(Part 2) The Vegan Community – why it is a myth… next stop full-on cult.

I recently wrote a post about my experience with the so-called “vegan community” (The Vegan Community – and why it is a myth). I say “so-called” because there didn’t seem to be a lot of love in the room, not a lot of community spirit, when I expressed a different opinion.

I heard some stories, and got some interesting comments on that post, so this is part 2.

With permission I am posting Denderah’s comments here, so many brilliant words that say what others feel.

Denderah wrote:

I have been insulted more by vegans than meateaters. I have supported a prisoner and even visited him at the prison. He has always written back and responds to all letters of support. However I feel I could go every minute of the day doing something in support of prisoners and in the end be worn completely out. I am only a pen pal as he says not one of the important circle of activists who get things done. And I accept that. He doesn’t know me. But just exactly how long can I go on sending checks for his commissary letters to his lawyer and everyday letters and books and so on before I say to hell with this? If I didn’t communicate no one would communicate with me. So it is give give give on the one-way street to nowhere. I was told by one of the “gurus” that my reluctance to show support to prisoners of war was tantamount to treason and wait until I was in prison and no one would pay me any attention to me. I don’t intend to do anything that merits a prison sentence. But I digress…I agree with your post. I feel very alien to this vegan community-can never do enough and this pen pal business is less than satisfying-kind of like a one-sided relationship where only one side gets the goods and the other side is drained to nothing. I was a happy little vegan before I got mixed up in this. But I think I should just go my own vegan way.

….tantamount to treason? are you …. kidding me? There is a self-appointed vegan-animal rights guru out there, sitting in their faux-ivory tower passing judgement on others, but treason?

Denderah also wrote:

And the checks were accepted by a New York liason who said they would inform the prisoner. But I heard nothing more about them nor anything from him that he was aware funds had been paid into his commissary. No thanks either about the letter to his lawyer that we were asked to write for sentencing leniency though copies were sent to him. It is not that I want a personal relationship with people but I get this feeling about this organization that there is an elite hierarchy and the peasants pay homage and do what they are told.

those that can do, those that can’t bully …
it seems that this guru and his inner circle are beginning to set themselves up as the Chosen Ones, vegans Anointed People, who shall interpret for the Commoners what makes a good (ie devout) activist, in much the same way the ancient priests decided who or what behaviour made one a good christian.

And, Denderah recognised that for what it really is…. an elite hierarchy and the peasants pay homage and do what they are told which is not liberating anyone.

However, it is the actions and words from the hierarchy which show a worrying picture of what it is like inside the modern animal activist community

From these above comments and others, a pattern of abuse, bullying, threats and ostracism is beginning to be made clear.

It is time the “vegan community” (if such a thing can ever exist) recognise this behaviour for what is it…

Cult-like bullying.

When you use emotionally loaded words such as treason in an attempt to change a persons behaviour, you are stepping into cult territory, using tactics that cults use to control their victims, oops, “members”.

Do what we say, when we say, follow the rules, never challenge the leaders, never ask questions, never disagree – or you are OUT of the community. Act the same, think the same, and if anyone steps out of line, let the swarms on online trolls swoop.

Like, really? This is how adults behave?

—————————————————————————————–
And a message for the “Gurus”, and all their little brainwashed handmaidens, drones, sock-puppets, attack dogs, troll-patrols, and hangers-on who think that bullying, harassment, abuse, vampire-style energy sapping distractions and death-threats is what being an activist is all about. Hint: THAT IS NOT ANIMAL LIBERATION.

If you waste our time with these little games of yours, real-world and on-line, we are not defending animals, your actions let the abusers continue what they are doing.

When you attack an animal activist for thinking differently to you, you are an animal abusing collaborator and enabler.

Because like a cult, they would rather people think the same, act the same, donate to the same people and worship the same gurus, and surveillance of other activists becomes their main priority, and saving animals doesn’t even enter the picture.

Warning: Animal Rights Blogger is Agent of State Repression

by Red Glitter and Ed MacLeod

Interrupting our series on Vegan Bootcamp: 101 days of Animal Rights Activism, with a little detour
- to alert the AR community of a divisive agent of state repression who is currently operating under the guise of Animal Rights Blogger.

And just who is this lowest of the low? This scum of the earth, this running dog of imperialism, this state collaborating, disciple of Francione, Orwellian nightmare? . . . . Apparently it would me.

As the old saying goes – why am I always the last to know!

And exactly what was my crime, that made me such a divisive enemy of Animal Rights and agent of state repression, Orwellian nightmare and Francione disciple?

