this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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If you're hurting anyone, outside of combat sports or self defense, you're not vegan. Those men might have been plant based but certainly not vegan
This has to be the stupidest take on the term "plant based" I've ever heard. I swear, "plant based" is just the "No true Scotsman" of vegans.. anything that a non-meat-consumer does that a vegan doesn't like makes them plant based instead of vegan. It's so asinine and intellectually dishonest.
Vegan people can be assholes too. Assholes will inevitably exist in any demographic that gets sufficiently large. I have known people who identify as vegans who insist that it's preferable for humans to die than for non-human animals to die.
It's not that complicated... Plant based = diet Veganism = philosophy
Can't really blame you for not knowing as they do get used interchangeably in the media.
But you can't just self identify as a person that follows a certain philosophy without actually following it. Vegans avoid cruelty towards animals and humans are animals.
And what if someone is convinced that acts of cruelty towards some humans is the most effective way to reduce cruelty towards a large number of animals? They might think that you're not vegan because you're allowing more cruelty towards animals to exist than they are. I have encountered self-identifying vegans who genuinely think this way.
I don't think you can stop cruelty through cruelty. Veganism is about acknowledging every individual and abstaining from exploitation and cruelty towards them. It's not some sort of utilitarian philosophy where it's ok sacrifice a small number of individuals for the good of a larger group.
this take is being criticized for no true scottsman-ing but it kinda makes a lot of sense, like ‘oh no i hate seeing living creatures harmed let me go punch this guy’??? it seems like maybe those dudes were just looking for an excuse to whack people and if not veganism they would have found some other ideology to abuse