Why do vegans get so much hate?

Just read an op ed about this.

And I'll admit, I've been guilty of this. Usually, it's a The Dodo post on Facebook about cute kitties and puppies, and here comes a vegan preaching about not eating animals and how meat eaters are horrible people. My favorite retort of mine is, "Help reduce Earth's carbon footprint. Eat a vegan." They love that.

But yeah, for me personally, I can easily see why vegans get hate. The militant vegans are very forceful, judgmental and condescending. I don't care about vegans who do it for their own reasons. The ones I know personally, great people. But as with religion, you shouldn't try to convert people. I've also interacted with vegans personally who make those "tsk" noises when you eat a burger in their presence.

Does it excuse me from trolling vegans? Not really, even though I view militant vegans as trolls themselves. Yet, I need to admit to myself that I immediately jump to conclusions when I meet a vegan. And that's a bad attitude to have. I should know better not to assume how someone is because of the community they associate with. After all, I'm a gamer, and I get looks from people all the time when I tell them that I am one.

@JustPlainLucas: You should ask a more correct question

Why does Vegans give normal meat eaters so much hate?

No one cares about why some decide to be vegans, but for some reason, they seem to care a lot about people who eat meat and want to decide that they should not eat meat.

So you answer your own question.

"Militant" vegans can go **** themselves.

Post nr 4 and we are already at Holocaust comparisons. Godwin's Law everyone.

The vegans you hear about often come across as snobbish and arrogant.

I'm vegan/vegetarian 5 days a week. I do it mainly for health reasons. Being vegan/vegetarian is probably the best way to maintain or lose weight for over weight people. Literally all you have to do is to avoid meat/dairy/eggs and suddenly alot of the things that made you overweight in the first place dissapears. Try to gain weight on a pure vegan diet...unless you're stuffing your face with potato chips and Oreo cookies, it's literally impossible.

I also do it because I like the fact I'm lowering my own carbon footprint. It's not much but it's something. Another feel good reason is that less animals are being killed because of some small action I have taken.

Why do vegans get so much hate? Well, those militant vegans are the ones who protest, fight and want to take over the world by eradicating meat eating. Nothing wrong with those being vegan, it's those militant vegans who take it too far.

Militant vegans can **** off. Vegan isn't for everyone.

Pretty much this.

Plus they say all life matters, yet plants don't. Which I find ridiculous. Plants have the right to life the same way animals do. You can't pick and choose what life is more important than others because it's impossible to imagine what being a plants like. They've been shown to hold memory, hear, make sound, communicate to each other, share resources and they have limited locomotion.

The soy drives them insane. They simply can’t function properly and they lash out.

Humans were meant to eat meat. It is obvious to sane people. Protein and iron are good for your body.

The vegans I have met in real life all had one thing in common: They were miserable people.

Highly judgemental, rude, short tempered. Acting like children when they didn’t have a nap.

I just ignore them and hang out with fellow meat eaters.

@ajstyles:

Oh my goodness you sound so stubborn and ignorant. No offense. Actually it is quite ironic for you to word it in such a disrespectful manner, when in the end you are just coming across as what you claim “vegans” to be.

I doubt it's the meat-eating masses who has an agenda because they already are the status quo. That leaves vegans. Quite frankly, I've never been hostile to a vegan because I've never seen one who was hostile to me. Live and let live.

I've never attacked a vegan. It's stupid to judge people by what they eat. Unless they eat humans. Mostly because I don't want to be eaten.

EDIT: NOT ALL VEGANS ARE LIKE THE TEXT BELOW. ONLY A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE THAT DOESN'T REPRESENT THE MAJORITY.

BUT vegans have called me murderer and said that I should suicide because I eat meat. If that happens on a social media I just block them. As I said, judging people by what they eat is stupid and I don't have time to deal with stupid people.

@blaznwiipspman1: Its pretty easy to gain weight and be a fatass as a vegan, anything you over consume can make you fat. Eating a ton of fruit a day is like eating candy, moderation is key in anything.

Vegans are also murderers. At one point they will have killed insects without even knowing. Some countries eat insects, wonder how vegans think about this.

Humans kill humans. A living object kills one another.

Yup, that's right. Can say the same about insects too. Militant vegans should know that living species are evil, they prey on another, they kill one another. Sharks prey on us. Humans prey on sharks (Tuna). It will never change.

A discussion on this with a militant vegan face to face would turn nasty haha.

It's just posing.

If you care about animal welfare then campaign about it. Research the law, participate in rallies and pressure government to make changes to the law to be more considerate of livestock before and at the point of slaughter.

That way, you proved your not full of it and just like wearing baggy trousers and dreadlocks pretending buying a mushroom burger is doing anything whatsoever for the plight of livestock.

Honestly if nobody minds what I eat then I don’t care what they eat. As simple as that. I’m not going to hate on them for picking a particular “diet” or “Lifestyle.”

I was vegetarian for the entirety of 2014 and I’ll say that physically I felt good but flavours just weren’t the same with the fake meats and what not. Nothing can compare to a real steak or a real burger, etc. At least these days eating out vegetarian/vegan options are widely available.

