3 ms·

I wish people wouldn't generalise that because 1) some people might consider figs non-vegan and 2) this line of reasoning might be weird/stupid, then 3) most ve

I wish people wouldn't generalise that because 1) some people might consider figs non-vegan and 2) this line of reasoning might be weird/stupid, then 3) most vegans must think this therefore veganism is weird/stupid as a whole. How many people that say they are vegan consider figs non-vegan? Are there surveys on this? I'm going to guess most haven't thought about it (figs aren't daily in most places), don't have a strong opinion on it or don't see the harm if the insect does this process itself, yet the natural reaction of comments in newspapers is to strongly attack veganism using fringe issues like this. Most of veganism seems pretty straightforward and rational but there's a bunch of edge cases like figs, honey, almonds and avocados people love to use a means to attack the whole concept as stupid. It would be like looking for fringe cases of things meat-eaters do (e.g. eating animals while they're still alive, eating dogs and cats) and using that to attack meat-eaters. I'm seeing recently that newspapers love to run veganism stories where readers jump in with comments mocking imaginary vegans that hold extreme fringe views (who is actually claiming this? how many are?) to compound their existing beliefs that veganism is stupid. It's exactly the same thing as political filter bubbles where nobody is learning anything because everyone is sharing extreme and fake stories in an echo chamber. The goal of veganism seems to be to make choices that are better for the planet and reduce animal cruelty - it turns out the choices you need to make to do that aren't always obvious (which is interesting in itself), but that shouldn't be a reason to ignore the whole concept or ridicule people who are trying to make a genuine attempt to help others.

dgellow 8y ago
> It would be like looking for fringe cases of things meat-eaters do (e.g. eating animals while they're still alive, eating dogs and cats) and using that to attack meat-eaters. Don’t worry (or do worry), newspapers will attack veganism, vegetarianism, AND carnivorism (or omnivorism) if they have ways to create inflammatory headlines. That’s not something reserved to only one subset.
- strainer 8y ago
  Medias treatment of of different subjects is not randomly balanced in the way you assure. Clearly, positions which are more popular with readership require better treatment than less popular ones, and positions which are popular with advertisers have to be treated most respectfully.
  - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
    > positions which are popular with advertisers have to be treated most respectfully Datapoint: the meat, fish and diary industries are provably much wealthier and more powerful than alternative food-related industries and they are known to heavily fund "think tanks", lobbying groups, "social media influences", ads.
scandinavegan 8y ago
> extreme fringe views (who is actually claiming this? how many are?) I agree. This topic recently ran as Today I Learned on Reddit, and of all the vegans checking in, no one had heard about this. It's the same with me and all my vegan acquaintances, no one has heard that figs wouldn't be considered vegan. The article title makes it sound like everyone agrees that figs aren't considered vegan, which is weird. Speaking of fringe views, I read an interesting article debunking the idea that vegans are deficient in common nutrients. It looked deeper into the studies presented, and it turned out that they had studied fruitarians (only eats fruits and perhaps nuts and seeds without killing the plant), or religious groups with extremely limited food sources. Those groups are vegan, but they are a small subset of all vegans, and it would be incorrect to say that findings with these groups apply to people eating varied vegan diets.
YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
Eating dogs and cats doesn't sound tasty, but how does it compare to eating an animal alive? If it's about not eating intelligent animals- pigs are way smarter than both dogs and cats. Yet meat eaters wouldn't find eating them "fringe" (I don't).

dgellow 8y ago

> It would be like looking for fringe cases of things meat-eaters do (e.g. eating animals while they're still alive, eating dogs and cats) and using that to attack meat-eaters. Don’t worry (or do worry), newspapers will attack veganism, vegetarianism, AND carnivorism (or omnivorism) if they have ways to create inflammatory headlines. That’s not something reserved to only one subset.

strainer 8y ago
Medias treatment of of different subjects is not randomly balanced in the way you assure. Clearly, positions which are more popular with readership require better treatment than less popular ones, and positions which are popular with advertisers have to be treated most respectfully.
- eeZah7Ux 8y ago
  > positions which are popular with advertisers have to be treated most respectfully Datapoint: the meat, fish and diary industries are provably much wealthier and more powerful than alternative food-related industries and they are known to heavily fund "think tanks", lobbying groups, "social media influences", ads.

scandinavegan 8y ago

> extreme fringe views (who is actually claiming this? how many are?) I agree. This topic recently ran as Today I Learned on Reddit, and of all the vegans checking in, no one had heard about this. It's the same with me and all my vegan acquaintances, no one has heard that figs wouldn't be considered vegan. The article title makes it sound like everyone agrees that figs aren't considered vegan, which is weird. Speaking of fringe views, I read an interesting article debunking the idea that vegans are deficient in common nutrients. It looked deeper into the studies presented, and it turned out that they had studied fruitarians (only eats fruits and perhaps nuts and seeds without killing the plant), or religious groups with extremely limited food sources. Those groups are vegan, but they are a small subset of all vegans, and it would be incorrect to say that findings with these groups apply to people eating varied vegan diets.

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago

Eating dogs and cats doesn't sound tasty, but how does it compare to eating an animal alive? If it's about not eating intelligent animals- pigs are way smarter than both dogs and cats. Yet meat eaters wouldn't find eating them "fringe" (I don't).