Philosophical Vegan Forum

So I was thinking to myself about veganism, and What I thought about it a few years ago. Now obviously my opinion on veganism has changed (hell I'm one right now) and I just want to know what everyone thought of veganism before they made the switch.

Now I'm still an ignorant f*ck, but when I was 10, oh boy..

Basically, when I was 10, I saw vegans/vegetarians as nothing more than complete p*ssies. I felt that since they weren't man enough to eat a dead animal. I'm pretty sure at least one of you guys out there felt like this. I used to make all the cliche arguments for eating meat (we're omnivores, health, etc,) and now looking back, I was stupider than people gave me credit for! And I graduated as a close salutictorian! (well my school did have low ass standards) However, I think the main reason why I despised vegans/vegetarians was because the obvious reason, I fucking loved meat. I didn't show any concern for the animal, all I cared for was the body parts. Thankfully, I gained a small amount of understanding and an open mind, so I'm pretty sure I made a good decision making the switch. Took a while for my parents to adapt to it, but hey, time heals almost everything.

So this was a short post I made. I was just breakin' balls, y'know? Nothin' really special.

SO, what were your former opinions on veganism?

I think my only concern was muuuhhh proo000Ooooteinnn (for bodybuilding). I thought it was really unhealthy to be vegan, and that I would lose all my strength. I don't remember making any of the other terrible pro-meat arguments people use.

I remember very clearly one day when I was cooking something in the kitchen as the TV played the news in the lounge room. Some report came up about vegetarians and I joke to my mother that I could never be a vegetarian because meat was a large part of all my meals. 2 or 3 years later...

The vegan/vegaterian groups are laughable in the NT, so I was never confronted with the vegan/meat eater debate, until I was one.

I heard of it once before I went vegan, and the only thing I thought was "huh. weird."

I had not thought about veganism until in 1986 I joined a humane group that rescued dogs and cats. One of the other members was vegetarian. She suggested some reading material, Peter Singer's Animal Liberation. I took it from there. The logic was irrefutable. I became vegetarian and then vegan. I continued to educate myself. I have never looked back. I only grow more committed to a vegan lifestyle, eschewing all animal products, including leather, wool and silk. I do not support use of animals in any form. Zoos and other animal prisons are wrong.

I rarely ever heard the word "vegan" during the first 18 years of my life, until I went to the most vegan-friendly university in the U.S. (yes, you guessed it, UC Santa Cruz). When I first started going to that school I still didn't really understand what the word "vegan" meant.

These were my former impressions:

-The word "vegan" refers to a person who does not eat meat, milk, or eggs. That's all. It doesn't mean anything more or less than that.

-I need to eat meat and dairy to be strong and healthy. After all, my parents said so, and it was on the food pyramids at my elementary school. I was convinced that eating meat would make me strong, and that I needed to drink 2 or 3 glasses of milk per day to be healthy and grow properly. I was a devout follower of the faith-based dogma that I had been spoon fed, throughout my childhood and most of my teen years.

-Vegetarians are awe-inspiring! It's impressive how they love animals SOOO much that they are willing to put their health at risk by not eating meat. Meat-industries kill animals, which is a bad thing for the animals, but hey, the industries are probably not that bad. I mean, their deaths are probably painless and it's not like they get tortured. WOW!! Vegetarians are SOOO extra-generously-kind to animals, but...

-...I could never be a vegetarian! I like eating meat and it tastes too good to stop! Not eating meat would be so difficult that I can't manage to do it! Vegan!? Bah! That's even harder! Impossible. I'll never be a vegan in a million years. Also...

-...vegetarianism makes sense but veganism doesn't. After all, eggs and dairy are healthy and taste good; and most importantly, you don't need to hurt or kill animals to get eggs/milk from them. Probably just some silly fad diet. Yeah, veganism is a fad diet.

Nice to see that some people thought the same way as I did. I'm thankful i wasn't the only stupid asshole (in regards to veganism)!

I thought that because we are omnivorous (ie capable of eating/digesting meat) and since that's natural and how it has been since the stone ages, that that justifies us killing animals and eating their flesh. Basically a non sequitur fallacy, also appeal to nature and appeal to history. I didn't realize the issue of what is the right thing to do (minimizing sentient suffering) if you have other accessible alternatives.

The problem that I had with vegans when I first encountered them is the problem that I continue to have. Many are very privilege blind, in fact so much that the only oppression they see is the one on animals. Many of them don't have human rights violations to worry about and mistakenly believe that since animals have it worst, that legitimizes them putting all efforts only to animal rights issues and not caring about human rights violations of others. That is also a non sequitur, if people believe human rights issues don't matter, they can go live in the most deplorable conditions and give up their rights and there protest about animal rights. Else whoever is less privileged than you, one needs to be concerned about those issues.

I always thought vegetarians were cool. When I became vegetarian I used to mock vegans and would say things like: "I'm just a vegetarian. I would never be so crazy as to be a vegan! I could never give up cheese and milk! They are so delicious."
*violently cringes and dies*

These are some great stories; it's nice to see how people can turn around on these issues.

Seems like a lot of people admired vegetarians, and didn't understand vegans, or otherwise just saw it as impossible. I can relate to that: it's hard to see the inherent harm in dairy and egg from a philosophical perspective, it's more of an issue of empirical facts from industry and environmental harm.

This was a good thread idea. Anybody else have a story?