Now, I remembered that this post existed via some weird, indirect cognitive chain of thought and I wanted to point out a couple things on it because this post is from over three years ago on my old blog (which has gone through a myriad of transformations), and let me be clear: I am the person in the original post.
I actually can’t believe this is me for one, I can’t believe I was this thoughtless and awful as a person and that I said something so violent and hateful towards the undeserving.
I’m happily Vegan now, educated and thriving in the lifestyle.
I would probably start a fight with this iteration of myself, like seriously I’d deck myself if I could, because this me would deserve it.
This person was unbelievably uneducated, and had a very limited realm of experience and understanding into the subject, and I’m honestly not surprised I had this mentality back then because I basically fucking lived off ground beef and potatoes at this point.
This person often felt very insecure when exposed to “Vegan Opinions”. In fact the reason I made this post was because someone had posted something informational and it made me upset because it challenged my ethics and contrasted them against something as personal as my diet, so the only logical reaction would to say something disgustingly offensive and malicious as a response - A mentality I absolutely have no empathy for anymore and deplore today and am subject to/argue against on a weekly basis. Past me even tagged this as “#vegan” and “#social justice” like what kind of an ASSHOLE???
I think most importantly though, this exemplifies hope for the cause; to know that I was able to come from an embarrassing, ignorant, and violent stance against the issue to being an active supporter of animal rights and choosing not to consume animal products in the name of animal welfare and unity is exceptionally comforting to me (even though acknowledging I had the capacity for this is unsettling). So while I may not be a typical case, and obviously not everyone like this is going to mature, educate and enlighten themselves enough to hold themselves accountable and make the difference, I certainly don’t think I’m the first to have this experience, and I absolutely believe I won’t be the last. I’m proud to be an example of how repeated exposure, education, and gained empathy toward the issue, as well as the efforts of those in the community can make meaningful changes for 1 person that affect hundreds of thousands of lives.
I’m going to tag @necessaryveganism because I think they’re a great resource and may be interested in sharing this!