This doesn’t super resonate with my experience. I haven’t really seen anyone argue for “veganism is costly for everyone”. I feel like the debate has always been between “for some people veganism is very costly” and “veganism is very cheap for everyone (if they just try properly)”.
Like, it’s not like anyone is arguing that there should be no vegan food at EAG, or that all EAs should be carnivores. Maybe I am missing something here and there are places where people are talking past each other in the way you describe, but e.g. recent conversations with Elizabeth VN and others have been about trying to argue that being vegan is quite costly for some people (in terms of health in that case), not that it’s costly for all people, and many people seemed to disagree with that.
I agree with Will that differences in costs is a major driver of disagreement, but agree with Haybrka that it is not at all symmetric in public discussions. In public discussions I’ve only seen type B people accuse vegans of lying in regards to universal statements, not what they personally find it easy.
I’ll admit that this is less than total. Privately, I expect that some percent of type-As are wrong about how easy veganism is for them, and will develop problems at a later date. If I am talking 1:1 to a vegan experiencing chronic unexplained health issues, and all the obvious stuff has been ruled out, I will suggest nutritional interventions. I don’t see this as relevant to the public debate; there definitely are people for whom veganism is easy, I can’t guess who will turn out to be wrong about their personal difficulty, and establishing common knowledge of the variety is sufficient for public debate.
This seems pretty close to an universal claim, that high cognitive effort is not possible under veganism (or at least it’s an open question) for everyone. It’s not exactly saying that people don’t find it easy to be vegan, but that the people who are are deluded.
I think that post is better described as a question and personal anecdote, not a universal claim. That’s partially because the author does seem to be genuinely wondering, genuinely want data, and genuinely valuing animals; it would be easy for a similar post to look very disingenuous to me.
Meanwhile I count 2 comments dismissing anecdotes and personal experience, even when applied personally.
This doesn’t super resonate with my experience. I haven’t really seen anyone argue for “veganism is costly for everyone”. I feel like the debate has always been between “for some people veganism is very costly” and “veganism is very cheap for everyone (if they just try properly)”.
Like, it’s not like anyone is arguing that there should be no vegan food at EAG, or that all EAs should be carnivores. Maybe I am missing something here and there are places where people are talking past each other in the way you describe, but e.g. recent conversations with Elizabeth VN and others have been about trying to argue that being vegan is quite costly for some people (in terms of health in that case), not that it’s costly for all people, and many people seemed to disagree with that.
I agree with Will that differences in costs is a major driver of disagreement, but agree with Haybrka that it is not at all symmetric in public discussions. In public discussions I’ve only seen type B people accuse vegans of lying in regards to universal statements, not what they personally find it easy.
I’ll admit that this is less than total. Privately, I expect that some percent of type-As are wrong about how easy veganism is for them, and will develop problems at a later date. If I am talking 1:1 to a vegan experiencing chronic unexplained health issues, and all the obvious stuff has been ruled out, I will suggest nutritional interventions. I don’t see this as relevant to the public debate; there definitely are people for whom veganism is easy, I can’t guess who will turn out to be wrong about their personal difficulty, and establishing common knowledge of the variety is sufficient for public debate.
This seems pretty close to an universal claim, that high cognitive effort is not possible under veganism (or at least it’s an open question) for everyone. It’s not exactly saying that people don’t find it easy to be vegan, but that the people who are are deluded.
I think that post is better described as a question and personal anecdote, not a universal claim. That’s partially because the author does seem to be genuinely wondering, genuinely want data, and genuinely valuing animals; it would be easy for a similar post to look very disingenuous to me.
Meanwhile I count 2 comments dismissing anecdotes and personal experience, even when applied personally.
Yeah, that’s fair. It is about performance, not effort, but does seem closer to a universal claim.
Thanks for your comments, both. I agree that the personal versus universal statements distinction is noteworthy (and missing from my take above).