This: Dr Steve Best “borrows” BBC homage to British Suffragettes.

well, simply, I pointed out, and quite correctly, that a blogger (Steven Best, who many people have told me is required reading to be a real animal rights activist) had blatantly, I repeat BLATANTLY, plagiarised a 2003 BBC webpost.

But apparently plagiarism is completely acceptable if you are famous.

Or, if you are ripping off the British.

Or something that is more than five years old.

A thorough look at the stats on this blog post that he apparently keeps stumbling over every where he goes – was viewed by 5 people in all of february and 12 on 12 April. (I would suggest that a large portion of those statistics is Best himself, when he left a comment).

And if 17 people viewing this post is going to be such a divisive influence on AR – then AR is HUGE trouble. Huge. Big.

This is the accusations against me:

I keep stumbling on this absurd and divisive blog post, with posts by others still i do not even know personally, and a few perhaps Francione disciples exploiting this “scandal” for its full Owellian, hate-fest potential.

I am going to ask you to kindly remove it, because it serves no purpose, it erroneous and slanderous, and also somewhat comical when you learn the truth of this egregious (!!) scholarly fallacy and breakdown, which is: I posted it to FB with full credits to the BBC, not too hard to do; someone posted it to my blog, not me, and they forgot to add the BBC link up front with the full credits and by-line.

That’s it! That’s all that happened, and yet this is worth venemous posts bouncing around the net and even Twitter, denigrating 30 years of scholarly work and publications, based on something I myself never posted, and which was nothing but a referencing oversight and typo. Pretty clear where the real flaws and flawed ones are in this movement. Try to get a sense of priority folks: there is a holocaust and ecological .rapidly unfolding, other small items such as those marginalia.

You had the information you needed thanks to the person who showed you the FB version of this to know it was a fabricated or non-story, and yet you ran with it, and kept it in the glaring light of defamy on this page.

Enough already, no? Remove this blog and every other one replicating the same innane, baseless claims, if someone had just come to ask me, it could have been corrected and put to rest before the proverbial tempest in the teapot.

We don’t need state repression and corporate power to destruction the animal liberation cause, this is symptomatic of how well a job the “enlightened activists” do all on their own.

Thank you.

Or is not really plagiarism if you attribute it some other place? It seems so.

Mr Best had written on his WordPress blog the 2003 BBC article in question, which was copied WORD-FOR-WORD, this was apparently attributed on his facebook page.

I say apparently, not to dispute his claims, but because there was no link on his blog, no mention of click this for more information, no “source found here”, no directing readers to facebook for more information. So whether there was a correct attribution on his facebook page, readers of his blog that are not members of his special friends on facebook club would actually have absolutely NO WAY to find this out for themselves.

For the 6.999990 billion people on the planet who do not follow Mr Best, I am not really sure how the rest of are suppose to see that proper credit.

Ah but as he points out, a commenter on my original blog about it, had alerted me to the fact that it had been attributed on his facebook page. And I replied at the time – I do not follow him.

But strangely, even bizarrely perhaps, in my country, people only comment on blog posts AFTER they have been published. To say that I was corrected – as to where the actual attribution was – by a comment on the blog piece as a reason for NOT publishing, I’m not quite sure I understand. The laws of physics as they apply to me, is that time moves forward.

And, under Newton’s Third Law of Thermodynamics, which is sometimes known as the action-reaction law, for there to be a reaction (ie, in this case, a comment on the blog) there has to be an action (ie, a blog).

I obey the laws of physics, so I can’t really not have published something in the first place, based on information that comes in as a result of posting it. You see what I’m getting at?

Now, I know that I don’t teach at university like Mr Best, (if he doesn’t teach at a university, mea culpa, I could not be interested enough to read his wiki page) and my students are only in highschool, but if a student of mine handed in an assignment which was copied word for word from someone else, but attributed it correctly in the assignment for another class, I am almost sure that I would not give them a pass mark.

The reasons for his blog post having all the distinguishing features of a lack of attribution is a) it was attributed some place completely separate and accessible to only a handful of people with Mr Bests permission (accepting a friend request) and 2) even if there was no attribution, that is okay too because even though it is his name on the blog, he didn’t post the post, and c) whether he looked at what was posted by someone else on his personal blog, under his personal name later on and noticed there was no attribution, that was not attributed at the time I took the screen caps, is unknown to me – but this is all sounding a bit like a dog ate my homework.

As Mr Best tells me “remove this blog post”, um, I’m not really sure that advocating censorship of those who point out what appears at first glance to be a case of “homage with lack of attribution” is quite up there with campaigning against repression, (that is against for those who missed it), not advocating for.

Pointing out a lack of credit is Orwellian, repressive and defamy, yet demanding I remove it, is un-repression.

