Below we answer questions or criticisms that some may have about the behavior of some vegans.
This page will be updated frequently, so please come back later to see answers to more questions.
Answers that have already been written may also be modified to make them easier to understand or to add information.
Last updated: July 11th, 2023
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If you have other questions about veganism, please also see the following pages:
Veganism & Health
Veganism & the Environment
Veganism & Ethics
Veganism – Way of Life
Replies to Anti-Vegan Memes
Notes:
- In some cases our tone may become stern or ironic, depending on how pointless we think the particular anti-vegan argument is. We also understand that not many people use some of these arguments below, so in such cases we will refer to the second singular, instead of the second plural.
- Within the texts there are various questions, which are not rhetorical. We do them so that you can think about them seriously and answer them for yourself.
- If at some point you feel offended by something you read or that we are criticizing you, then we ask you to think calmly about why you might feel this way. Is it because we are actually telling a lie or because you know deep down that something is true and you are trying to defend yourself, but not admitting that you are wrong? (this is basically called “cognitive dissonance”)
Remember that strong and mature people use criticism and turn it into motivation to grow spiritually.
Vegans are weird.
Vegans eat anything you can eat: fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes, pasta, etc.
They simply choose not to eat animal products. There is nothing weird about that.
Sometimes the way we offend another person reflects insecurities, and what we are afraid to admit about ourselves. This is called psychological projection (in essence, anyone who makes fun of others is making fun of him/herself). So maybe deep down, you understand that eating animal products is the weird thing? Grinding almonds and adding water is not weird. But imprisoning a cow, artificially inseminating her and taking her breast milk to drink it, that really is weird.
Now, if some vegans did or said something unrelated to veganism that you found strange, then that may be a belief of those individuals. Drawing conclusions about all vegans based on the behavior of a few specific individuals is a logical fallacy called hasty generalization.
Some vegans are very aggressive and I don't want to belong to a movement with such people.
Every vegan who wants to see a better world has their own beliefs, experiences and their own way of promoting veganism.
You may not agree with the way someone is protesting animal abuse, or you may not agree with the way they are promoting veganism.
In such a case, instead of blaming them, it is better to try to put yourself in their place and understand that they may be reacting this way because they may have been bullied (see article in English – Vegan schoolboy, 12, killed himself after bullies threw meat at him), or have experienced the pain of animals up close and because of their outrage they have no more patience until they get to see the world change.
Some may think that talking calmly to people about veganism, and the effects of meat eating on animals and the environment, will not make them understand how important and serious this issue is.
So instead of turning your back and showing them that they are right to be so skeptical, you can sit and listen to them and show them that you are special and that you care.
The point is to pay attention to the message.
If vegans are aggressive, then how many vegan wife-killers, thieves, rapists, murderers have you seen on the news?
Instead we see hunters, animal farmers and meat-eating killers.
When you see criminals on the news, do you want to stop belonging to the race, ethnicity, religion, gender, football team fan club, etc. that those people are? No, because you know their behavior represents themselves and their upbringing and not the group they belong to. So, the same with veganism. You can be part of it, even if you don’t agree with the behavior of the others who embrace it (who in the end have pure intentions).
In all movements and lifestyles there can be people whose reasoning you disagree with. Judging or rejecting a movement because you don’t like some people in, is wrong.
And it’s even worse when we consider that innocent creatures are the ones who will pay for this decision of yours.
And in terms of animals in slaughterhouses, who would be the most aggressive? The one who cares about your life, or the one who pays to have it taken away from you so they can enjoy an unnecessary taste?
Vegans are trying to force us on what to eat and that is not right.
How exactly do vegans force you on what to eat? Are they putting a knife on your throat and threatening you?
When you buy animal derivatives, then you finance the slaughterer who puts the knife on the throat of defenseless creatures.
So you are indirectly forcing defenseless creatures to be abused and murdered and that is not right.
So who is the real victim and who is pretending to be the victim?
Instead of getting mad at vegans who try to show you the truth, maybe you should be mad at the propaganda in animal product ads, which:
- try to force what you eat by lying to you about the health effects of animal products and
- do not show you the truth about how these creatures live and are killed.
Also, if you smoke next to others, then your argument is even more hypocritical.
Because when you smoke next to someone, then you impose this carcinogenic stench on them and that is not right.
