"Vegans Are Preachy"

“How do you know someone’s vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”

I was never really annoyed by vegans. All of the vegans in my life pre-vegan were so lovely and never pushed their views on me at all (maybe that’s why it wasn’t too difficult to take their message seriously when I eventually did).

However, I never once asked myself whether they had a point.

Don’t shoot the messenger

I’ve never personally met a pushy or preachy vegan irl, but I see and hear about them all the time online. Even if they are annoying, maybe there is some logic in the message they are trying to convey?

If I dismissed a vegan’s point just because they were preachy or annoying, without thinking about the actual argument, that might be an ad hominem fallacy or tone policing.

Sometimes someone can be an asshole and still be right. The fact that they annoy me doesn’t automatically invalidate their argument.

Same with questions that are perceived as “emotionally manipulative”. These questions are asked not to make you feel uncomfortable, but to ask you how you feel about something you might not have thought about before. “Why do you eat meat?” was one of those questions for me, and it certainly made me reevaluate my whole life!

Shout, Shout, Let it all out

If a vegan believes that animals deserve our moral consideration, feel pain, and aren’t necessary for our survival (I’ve looked into moral consideration, pain and necessity, and so far I can’t fault any of them), then they see the animals as victims and the action of exploiting them for food as morally wrong.

If someone kicked Aloo 🐱 in front of me, I wouldn’t shut up until that person personally apologised to Aloo. If the logic I’ve outlined explains why exploiting animals for food is morally wrong, then I wouldn’t stay silent either.

If you can’t handle me at my preachy

Are all vegans annoying? No. Can vegans be annoying or preachy? For sure. However, the question that I ask myself is: what would I do if I believed that there was an outrageous injustice happening right in front of me? Wouldn’t I feel compelled to speak out, even if it meant being a bit annoying? Wouldn’t I maybe build a website outlining every argument against veganism and address them one by one? Nah, couldn’t be me.

Annoying or not, it’s worth asking whether they have a point.