We constantly hear that we need to water down the message of veganism to make it more palatable. Zohran Mamdani’s victory underscores one simple truth: people are hungering for radical change. At its core, the animal liberation message — like all liberation messages — has always been and will always be profoundly radical. For people to go vegan, stay vegan, and fight for actual animal liberation, we do not need to tone down our message. We need to turn the volume up. People do not want a new consumer choice, a quirky diet, or a slightly improved cruelty commodity. They want authentic, revolutionary change that transforms the world and their place in it. That is what veganism has always been.
Zohran Mamdani’s victory underscores one simple truth: people are hungering for radical change. I see it every day in my students. They are looking at a world burning under climate change, with wealth inequality greater than during the French Revolution, and neighbors being rounded up by masked men. They are scared and depressed. They are tired of doom-scrolling; they want more.
I constantly hear that we need to water down the message of veganism to make it more palatable. But that logic collapses on contact with reality. At its core, the animal liberation message — like all liberation messages — has always been and will always be profoundly radical. What first drew me to this movement was not its smallness, but its scope. Here was a project with the power to change something real, something that matters, not in one narrow domain but across many—all at once. The only thing holding us back is that commitment to radicalism has been allowed to dull…
In his victory speech Zohran Mamdani said, ‘I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.’ More than anything else, that is the lesson, as vegans, we also have to learn. What wins is being proudly and unapologetically ourselves…
At a recent conference someone asked, “I just do not understand why everyone does not go vegan.” I do. Why take on something difficult, socially risky, and inconvenient if it feels like it does not matter? People do not commit to struggle for incrementalism that still treats animals as commodities. They commit when the vision is big enough to match the cost.
For people to go vegan, stay vegan, and fight for actual animal liberation, we do not need to tone down our message. We need to turn the volume up… People do not want a new consumer choice, a quirky diet, or a slightly improved cruelty commodity. They want authentic, revolutionary change that transforms the world and their place in it. That is what veganism has always been. VASILE STANESCU
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