Their reputation is the "Meat is Murder" Morrissey-types who are very preachy about their earthy-crunchy and healthy lifestyle. Obviously not everyone is like this but thats the stigma.

And yeah, I do find their self-imposed eating restrictions annoying because they are are harder to cook for and host.

@Shmiity: oh yeah I forgot about Morrissey. He's half the problem. What a knob. It's the preaching.

I buy free range eggs for what that's worth. But to accuse someone of not being as compassionate as you is plain rude.

Also it makes no sense. Dairy cows aren't poorly treated as far as I can see. Bees surely can't have that much opinion and silk worms I do feel sorry for as a matter of fact but when am I ever going to buy silk.

Mink coats etc and Cruella De-Villel fashion items are terrifying though.

completely disagreed, take it from someone who attempted the vegan then settled on more of vegetarian (for 5 days/week) because of the difficulty. If you actually do a PURE vegan diet, ie no cheese, no meat, no dairy, no meat, no eggs AND you don't substitute those things with junk foods, ie chips/pop/cookies/chocolates or fried foods, THEN gaining weight is just a lot harder. A normal person doesn't get cravings for fruits and veggies and if they did then they'd be the healthiest man on earth. Maybe if you overload on the potatoes and rice...even then its going to be tough to be a fatass on a pure vegan diet. At the very least, you won't be gaining weight.

The ONLY fatass vegans I know of are those that cheat on their diet in someway, or they substitute with junk foods.

@blaznwiipspman1: eating lots of fruit and vegetables can be very bad for you. There's no way you would be the healthiest person. When your on the toilet constantly becoming dehydrated or your skin colour changing. Not to mention if you got to much vitamins your body just removes the excess anyway. Then there's the teeth rot from all the sugars in the fruit. I could go on but anything in excess isn't healthy, but if you are just eat a balanced diet you'll be fine.

I've actually never come across a vegan that criticized my eating habits. I see a lot of people complaining about vegans online though.

You've gotta admit at a certain point, these people are eating healthier than a lot of us. I know they're eating healthier than me for sure.

@Ovirew: A vegan diet is not only unnatural, it's actually dangerous unless you know what you're doing. Vegans don't get enough B12 in their diet, and the long term effects of that can be very harmful.

If you're eating a bit of everything in moderation, you're worse off than on a vegan diet.

I think it's a mix of vegans/vegetarians being too judgemental with "regular" people being resistant to change. I eat meat, because I love it, but am mostly vegetarian and know first hand how some people seem to get offended by me not wanting to eat meat. And I'm the kind of guy that never lost a single second preaching about other people's eating habits.

I think that there is a vocal minority of them that make the whole look bad. You can the same about a lot of groups out there. I sat next to a vegan in the university library once that fit that snobby stereotype. I had fun getting his temper high. I also have a friend that’s a vegan who doesn’t push his views on others. He takes a lot of shit from other people, including me and he handles it well. He’s a trooper.

Yeah, had a co-worker who was vegan and when she first told me, I was like, "Oh, you're a vegan..." and she immediately went on the defensive and said, "Don't worry, I'm not one of THOSE vegans." She never preached anything to us, unlike our previous boss who tried to be a vegan because his wife was, and was constantly caught sneaking donuts and pizza... Shameful man, that one.

I have never heard anyone hate on veganism, it's fairly noble to pursue a vegan diet

I work with a vegan and he doesn’t get any hate. In fact, the women I work with look at him in envy because he’s able to maintain a healthy weight while they struggle with it.

The difference is he’s not obnoxious about it. He doesn’t call people evil for eating meat or talk everyone’s ear off about how much healthier he is than everyone else.

I'm a strict vegetarian, but not a strict vegan. I'll eat vegan when I can, because it's a little better for the environment and a little better for animals, but I'm not going to inconvenience others by making them change menus or make dishes with just me in mind.

I think veganism is a nice goal to work towards, and every year it's increasingly easier to find vegetarian/vegan meals that are just as good as 'regular' meals...but I'm not going to be an asshole about it.

Fortunately, none of the vegans I know are militant in-your-face types. I wish the vocal minority wouldn't have such a negative impact on what is otherwise a pretty good way to live - I've certainly never felt healthier than I have over the past few years.

I think most of the "hate" is more of a running joke about their alleged preachiness than genuine ire.

There are some vegans who do it for a cause instead of health and that's annoying because animals eat other animals.

I am totally on board if they tolerate meat eaters and just want humane standards for livestock, but to say that people shouldn't eat meat is nonsense.

Simple, people don't like self righteous, preachy, holier-than-thou types. Many of them are all of that. This is true because even the OTHER vegans(the ones who are actually normal humans) hate them for it.

But the real problem is that that OTHER vegans dont call out their own misbehaving vegans out on it, at least not very publicly. So the public perception is that all vegans are like that.

I don't have any issues with vegetarianism, but veganism is still a bit bizarre to me, because of their opposition to eating eggs or dairy products.

Opposing the consumption of eggs would be like being anti-abortion, since eggs are an animal equivalent of a human fetus. Yet most vegans tend to be pro-abortion, which comes across as somewhat hypocritical to me.

