Caramel Baloney

The View From My Brain: Dear Vegans

deepwithfuture:

jemimaaslana:

I understand that you believe being vegan is the right thing to be/do. That’s cool. I support your right to work on the solution you believe is right for whichever issue motivated you, be it environment, animal rights or something else.

BUT I DO NOT FUCKING SUPPORT IT WHEN YOU CALL PEOPLE HYPOCRITES FOR BELIEVING IN ANIMAL RIGHTS AND NOT BEING VEGAN LIKE YOURSELVES.

FUCK YOU.

Being vegan is not an option for everyone. Fresh veggies can be fucking expensive depending on where you live, not everyone has access to a farmer’s market. Not everyone has the mental capacity and/or spoons to spend the time and care to plan and prepare vegan food, which often takes more time than non-vegan foods.

I do believe we should treat animals with respect and care, BUT I can not ever live vegan. Why? I cannot keep track of what’s in my fucking fridge. Too many veggies would go bad for me and I would have to throw away several pounds of food every single fucking week. Instead I frequently live off of yoghurt, bread and cheese and such, because that’s what I can manage to eat before it goes bad. ‘Cause you know, throwing away lots of food is totally better for everyone than eating a few animal products.

And yet, I still believe we should treat animals right. This apparently makes me a hypocrite in your holier-than-the-rest of-us-lowly-sinners eyes.

Well, fuck you. When you have abolished poverty and made sure that every single human being has access (location and finance-wise) to proper vegan groceries, then your claim of hypocrisy might ring true. When you have made sure that everyone with a cognitive disability or other issues that prevent them from organising their meals like you would gets respectful help with getting and preparing fod then you might have an ear for your claims.

And then again. No. You might not. ‘Cause some of us just don’t fucking believe that veganism is the solution to every fucking thing that ails this world and its population. We are not hypocrites if we disagree with your solution.

You are, however classist and ableist (and probably a few other -ists) in the extreme for expecting people to live vegan if they are for animal rights.

And don’t fucking compare animals to slaves, women, etc etc. Marginalised people have been considered animals for so fucking long that you’re REALLY not making a good case for your cause by using the same fucking comparisons that the bigots are.

Fuck you, you classist, ableist, racist fuckers. Just fuck you and stay the fuck off my feed.

PS: mandatory disclaimer. This is, of course only directed at the vegans, who actually think and say what I outlined above, and not at the presumably vast majority of vegans who are really cool people, who has a sense of reality and respect for real people’s real live experiences in the real world.

Also, this was, of course, triggered by the quote I reblogged and commented on a little while ago, so don’t tell me vegans are not like that, ‘cause the reblogged quote and some of the commentary shows quite well that some of you fucking are.

BUT I DO NOT FUCKING SUPPORT IT WHEN YOU CALL PEOPLE…

I don’t understand this. You are for animal rights but think it’s fine to eat factory farmed meat? How can you blame people for saying that you aren’t for animal rights. I’m not trying to be rude. I just don’t understand. Factory farming is the exact opposite of animal rights. Also, if you don’t want to be vegan…you clearly don’t have to be but “Too many veggies would go bad for me and I would have to throw away several pounds of food every single fucking week. Instead I frequently live off of yoghurt, bread and cheese and such, because that’s what I can manage to eat before it goes bad.” is kind of a silly reason. Don’t buy POUNDS of fruits and veggies. The good thing about produce is you can weight it before you buy it.

Also, why is it vegans job to abolish poverty so that people can afford vegan food? It’s not. I’m not ableist, classist, or whatever other ists you called me. I don’t hate people who are stricken by poverty and can’t afford to be vegan. I don’t hate anyone who isn’t vegan. I’m not an asshole. I just know that most people that I talk to can afford cigarettes or nights out in the bars, they can also afford to be vegan.

I think this is a common view that most people have…Vegans are the enemy. It really sucks because we are only trying to do what is right.