Unfortunately, from our experience, very few people ask those around them before lighting up a cigarette. They don’t care if someone might have a health problem or if they are bothered.
According to a World Health Organization in 2018, passive smoking (being exposed to second-hand smoke of others) causes 890 000 premature deaths of non-smokers every year.
Source: smokefreegreece.gr
A vegan person might become annoying talking about animal rights, but at least he.she is trying to motivate you to do something that will help your health. Whereas, if you smoke, then you intentionally cause damage to the health of those around you.
Some vegans force us to watch extreme videos of animal slaughter, which may traumatize us. They should take it more calmly and approach us politely. Otherwise they are not doing justice to themselves and to veganism.
As inhabitants of this planet and co-inhabitants of animals, it is our duty to be informed about the effects our consumption choices have on them.
If vegans were to say that animals die so that we can eat them, then others would just imagine a nice field (like the ones shown in animal product commercials) where animals live happily and when they die of old age, then their bodies are given to become meat. Unfortunately, this is not the case, because this would cause damage to the business.
And we, the team behind this website, may have known about veganism before, but we only got into it after watching a slaughterhouse documentary like Earthlings, which we now wish we had seen much earlier.
Sometimes it takes a hard dose of truth to wake someone up.
Maybe the reason you want vegans to talk to you politely is so you don’t feel bad after you turn your back to them?
Anti-smoking campaigns show black lungs taken from the bodies of people who have died from smoking. Campaigns against drinking and driving show people who have been in an accident and are now paralyzed. Anti-drug campaigns show people with disfigured faces, who have passed out and/or are dead. Anti-war campaigns show people mutilated.
Why doesn’t anyone say anything there? Why are there no protests that these campaigns can give children nightmares?
Because unfortunately humans has not yet recognized that the lives of animals also have value. This is called speciesism.
Also, if you claim that humans are omnivores and that we follow the cycle of life, then why do you have a problem watching these videos?
If someone wanted a personal favor from you (for example for you to give them money, do some work for them etc.) and demanded that you accept, while being rude to you, then yes, that person is not doing justice to you.
But vegans talk about animals, that is, for someone else’s sake.
So justice isn’t for vegans to lose – it belongs to the animals and you’re not right to take it away from them.
It is ironic to criticize someone who wants you to correct a wrong behavior that causes animal abuse and environmental destruction. You should have just fixed this behavior already.
This is called deflection and is a psychological defense mechanism to draw attention away from yourself and avoid admitting a mistake so as not to lower your self-image.
Unfortunately, no matter how calmly or persistently we promote some moral behavior (for example not smoking in public places, not throwing garbage out of bins, etc.), some people are simply not going to listen, due to immaturity and ingratitude.
When someone tells you that something you’re doing is wrong, especially if you don’t like the way they speak or the way they look, you may actually have tendencies to do the opposite of what they’re telling you, in order to feel that you’re in control and that you have the power to manipulate the feelings of the person speaking to you.
But this is selfish and immature behavior.
In the end, you have to ask yourself if the problem you have is really with the behavior of some vegans or if it is with the guilt you feel in your conscience. If e.g. you told a vegan that plants feel pain and showed them videos of them getting cut, they wouldn’t feel any guilt, because they know it’s a baseless argument.
If you have a problem with slaughterhouse videos, you should stop funding what is seen in the videos and not try to stop the ones who want to show the truth to the world.
Vegans are insulting the traditions that come from our religion and the history of our country.
Vegans oppose the slaughter of innocent, defenseless creatures. They are not asking that any tradition or custom be completely abolished, just that no massacres take place.
Like Easter, for example, vegans are not asking people to change their religion or stop celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. Vegans are calling for an end to the slaughter of millions of lambs.
Because, how does this tradition make the world a better place?
How are you supposed to sow love when you shed blood?
It’s probably not the vegans who are offending.
On the contrary, it is barbaric traditions like these that offend our reasoning and morality as humans.
The people who carry out or support these massacres are the ones who insult life, especially when they dedicate these massacres to a God who did not ask for sacrifices. So they also commit blasphemy.
Unfortunately tradition and religion have always been the argument for not giving rights to slaves, women and homosexuals who fought for them.
And it has always been the few people who tell the masses what is right.
