Clueless Git
Plant powered
Did I pick a bad time to be taking notes on how good reputation is built?
That was both ignorant and rude.
Animal Rights Does it matter if veg*ans have a good reptuation?
- Thread starter SummerRain
- Start date
Did I pick a bad time to be taking notes on how good reputation is built?
That was both ignorant and rude.
I think it's good to have a good reputation.It makes people want to investigate and find out why something has the reputation that it has.But I feel the reason most people aren't interested in going vegetarian or vegan is because of difficulty.I have one friend who says it's too difficult for him to live without meat because he works every day except one.He feels on his one day off he doesn't want to be in a kitchen preparing meals for the rest of the week.Also he commented how there just aren't enough protein or vegetable sources for him on the go unless he eats out which is too expensive for him.This isn't my only friend who has commented about this.
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ledboots
Peace
A lot of people have no idea how to cook anything, never mind some strange vegan food.
You have a tremendous reputation on those subjects. I will weigh your comment with the greatest of respect.
Clueless Git
Plant powered
Nightshade
Get off my lawn!
I've been a vegan longer than most people on this board have been alive and, over the course of those many years, I have done my best to influence and educate the people around me. Naturally, I've heard excuse after excuse as to why veganism isn't a viable option for them.
While the chief complaint is generally centered around the difficulty of following a vegan diet, I have also heard from a surprising number of people who say that they could never go vegan because they would, in no way, want to be associated with PETA, ALF, Greenpeace and other animal rights organizations including more mainstream groups like The Humane Society. I have heard these organizations be described with words like 'radical', 'dangerous', 'lunatics' and 'terroristic'. A woman on a plant based diet forum I participate in recently stated that she deliberately eats at least a portion of meat a day because she doesn't want to be thought of as a vegan since, in her opinion, we're all dangerous, crazy people.
So, acting as if there aren't plenty of people who shun veganism because, in their minds, they associate this lifestyle with undesirables and, to them, unacceptable behavior, is to ignore a rather sizable obstacle that vegans need to overcome in order to achieve more mainstream acceptance.
Exactly.
The number of people who think that it is the goal of PETA and HSUS to come into their homes, seize their companion animals, and kill them because people shouldn't have pets, has been astonishing to me.
I've been around a good while, too, and I still don't buy it.
I often don't tell people my dietary habits because they will associate me with PETA and I just don't want to have to have that conversation every day, but you'd have to be a pretty weak-willed person to let presumed association with an organization keep you from making what most consider a moral choice, and an even sadder one to admit to it.
I have certainly heard people react to PETA antics by making witless statements like "This just makes me want to eat meat," but would never construe that as anything serious but just an attempt at being antagonistic.
I often don't tell people my dietary habits because they will associate me with PETA and I just don't want to have to have that conversation every day, but you'd have to be a pretty weak-willed person to let presumed association with an organization keep you from making what most consider a moral choice, and an even sadder one to admit to it.
I have certainly heard people react to PETA antics by making witless statements like "This just makes me want to eat meat," but would never construe that as anything serious but just an attempt at being antagonistic.
ledboots
Peace
I agree with this. PETA, while certainly not my first pick for a spokes organization, has most likely converted a lot more people to vegetarianism and even veganism than they have turned away.
Nightshade
Get off my lawn!
The fact is, there are plenty of people that are so turned off to the concept of veganism based on their perceptions of us as a bunch of radical eco-terrorists that they're completely unwilling to consider even setting a foot inside the door. Yes, perhaps that makes them weak willed but that isn't unique to just veganism; you see people blindly following or turning against one cause or another every day with little to no thought behind the process. And, yes, some of it might be hyperbole but I believe that most of the people I have encountered who have expressed contempt for the various AR organizations mean exactly what they say. To you and me, this is an obvious moral choice but not everyone is on board with this. I firmly believe that one of the reasons is this strongly held perception that vegans are a sort of cult being led by organizations like PETA.
If you think that the reputation of a minority group doesn't matter, then you have lived an insular life. I've always been aware that every minority group to which I belong is affected, to some extent, by how I conduct myself. It's the nature of the way minority groups are viewed.