Fuck it. I can’t win. No matter what I do, I’ll always be a crazy asshole. I hate it. It’s fucking bullshit.

How about you fucking read what I write? Where did I say factory farmed meat? WHERE? Tell me that. It is, in fact, possible to raise animals with respect and care and eat them without them being factory farmed. Ever heard of ecology?

I wrote why it isn’t possible for me to keep track of what’s in my fridge. And you do NOT FUCKING LIVE WHERE I DO. It isn’t everywhere you can weigh your veggies before buying them. By far most places here do NOT have that option. You can buy 1,2 or 5 kilos of potatoes, those are your choices. End of fucking story. Unless, of course, you can afford to shop in the high end stores. Which… you can’ if you’re poor. How hard is that to understand?

Oh wait, I think I already fucking said that. Reading. How about it?

If you’re not an asshole, then maybe you should have READ MY FUCKING DISCLAIMER! If itøs not about you, then it’s not about you. But judging from you’re writing here, maybe it IS about you.

Here let me show you a week in my life. I’m autistic. Shopping is majorly triggering and not something I can do very often. So I must shop for a week at a time. That means I must plan every single meal a week ahead. This is not possible for me, because, you see, I cannot remember to COOK AND EAT my frigging meals. So by the time a week has rolled by, I have probably forgotten, or been too exhausted to cook half of the meals I had planned. What do I do with that food then?

And I just love (read: hate) how you refer to cigarettes and bars. I don’t fucking smoke and I haven’t seen the inside of a nightclub/bar in 7 years. So yeah, I guess that must totally be where my money is going, you ignorant failfuck.

It is not the vegans’ job to abolish poverty. But as long as it is vegans who claim that everyone who are for animal rights are hypocrites if they’re not also vegan ARE classist douchefucks who ignore the fact that poverty exists, and you just called a whole bunch of poor people who are for animal rights, but can’t afford fair trade/ecological goods are hypocrties simply because they happen to be poor. So yes, if vegans like you want to claim that we’re hypocrites, then you are hypocrites too as long as you haven’t abolished poverty.

You didn’t actually read my post did you? You just saw the word vegan and thought everyone hates you, didn’t you?

Did you actually read where I wrote that I respect you and your choices? Did you actually read where I said that I consider your choice valid and good, just not an option for me? Apparently not.

Vegans are trying to do what THEY/YOU think is right. You don’t have a monopoly on being right. People can disagree without being evil monsters who hate you.

Also, your ableism shows. Using crazy as a slur is not cool. But I suppose that’s totally okay when you’re telling me that my disability and the things it causes me to be unable to do is “silly”. Yeah thanks. When are you gonna tell wheelchair users that they’re silly for not just walking instead.

And honey-bun if you’re such a holy vegan. What the fuck are you doing typing on an electronic device made out of metal, heavy metals and plastic - all materials that are mined/produced without regard fr the environment or the workers who work with it. Oh yeah, an I suppose you’ve also made sure that the electricity that powers your computer/cell phone charger comes from wind/water energy, rather than the national energy grid which uses coal/nuclear energy - depending on where you live.

Clearly you have no idea what you’re talking about. You didn’t actually read my post - or maybe you just didn’t understand it. Or maybe you don’t wan to understand. You did not even come CLOSE to addressing the issue of disability, which I ACTUALLY EXPLAINED in the original post. But I guess being disabled is just silly, because of people can afford cigarettes it’s also totally possible to ignore whatever disabilities you might have and become vegan.

Vegans are not the enemy. Classists, Ableists etc are. The two are not mutually exclusive, and living vegan does not give a free pass to be any kind of hateful ism in the name of righteousness.

Fuck you. You’re not crazy. You’re just an ignorant fuckjob.

