Bye again...

[Vanille]

I don't feel very comfortable here anymore, this doesn't apply to this forum only but the vegan online community in general... Getting judged left and right when I'm doing so my best. I just got called a fake vegan by someone on instagram because I use pads for my periods! Insane. That after I wrote a supportive public comment which got lots of likes... Same reason I stay away from the LGBT+ community, I'm a lesbian but the community is full of **** (hating bisexuals and trans people, coming up with the most ridiculous genders and supporting pedophilia, gross!)

I find a lot of inner peace in veganism, I feel healthier physically, people irl (except my dad and brother) are becoming more accepting and eat vegetarian more often thanks to me. As my life sucks enough already, I no longer wanna risk people ruining things that make me happy and give me peace (which also happened with some hobbies I had and music I listened to)

Am I quitting veganism? Absolutely not! Just like staying away from the LGBT+ community doesn't make me less of a lesbian. Compare me with a Christian who leaves church but continues to follow Jesus.

Also, the fact that we can't remove, or even edit our posts makes me uneasy.

Thanks all and farewell ~

 

[Sally]

Hi Vanille, you can edit your posts.

 

[TofuRobot]

We will miss you, but I can understand when the creeps on the internet (and IRL) get to be too much. The door is always open should you change your mind. Please take care

 

[Nekodaiden]

B4 you go...

I noticed from one of your other posts on another thread that you are new, just a few weeks or something, and that is not something I initially realized when first responding to you. The fact is, in my transition month I screwed up 3 times. Lifelong habits are difficult to break. If, in addition to changing a major habit (what I eat), I also was bombarded by messages saying I had to do, or refrain from, X,Y and Z just to be considered vegan (among peers) I would have balked and rebelled.

The fact is, the people who are insisting you go all the extra miles they have (whatever those are outside of what they eat), didn't start out that way. They started with the diet first, later adopted more views related to their abstinence, and then included them under their own personal definition of what it means to be vegan. To some of them, it is a way to distinguish themselves and practice vanity. To some, they have simply forgotten where they started. Because I can assure you, not one vegan started attending vegan rallies, making veganism some sort of career, or was even primarily concerned with soaps, personal hygiene items and clothing choices BEFORE they stopped eating all animal products. Now mind you, some of these people are on this forum. However, there are plenty that are not.

I would encourage you to watch the following video. In my opinion it goes a fair distance in showing the history of veganism and at the same time shames the "super vegans" among us - those who add to and preach all kinds of extras that are not diet related. As another has said, once one starts abstaining and keeps abstaining, then it becomes more natural to also extend this choice to non-diet related items and actions - if one chooses to do so. But these extras were never intended to be among the primary definition of what it means to be vegan, only a personal matter of one's own conscience beyond the dietary stipulation - this latter being binding, and the former not.

https://www.veganforum.org/threads/youre-not-a-real-vegan-youre-not-vegan-enough.2785/

 

[Forest Nymph]

B4 you go...

I noticed from one of your other posts on another thread that you are new, just a few weeks or something, and that is not something I initially realized when first responding to you. The fact is, in my transition month I screwed up 3 times. Lifelong habits are difficult to break. If, in addition to changing a major habit (what I eat), I also was bombarded by messages saying I had to do, or refrain from, X,Y and Z just to be considered vegan (among peers) I would have balked and rebelled.

The fact is, the people who are insisting you go all the extra miles they have (whatever those are outside of what they eat), didn't start out that way. They started with the diet first, later adopted more views related to their abstinence, and then included them under their own personal definition of what it means to be vegan. To some of them, it is a way to distinguish themselves and practice vanity. To some, they have simply forgotten where they started. Because I can assure you, not one vegan started attending vegan rallies, making veganism some sort of career, or was even primarily concerned with soaps, personal hygiene items and clothing choices BEFORE they stopped eating all animal products. Now mind you, some of these people are on this forum. However, there are plenty that are not.

I would encourage you to watch the following video. In my opinion it goes a fair distance in showing the history of veganism and at the same time shames the "super vegans" among us - those who add to and preach all kinds of extras that are not diet related. As another has said, once one starts abstaining and keeps abstaining, then it becomes more natural to also extend this choice to non-diet related items and actions - if one chooses to do so. But these extras were never intended to be among the primary definition of what it means to be vegan, only a personal matter of one's own conscience beyond the dietary stipulation - this latter being binding, and the former not.

https://www.veganforum.org/threads/youre-not-a-real-vegan-youre-not-vegan-enough.2785/

Are you wallowing in tallow soaps? Fining your beer with fish? I'm honestly wondering what you're up to with a couple of years of being righteously "no cheating ever" diet but with these strong opinions about everything except food. I'm not saying I disagree with you but I honestly question your weird persistance against vegan shoes. Or beer.

 

[Nekodaiden]

Are you wallowing in tallow soaps? Fining your beer with fish? I'm honestly wondering what you're up to with a couple of years of being righteously "no cheating ever" diet but with these strong opinions about everything except food. I'm not saying I disagree with you but I honestly question your weird persistance against vegan shoes. Or beer.

I have strong opinions because people balk when they are confronted with all the extras that people heap into veganism and it turns them off from changing their dietary patterns. Nothing to hide here - I do not buy anything that includes animal products except a grain based cat food that has a little. Getting people to go vegan is important, I'm sure you'll agree - and that is hindered when they are confronted with a mountain of requirements on top of changing what is often lifelong food habits. It's a very tall order for most to begin with. The extras make it even taller and it puts people off. More people put off means less changing their dietary patterns. Means more senseless deaths of animals and starving humans, more cruelty, more deforestation, more environmental havoc and more sick people - all so some people can feel special. It makes me angry.

 

[Forest Nymph]

I have strong opinions because people balk when they are confronted with all the extras that people heap into veganism and it turns them off from changing their dietary patterns. Nothing to hide here - I do not buy anything that includes animal products except a grain based cat food that has a little. Getting people to go vegan is important, I'm sure you'll agree - and that is hindered when they are confronted with a mountain of requirements on top of changing what is often lifelong food habits. It's a very tall order for most to begin with. The extras make it even taller and it puts people off. More people put off means less changing their dietary patterns. Means more senseless deaths of animals and starving humans, more cruelty, more deforestation, more environmental havoc and more sick people - all so some people can feel special. It makes me angry.

Have you considered that it's possibly because people are logically consistant and not because they want to feel special? Most people who are THAT VEGAN are vegan for the animals or at least the environment. My male roommate who is vegan is from a small rural town in California, he has acne, he doesn't seem to have a girlfriend, he doesn't drink or smoke, he makes me look EVIL and he uses ALL vegan products in the bathroom. He's always full vegan, never accidentally. He became vegan for the animals and is writing an article in the campus newspaper for a pig rescue I suggested. My roommate is the definition of humble innocent vegan. I'm much more cynical and cutthroat and pragmatic.


Stop judging people for being righteous. Love their innocent righteousness.