These are words I would use to describe many vegans I have observed on various social media platforms. And it is so sad and such a pity.
No vegans – you are not more evolved that meat eaters, or omnis as they are called in the vegan world. For fuck sake, it is a life style choice you made, not a sainthood you earned. And unless you are also pro-life, accepting refugees into your spare bedroom, officiate gay marriages and have adopted needy children – and that’s just your weekend – you are not more ethically or morally evolved than anyone else who makes a simple food decision.
Furthermore, if you eat tofu imported from China with a carbon footprint of a yeti, or use Himalayan salt at the expense of Pakistani mountains, don’t be throwing evolved around to describe yourselves.
Say no to pink salt, say yes to renewable sources only
(photo of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan from http://anettemossbacher.photoshelter.com)
No vegans – other people choosing a vegan lifestyle is not an opportunity for you to say you were right all along. Well done, you got there before other people, pat yourself on the back and then see how many people got there before you did. You are not the first person to decide not to eat animals so stop pretending you invented it and everyone else has finally seen you were right.
You weren’t first and you won’t be last
How about rather just offering help and support and encouragement to new vegans instead of doing a bloody victory dance with an order of gloat on the side. Way to alienate people, dickhead!
(image from http://midnightmeowth.deviantart.com/art/victory-dance-291812692)
No vegans – your decision not to eat meat replacements does not make you a better vegan than those who chose to. If soya mince is what gets a person through a day without harming an animal for food, then let them have at it. You and your lentil burgers are no better that soya mince scoffing people. So stop pretending you are.
No vegans – not everyone can run out and buy vegan mayo and vegan biscuits and seitan steaks. When a new vegan asks for help how about being a bit more aware that for some people these options are out of financial range. And if those people, once they see how much less food costs when meat and other animal products are not on the shopping list, realise that the mayo is within reach, no gloating and saying I told you so. Not even implied!
No vegans – omnis do not want your opinion on their food. Shut up and eat what you chose and allow others the same freedom. Meat eaters know what vegans think cos vegans never shut the fuck up about it. If someone asks, answer, but how about not forcing your opinion on people trying to enjoy their meals.
Veganism feels a bit like religion – the principal is great but many of the supporters ruin it.
But all of that being said – there are some amazingly supportive vegans and vegan social media spaces. But it is less fun writing about the nice than the nasty.
But I will – next time.
what colour is an egg yolk?
I learnt a very interesting lesson while teaching in Zambia that I have never forgotten
Chickens in Zambia (where I was living) truly are free range. They wander around farms and plots scratching in the ground for food. The eggs I bought at the markets were often caked in mud and chicken shit and more often than you might like had blood in the yolk. Real proper free range eggs.
Delicious even if a bit off putting when half-chick half-yolk.
However, the yolks were not yellow. I don’t know if we here in the land with battery chickens and money feed the chickens something to make the yolks yellow, or if the chickens there in the land of truly organic farming and roosters getting at the hens there is something missing from the food they find in the dirt – but the result is beige egg yolks in Zambia.
Delicious eggs but beige yolks
Which brings me to the lesson
Never ever assume that your experience of anything is the absolute experience.
What you call egg yolk yellow is not necessarily what someone else has experienced as egg yolk coloured
I wonder how many immigrant kids (or house painters) got called stupid (or fired) for selecting beige when told to select egg yolk yellow!
How often have you judged someone by their understanding of ‘egg yolk yellow’?