I notice this with people talking about capitalism, obviously, but honestly what drove me to make this post is the attempted arguments against veganism. They’re basically 95% unoriginal and fail under the most basic of scrutiny.
Take, for example, “not eating the meat won’t bring the cow back.” Under basically any logical scrutiny, this is a clear double standard to any other purchasing decision in capitalist society, and doesn’t really make any sense. But I’ve seen in so many times over the years, so much so that im planning on becoming a vegan over a period of time. Not because of any arguments vegans make, but because somehow pro-meat eaters are losing a debate to a brick wall, and the conclusions I’ve made myself have convinced myself that I should be vegan. And I’m really starting to ask, do people just…like…ctrl+c ctrl+v arguments in their head?
I…try to be nice. But…how little respect to your own ability do you have if you do that? Not only to justify something you really don’t have to, but something you obviously dont care about. I mean…sorry, it’s just baffling to me.
In the words of Kim Kitsuragi from disco elysium, “I dont understand officer…please, help me understand”
“I’m just one person so I won’t make difference” - 1 billion people who could be making a difference.
Also I already said that without an organised boycotting effort no change can be done. Veganism is not very organised. For example in my small (very conservative) city if I were to go vegan I’d be the only one. The suppliers would not notice me not eating a dozen eggs and a few kilos of chicken/meat every month.
Organising, creating strategic campaigns, and creating communities is a crucial part of the vegan movement. What makes you believe that veganism and the animal rights movement is not organised?
There are many international activism organisations doing coordinated work. This ranges from on-street activism, education about health, sustainability and cooking, lobbying, organising protests (including protests against fur-farming which successfully outlawed it in multiple countries), various forms of agitation, working to improve accessibility of affordable vegan products, providing funding for new groups, and working intersectionally with feminist, queer, environmentalist groups, etc.
Here are some examples of bigger organisations/groups:
Veganuary: International campaign based around a 1-month ‘challenge’. (25 million people took part in 2024, 27% of which stayed vegan afterwards, most others at least cut down by half).
We The Free: International activism organisation that has over 180 chapters in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
Vegan Hacktivists: Volunteer group of professional developers, designers, etc. working with and helping many animal rights and vegan organisations for free.
Animal Rights Map: Map that shows the location of animal rights groups around the world.
ProVeg International: Organisation mainly focused on industry, business, lobbying, vegan products, etc., but they also provide grants and funding for activist organisations and even small local groups.
There are also many activists who give talks in schools and universities, and more recently there has been an explosive surge in university campaigns that aim (and many have already succeeded) in making university cafeteria’s plant-based, and other groups working on anti animal testing campaigns.
Plant-Based Universities: Extremely well-organised, very successful, focused on systemic change in the food system.
Allied Scholars for Animal Protection: More focused on education, agitation, research, and community. Mostly US-based, also supports campaigns in India.
Of course, like any sort of progressive movement, it’s not likely that you’d find many existing groups in a “small very conservative” city. This does not mean that we should not try to organise and build up a community in these places. I was personally surprised to meet two people who have started successful activism groups and vegan communities in two quite rural, small, and very conservative towns.
Most vegans are very aware of the importance of community because it could feel quite isolating being the only vegan in your family or friend group. This is why almost every organisation/local group/chapter regularly hosts social events and tries to build up a welcoming and safe community for its members.
Also similar to other progressive movements, most of what you will come across will be in the global north, but that doesn’t mean that the movement doesn’t exist or is entirely irrelevant in the global south.
For example: there is an especially growing vegan movement in India, and recently China has started to have an organised movement as well. Many western organisations, such as some of the ones I linked above, also have active campaigns and independent local groups in the global south.
Middle East Vegan Society: Vegan advocacy, education, lobbying, certification in the Middle East and North Africa.
China Vegan Society: Vegan advocacy in China, yearly summit, community events, and provides two forms vegan labelling and certification to suit the conditions in China.
You can criticise many aspects of these organisations, campaigns, etc. because most of them are of course led by libs and anarchists, but that’s not ground to dismiss the movement as a whole or veganism in and of itself. A lot of groups have marxist members and you’ll probably find some small local ones run by MLs. There aren’t many explicitly marxist vegan orgs, but I did find one in Germany and Switzerland. Here’s the English “about us” page: https://mutb.org/international/about-us
I’ll leave it at that for now because this comment is getting too long, but please feel free to ask about anything and I’ll be happy to elaborate.
Going vegan is a boycott lmao
Same argument as before “I’m one person I can’t make a difference” - 1 billion people not making a difference.
Yeah the fact that its a boycot is the problem. Its liberal individualist thinking.
Do you consider veganism an organised effort? Cuz i aint seeing any vegan org actually put a dent in the meat industry where i live. Boycot is not just pausing the consumption of meat there also needs to also be systemic effort.
I linked to multiple organisations from around the world working on systemic issues at various levels in this comment.
I’m interested in your perspective regarding what these organisational efforts are missing.
I’d be happy to provide more information regarding the success/impacts of specific campaigns and organisations if it’s relevant.
Uhhh the fact that vegans consider bees thinking feeling individuals and no amount of brainwashing will make anyone this stupid?
As ML’s we are trying to convince people that the rich, who are leeching off of the peoples work, dont deserve the wealth they have (which is a very common sense position). Yet people do not want to side with us. Just imagine trying to get them to agree bees are individuals and that they matter.
Unfortunately for vegans there will be no organised effort to lead veganism to success until there is a way to create cheap meat/milk etc without killing animals for it. Organised effort doesnt mean a few thousand people in a community harrassing people or breaking into factories, it means a majority who will impose their will over a minority. In this case vegans fighting (over bees and cows mind you) normal people to take their rights to consume animal products which is a huge part of our nature.
This is what separates liberal thinking which believes that a few hundred vegans in a city are going to make a change with their individual efforts, with Marxist Leninist thinking which argues that for change to be made the majority must not only want change but also must be willing to fight over it to impose their will on the weaker minority.
There are animal welfare groups. Some even break into factory farms to expose how unethical they are. Countries even put up laws from filming in slaughter houses because they know how shit they are.
Yeah try getting 1 billion people to go vegan. The argument you are making is literally a libertarian “vote with your money” type of wrong.
Your argument is literally “1 billion people won’t go vegan overnight, so why should I?”