I think you and me, Mr Best have two very different dictionaries, because mine doesn’t say anything about censorship being just like freedom and liberation.

and while I’m at it – Heaven forbid someone in AR has a different opinion to someone else, lest they be accused of divisiveness.

The accusation of divisiveness, I have found, is generally leveled against those who disagree with us, regardless of whether they in fact are divisive or not. Accusations like like are used as a means to stifle debate or a free exchange of ideas. If we go around accusing everyone who doesn’t worship at our feet of being divisive, then we are going to find that the next generation of ARAs are obedient unquestioning automatons who are unable to think for themselves because divisiveness is seen as a negative and conformity is encouraged. It’s also a good way to get people who don’t agree with you to shut the hell up, or maybe stand up to bullies who use censorship to silence dissent.

You, Mr Best are a US American, right? Land of the free, Home of the baseball, and first amendment free speech and all that?

Or does free speech not apply when people point out that posts are exact replicas of a 2003 BBC post – I must have missed the day that the US Supreme Court (or whoever) amended that little constitutional guarantee for United States Americans, “free speech for all, except for those who correctly identify instances of copy and paste without credit by famous people”.

And as for calling me a Francione disciple – um, only if that helps you sleep better at night, to believe that everyone who disagrees with you must be a “disciple” of Mr Francione. Because apparently only people who are a – what was that insult Francione disciple in other words – One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of G Francione – could possible find plagiarism noteworthy.

And has been said about Mr Francione – by… oh honestly who gives a damn who said it first, it may even have been you, but attributing sources is so repressive, so let’s just skip over that: “The Guru and his disciples come together in a dance of doctrine and dogma. Like Christian fundamentalists, Francione and his followers believe they possess the Truth …”

and if anyone would like to know who said that, the attribution is on my facebook page, besides, just because someone put a bunch of words together in a particular order why should that mean no else is entitled to use those exact same words in the exact same order – talk about repressive copyright. No, seriously, putting a credit on a bunch of words that is borrowed from someone else really is complete and utter fascism at it most basic.

And you know, Mr Best, for you to desire accuracy, when, oh I don’t know, someone, has said that only Francione disciples believe they possess the truth, would kind of suggest that I’m not the only “Francione disciple” in this conversation … because well, let’s face it, no one else desires “the Truth” (attribution: who gives a damn) do they.

I have never really thought the whole Truth thing was exclusive to Francione disciples, but there you go, learn something new every day.

Seeking accuracy is so oppressive. Having to write a credit on something is such an Orwellian nightmare. And pointing out the obvious is absurd.

What frightening times we live in, indeed.

Copyright is theft, its implying that someone can own a word-order, and once you start owning word-orders it’s just a hop-skip-and-jump from speciesism. So, yes, Mr Best, I am beginning to see your point – owning a piece of work as an author is repression of the highest order, and compare that to owning animals, they are so similar. Don’t know why I failed to see it so clearly before.

And as you point out, Mr Best there is a holocaust going on – not just against the billions of animals in the world slaughtered daily, but also against billions of words, trapped for ever in books and webpages. Owned! Its lexical slavery! It is intolerable.

Set my language free!

We will not have total liberation until all words are free.

But hey, let all vegans and ARs copy and paste without credit as much as they desire, let us all ignore that pesky little thing known as copyright, because we are all perfect. And apparently to point out that someone might have had an entire article published on their blog, under their own name, but actually taken from a BBC website by someone who is not them is being divisive.

What a ridiculous accusation.

Almost as ridiculous of calling it “absurd” to highlight that a 2011 blog post was in fact a 2003 blog post from the BBC.

I kind of have a little trouble accepting that plagiarism is so inconsequential that to point it out is “absurd”. Even more absurd is to suggest that only Francione disciples would care about proper credit for the author of a piece of written text. Because adding “BY THE BBC” is conformity and repression.

And I guess, that knowing all this, and that you think giving credit where it belongs is absurd and repressive, you, Mr Best would have no problem with anyone else in the entire world copying and pasting something you wrote and pasting it on their own personal blog, as long it is attributed correctly in, oh, some completely separate location? Is that fair to say?

And as for removing it, and every other one replicating the same innane, baseless claims, if it baseless, I would remove it, but it isn’t. And, if it has been replicated, all over the net, then perhaps it is a case of someone taking it without my knowledge, which, doesn’t seem to be plagiarism or copyright or anything, so let people take my words. I have no more power over them, or claim to control them, once they are posted as, apparently, the BBC has over their words once they are published.

And if calling someone out – and completely accurately – for not attributing a blog post which was borrowed word for word is “DEFAMY” (attribution: S Best, because I like to give credit where it is due, I refuse to own that spelling mistake) then, your response is just as inaccurate, yawn-inducing, ludicrous, ridiculous, insulting, divisive and defamy.

