Vegan Mind Tricks

I'm only on Tumblr to make friends with other vegans (veg*ns, I suppose).

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“Is Lion!” (Vegan Mind Tricks)

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Quitting "Vegan Tumblr" (My Reasons)

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This is the second time I’ve quit Tumblr, and I suppose my reasons were more interesting the first time around…

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Veganism, Fractious and Fragmentary. queen-nadine:

[…] “[I want to be vegan, but] I don’t want to be one of those people. Those vegan, hippy-ish, PETA advocate, save the animal activists. That’s not me.” […]

In 2013, veganism isn’t merely diverse, it’s internally fractious and fragmentary.  If you get 100 vegans together in a room, they have less in common than (e.g.) a conference of 100 linguists —even those the linguists may all work on different languages.  That’s strange, but as you spend more time looking at the diversity of motives that bring people into veganism (and the type of motivation required to remain vegan) it will make more sense to you. I am myself not a hippy (I never was one), and I openly oppose the use of cannabis.  Does that make me atypical?  It’s hard to generalize.  Some vegans are seriously interested in the hard science of nutrition, ecology, etc. —and some vegans approach the issues in terms of religion, or were born and raised as caste Hindus to begin with, and so on.  Although I would assume that models and athletes are a small minority of vegans, they are some of the most vocal and visible vegans today. This blog has been “home to” some debates that show how diverse the motivations are for people becoming and staying vegan (example) —with the deepest split being (perhaps) politically-engaged vegans vs. those who (like Bill Clinton, click) end up vegan on doctor’s orders after having a heart-attack, and who may or may not be blind to the ethical and ecological issues involved.  It is what it is. Veganism is not now and never has been an organized political movement; it isn’t even an organized discipline in the same sense as linguistics, nor can it compare to the level of organization seek in minority religions like Sikhism or Daoism —and you’d find a fair bit of diversity amongst the people in any of those examples, too.

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“Free range” means death without life.  A bird shot dead in the forest, at least, knew life before it knew death.

Photo credit = crustified.  The “free range” farm shown is reportedly in the Netherlands (in case you were kidding yourself about E.U. regulations).

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And you will never see me in a Dungeons and Dragons T-Shirt.

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You're Making the Choice RIGHT NOW.

zyxt13:

[…] “Like, shit, I need meat. It is a staple of my diet, because it’s one of the easier things for me to get cheaply, like a hamburger at McDonald’s.”

First contradiction: it’s cheap and convenient vs. it’s necessary.

Take a look at the price of a sack of lentils, or a can of chickpeas.  If you think a McDonald’s hamburger is the cheapest source of protein, you’re dead wrong.

"I’m pretty dang poor and I need to pinch my pennies."

Tumblr is full of vegans below the poverty line (some, in the U.S., on food stamps, etc.) —and you’re disrespecting the commitment and discipline all of those people demonstrate by presuming that being poor means you can’t be vegan.  Even so, switching to the sack of lentils would actually alleviate your poverty (do the math… cheese is not cheaper than the absence of cheese).

"There wasn’t really a “life choice" for me to change, sorry."

You’re wrong: you’re making the choice right now, sitting at this keyboard, with a whole world of information in front of you (for free, or costing you pennies) via the internet, in a language you can understand (i.e., English).

Click here to read an earlier article of mine on people who really don’t have the choice to change their lives the way you do (e.g., people in seasonal-starvation conditions in N.W. Laos, largely illiterate in any language, etc.).  Compare their situation to yours: you’ve got all the options in the world.

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A Law to Ban the Slaughter of Cattle (in Sri Lanka).

A man proposed a law to ban the slaughter of cattle; he proposed this by writing a letter, and then setting himself on fire in a public square.  Neither this article nor any of the links within this article will show you the pictures of his self-immolation (i.e., as they may be upsetting) —but those images are now very widely published and broadcast.

The point of the protest in which Bowatte Indarathana burned himself to death was to make the slaughter of cattle illegal —and that simple fact gets lost in much of the reporting.  The articles I’ve seen would prefer to present the protest as (1) “anti-Muslim”, and (2) to object that Buddhism prohibits suicide for monks (hint: it doesn’t —although the methods of suicide used within the Pali canon are less spectacular).

The strong association of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority with slaughterhouses is reciprocal with the fact that the vast majority of Theravāda Buddhists do eat meat —but (just like the average American) they would prefer not to slaughter it themselves.  Sri Lanka’s caste system was (remarkably) very different from mainland India’s (although the Sinhalese did and still do have a caste system); historically, this created an economic opportunity for Muslims to produce meat for the Buddhist market —we might say that the local butcher was “stereotypically Muslim”.  Today the industrialization of agriculture (and abattoirs) has eclipsed the significance of this, but the cultural association remains.

