4 ms·

The comments here are depressing. Reminds me of the comments on anything related to bicycling on reddit- extrapolations from generalized and uninformed opinions

by tjr225 9y ago

The comments here are depressing. Reminds me of the comments on anything related to bicycling on reddit- extrapolations from generalized and uninformed opinions about choices people make about their own lives. Veganism(I am not vegan) is a personal choice and yet the dissenters here choose to let stereotypes color their opinions on entire groups?

h2g3yhogw8 9y ago
yes most of these comments are "I hate vegans" disguised as questions - jesus nobody's forcing you to be vegan guys, just go and eat a steak
barnfire 9y ago
I'm an atheist who eats a plant based diet but I didn't start out that way. I noticed that those who choose to eat meat are a lot like Christians in that they become unhinged when an atheist is in their midst. There's this reputation of the preachy hippy vegan, but in my experience it is the other way around.
- cgmg 9y ago
  Do you not see the irony in your comment?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
btrettel 9y ago
Vegans and cyclists both do receive a lot of flak. In my experience cyclists see a lot worse and I'm not sure why. Ian Walker noticed this too: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/mmiw-inquiry-debunking-electoral-reform-and-what-is-the-west-1.3295363/why-do-drivers-hate-cyclists-1.3295461 http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/mmiw-inquiry-debunking-electo... I am a cyclist who is sympathetic to veganism and eats less meat than your average omnivore. The main reason I still eat meat is that I am not convinced that most plant based diets are not missing something important. Never faced much hostility for choosing to eat plants, but can't say the same for cycling. Thinking about it, I have never once met a preachy cyclist but have met quite a few preachy vegans. Level of preachiness does not seem to explain the stronger stigma cyclists have.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
  Partly I think it's a defense mechanism. Say someone offers you meat, you decline and, to prevent their continued insistence or for future reference, admit to being a vegetarian. You will likely spend the next half hour to an hour of your life listening alternately to stupid jokes ("well so was the food!" har har har) and to that person excusing themselves for eating meat. I think this is because they have interpreted your statement as a sort of judgement or attack. If they're incredibly insecure, the mere mentioning of the existence of vegetarians may set off this behavior. It's probably similar for cyclists. With global climate change and the general lack of physical activity in modern societies, the mere existence of cyclist is treated like some kind of personal attack. "You're not as conscientious or healthy as I am", as it were. Though, like preachy vegans, there are also some cyclists who agitate everyone by completely ignoring both courtesy and the law when sharing the road.
  - tjr225 9y ago
    Your last sentence is one of the most aggravating arguments I hear against cyclists using the road. Motorists I would argue are much, much worse at obeying traffic laws than cyclists (perhaps simply because there are so many more of them). I think this is made much worse by distracting electronics in a the vehicle. Regardless, why should a few bad cyclists be the measure for an entire group of people simply making a personal choice on how they're going to get around? Drives me crazy.
    - btrettel 9y ago
      I agree that drivers have a larger impact for breaking that law than cyclists simply due to the far larger number of them. The size and speed differences matter too. As far as I'm an tell about the same fraction of drivers and cyclists break the law. They, however, tend to break different laws: rolling through stop signs is more common for cyclists, whereas speeding is more common for drivers. Often when I point this out a driver decides to defend speeding, which I think is the wrong response. If the problem they claim to have is respect for the rules of the road, then justifying speeding is hypocritical. (For what it's worth I follow the law to the letter.) Plus, as you've said, the actions of a few bad people in a group should not strongly color perceptions of the entire group.

by tjr225 9y ago

h2g3yhogw8 9y ago

yes most of these comments are "I hate vegans" disguised as questions - jesus nobody's forcing you to be vegan guys, just go and eat a steak

barnfire 9y ago

I'm an atheist who eats a plant based diet but I didn't start out that way. I noticed that those who choose to eat meat are a lot like Christians in that they become unhinged when an atheist is in their midst. There's this reputation of the preachy hippy vegan, but in my experience it is the other way around.

cgmg 9y ago
Do you not see the irony in your comment?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

btrettel 9y ago

Vegans and cyclists both do receive a lot of flak. In my experience cyclists see a lot worse and I'm not sure why. Ian Walker noticed this too: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/mmiw-inquiry-debunking-electoral-reform-and-what-is-the-west-1.3295363/why-do-drivers-hate-cyclists-1.3295461 http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/mmiw-inquiry-debunking-electo... I am a cyclist who is sympathetic to veganism and eats less meat than your average omnivore. The main reason I still eat meat is that I am not convinced that most plant based diets are not missing something important. Never faced much hostility for choosing to eat plants, but can't say the same for cycling. Thinking about it, I have never once met a preachy cyclist but have met quite a few preachy vegans. Level of preachiness does not seem to explain the stronger stigma cyclists have.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
Partly I think it's a defense mechanism. Say someone offers you meat, you decline and, to prevent their continued insistence or for future reference, admit to being a vegetarian. You will likely spend the next half hour to an hour of your life listening alternately to stupid jokes ("well so was the food!" har har har) and to that person excusing themselves for eating meat. I think this is because they have interpreted your statement as a sort of judgement or attack. If they're incredibly insecure, the mere mentioning of the existence of vegetarians may set off this behavior. It's probably similar for cyclists. With global climate change and the general lack of physical activity in modern societies, the mere existence of cyclist is treated like some kind of personal attack. "You're not as conscientious or healthy as I am", as it were. Though, like preachy vegans, there are also some cyclists who agitate everyone by completely ignoring both courtesy and the law when sharing the road.
- tjr225 9y ago
  Your last sentence is one of the most aggravating arguments I hear against cyclists using the road. Motorists I would argue are much, much worse at obeying traffic laws than cyclists (perhaps simply because there are so many more of them). I think this is made much worse by distracting electronics in a the vehicle. Regardless, why should a few bad cyclists be the measure for an entire group of people simply making a personal choice on how they're going to get around? Drives me crazy.
  - btrettel 9y ago
    I agree that drivers have a larger impact for breaking that law than cyclists simply due to the far larger number of them. The size and speed differences matter too. As far as I'm an tell about the same fraction of drivers and cyclists break the law. They, however, tend to break different laws: rolling through stop signs is more common for cyclists, whereas speeding is more common for drivers. Often when I point this out a driver decides to defend speeding, which I think is the wrong response. If the problem they claim to have is respect for the rules of the road, then justifying speeding is hypocritical. (For what it's worth I follow the law to the letter.) Plus, as you've said, the actions of a few bad people in a group should not strongly color perceptions of the entire group.