Vegans

I posted this on my Facebook Timeline:

I have discovered that vegans are more closed-minded and hateful than Adventist non-vegetarians.

This began a discussion, as follows:

RB: I think it depends on the reason they are vegan.

JN: There may be some correlation with rigid thinking that makes people hold on too tightly to their beliefs. And then they become judgmental and rejecting to those who have different beliefs.

RB: Yes for some it’s all part of their righteousness by works mindset. Of course those who believe they are righteous are pretty judgmental!

MH: Lol truth

RB: I just ate a harvest bowl with quinoa, yams, kale, black beans, and avocado, with a side of maple balsamic Brussels sprouts. I’m feeling pretty righteous! 😜

PE: Very true. As a vegan chef, I found vegans to be the most unhappy, judgmental, bullying, shaming, and sugar addicts I ever worked with in 25-yr culinary career!

RB: Very interesting observation!

PE: I used to remind them that you can’t eat your way to heaven. One story I used to tell while teaching vegan classes was the time a group of vegan moms at an SDA school approached a young boy, 7 yrs old, this boy was eating a turkey meat sandwich at school. The mothers and teacher made this little boy sit on the ground away from the lunch tables because he was eating meat. He sat in the dirt eating while the vegan kids threw insults at him. Telling him he smelled like a dead animal, etc. The irony is, these same vegan kids all grew up to be non-church going, alcohol-drinking, pregnant-out-of-wedlock adults. The kid who sat on the ground goes to a Sunday church.
Eating vegan is not a moral or religious issue, I would tell my students from all walks of life. I said people will be drawn to you because you’re kind not because you don’t eat dairy or meat. My vegan desserts had huge amounts of sugar in them. Vegans justified eating sugar by saying they eat so healthy it didn’t matter…SMH

MH: Brb, gonna go eat a steak 

CW: I used to belong to a vegan group and they were nasty!!

DA: People who are fundamentalists are fundamentalist no matter the ideology.

JN: Unfortunately that tends to be true

SZ: I think DA is right! It’s probably easy to feel righteous when your diet is your penance! Righteousness by diet!!

MC: Well, it sounds like a good good time for an avocado BACON burger. LOL

PH: I think you are right. Food police, me thinks?

TD: It’s so less stressful being an omnivore.  I’m an opportunistic eater.

MA: Some non-meat-eaters are cannibals!!!

TD: Who hears the silent scream of a tomato being cut?

SZ: Sadly true…. but so are some carnivores.

LW: We talked some about this in Sabbath school yesterday.

TI: Interesting!

LM: Being a vegan is the 13th commandment. At least some vegans we know at church are not the self righteous ones. We used to have some that wanted our potlucks to be vegan. Since most of their food tasted nasty, I said I would not go to potluck then. We are Flexatarians. One of the millitant vegans would not let his employees bring chocolate in their lunches.

Me: Vegan food is also very often suicide for a diabetic! Way too high in carbs!

LM: Yes

SZ: When my oldest son was in 2nd grade at an SDA school, the teacher gave lunch grades with sweets, meat or chips producing an immediate D-.

DV: Wow, I sure have not found that to be true! I grew up on meat, but it was always repulsive to me, and eventually I quit eating it. I do not consider myself hateful or self-righteous! However, I am seening in several of these comments, meat eaters being very hateful and critical towards vegans! How sad!

Me: I didn’t see any hateful remarks toward vegans above. What did I miss?

DV: Maybe you need to read them over again. Lots of criticism accusing vegans of being self-righteous, not loving, etc. etc.. I am not vegan, but know a lot of vegans. I don’t know any of them that are not loving and kind! I’m just saying I have not found this to be true at all!

Me: What I read were accounts of people’s experience with vegans being bullies and vegan food not tasting good. Several clarified that not all vegans have nasty attitudes and that some carnivores can have ugly attitudes as well. In my experience, vegans are much more militant than non-vegetarians, much more insistent that their way is the only right way, and do not tolerate any deviance from the “rules.”

DV: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to start a war! I just have not had the experiences I have read about here. Your daughter says that if it has a face she doesn’t eat it. When I go to a restaurant I ask what they would recommend for a vegetarian.

Me: You didn’t start a war, and I appreciate hearing all experiences of my friends. 

SR: Not vegan but ovo-lacto vegetarian. I became vegetarian when I joined the Adventist Church at 18. I remain because I love all creatures and can’t stand to think of eating dead ones. I eat nothing that has a face.

Me: My vegetarian daughter says the same thing (about not eating anything that had a face)! She’s not vegan, though, as she loves eggs and cheese. 

SR: I am not vegan because it is so hard to eat anywhere. It is hard enough as a vegetarian.

Me: My daughter frequently eats at Panera, where she gets yummy salads (her favorite thing to eat!).

SR: It is much easier now than it used to be. I used to cause quite a stir when I ordered a Whopper hold the meat. There were not many vegetarians in the Dakotas… Probably still not.

Me: My vegetarian daughter orders a cheese sandwich from In-n-Out Burger – go figure! 

PE: I grew up vegan. Actually, I come from 6 generations of them. Growing up in the 60s, it felt bleak. I was given whole-grain bread with mashed lentils on it, and a carrot for dessert. I had not a clue about anything dairy either. When I was old enough to attend school, the SDA school I was sent to in Arroyo Grande, California, on a hill and overlooked a Catholic school. One day, one non-SDA brought tuna in her lunch. I opened up my lunch and sighed. My mom had packed another whole-multigrain bread sandwich with mashed beans and vegetable soup to wash it down with. I looked at my dear friend. She had fluffy white bread, like a pillow, and potato chips! And for dessert, Hostess pie. I swallowed hard. I could only imagine how delicious her lunch must have tasted! I was 7 years old. I closed my eyes and made a wish. I wanted to grow up and be a Catholic and wear a plaid uniform everyday, and I wanted to eat tuna on Wonderbread, for dessert, anything that didn’t look like a carrot!
Well, 50 years later, I’ve had my tuna sandwich with Lay’s potato chips, I bought a plaid skirt, and became a executive pastry chef. Oh, and I attended midnight mass finally!
Life is good.

Me: Great writing!

From Jimmy Moore’s thread:

Written by a hateful vegan:

“How dare you propose to people that they should give up a plant-based diet and follow you into constipating, cholesterol-high, Jesus-freak, madness?

“I truly hope that your state recognizes that you are unfit parents and that all of your children are removed from your homes forever. I hope that you never get to ruin your children’s lives like you are trying to ruin the lives of your ignorant readers on your ignorant blog.

“You are a truly terrible human being and nothing will ever fix what is wrong with you. You honestly should have stayed fat. At least then, you wouldn’t think of yourself as any kind of ‘health expert.’ Because guess what? You have ZERO training and ZERO scientific literacy. You’re some backwards, ignorant hick piece of white trash. And that’s all you will ever be.”

I ended with this quote: