{"id":780700,"date":"2026-03-11T09:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=780700"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:40:41","slug":"the-wrong-war-veganism-not-a-diet-but-does-it-matter-if-people-think-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=780700","title":{"rendered":"The Wrong War: Veganism is not a diet, but does it matter if people think it is?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veganism isn\u2019t just a diet, but the way some vegans react when someone describes it as a diet, you\u2019d think it was the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened. Does everyone need to understand the full scope of veganism from the very beginning? Telling them they weren\u2019t really vegan and don\u2019t understand the movement doesn\u2019t really help. It definitely doesn\u2019t help the person, it\u2019s unlikely to help the animals. Pointing them toward resources like Challenge22, reminding them why it matters and encouraging them, that\u2019s the difference between being right and being effective.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DAVID RAMMS:<\/strong> Here\u2019s the scene: Someone just posted on Instagram saying they were vegan but had to stop because of health issues, and the comments come rolling in. Vegans, instead of asking what they were eating or pointing them toward resources, start a pile-on. \u201cWell, veganism isn\u2019t a diet, so you clearly didn\u2019t understand what you were doing.\u201d Or some variation of that. It\u2019s smug, it\u2019s unhelpful, and it misses the point. There\u2019s a difference between being right and being effective, and I think this could be doing damage…<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a concept in philosophy called the is\/ought distinction, and I think it loosely applies to what I\u2019m highlighting today. Basically, there\u2019s a difference between how things are and how you think they ought to be. And you can\u2019t just jump from one to the other without doing the work in between.<\/em><\/p>\n

Language is a good example. Words mean what people generally understand them to mean. That\u2019s how language works. You can make the case that certain words ought to mean something different, or that you ought to use certain words over others, but you can\u2019t just assert that and expect everyone to fall in line. If you skip the work in between, you create friction, distractions and confusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of what I see from vegans online (myself included in the past) is exactly this. Taking how things ought to be and asserting it as if it\u2019s already how things are, with no acknowledgment that there\u2019s a massive gap in the middle that needs to be bridged. And instead of bridging it, we end up creating unnecessary arguments…<\/em><\/p>\n

Why diet should be the priority. Here\u2019s something… that doesn’t get said enough: human consumption is by far the animal\u2019s biggest issue. Ending animal agriculture and the consumption of animals would end the vast majority of animal exploitation. The scale of it with the factory farms, fishing, the slaughterhouses, the sheer number of lives involved. There\u2019s nothing else that comes close. So if we\u2019re trying to figure out where to focus our energy, I think the answer seems quite obvious.<\/em><\/p>\n

Veganism isn\u2019t just a diet… But the way some vegans react when someone describes it as a diet, you\u2019d think it was the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened… Does everyone need to understand the full scope of veganism from the very beginning? Why? If someone has eliminated animal products from their diet because they believe it\u2019s wrong to harm animals, they\u2019re doing one of the most impactful things they can do. Does it matter whether they\u2019ve read the Vegan Society\u2019s definition? Or done in-depth research on the founders of veganism and how they defined it?…<\/em><\/p>\n

Telling them they weren\u2019t really vegan and don\u2019t understand the movement doesn\u2019t really help. It definitely doesn\u2019t help the person, it\u2019s unlikely to help the animals, and to outsiders, it makes vegans look like an unwelcoming and pedantic bunch… What actually helps is addressing their concerns. Pointing them toward resources like Challenge22, reminding them why it matters and encouraging them to try again with proper support this time. That\u2019s the difference between being right and being effective. SOURCE<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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