Why do people always pretend they know what God wants, instead of just doing what seems right, which is to show respect to fellow humans and animals?
If you were trapped on a desert island and there were only animals around, what would you do?
The same thing you would do, if you were stranded on a desert island and there were only children around (and no fish in the water either).
If you were inside a burning house and there was a person and an animal, who would you save?
Ideally we would try to save both. If the situation didn’t allow for that and we had to save only one, then we would make a decision based on who is safer to approach, who will cooperate best, what our personal relationships are with them, and what everyone will generally have to offer if saved.
For example, we would not save a rapist or murderer, but we would save our pet. We would not try to save an animal too heavy or wild, but we would save a relative. Or maybe the situation would seem so dangerous that there would be no point in trying to save anyone.
Be that as it may, since now we are not in this situation and have never been in one like it (and probably never will be), we neither know for sure what we would do, nor there is any point in discussing it, as each person can give a different answer.
Apparently the whole point of this question is to get us to say that we choose to save the animal so that we look misanthropic and thus you have an excuse to judge veganism.
But when vegans talk about animal rights, they don’t do it because animals are worth more than people, they do it to show that animals have value too.
If you were in a burning house and there were two babies, one white and one black, which one would you save? If you had a spouse and a relative, who would you save?
When you vegans go around, you kill insects. When you wash, you kill germs on your body. And for the plants you eat, thousands of insects and rodents had to be killed.
Veganism is the philosophy and lifestyle that aims to reduce as much as possible all forms of animal exploitation. Nobody is perfect. And unfortunately neither is veganism.
No human being is perfect, but our inspiration should always be to become the best we can be.
And to leave the world a little better than we found it.
Saying “there’s no point in doing anything because the problem won’t be completely solved” is a logical fallacy of futility, also called the Nirvana Fallacy.
To see if an argument stands up morally, the best way is to imagine if someone were to use it against you.
If someone were to hit you, with the excuse that abuse in the world is never going to stop, would you accept it?
When you have reached the point of thinking like this (when you realize that your actions have negative consequences for others), you have 3 options:
- forget what you said and look immature and hypocritical as you continue to cause great damage
- end your life to stop causing harm
- try to live as ecologically as possible and encourage others to do the same
Obviously we choose and recommend you only the last option.
Why do you keep imitating dishes that have meat and give them names like vegan sausage, vegan burger etc.? For sure, you miss the days when you used to eat meat.
We do this mainly for people who refuse to go vegan.
If they don’t care about the animals, about the environment and their health, at least let them care about their pocket and understand that they won’t lose anything in taste or luxury.
If we promote veganism without these traditional-like foods, then you will tell us that veganism is boring, restrictive, and that vegan food is unhealthy.
And now that we show these foods, you accuse us of missing meat.
Please decide how you want us to promote veganism.
(and no, stopping promoting it is not an option)
If you think it’s normal to eat animals, why do you mutilate the pieces of their corpses so much? Why do you cook them for hours and fill them with sauces and spices (which are vegan)? Why are you naming those dishes something different? Why do you say e.g. burger instead of a cow carcass or bacon instead of a pig carcass?
You too once ate meat. You didn't go vegan straight away. So let others go vegan when they think the moment is right for them.
Yes, we used to eat it, but then we realized it was wrong, so we stopped it.
This is how people deal with their mistakes:
– recognize them
– admit it
– apologize for them
– fix them
– help others and prevent them from doing them so they can save themselves that bitter guilt later
We are better people now because we have corrected those mistakes and we actually feel bad that we made them and try to make amends for them and prevent others from continuing to do them.
If you ask an older person, they will say “I wish I was young again, but I had the brains I have now”, “I wish someone would stop me from the mistakes I made”, “I wish I knew the right thing without having to make the mistake.”. Maybe you are thinking these things too.
This is the feeling of regret and repentance that we try to spare in others and since this feeling is so heavy and toxic, we try our best.
To justify an action because someone else does it or used to do, is a logical fallacy called “tu quoque” (“you too” in Latin).
We also see no point in taking criticism for a very old behavior that no longer reflects us.
If you can’t understand this logic, then we say:
-either congratulations on always being infallible (sarcasm)
-or that we sympathize you for the immature reaction of toxic people who instead of saying “I need to be better too”, they try to bring others down to feel better about their insecurities.