Although, Mr Best, lets you and me talk about DEFAMY – since English is not my first language, and since Google translate didn’t really tell me what DEFAMY actually means for those of us struggling with English, I am going to assume you mean, defamation, or defamed, maybe defaming, perhaps defamatory, or just plain old ordinary defame

Although perhaps your response was a fraction more “DEFAMY” (attribution: S Best) because where mine was accurate – there was absolutely No BBC credit on the blog post, NONE, ZERO, ZILCH, शून्य and no link to a credit on the facebook page – whereas, calling me a Francione disciple is actually inaccurate.

And I know how much of a perfectionist you are when it comes to accuracy, well, apparently except where blog posts on your own blog are concerned.

As an ordained clergy person, to suggest that I am a disciple of another, a mortal, damages my reputation, and my immortal soul, not just on this earth but in other realms, for now and eternity, as much as the suggestion that a vegan is meat-eater or wears silk.

And while I can’t claim to be an expert on the laws of “DEFAMY” (attribution: S Best) as they apply in the USA, I do know that where I am, the laws of defamation are based on threestandards
one – are they true? and what you said about me IS NOT,
b) are they believable, YES it MIGHT be, and
third: are they likely to damage my reputation in the eyes of at least one other person, I believe that you use the phrase “Francione disciple” in a derogatory way with the sole intent to damage my reputation, and according to EFF: “any individual or entity who considers damage to their reputation has or is likely to occur, as a result of material published, may sue the publisher/s of the material.”

Whether or not I believe the words “Francione disciple” (attribution: S Best) to be a description that damages my reputation is irrelevant, what matters is that someone else might believe it and therefore damages my reputation.

A quick look at my past posts would show that I spend as much time pointing out where I disagree with Francione as I do agreeing with him, which could in no way be mistaken for being a “Francione disciple”, where as the accuracy my comment, that your blog post had no credit, is easy to judge, one only has to look.

The following, are defences of “DEFAMY” (attribution: S Best) in my jurisdiction:
Defences that may be successfully pleaded in relation to a defamation action vary throughout Australian jurisdictions. Depending on the jurisdiction, these may include:

* truth/justification
* fair comment (e.g. an expression of an honestly held opinion or a criticism on a subject matter of public interest)
* absolute privilege (this attaches to the occasion, not the statement or speaker, such as during parliamentary proceedings, judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings, executive communications and communications between spouses)
* qualified privilege (e.g. fair and accurate reports of parliamentary proceedings, judicial proceedings, public meetings concerning matters of public interest/concern)
* consent (e.g. where the plaintiff expressly or impliedly consented to the publication of the particular imputation)
* triviality (e.g. where the circumstances/occasion of the publication were trivial to the extent that the person defamed was not likely to suffer harm)
* innocent dissemination (e.g. applicable to re-publishers/re-distributors such as newsagents/book sellers, including potentially to ISPs/ICHs. The defence in Clause 91 of the BSA is also relevant to ISPs/ICHs.)
* etc
Source: because I attribute words that I copy and past from someone else EFF

BTW: I know that I said I would happily remove it, but I retracted that on my facebook page, you didn’t see that? I mean, that is the way blogging works, right, you can say something on facebook to qualify what is written in a blog, right?

So, if any part of this is inaccurate, that is because the really, truly accurate version of events is on my facebook page, which there is no excuse for anyone and everyone not seeing.

And, before anyone directs any hate mail towards me, or accuses me of being an Orwellian, divisive, repressive, Francione disciple if meant as an insult, or whatever, let’s just say the whole thing was copy / pasted from … oh, who knows, some place else… I just chose to not attribute it, because it makes me seem so much smarter to not attribute work that was written by someone else.

There is no copyright on this, because apparently owning your own words is oppressive and repressive and Francionish and Orwellian. So I’m taking these words out in the wild and releasing them . . .

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, words are free at last. (which I just invented, so no attribution required)

Vegan Bootcamp: 101 days of Animal Rights Activism

This post is the first in a series that will cover Animal Rights Activism from as many angles as possible. Tactics, techniques, methods, historical figures, current controversies, inspirational essays-quotes-graphics, campaigns, movements – from education, agitation, resistance to revolution.

People don’t care if you’re upset. They care when you organize. - Al Sharpton

It was Gandhi who said “if you do nothing, there will be no result“, so, the time for talking is over.

Now is the time to act. It’s time to get organised.
First, you have to make the decision that you want it… no, it’s more than that, you NEED it, you NEED to be an Active participant in the struggle for Animal Rights.