How veg*ns and AR people conduct themselves reflects not only on them (not important IMO), but affects the progress that can be made for nonhumans (very important).
How veg*ns and AR people conduct themselves reflects not only on them (not important IMO), but affects the progress that can be made for nonhumans (very important).
Oh, I don't disagree with anything you've said in this. I completely agree which is why I dislike PETA so much - they scare people away more than they do good. What I was in disagreement with earlier was a notion that they use it as an excuse.
I've been vegan since 2005, and thankfully have never experienced any of the animosity you mention. I've heard a few "people eating tasty animals" jokes, sure, but I've been pleasantly surprised with how my friends and family have accommodated my choices as the years have gone by. Even in activism: fur protests, bull run & circus protests, foie gras and puppy mill protests, we get many more honks of approval and thumbs up than we do negative reactions these days. I honestly think veganism is becoming more main stream, and it will only get better with time.
Clueless Git
Plant powered
Then the worst thing any cause can ever do for itself is be fearfull of opening weak willed peoples eyes and giving them plenty to think about?
Clueless Git
Plant powered
As a whole ..
Is this not basicaly saying that those promoting mis-perceptions about veg*anism are doing a far better job than those promoting the obvious moral choices that are veg*anism?
A better job being made of deceiving weak willed people than is being made of informing them, as it were?
It's a matter of HOW one does things.
I have never been inclined to change my viewpoint on anything because someone is screaming into my face or insulting me. To the contrary, my reaction is "What a moronic *******!" and to walk away, both figuratively and literally.
I think I am far from being unique in this response.
I have never been inclined to change my viewpoint on anything because someone is screaming into my face or insulting me. To the contrary, my reaction is "What a moronic *******!" and to walk away, both figuratively and literally.
I think I am far from being unique in this response.
Nightshade
Get off my lawn!
People who hold fast to the belief that vegans are nothing but dangerous anarchists probably don't think very deeply about much of anything. There's a segment that may, if they let their guard down long enough, understand the ethical aspects of veganism but, because this shakes the foundations of everything they've been taught and everything they're comfortable with, will just continue to stick their fingers in their ears while humming to themselves. I think the real problem, which is what causes most omnis to have these sorts of knee jerk reactions, is with the delivery of that message. Even other vegans are sharply divided about how they're viewed through the PETA or ALF filter.
Nightshade
Get off my lawn!
If you like, yes. But I also think it's compounded by the negative publicity generated by publicity stunts from the very organizations that should be trying to win people over instead of repelling them.
Nightshade
Get off my lawn!
I'm not saying I didn't encounter a lot of stupidity when I lived in a large urban area but I definitely noticed how much worse public perception about vegans seemed to become when I moved to the midwest. In Ohio, most everyone is either involved in the dairy or livestock industry or is related to or knows someone who is. Meat and dairy at every meal is practically state law. And, while Ohians are game to make some animal welfare concessions like larger cages for factory farmed chickens, anything that goes beyond that is pretty much considered unnatural in this neck of the woods. About the only time I found that most people are willing to even listen is when they've had a health scare. And, even then, it's a hard sell and a long, uphill battle.
Clueless Git
Plant powered
An open challenge ...
Without prompting them ask any omni freinds/family to recall any large scale pro-vegan publicity they can actualy remember.
My bet is that, if they can remember any at all, it will exclusively be something they didn't like and regard to have added to veg*anisms 'bad' reputation.
My suspicion there being this: The only 'good' publicity for something you simply don't want to know about must be entirely forgetable.
As a side bet I'll wager that anything positive they recall will actualy be 'happy farm' and animal welfare reform publicity.
That the only things omnis remember positively will be "Eat your meat with clear conscience" stuff, basicaly.
Without prompting them ask any omni freinds/family to recall any large scale pro-vegan publicity they can actualy remember.
My bet is that, if they can remember any at all, it will exclusively be something they didn't like and regard to have added to veg*anisms 'bad' reputation.
My suspicion there being this: The only 'good' publicity for something you simply don't want to know about must be entirely forgetable.
As a side bet I'll wager that anything positive they recall will actualy be 'happy farm' and animal welfare reform publicity.
That the only things omnis remember positively will be "Eat your meat with clear conscience" stuff, basicaly.
