One of the things I hate about being a Vegan Activist

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I don't have a lot of time to make this post but I want to get it off my chest.

Veganism is probably the most important issue to me, and as pathetic as it sounds, doing activism for it gives me some purpose in life. I've been working on youtube videos, donate regularly to vegan charities, write about the topic on various platforms, and am working on a speech to give to fellow students at my university (it's done, just still memorizing it).

It's important to be friendly with non-vegans if we want to convince them to do the right thing, hell, even being friends with anti-vegans can be good, to show that no, vegans won't disown you for disagreeing with them. But talking about the issue with friends, as important as it is, feels a little dirty to me. I want to be an activist for the animals, and yeah, that's going to cause people to feel uncomfortable. I don't like making people feel as though they're bad people, I don't like making people experience cognitive dissonance, I don't like being that guy. But as much as it makes me uncomfortable, the discomfort I feel is a joke compared to the suffering being experienced by animals.

It applies to a lot of things. I have a ton of friends who identify as leftists, an ideology that I generally disagree with (especially with the extremist communist/anarchist types; I can find more common ground with more center leaning ones), and I feel like I'm stripping away parts of their identity when I critique it.

I have something of a rule when it comes to discussing veganism with friends and acquaintences: Don't.

Only discuss it if the topic itself comes up. I believe it reflects poorly on veganism to bring it up unprovoked, and it reinforces the stereotype that vegans are preachy and flamboyant and want everyone to know that they're vegan. About 95% of people in my life don't even know I'm vegan (my mom seems more interested in telling people about it than me, not to tell others how ethical it is, more to just complain to others how she doesn't like it).

If say you're out at lunch with friends and they ask why you're getting an impossible burger, THEN it's a good time to tell them why, and when you do, do it calmly, rationally, and address any concerns in a civil manner.

When it comes to people you don't know, leafleting and speeches are pretty effective. In the case of the former since it's dealing with people on the street, if you're friendly with them and the leaflets are reasonable enough, it doesn't feel as personal which might make people more open to it.

Speeches are similar in the sense you're dealing with strangers, and while you can take the calm compromising approach, taking the asshole approach can be even better. When dealing with people one on one (or say a group of no more than like ten) the calm approach is the way to go, but when you're talking to a huge group of people, you can say more accusatory stuff since there's a feeling of solidarity there; The attacks don't feel as personal here either, since you aren't just addressing one person, you're addressing the entire crowd.

This is a good video that exemplifies my views on the matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WO81y-7qk
Also good to see someone from the old school atheist Youtube bunch actually take a rational, reasonable approach towards the concept of vegetarianism (this is a reupload, the original video is at least ten years old).