Why vegans are holding back veganism

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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Why vegans are holding back veganism

Post by brimstoneSalad »

carnap wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:47 pm In what sense does your anecdote refuted what I said? I didn't suggest its never a factor, just that its unlikely one of the top factors. I've seen no research that suggests that "aggressive vegans" is one the primary issues people are having with veganism, its all more significant issues like social factors, difficulty with the diet, disagreement with veganism itself and so on.
All three of those are influenced by very badly behaved vegans.
  • Socially, attitudes about vegans are very important to acceptance, which helps with everything. People who don't eat meat due to Buddhism are likely to get a lot less shit because statistically, Buddhism is one of the most well respected beliefs there are.
  • With respect to diet difficulty, that's social too: struggling vegans who may be slipping and eating some meat have nowhere to go for help. Attempts to do so often see such hostility, and their omnivore friends being so enthusiastic about them quitting (again, due to social attitudes), that they're pushed away more.
  • Disagreement with veganism itself is sometimes the result of unrelated ignorance or cognitive dissonance, but for most people the way the message is delivered is as important or sometimes more important than the message itself.
I don't think that overall vegans are perceived very badly today, but this is something that's very heterogeneous so it depends a lot on politics and your social circle.
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