For many ARA’s (Animal Rights Activists) that I have met, they can’t live any other way. They simply cannot live a life without putting the fight for animal rights front and centre of almost everything they do.

Today, is about making that decision. You know you want to, have to be an Activist. You can no longer sit by and do nothing while animals are suffering. You have reached a point in your life where you must do something.

If you hear about some unspeakable horrendous act of cruelty against an animal, or you hear about the billions upon billions of animal killed for food each year, or any other act of abuse and you find yourself saying “Somebody must do something… and I think that somey will be me.” then it’s time to learn, act, think, agitate and bring about changes in the world.

And if you already are an AR Activist, then you will know that you have made the right decision.
For Animal Rights Activists, there are two questions:

–1–

What do we want?

–2–How will we get it?

This can be summed up simply as “Objectives” and “Tactics“.
1. Objectives (the ENDS)
What those Objectives / Goals are may vary between individuals; long term education or short term direct action*, local or global, educate one person or agitate for a change in legislation.

2. Tactics (the MEANS)
Tactics, strategy, methods, plans, to-do-list, techniques – using the most appropriate method for your personal circumstance and objectives. This will vary depending on the desired outcome.
Although, I will cover these in more depth in a follow up piece soon, ‘Planning a Campaign’, a few quick words about Objectives and Tactics.

Getting 5000 names on a petition isn’t an objective, a petition is a tactic to achieve the specific goal. If spending time, money and energy on doing something doesn’t get you close to your goal, then why are you doing it?

Raising awareness is not an objective – you raise awareness, and then what? – you raise awareness so that people will change their behaviour, raising awareness is a tactic.

Networking, socialising, hanging out on social networks are not objectives, that are part of a tactic. Ah, you say, but I like hanging out with my friends. Ok, we all need down-time, some hours to switch off and recharge the brain, let go of the negative tension.

Knowledge without action is useless; action without knowledge is dangerous. – D. L. Chu

What’s Next?

Once you have your Objectives and planned your Tactics, then comes another crucial part of all . . . ACTION.

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French military and political leader said: “A Revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.” (or as I say: A revolution is a theory with an army.)

Or to paraphrase a leading animal welfare advocate “The philosophers can debate the revolution, but the Bandits must carry it out”.

This is not a suggestion that violence is necessary for a Vegan Revolution** – instead, after all the theorising about Animal Rights, the thinking, planning, debating, in the end, the work still needs to be done.

The military call this “boots on the ground” – those people will to carry out the plans, physically do the work – and often times in AR Activism, the person deciding the plan of action is the same person who is carrying it out.

Activism doesn’t require a lot of people, just dedicated people doing what needs to be done.

As Margaret Mead said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Do it, and don’t be distracted by people who would tear you down. The haters for some reason are unable to act on their own, and so seek to destroy those who are.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. — Thomas Paine

Time to stop Feeding the Trolls.

I think most of us have met an ARA at some point, who you just know doesn’t do anything practical, they are “Facebook Crusaders”, you know, the kind of person who says to you:
‘See here, in this 1984 essay you wrote, you said “factory farm”, but all farms involve cruelty… what are you some kind of enabler or something, you are as Evil as a viviesector’.

The Anti-Activists attack you, and other ARAs all of the time, they follow you from blog to blog, from forum to social network, always reminding you of the time you said “factory farm” not “farm”.

They never work on a campaign of their own. You start to think – is this All that you do? have all the animal exploiters suddenly disappeared, and left you with so much free time that you can launch character assassinations on people who are actually doing something for the animals!

And then finally when you tell them you are not wasting any more of your time debating them, you are walking away – they declare they have “won”.

Facebook is not the battle, Facebook is a tool. If these TROLLS think they have “won” something by harassing animal rights activists, then they are not in it for the Animals.

And, what do you “WIN” by continuing to engage with them – nothing much.

If the Anti-Activists are distracting you, they are stealing your time and energy that you could use saving animals. See the trolls for what they are – COLLABORATORS.

You can accomplish a lot of good in the world if you don’t care who gets the credit for it. – Myles Horton

Next post in this series: Rules For Radicals
The phrase “Vegan Bootcamp” comes from the book, ‘Vegan Bootcamp: Guide to Animal Rights Activism’, it inspired me to do a series of posts on AR activism.

*Direct Action
Although some people think direct action means ‘violence’, that is not necessarily so:
Lee Hall “Veganism is direct action“.
**Revolutions can be peaceful.
There are some who hear the word “revolution” and think Molotov’s and Kalashnikov’s, balaclavas and bombs, however, Revolutions can be peaceful, they are simple a change. It could be a change in government, it could be a change in thought process.

