You actually wrote “I agree that we should embrace non-vegans in the animal rights movement.” You actually wrote that !!
As in, in your eyes, the true animal-rights movement is limited to the 1-2% of people who are vegans, but you deign to accept the help of some of the 98% of people who are not.
Vegans do not own the animal rights movement. People who care about animals and make commitments to help them own the animal rights movement.
If I, as an individual, decide that I want to do as much as possible to help end factory-farming, then becoming vegan would probably not be in the top 5 more impactful things I could do. On the other hand, it might well be among the most difficult things I could do.
Imagine if all the people who work on artificial protein decided that they owned the animal rights movement (because many people would argue that they are working on a much more viable long-term solution than veganism), but they were not so tolerant and decided that they didn’t want vegans in their movement unless they also dedicated their careers to artificial protein.
I do agree that it’s not about making veganism taboo. Vegans play a huge role in animal-rights, especially if they are clear that they do this because they oppose the killing of animals for food. (those of you who live in the kind of EA-bubble may not realise this, but most people do not immediately make this association—veganism is often seen as a kind of hippy / mindful / health-driven kind of thing rather than a robust position held by strong-willed people who care about animals.)
But when it’s used to exclude (as in, you wouldn’t be happy to have non-vegans leading the animal-rights movement), it is absolutely not helping.
Unless you see veganism as a total solution in itself. In that case, it’s not nearly enough to be vegan. You need to convince everyone to become vegan. Not just people who care about animal rights. Everyone. There is absolutely space for a movement to convince more people to become vegans, but (maybe I’m out of the loop) I haven’t seen any evidence of this. This is not about asking individual vegans to become advocates—they are already doing their part by role-modelling the behaviour—but about a movement that aggressively communicates how horrific it is that we kill animals and eat them, and then proposes a solution.
(Ironically, even this doesn’t necessarily have to be led by vegans—it might even work better if the protagonists were non-vegans who were trying to become vegans and encountering the same challenges that everyone else faces, rather than people who are already past them).
You actually wrote “I agree that we should embrace non-vegans in the animal rights movement.” You actually wrote that !!
As in, in your eyes, the true animal-rights movement is limited to the 1-2% of people who are vegans, but you deign to accept the help of some of the 98% of people who are not.
Vegans do not own the animal rights movement. People who care about animals and make commitments to help them own the animal rights movement.
If I, as an individual, decide that I want to do as much as possible to help end factory-farming, then becoming vegan would probably not be in the top 5 more impactful things I could do. On the other hand, it might well be among the most difficult things I could do.
Imagine if all the people who work on artificial protein decided that they owned the animal rights movement (because many people would argue that they are working on a much more viable long-term solution than veganism), but they were not so tolerant and decided that they didn’t want vegans in their movement unless they also dedicated their careers to artificial protein.
I do agree that it’s not about making veganism taboo. Vegans play a huge role in animal-rights, especially if they are clear that they do this because they oppose the killing of animals for food. (those of you who live in the kind of EA-bubble may not realise this, but most people do not immediately make this association—veganism is often seen as a kind of hippy / mindful / health-driven kind of thing rather than a robust position held by strong-willed people who care about animals.)
But when it’s used to exclude (as in, you wouldn’t be happy to have non-vegans leading the animal-rights movement), it is absolutely not helping.
Unless you see veganism as a total solution in itself. In that case, it’s not nearly enough to be vegan. You need to convince everyone to become vegan. Not just people who care about animal rights. Everyone. There is absolutely space for a movement to convince more people to become vegans, but (maybe I’m out of the loop) I haven’t seen any evidence of this. This is not about asking individual vegans to become advocates—they are already doing their part by role-modelling the behaviour—but about a movement that aggressively communicates how horrific it is that we kill animals and eat them, and then proposes a solution.
(Ironically, even this doesn’t necessarily have to be led by vegans—it might even work better if the protagonists were non-vegans who were trying to become vegans and encountering the same challenges that everyone else faces, rather than people who are already past them).