I wrote a long article dealing with vegetarianism in the Theravāda Canon (and how Buddhists manage to obfuscate and avoid the issue) that you can still read here (click).

The question that this type of incident raises is, simply, does anyone care?  I lost about 12 years of my life to Buddhism, and my honest answer is no.

People on the other side of the ocean aren’t angels, and they aren’t demons, either: they indulge in the same excuses for meat-eating (and for their own ignorance of their religion’s texts) as westerners do.  A man died to raise a simple question: couldn’t the slaughter of cattle be banned outright?  Sadly, tragically, this will only test the depth of public indifference on the issue.

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The Lesser of Two Evils is Still Evil. I have also lived on small farms in places as diverse as Canada and Laos.  I’ve seen animals bleeding to death, with their throats slit —and I’ve seen them raised in all kinds of conditions (from freezing cold to tropical). Your whole mode of reasoning about this is to prefer what you hope will be the lesser of two evils.  That’s a childish way of thinking. People in Cambodia kill animals with their bare hands; often enough, they kill people with their bare hands, too.  You can say, "people are still going to kill animals, regardless of what I do about it"; but you can also say (equally true) that people are going to continue murdering other people, regardless of what you do about it. You can make a difference.  You can make a positive difference in the world generally, or in Cambodia specifically.  It’s up to you. One of the simplest ways that you can make a difference is to stop paying people to kill animals for you.  It is much, much more complicated to get involved with humanitarian work in Cambodia (…don’t ask…). Are you really interested in doing something morally good, or are you interested in making an excuse for something you know is wrong, but that you want to do anyway?  Think it through. Humanitarian intervention can have a lot of negative outcomes (just look at Clinton in Yugoslavia, or any period of U.S. intervention in Haiti) —even when the intervention had positive motivations to begin with.  By contrast, you make an absolutely positive difference in the world when you cease to do harm, or when you remove the material incentive to do harm (i.e., you stop paying people to do it for you, in plain language). That’s a power you have (right now!) even if you’re a powerless person: not to choose the lesser of two evils, but to do something actually good.  I hope you’ll make that choice, eventually.

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People Are Good at Not Taking Responsibility for Things

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"My problem with the appeal to so-called “humane" sources [of meat] is, who gets to define what “treating them well" even means?"  […]

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And, as you become more familiar with human nature, you come to expect certain patterns of self-deception on the part of the self-styled humanitarians:

• “Oh, we didn’t treat our slaves badly… we were uplifting them from savagery in Africa… and besides, the Spanish were much worse than us!” • “Oh, when we [the French] conquered Vietnam, we were trying to help them… we were on a ‘civilizing mission’… and we weren’t like the Americans at all… just see what they did, they were much worse!”

The most natural form of self-deception in the world is to think that somebody else’s farm is the problem —and not your own.  No matter how bad a job you think I’m doing, I can excuse myself by comparing it to somebody else doing even worse, or I can appeal to some vague ideal I’m supposedly supporting with my atrocities.

An intersecting but unrelated issue is this: ecologically, it doesn’t make a difference if the pigs are kept in velvet manacles or bare steel.  The type of minor improvements that supposedly render meat “humane” do absolutely nothing to reduce the devastating use of land, air and water resources —the rivers are still filled up with pig manure, and the livestock continue to breed antibiotic resistant disease, and so on.

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Self-explanatory.  Just like the title of the blog: Vegan Mind Tricks.

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Those Soybeans Aren’t Used to Feed PEOPLE…

pineaberry:

[…] “That’s right, you tofu-munchers. An increase demand for soy products and additives has spiked the price of soybeans resulting in… YOU GUESSED IT! Deforestation of the rainforest.” […]

Apart from being an idiot, you happen to be wrong: the soy mass-produced in Brazil is used to make cattle feed—international livestock breeding is now dependent on Brazilian exports of soy (e.g., so called “British Beef” is actually raised eating Brazilian crops… in Britain).

The environmental devastation you’re alluding to is driven by meat consumption, and would be reduced if more people were vegetarian.  This is acknowledged by pretty much every reputable source on paper, including the (slow-moving) United Nations (as mentioned recently on this blog).

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What do you Mean by “The Movement”, Exactly…?

sktagg23:

"As a vegan, do you know what makes me angrier than anything else on Earth?

Fucking asshole vegans.

They are completely fucking up the movement. […]

This has been a straight-up no bullshit public service announcement.”

Don’t kid yourself: what “movement” exactly are you talking about?  Is there a vegan party anywhere in the world that has even achieved the scale and organization of the Taiwanese Pirate Party? Take a look at the German Pirate Party… with all due humility, you have to recognize that this is a real political movement compared to anything we’ve got going on.  Venting on Tumblr is not a political movement.