Since the YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE I LIVE argument has come up, I’d seriously like to know where one can buy free-range, humanely slaughtered meat for less money than a meal without it. Maybe on a farm on marginalized land unfit for crops? I’ve never seen a vegan argue that those people living on subsistence farms with unfertile soils in abject poverty shouldn’t eat the animals they’ve raised. But that’s probably not most of us on tumblr. For everyone else, it is certainly not cheaper to eat an omnivorous diet than a vegan one. Sure, buying vegan soy sausage and milk is more expensive, but those foods are unnecessary. Who says you have to eat large amounts of fresh, organic produce from the farmers’ market? Frozen or canned vegetables, dried beans, and grains are widely available and cheaper than animal products, as well as many go-to processed “accidental vegan” foods. There’s nothing esoteric about a vegan meal that makes it more difficult to prepare than a non-vegan one.

Some people depend on others for their food and care and may have little choice as to what they eat. But couldn’t those people try to change what is offered? If they don’t care about animals or the environment, fine. Many people engaged in this conversation seem passionately dedicated to human rights issues. Why use that same passion to attack the people trying to make this change? In the US, grains are subsidized, which means the livestock that are fed grains (i.e. factory farmed) are also subsidized. It’s a shame that unsubsidized, fresh vegetables are more expensive, but then why just give in and enforce the status quo, instead of helping to change this system?

This isn’t just about animal rights vs. human choices:

Livestock occupy 30% of ice-free land surface on the planet
Expansion of suitable grazing land is capped, so extension into tropical forests is now the norm
Ranching-induced deforestation is one of the main causes of unique plant and animal species loss in tropical rainforests in South and Central America
In the Amazon basin, 88% of cleared land is for pasture, 70% in Costa Rica and Panama (and yes, meat from tropical regions is mainly for export to industrialized nations in order to satisfy our increasing demands)
60% of US pastures are overgrazed; 55% of total agricultural soil erosion is due to livestock
Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water use and 93% of water depletion; more water is used for beef alone than for the US’s entire vegetable crop
60 lbs. water for 1 lb. of wheat; 2500-6000 lbs. water for 1 lb. of meat
In US, livestock sector responsible for more than 50% of mineral N and P applied, causing eutrophication and hypoxia in major water bodies.
70% of US agricultural pesticide use for corn and soybeans
Livestock contribute to antibiotic pollution and resistance, heavy metal deposition, and endocrine disruptors in our waterways. Half of all antibiotics produced in the US are fed to livestock.
Example: In 1996, US CAFOs generated 1.4 billion tons of waste, polluting America’s waterways more than all other industrial sources combined.
Livestock contribute more than 18% of global GHG emissions. That’s more than all forms of transportation (cars, trucks, buses, trains, planes, boats) combined. Source for all above: Livestock’s Long Shadow, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (1996).
Let’s also not forget about ridiculous health care costs. We now need subsidized health care, while also continuing to subsidize meat, which has been linked to: heart disease; ulcers; obesity; colon, breast, uterine, cervical, ovarian, and prostate cancers; osteoporosis; diabetes; arthritis; hypoglycemia; multiple sclerosis; etc. (Diet for a New America, John Robbins)

So even free-range, organic meats contribute to climate change, water waste, biodiversity loss, overgrazing, and erosion. All US cattle, even organic, must be slaughtered in certified slaughterhouses, largely filled with undocumented workers who have no power in one of the most dangerous jobs (see Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, for some horrifying accounts of abused workers). Some of these are human rights issues. We could feed far more people if we stopped feeding livestock. Who is impacted most by water shortages, and who will be impacted most by climate change? Those living in poverty. So it becomes easy to claim that it’s too difficult to become vegan, because we don’t really have to face the consequences of our omnivorous food choices. Both the IPCC and UN are now urging people to stop eating meat. Today, meat consumption is mostly unnecessary and wasteful. Nearly everyone has some power either to change what they eat or to try changing the system that feeds them. To know these facts and still argue for meat consumption, or to vehemently attack those who speak out against that hypocritical attitude, is really entirely selfish.

Source: jemimaaslana