---

Post 2011 ‘Vegan Animal Liberation Alliance’. Copying and distribution of this entire article, text and / or graphic, is permitted in any medium, but please include the credit:
Written by RedGlitter of VALA http://redglitterx.wordpress.com/
or at least a link to this page, that would be nice

Racist Facebook Hater of the week

Just a diversion from my rants about animal rights, to highlight this racist email I received this week.
I am shocked that people still think this way.

Because no matter how vicious the fights get between animal rights activists, and the threats of violence and the people who wish me to die a horrible death, I rarely find racism in Animal Rights Activism, and for that I am grateful.

Someone I follow on twitter has a facebuck cause “I support Aboriginal Australia and I vote” (now generally I try to avoid facebook, but it is useful for signing into other social networks, such as scribd and photobucket) so I joined.

Soon after someone sent me this email

“Subject: Aboriginal
They are a bunch lazy and never done anything for Australia. The Australian government are gave everything the have free transport accommodation weekly wages, for doing nothing, the government has offering free Study, Jobs, etc. but only a 5% has accepted, the rest are a bunch of lazy. In North and South America the Indians have to work so they can bring food home what did you saying about (POLETICIANS) and by the way we are not racist.
Tito Perez“

Seriously, racist morons out there, I joined a group called “I support Aboriginal Australia and I vote” why would you think I want your racist hate in my email.

So, if anyone wants to show their support to the groups owner, and show them that people like Tito are a minority, consider joining the cause I support Aboriginal Australia and I vote. Thank you

9 of Your Vegan / Animal Rights Questions Get Answered

Because I believe “there are no stupid questions, it’s those who don’t ask that remain stupid”.

So, what is it that people ask me – not of vegans in general, I’m sure other vegans get asked different questions.

• Which animal rights advocates to follow on twitter?

Depends what kind of animal rights you are into – if you are abolitionist, they generally have “abolitionist” in their bio. If you are Liberationist maybe look for specific people. Search for the hashtag #vegan or #AnimalRights and you will find people you want to follow.

People who have forums, blogs, nings or facebuck sometimes include their twitter @name, if you find a blog you like, look for that.

• But, isn’t animal testing necessary for beauty products?

Beauty products that test on animals are not beautiful.

It is NOT necessary. Why they test is because they are using combinations of chemicals that might cause death, disfigurement, and long lasting health side-effects. These chemicals enter the blood stream and nobody knows what effect they will have on the body. Do we even know that BSE (mad cow disease) can’t be spread via cosmetics?

Now, isn’t it better to use healthy ingredients in the first place than take the risk with these dangerous products that “only” kill 50% of the lab rats they test on.

As this piece here Animal Testing: Pass or Fail explores, reasons for testing aren’t always about consumer health.

• Abolitionists talk about Non-violence being the only way to end animal cruelty, but doesn’t Noam Chomsky say that non-violence cannot work?

I’m generally reluctant to mention Nazis but Noam Chomksy said it first:

Non-violent resistance activities cannot succeed against an enemy that is able freely to use violence. That’s pretty obvious. You can’t have non-violent resistance against the Nazis in a concentration camp, to take an extreme case…
The Real History of Capitalism

• What are some veggie symbols?

I don’t know what “Veggie” means. Seriously, I don’t.
Does it mean Vegan or does it mean Vegetarian? Is it meant to be a combination of both?
Does it mean “vegetable”? I’m in Australia, we spell it “vegie”.
This Ⓥ is a symbol some vegans use on social network sites.

• Is Carrot cake Vegan?

It should be, yes.
But people will always find a way to shove animal products into any food. However, it does contain oil instead of eggs, and is not low fat, but is vegan.
This recipe contains fruits and vegetable, and is very easy to make, and non-vegans will love it, I mean, if they like carrot cake:

LINK >> Animal Liberation Carrot Cake – vegan recipe

• Does Angelina Jolie eat?

Maybe that was “WHAT does Jolie eat?”
I’m going to guess not a lot of vegetables, she thinks eating a vegan diet (“strict vegetarian”, because she continues to wear animal products) nearly killed her. She says “I joke that a big juicy steak is my beauty secret. But seriously, I love red meat.”

• Camille Marino / Steve Best

Wow, there is a lot of interest in these two. And often people are interested in CamilleMarinoAndSteveBest, as if it is one word, almost like they have morphed into one person with one brain. But no, they appear to be two separate people.

Best and Marino are USAmerican animal rights advocates. Best is from The Institute for Critical Animal Studies and has his own personal blog and together they are Negotiation Is Over.

Their use of a match as their symbol is problematic for me, since matches are an animal product, but no more problematic than PeTA using naked women and leather-wearing celebrities.

Do you need to follow their every word in order to be a good little MDA (Militant Direct Action) activist?
That’s a personal choice. Some people say NO.