Either way, vegans have the right to their own diet or lifestyle, regardless of whether others agree with them or not.

I can understand the moral/ethical arguments that are brought up by vegans. I do appreciate that they've taken the step to model what they believe in, it's not easy to do so.

However, I love meat and it's healthy in moderation. Hopefully when we make lab grown meat there won't be anymore animal cruelty because I dislike it.

100% this.

@sn0man:

But soybean oil is the most consumed oil, is it not? Soy isn’t exclusive to vegans, and I do not believe it’s their only source of protein.

Because they act pretentious and self-righteous.

For the same reason SJWs get so much hate. Nobody likes a douche telling them that what to do with their lives. These people get high off of doing activist work.

Because allot of the time Vegans are not vegans as they eat fish lol!

Not all granted. Some Fekgans

Never known a vegan that ate fish. Those would be pescatarians.

It’s settled down a bit because the vegan diet is no longer the current trend diet. At least in the South where i’m from vegans would get the most “hate”, for lack of a better word, because they would be the most vocal towards the diets of others.

I don't know. It's pretty racist if you ask me.

I like meat.. All kinds of meat.. I guess they can say what they want.

Basically any subset of culture is going to have a small but vocal and militant group of assholes, so it's no surprise that some vegans are like that as well.

On the whole though, I doubt that most vegans are anything like that. For starters, I rarely find out that someone I know is a vegan in the first place. And when I do, it's usually not until after I've known them for a while. After all, that's not the type of thing that I would imagine would just usually come up at all. I'm not a vegan, and most of my casual conversations with acquaintances don't involve me talking about what I eat. So why would vegans be any different?

In addition to that, on the few occasions when someone has told me that they are vegans, they were never assholes about it. It was more along the lines of them just saying something like, "I can't eat that, I'm a vegan" and then they never bring it up again. It's FAR more often that I hear "normal" people make snide derogatory comments about vegans even though it's not really any of their business and doesn't affect them all. Which, again, kind of makes sense. If I make a jerk-ish comment about vegans, a lot of people will give me a pass since as meat-eaters we're the majority. And it's easier for the majority to be jerks to the minority without being called out on being jerks. By contrast, vegans are a minority. If they start making snide smart-ass judgemental comments about people who eat meat, then they're DEFINITELY going to get called out as being jerks. I'd wager that most vegans don't want that. They just want to be able to eat what they want without people being jerks to them. So they don't have any incentive to scold people for eating meat, that just singles them out as targets to be picked on.

To be fair, why should they feel obligated to call out the asshole vegans on their behavior when there are plenty of non-vegans willing to step in and do it? It's not as if veganism is some official organization or something? If you're a vegan and some other vegan is an asshole, he doesn't represent you any more than an asshole video gamer represents you.

Think of it in those terms. What if instead of vegans we were talking about something like video games. Video games (and the people who play them) have certainly gotten a bad rap at certain times, but I don't think it's the duty of every gamer to personally step up and call out every gamer who happens to be an asshole. I mean, if you just plain WANT to stand up and speak out for gamers as a whole, then fine. That's your business, more power to you. But a lot of gamers just buy a few games every year, do a little casual playing after work. For them it's not about the ideology, they just sort of like playing the occasional video game. Why the heck should they feel obligated to go out of their way to call out other gamers?

I'd wager that it's the same thing with a lot of vegans. They're not fighting for the respectability of the vegan diet in popular culture. They just want to eat what they want to eat. How are they somehow more obligated than anyone else to call out the asshole vegans?

@SolidSnake35: "I don't know. It's pretty racist if you ask me."

You need to look up the definition of race.

Well, actually...

I think it's that refusal or statement that gets interpreted as a rebuff that burns people a lot of the time, and makes people irrationally hostile towards vegans.

It's like "hey we are having steak tonight" and the person is like "Sorry I don't eat steak, I'm a vegan" and suddenly the host feels like they're a jerk, then they feel like the vegan is the jerk for rebuffing them. Then they stew on the issue and are like "Why the hell is that person a vegan? They think they're better than me? What's wrong with steak? GOD DAMN HIPPIE!"

The irony is that if the person was like "I'm allergic to steak" everything would be fine haha.

I have a relative who is allergic to dairy and tree nuts, when we host Thanksgiving and Christmas it's no trouble for us to either omit that from the stuff we are making (i.e. set aside something before adding nuts), or just avoid it altogether. I'm on a low-carb diet as well and when I visit my folks or go out with friends I just don't eat it. Hell if I order a steak, salad, and potato, I just give my potato to whoever wants it.

It's pretty simple, really.

1. a competition between runners, horses, vehicles, etc. to see which is the fastest in covering a set course."Hill started from pole position and won the race"

   synonyms:

   contest, competition; More

2. 2.a strong or rapid current flowing through a narrow channel in the sea or a river."angling for tuna in turbulent tidal races"

   synonyms:

   channel, waterway, watercourse, conduit, sluice, spillway, aqueduct"the brook was diverted into the mill race"

Bro, that has nothing to do with this discussion.