Difference between revisions of "Gary Yourofsky"
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| − | Gary Yourofsky was (and in many ways still is) an immensely influential figure in the Vegan Community, and is credited with converting hundreds of thousands of people to Veganism. He initially started | + | Gary Yourofsky was (and in many ways still is) an immensely influential figure in the Vegan Community, and is credited with converting hundreds of thousands of people to Veganism. He initially started his activist career by engaging in acts of civil disobedience, however, he eventually abandoned this method of activism in favor of an education-based approach. He gave tens of thousands of students lectures across the United States, with some of them being recorded and becoming viral. His Georgia Tech speech is said to have converted 8% of Israel's population to veganism (from 5% to 13%), and this number doesn't even take into account all the others he's convinced all over the world (as his speeches have been translated into dozens of languages). |
| − | While Yourofsky has done more for veganism than almost anyone else | + | After his lectures became accessible to everyone, he stopped traveling the country to do lectures and did a quick stint on YouTube beginning in 2014 that helped people along with their Vegan journeys and countering typical anti-vegan arguments. |
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| + | In 2017 he decided to retire from activism, citing his exhaustion with trying to get people to go vegan, combined with misanthropic views that ultimately burned him out. Despite this, his videos and essays are still available online, so despite his retirement, he is still influencing people to this day. | ||
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| + | In 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he returned to YouTube to do a quick series of videos that were basically a collection of (unfunny) rants about why he hates everyone and why humans are the scum of the Earth and blah blah blah, typical r/im14andthisisdeep stuff. Somehow he managed to come back even more resentful and pissed off than he was before. He also did a video in response to the violence that happened on the Capitol Building but that video was taken down (likely due to him advocating violence against President Donald Trump). We'll dive into this all shortly. | ||
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| + | While Yourofsky has done more for veganism than almost anyone else and has influenced many others to go into vegan activism, he is not without his share of faults... and there are many, many to list. While he has done so much for veganism, none of us here really consider him to be a particularly reliable source of information, especially when it comes to science and philosophy (frankly, he's kind of an idiot). | ||
We can start with the good, but we ''really'' need to address the bad. | We can start with the good, but we ''really'' need to address the bad. | ||
Revision as of 06:18, 23 May 2021
Gary Yourofsky was (and in many ways still is) an immensely influential figure in the Vegan Community, and is credited with converting hundreds of thousands of people to Veganism. He initially started his activist career by engaging in acts of civil disobedience, however, he eventually abandoned this method of activism in favor of an education-based approach. He gave tens of thousands of students lectures across the United States, with some of them being recorded and becoming viral. His Georgia Tech speech is said to have converted 8% of Israel's population to veganism (from 5% to 13%), and this number doesn't even take into account all the others he's convinced all over the world (as his speeches have been translated into dozens of languages).
After his lectures became accessible to everyone, he stopped traveling the country to do lectures and did a quick stint on YouTube beginning in 2014 that helped people along with their Vegan journeys and countering typical anti-vegan arguments.
In 2017 he decided to retire from activism, citing his exhaustion with trying to get people to go vegan, combined with misanthropic views that ultimately burned him out. Despite this, his videos and essays are still available online, so despite his retirement, he is still influencing people to this day.
In 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he returned to YouTube to do a quick series of videos that were basically a collection of (unfunny) rants about why he hates everyone and why humans are the scum of the Earth and blah blah blah, typical r/im14andthisisdeep stuff. Somehow he managed to come back even more resentful and pissed off than he was before. He also did a video in response to the violence that happened on the Capitol Building but that video was taken down (likely due to him advocating violence against President Donald Trump). We'll dive into this all shortly.
While Yourofsky has done more for veganism than almost anyone else and has influenced many others to go into vegan activism, he is not without his share of faults... and there are many, many to list. While he has done so much for veganism, none of us here really consider him to be a particularly reliable source of information, especially when it comes to science and philosophy (frankly, he's kind of an idiot).
We can start with the good, but we really need to address the bad.