Is there a vegan organization that is comparable in scale or organization to minority religions (below 1% of the population) in your neighborhood?  (Depending on where you live, take a good look at the nearest Sikh temple, etc., and ask yourself: does anything like that exist for vegans… anywhere?)

You insult people for giving voice to their principles, and claim that there’s “no bullshit” in your defense of “the movement” —but the most fundamental bullshit of all is pretending to represent a movement that doesn’t exist.  Don’t play dress-up revolutionary, and don’t hate other vegans for being confrontational… most of us live in cultural circumstance where we deal with daily confrontations whether we want to or not (including family, co-workers, and complete strangers).

The struggle is real; and, as I’ve said before, if you see vegans acting like they’re struggling, it’s because, for them, it really is a struggle.  However, for most of us, it isn’t a movement for the same reason: we’re struggling all alone.

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Eating Meat and Knowing it’s Wrong (What Comes Next?)

from298to150:

”[…] it seems alot of blogs I am following push for people to be a vegan or be a vegetarian. I  have no desire to do either. Now, I love animals. I love cows, and pigs, and think they are the most adorable creatures on earth. This is touchy, because I love these animals, and the thought of eating them is horrible, but that doesn’t mean that I will stop. [Bold added] […]

Now, these are just my opinions, and I might be wrong, but it’s the conclusion that I have come to. So, thank you for doing what is right for you, but I also need to do what is right for me, and that includes eating animal products. :)”

Yes, you’re wrong.  Your opinion, based on crass ignorance, animus and personal convenience, is wrong.  Now what? V-Blue had the patience to write a more detailed reply to you, but what difference is that going to make?  You don’t want to be informed, and you don’t want to do the right thing: you want to make a declaration of your “good intentions” to afford yourself absolution for doing what you know to be the wrong thing. What do you expect any of us to say?  If you really thought that you were “doing what is right for you” then you wouldn’t be apologizing for it; conversely, if you were remotely interested in doing what is right we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

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The Slaughterhouses Have Us Surrounded.

The map on the top-left is, very simply, a map of the slaughterhouses that have listed themselves through google maps (if you’re familiar with the program, you’ll know that zooming in will reveal more red dots —especially where they’re clustered together— and you’ll know, also, that the listing is not exhaustive).

The image on the top-right represents the distribution of McDonald’s restaurants in France (an image I’ve seen around for a while now).

Wherever you live in the world, please take a moment to check a map service, or even to check the phone book, if you haven’t done so before: you’re surrounded by abattoirs, and by the industries connected to them.

The map at bottom-left shows the extremely tiny portion of France’s land devoted to anything like habitat conservation (although, in fact, these are also major areas for hunting and other tourist activities incompatible with conservation).  The map at bottom-right shows population density.

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1980s Cultural Reference Ensues

"Do Vegans Play Duck Hunt? Hmmm."

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Only if it's free-range, bitch.

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We act like it’s a struggle because, for us, it is a struggle.

awesometastical101:

"So this is who this is for. This comic is for the “crazy vegans” and the people who give to many fucks about what people decide they don’t want to consume.

Just chill guys.”

Thanks for insulting everyone in the struggle (as “crazy”).  I notice that you say you and your family are vegan; most of the people on Tumblr are locked in a tug-of-war with their own families on these issues on a daily basis.  They don’t deserve to be reviled as crazy.  People who stand up and do the right thing for the right reasons don’t deserve to be reviled as crazy.  If being a vegan isn’t a struggle for you, and you can’t relate, my advice is: make the effort and learn how to relate (because for plenty of the people “here” it really is a struggle).

[The link for the stats (excerpted in the 4th picture) is here.]

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Getting Older vs. Getting Wiser (and Veganism)

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lovethegoodwin:

"I love animals, but I also like eating meat. Do I like thinking about where it comes from? Hell no. Posting those pictures are NOT going to make me go vegan, it’s going to make me pissed off. 

I’ve also been told that because I am not vegan, I do NOT love animals. You don’t know me, you don’t know how much I love animals, so don’t tell me I don’t love them because I eat meat.”

Let me give you some advice: any argument that requires you to say “you don’t know me” is one that you’re already starting off in the wrong.  For example, the police officer says “blow into this breathalyzer”, and you reply, “You don’t know me!”

I don’t think you’re going to take this advice, and I don’t think you’re going to reflect on how profoundly stupid your public statement on/against veganism really is.  Your profile says that you’re 16 years old, but (guess what?) all the people I knew who were as stupid as yourself at age 16 were just as stupid at age 26 —and were continuing to make the same excuses for themselves.  Hey, look at Lindsay Lohan: getting older isn’t the same thing as getting wiser.  You get wiser when you choose to learn from experience —whereas you merely get old through experience.