"I'm an environmental studies major and anytime I present evidence that plants are aware of suffering, it is ignored and dismissed." As it should be. When you

"I'm an environmental studies major and anytime I present evidence that plants are aware of suffering, it is ignored and dismissed." As it should be. When you say "pain" and "suffering" you mean in in no similar way to your own pain and suffering whereas vegans do. You're co-opting the language of ethics to try and point out hypocrisy. Also, let's apply some logic here and acknowledge that far more plants are "harmed" to make animal food products than plant food products, thus it's still consistent for ethical people to eat a plant based diet. "I have zero reason to believe this individual's cruelty towards me was some wild aberration in the veg- community." Vegans are defined by caring for the well being of others. That gives us every reason to think that a vegan would care more than anyone else about the well being of others. Your anecdote about a vegan who was mean to you once is something you shouldn't use to draw conclusions about an entire group of people.