Pessimist Part 1 I guess. Y'know, a few years ago, I was happy. Finding tumblr, a progressive social media site? Going Vegan and using the vegan calculator every year to see what I've done, who I've saved? Waking up to different posts/studies by the United Nations and IPCC supporting it? It was like walking through a haze of doom and despair only for a golden bar to appear, to hoist myself up and look to a brighter horizon.
Pessimist 2. Unfortunately however, discovering the venomous hatred of veganism on this platform, and having people call those who share these sources Liars/Cultists, and straight up Dismissing posts like the one you reblogged about the United Nations stating Veganism can save the world, and realizing that much of this progressive language on this site is Performative at best?
Pessismist 3. It was like straddling that bar, slipping, banging my nether regions on it, and falling straight back if not Deeper into the abyss. How? How tf do y'all do it? Am I the only one that feels like there is Absolutely No hope left because the majority of people? no matter their political affiliation are a bunch of self-centered, lazy, morons? The Answer is Right there? The way out of this climate change Nightmare with keys to even Better things. Is Right In Front Of You?
Pessimist 4. And you have people going "Nah that's absurd" ?? Saying we need to take on the 100 corporations??? With NO plan??? And outwardly mocking? Or Hating on People? For taking the safest, most logical path?? By just changing what you eat a couple times a day? Bro. I'm Mentally Exhausted. And I'm not even a Fucking Activist. How do you maintain your faith in humanity to do these things. when the majority of people on here are So, God Damn Stupid? Im not even angry, I am just Shocked?
Pessimist 5. I mean "Here is some science backed information that can prevent the world and quite literally, billions of men/beasts from dying in a broiler caused by ghg emissions" The average Tumblr Individual: I'm not going to do this because I feel like you're shaming me. Bro, Billions of lives will be lost? Sharing info is not guilt tripping? This is a literal matter of Life and Death, who cares? Are you all Out of your Fucking Minds? Im sorry dude. Ik you got kids following you, but like??
The thing to recognise is the enormous social pressure to conform, and the psychological impact of that pressure on people’s ability to perceive information in objective terms. Confirmation bias is the main reason that intelligent people are able to dismiss demonstrable facts as ‘vegan propoganda,’ while simultaneously believing these viral posts with 200k+ shares, filled with misinformation and without a single source. We take in the information which backs up our existing world-view and we discard the rest.
Historically, even with social justice movements who have ended up winning over majority opinion, before that massive shift, the majority of the population remained in denial. When public opinion suddenly switches, the majority change their minds and pretend that’s what they always thought. We all like to think we would have been on the right side of history, but most people weren’t until after the fact. Fortunately, it takes far fewer people to be convinced of a position on social justice in order to result in substantial change.
All throughout history, real change has come from an active, politically engaged minority. We don’t need to convince everyone, just a large enough minority to force social change, and how large that minority needs to be is often overestimated. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, looked at hundreds of campaigns over the last century and found that it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in protests to spark radical political change. We are a long way from that with veganism, but we are growing at a rapid rate, despite how hopeless it can seem.
The problem we face with veganism is that the longer it takes for the public to wake up to the truth, the more animals die and the more our environment is destroyed. We just don’t have the luxury of time - I am hoping that with the likes of WHO, the UN FAO and The World Bank coming out in favour of a radical shift away from animal agriculture, it will get to a point where no reasonable person can deny it. Those who deny the truth about animal agriculture will at that point basically be akin to the fringe climate deniers we see today - not taken seriously by anyone with any sort of intellectual integrity.
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