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Long time vegan here. While I think that saying has some truth to it, there are also those that sympathize with the ethics, try it out for a short while, but fi

Long time vegan here. While I think that saying has some truth to it, there are also those that sympathize with the ethics, try it out for a short while, but find the pressure of social backlash too costly. The biggest problem isn't nutrition; It's ingroup/outgroup policing (predominantly by the vast majority of non-vegans). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUo53o6QXg#t=0m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUo53o6QXg#t=0m30s (strawman opening skipiped) is clearly an exaggeration, but highlights the uncomfortable reality of being "the different one" at the dinner table.

Throwaway23412 10y ago
This isn't limited solely to vegetarians/vegans. Any diet that goes against your social group is difficult. Take keto/low-carb diets. It's amazing how snacks and foods I've been offered from friends and family that are just pure sugar.
- AwesomeBean 10y ago
  I think that's true, but the same statistics of people on diet can be found, and I think (without any statistics of my own) that culture and group mentality plays a role there as well.
Mz 10y ago
I can believe that the social piece is harder. I am not even vegetarian, but I eat less meat than I did growing up. Yet, I have had my meat-and-potatoes family of origin label me vegetarian because not all meals contain meat these days. However, I do think one reason vegetarians, especially vegans, get so much social flack is because they typically position themselves as morally superior to meat eaters. I know one incredibly toxic vegan whom I wish would just make the world a better place by kindly dropping dead. In addition to being high handed, she is inconsistent, hypocritical and generally assholish to the max. She is the vegan version of the hellfire-and-brimstone Christians I knew growing up in the Bible Belt who made me feel like "If my choice is to sit next to you in church or go to hell, I will take hell." On top of all her other BS, she isn't even a committed vegan. She is a convenient vegan who promptly adds cheese to her diet periodically for REASONS, all while looking down her morally superior nose at everyone around her. If you want to be vegan, cool beans. Good for you. But you might get less social flack as a group if you took a different approach (as a group) to how you talk about that choice and how you treat other people who aren't vegan.
- bradbeattie 10y ago
  I totally hear you on that, though I'd add that the overly zealous are invariably new to it. In-group policing among vegans tends to moderate that vitriol within a few months. I wonder (now that I'm thinking back on instances of "the new and the loud" I've known in my decades) whether some adopt veganism /specifically/ to have an issue to be loud about. When that behaviour is rejected from both the in and out groups, they move on to some other issue. Certainly lines up with some I've seen... I dunno, just spit-balling here.
  - Mz 10y ago
    Maybe not specifically to be loud about, but I do think it appeals to some people specifically to be able to claim or feel a sense of moral superiority. I was molested as a child and spent some years wanting to be vegetarian in part due to wanting to find some means to feel "pure." I am hardly unique in having grown up with a lot of emotional baggage. Most people are raised with either a shame or a guilt model. I think trying to find some resolution for having had that hung on them is a big motivator for a great many life choices in the world.
deleted 10y ago
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Pxtl 10y ago
I'm a vegetarian and have found the "policing" isn't bad, but that's because vegetarianism is comparatively easy for everybody to accommodate through horrifying amounts of cheese.

Throwaway23412 10y ago

This isn't limited solely to vegetarians/vegans. Any diet that goes against your social group is difficult. Take keto/low-carb diets. It's amazing how snacks and foods I've been offered from friends and family that are just pure sugar.

AwesomeBean 10y ago
I think that's true, but the same statistics of people on diet can be found, and I think (without any statistics of my own) that culture and group mentality plays a role there as well.

Mz 10y ago

I can believe that the social piece is harder. I am not even vegetarian, but I eat less meat than I did growing up. Yet, I have had my meat-and-potatoes family of origin label me vegetarian because not all meals contain meat these days. However, I do think one reason vegetarians, especially vegans, get so much social flack is because they typically position themselves as morally superior to meat eaters. I know one incredibly toxic vegan whom I wish would just make the world a better place by kindly dropping dead. In addition to being high handed, she is inconsistent, hypocritical and generally assholish to the max. She is the vegan version of the hellfire-and-brimstone Christians I knew growing up in the Bible Belt who made me feel like "If my choice is to sit next to you in church or go to hell, I will take hell." On top of all her other BS, she isn't even a committed vegan. She is a convenient vegan who promptly adds cheese to her diet periodically for REASONS, all while looking down her morally superior nose at everyone around her. If you want to be vegan, cool beans. Good for you. But you might get less social flack as a group if you took a different approach (as a group) to how you talk about that choice and how you treat other people who aren't vegan.

bradbeattie 10y ago
I totally hear you on that, though I'd add that the overly zealous are invariably new to it. In-group policing among vegans tends to moderate that vitriol within a few months. I wonder (now that I'm thinking back on instances of "the new and the loud" I've known in my decades) whether some adopt veganism /specifically/ to have an issue to be loud about. When that behaviour is rejected from both the in and out groups, they move on to some other issue. Certainly lines up with some I've seen... I dunno, just spit-balling here.
- Mz 10y ago
  Maybe not specifically to be loud about, but I do think it appeals to some people specifically to be able to claim or feel a sense of moral superiority. I was molested as a child and spent some years wanting to be vegetarian in part due to wanting to find some means to feel "pure." I am hardly unique in having grown up with a lot of emotional baggage. Most people are raised with either a shame or a guilt model. I think trying to find some resolution for having had that hung on them is a big motivator for a great many life choices in the world.

deleted 10y ago

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Pxtl 10y ago

I'm a vegetarian and have found the "policing" isn't bad, but that's because vegetarianism is comparatively easy for everybody to accommodate through horrifying amounts of cheese.