Nice post; upvoted. I definitely agree that on the margin it would be helpful for vegans to accept and encourage anyone who wants to help animals, and invoking veganism as a litmus test is almost always counterproductive for that.
That said, the framing of veganism as a curse word seems over-corrective to me. Following the āvegans are monksā analogy, telling someone Iām a āmonkā in the right social context is positive signaling about my moral seriousness. Learning someone is a āmonkā strongly updates me in favor of their moral seriousness. And yes, there are social situations where if you have a friend whoās the right kind of person, it can be acceptable to ask whether theyāre interested in ātaking the monastic vowsā. Rather than avoiding invoking veganism entirely, Iād suggest people be more deliberate about invoking it only when they think itās genuinely helpful.
Nice post; upvoted. I definitely agree that on the margin it would be helpful for vegans to accept and encourage anyone who wants to help animals, and invoking veganism as a litmus test is almost always counterproductive for that.
That said, the framing of veganism as a curse word seems over-corrective to me. Following the āvegans are monksā analogy, telling someone Iām a āmonkā in the right social context is positive signaling about my moral seriousness. Learning someone is a āmonkā strongly updates me in favor of their moral seriousness. And yes, there are social situations where if you have a friend whoās the right kind of person, it can be acceptable to ask whether theyāre interested in ātaking the monastic vowsā. Rather than avoiding invoking veganism entirely, Iād suggest people be more deliberate about invoking it only when they think itās genuinely helpful.
I strongly agree with this. Veganism should remain the gold standard. Not everyone has to reach that bar to help animals, but credit where itās due.