I lost you there because you missed the word I qualified veganism with. Yes, plenty of people are probably vegan for practical reasons, but within upper social

I lost you there because you missed the word I qualified veganism with. Yes, plenty of people are probably vegan for practical reasons, but within upper social class voluntarily forfeiting certain goods conveys status because it's a sign of purity and frugality and religious cleanliness. In the US in the form of literal Puritanist traditions. Don't smoke, sleep on a hard mattress even if you're a billionaire, it's why Zuckerberg loves talking about living in a crappy house for ages, and why Musk loves talking about how he sold his material possessions and lives in a container. Caste discrimination and trying to snuff out lower caste members by seeing who observes a vegan diet is prevalent in Hindu communities because it happens to be the case that Brahmins observe vegetarianism much more strictly. Also important, class and income aren't the same thing. Your bohemian artist who lives only off ethically sourced food and earns half as much as the meat-eating, smoking blue collar union guy is broke, but not poor.