy. That says it all.
No Animals Worth My Veganism
You can also see this in thought experiments. Ask people if they would eat a McDonald’s Big Mac every week, never being able to call themselves Vegan, in order to convince X people to eat half as many factory-farmed animals. I, and many people I know, would eagerly take that deal, even if “X” were small.
But ever since Erik Marcus and I posed this Big Mac hypothetical decades ago, I’ve heard from many who wouldn’t take the deal, no matter how many animals they could save from factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses.
This is true even when I change the hypothetical such that they don’t have to eat any animal product, but they can’t use the word “Vegan” ever again. No dice. There is no possible outcome that would convince them to give up being “Vegan.”
(The greatest irony might be that the person who has arguably done the most to help animals isn’t vegan, let alone Vegan. But the saddest irony is that that vast, vast majority of people who go vegan eventually quit being vegan.)
Now: none of that is why I “disparage” Vegans.
It doesn’t matter what dogma individuals follow.
What matters is causing or preventing intense suffering.
Better Off Dead
By no longer buying animal products, we are doing exactly as much good as if we were dead.
Can we do better?
Sadly, as I document in “The End of Veganism,” “Vegans” are making the world worse than if they had never existed.
We make things worse when we reinforce the angry, fanatical, repulsive stereotype of what should and could be a life of compassion and meaning. I was guilty of this for many, many years.
I come not to disparage Vegans…
Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young, and filled with glory:
You have no control….
I understand those who think otherwise, but I’m not out to insult or upset anyone. I truly want everyone to be happy. But even more, I want people to take intense suffering seriously.
I am not trying to convince any Vegan. I’m trying to reach those who are secure in who they are and actually want to make the world better.
You succeed on the internet by telling people what they want to hear. Praising people and badmouthing enemies gets clicks and likes and shares.
But popularity on the internet doesn’t help animals. Working in the real world helps animals.
When my time is up
Have I done enough?
Being “Vegan” doesn’t make you great.
Actually helping makes you great.
It’s a sort of “emperor has no clothes” story. And though you’re only trying to help them clothe themselves, this also makes you “a hater”. How dare you? As I see it the only way to truly dent such hypocrisy will be for psychology to model our function effectively in a value based capacity. Thus we’ll ultimately be displayed as self interested products of our circumstances rather than some sort of long hypothesized “moral creature”. So perhaps the same thing which causes veganism to effectively fail, also mandates the primitive nature of psychology?
Thanks for the old cartoon! It’s nice to at least commiserate with others who oppose hypocrisy. As a kid steeped in it, Bloom County helped me see that it’s possible to do something more than simply assimilate.
That's a really interesting argument about vegans counting for as much impact as being dead, and then actively having a worse impact, by behaving in stereotypes that turns people off.
And I observe that often. But I think a new wave of young vegans is far more emotionally-literate and don't commit those errors as much.
I think it helps to be a professional in the area. During my years in college (I studied nutrition) I always felt a bit of prejudice from power figures. After I graduated, I found I became respected by people outside my course, which of course is great. But I still feel that, whenever I start wearing my philosophy on my sleeve, people start accusing me of being biased, so I'm particularly mindful of the emotional tone I'm getting from my interactions and try to choose a strategic middle ground.
As a buddhist I know how to use non-force to turn force against itself. I don't fight opponents, I use their energy against them.