01 May Stop Telling Vegans to “Get a Sense of Humor”
Vegans do need to remind everyone how factory farming contributes to world hunger, climate change, and public health crises. In fact, veganism is a highly intersectional issue…
By eating vegan, you do something about a range of issues. Being vegan is the single greatest action you can take to fight climate change—it cuts your carbon footprint in half. It is also one of the best things you can do to foster a culture that better addresses public health. From obesity to heart disease to diabetes to cancer, meat and dairy are behind so many human health problems. By creating more demand for vegan products and spreading awareness about the health benefits of a plant-based diet, we empower others to take charge of their health.
By being vegan, you also take a stand for workers’ rights. Factory farms exploit poor rural communities and workers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants who are denied basic labour protections…
http://www.chooseveg.in/stop-telling-vegans-to-get-a-sense-of-humour
Let’s work together, and work fast, or by 2026 it will be too late. The damage done will be irreversible. We can do it.
Ray Kowalchuk
Posted at 21:29h, 12 MarchIt was observed by the late humor writer Douglas Adams in his final publication of essays, A Salmon of Doubt, that backlash to his conviction on atheism had little to do with atheism and everything to do with the conviction itself. English culture, he said, is comfortable with religion and agnosticism, but acquires a panic when someone is “devout” or “orthodox” or insistent that they really, really don’t mean agnostic, that he is convinced that there isn’t a god. Many people see vegetarians as those who have inflicted an ideal upon themselves, but, in the words of the also late Anthony Bourdain, “their Hezbollah-like cousins the vegans” are idealists who are out to rob everybody of their fun. And if you’re the kind of person who can’t be entertained unless oppression of some measure was imposed on a sentient being, then your argument has a kernel of truth. The refuge of the cruel and defensive is to either catch them as a hypocrite or brand them as a humorless buzz-kill.
But isn’t that the tactic of boors and bigots everywhere? Feminists have been accused of not having a humorous side, and civil rights activists “just need to chill” and enjoy what gains they have accomplished. Many jokes have been composed at their expense, the “success” of which hinging on how much they would offend the subject.
Then again…I haven’t found non-vegans to be terribly thick-skinned under comic retrospection. Google “vegan sidekick” and click on images (disclaimer: contains scenes of poorly drawn, monochrome gore and pretty much every non-vegan illogic ever offered).