• who is the woman in Moby’s “disco lies” video?

Shayna Steele, who also provided the female vocals. This is the video in which the chicken gets revenge on a KFC-inspired Colonel.

• Benjamin Zephaniah

Who is Benjamin Zephaniah, and where can I find a copy of his poem “Vegan Delight“?
Zephaniah is a British poet who has written and spoken about veganism. Some of his work is featured in this post on him Vegan Delight, Benjamin Zephaniah (plus vegan onion bhajji recipe).

Vegan Delight (and not Onion Delight) – is a poem that answers the question “What do vegans eat?”. When omnivores say that all vegans eat is tofu and broccoli, this poem would set them straight. With the exception of “omelettes” – I don’t know why that is listed in the poem.

VEGAN DELIGHT
Ackeess, chapatties, Dumplins an nan, Channa an rotis, Onion uttapam,
Masala dosa, Green callaloo, Bhel an samosa, Corn an aloo.
Yam an cassava, Pepperpot stew, Rotlo an guava, Rice an tofu,
Puri, paratha, Sesame casserole, Brown eggless pasta, An brown bread rolls.

Soya milked muesli, Soya bean curd, Soya sweet sweeties, Soya’s de word,
Soya bean margarine, Soya bean sauce, What can mek medicine?
Soya of course.

Soya meks yoghurt, Soya ice-cream, Or soya sorbet, Soya reigns supreme,
Soya sticks liquoriced, Soya salads, Try any soya dish
Soya is bad.

Plantain an tabouli, Cornmeal pudding, Onion bhajee, With plenty cumin,
Breadfruit an coconuts, Molasses tea, Dairy free omelettes, Very chilli.
Ginger bread, nut roast, Sorell, paw paw, Cocoa an rye toast, I tek dem on tour,
Drinking cool maubi, Meks me feel sweet,

What was dat question now?
WHAT DO WE EAT?

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Vegan bite size pieces, for feeding Vegan trolls

drink milk as often as you can

When vegans talk about Not Exploiting Animals! the necrovores (“death eaters”) of the world start screaming PETA PROPAGANDA! Vegan Propaganda! TOFU propaganda! Communist Propaganda!

But what happens when schools start telling people “drink milk as often as you can”? And that message is brought directly to the students via a Dairy Lobby Group and a Government Department.
How can this be anything but propaganda for AA (Animal Agriculture)?

One woman (at The Tasty Vegan | A hotbed of veganic activity in British Columbia and beyond.) takes a look at this disturbing issue of dairy-indoctrination

LINK > More Dubious Advice on School Foods by Dairy Industry

And if anyone still has doubts about the evilness of Dairy – a Land O Lakes subsidiary has poured millions of dollars into Monsanto, “that shady agro-giant, that food-world Voldemort” (Elizabeth Farrelly), owning the world – one gene at a time.

Got milk? Got mutant genes!

And in other milk news, a store in London started selling human breast milk ice cream full story here: (“London cooing over breast milk ice-cream”) – and the social networks were buzzing – URGH! was the common reaction.

But all milk comes from breasts – cow breasts, sheep breasts, goat breasts, yak breasts. Urgh!

Milk from some animals is more acceptable than milk from others.

Video of the week

Ask Your Doctor About Meat™
A brilliant, humorous look at propaganda of meat eating coming from “experts” who know nothing about nutrition (doctors receive very little training in nutrition).
“Meat… It’s dead and it’s made from animals”

Vegany Sweet Goodness

This recipe for Vegan chocolate bars inspired by Mars® Bars
because – not only are Mars® Bars filled with cruelty ingredients, but Mars tests on animals .
A Mars France spokesperson has “admitted that the business division Symbioscience does test on animals while developing “pharmaceutical and therapeutic food ingredients”, including flavanols.”

Image via Wikipedia

Vegan Mars Bars from Veganarchy Foods
*nuttelex in the recipe is vegan margarine

Be kind to cows… and be kind to your body. Vegan junk food!

So, if you’ve been missing out on that nougat-chocolate treat since going vegan, click on the link > VEGAN MARS BARS http://moralcuisine.tumblr.com/post/3515109080/these-were-something-ive-want-to-try” and enjoy the cooking!

 

 

 

 

Blog post that says so much

The Vegan Swagg blog is up and running: First post: “An Open Letter from a Militant Vegan” a look at animal rights / veganism and social networking.

What I do love about this, it completely tears down the false “I’m one of you” vegan platitudes of a pseudo vegan and …

the best part is I don’t have to deal with the negative feedback from the trolls who seem to think militant vegans are the enemy (yes ALF, I’m looking at you).