You say we don't eat meat raw, but you don't eat raw food either.
The argument is that if you are indeed an omnivore by nature as you claim, then you should be able to eat raw meat, like other omnivores. But this is something you cannot do.
On the contrary, we can eat fruits, vegetables and nuts raw and our body does not get sick from them, which is the whole argument, to show that we are herbivores by nature.
Now, if we choose to cook spaghetti, lentils, legumes, etc. either because we like the taste, or because we believe they have high nutritional value, it is another debate whether or not we should be consuming such foods. Unlike animal products, the production of these foods does not require the intentional killing of innocent beings.
Vegans are misanthropes.
No sane person wants to live with hatred in their life.
Vegans may sometimes get angry at the behavior, meaningless arguments, and cheap excuses that some people use to not go vegan, but that doesn’t mean they are misanthropes.
Vegans do not wish harm on you. They just want you to be informed and stop being the moral perpetrators of imprisoning and abusing innocent creatures.
Instead of blaming them, try to think about why they might feel this way and why they are so committed to speaking up for animal rights.
We wish there would be no evil in the world and we wouldn’t have to go to so much trouble.
A person without humanity and without compassion for animals and the environment is not a complete person. So the problem isn’t whether vegans are misanthropes, the problem is that many non-vegans are essentially not-humane.
Since you vegans want animals to have rights, should we also give them the right to vote?!
Animals cannot recognize who and why would be suitable for prime minister of this country.
Therefore, no, we are not asking for them to be given the right to vote.
Just as people who do not know who they are voting for and why, or who vote for people with fascist views, should not be given the right to vote.
But animals can feel pain and have a desire to avoid pain.
So, they should be given the basic rights of free life and prosperity.
Veganism is just a trend and it will pass.
Trend is an outfit or a hairstyle.
Veganism is an ethical movement that has been around for many years and continues to evolve. The market for vegan products is expanding worldwide and veganism is considered by many experts to be one of the most important trends of our time, and arguably the most ecologically sustainable and ethical choice.
But even if you call it a trend, then we say “better a trend of compassion, than a tradition of abuse”.
Vegans have a high opinion of themselves. They really think they are super-heroes and that they will save the world.
Vegans do not have a high opinion of themselves, on the contrary, they believe that they are equal to the rest of the creatures on the planet, so they spend their time talking about the rights of these creatures.
If one person positively affects 10 people, and then each of those 10 people affects 10 other people (and so on), then a chain reaction (dendrogram) is set off that can have huge effects.
So don’t underestimate the power of one.
If vegans want to save the world, then that’s a cause you should applaud and support to make it happen faster.
You shouldn’t criticize someone who goes out to do something good.
Most people in life are content with making a lot of money (which they will spend on their own material goods and not on charity or philanthropic causes), finding an attractive partner, and traveling a lot.
That is, all purposes limited to egocentrism or to a small circle of acquaintances.
The purpose of life is supposed to be to share our knowledge and love with the whole world.
But if you are only interested in self-centered and temporary pleasures, then we are sorry that your dreams are so small and your ego is so big.
You vegans are so miserable. Right now I'm eating a steak and it is so delicious!
So you brag about intentionally harming yourself and supporting a practice that abuses innocent, defenseless creatures and destroys the environment?
We understand that it can be difficult for you to show respect to others, since you don’t even respect yourself and your health.
Miserable is someone who has a bad, unhealthy fate. Veganism adds years to life and helps prevent various diseases that have been linked to eating animal products. Diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, diabetes, etc.
So vegans aren’t the miserable ones.
Miserable are people who are weak to their passions. Who are addicted to a cigarette and eating animal products and junk food.
Miserable is someone who hides behind a keyboard and uses immature, cheap methods to make someone else feel bad because they can’t use logical and moral arguments to justify eating animal products.
Miserable is someone who is lazy and doesn’t have the will to get better.
Vegans care about the misery of the animals and the pollution of the planet. And they follow a more healthy, ecological and ethical lifestyle.
So vegans aren’t the miserable ones.
Also, we are currently eating falafel and they are so much tastier, so much healthier, so much more ecologically made and above all, so much more ethical.
And then when we go to “relieve” ourselves, we will have a better time and smell better.