This is an issue I looked at here The New Enemy: The Militant Vegan (say what?), so another perspective on any issue is always good.

tweet of the week

@VeganMudblood: Sexism, transphobia, homophobia, racism, classism, sizeism, ageism, etc., have NO place in the #animalrights movement. #vegan

… all I can add to that is, cruelty, torture, exploitation, abuse, slavery and murder have no place in animal rights either.

TROLL of the week

@sarrabee
For sickening, disgusting, hate speech against women and transgender people.

This is a person who rants at, trolls and spams other users, especially those who she/he does not follow – is all about arguing and not about social networking.

He/She is a person who seems to think feminism is all about hating on women, progressives, vegans, non whites, and transgender.

And to me, that is NOT feminism.

For example – @sarrabee
“I’m not actually responding to that person at all. I’m simply reposting his/her tweets. It’s important.” Thursday, 24 February 2011 12:53:23 PM

which was either aimed at me, or a woman called Cindy.

Why the faux gender unknown act?

Which may not seem like anything until followers realise, (and this is what I find amusingly ironic) this same person, he/she was calling out progressives for labeling Ann Coulter a “he/she”. And this @sarrabee person thought that was transphobic. And yet, turns around and uses transphobic terms as an insult against others.

If you don’t know someone’s gender, and it is important to you, as it seems to be for this @sarrabee transgender hater person, then use someone’s name. Or, gender neutral “them”, “their”, “they”, which is becoming increasingly acceptable to use for singular other.

Although, I’m not sure why someone’s gender should be important to anyone other than that persons loved ones and doctor.

In the above tweet, she/he could have said “I’m reposting THEIR tweets” – but his/her insistence on use a gender descriptor for the person he/she was reposting, seems to me that she/he (@sarrabee) cares a lot about gender and calling out progressives and doesn’t really care about transgender people at all.

This person comes across as a twitter troll – follow at your own risk.

from the Feeding Trolls archives

completely selfish fkn moron of the week

from the Im a selfish, self centre, heartless loser files

This comment (You can be both an animal rights activist and an omnivore. Some people don’t have the need to eat meat but some do.) was found at the Facebook group Fight For Animal Rights.

Let’s go over this one more time for the braindead idiots – one of the most basic rights any living thing has, is LIFE. When you eat meat, or consume any animal product, you are depriving that being of LIFE.

Eating animals is not ANIMAL RIGHTS.

You absolutely CANNOT be an animal rights activist who consumes the corpses of animals.

But thanks Shanghai GoGo Discotheque for playing. And losing.

And showing the whole how selfish and greedy you are.

The New Enemy: The Militant Vegan (say what?)

from the Militant Vegan collection

What is this Militant Vegan that has suddenly emerged on the blogs and social networks? This is my response to an article that has gotten a lot of attention recently. From Veggie Girl: An open letter to militant vegans.

Personally, I’m a Vegan-vegan, and anything else, is divisive. Designed to separate us, put us in a little box and slap a label on it.

And I will happily walk the vegan path with anyone who wants to stand beside me, regardless of what label they choose to put on themselves.

 

However…. For vegans out there who regularly participate in online forums, debates and social network sites, you may have noticed there is a new enemy out there… the mysterious, illusive and dastardly “Militant Vegan“.

This phrase “militant vegan” seems to have cropped up a lot recently, it seems to be an insult to active vegans.

I say Illusive, because I’ve yet to see one.

I do not know where it originated, this concept that vegans who refuse to love-on meat producers is someone “too militant” and gives “vegans a bad name”.

In this blog piece – the concept of militant vegan is examined….

An open letter to militant vegans
by Veggie Girl

… it doesn’t really tell me much about what a militant vegan looks like but if this writer represents the opposite of militant, then an “UNmilitant vegan” (like her) is a lot like a new-welfarist, pseudo-vegan collaborator with the animal-death industries.

Apparently, according to Veggie Girl, vegans are the new Westboro Baptist Church (for more information on who and what Westboro Church is Luna Coyote87 Presents: “Reason You Suck Post”: Westboro Baptist Church). That hateful, anti gay church that pickets funerals with the slogan “god hates fags”.

As Veggie Girl says: if you’re a militant vegan

you’re just an animal-loving version of Fred Phelps. And nobody likes that guy except his fellow church members

.

Whoa!

Seriously, a homophobic, hatefill, angry cult is just like being vegan? Are you kidding me??

I know a lot of vegans, and I have never yet met one who I would consider “militant” – I don’t even know what that means…

Because if you are not doing all you can to fight for the lives of animals, then what are you doing? Wasting time!

No seriously, WTF does “militant” mean? Someone doing everything in their power to end the slaughter, slavery, cruelty and exploitation of animals.

And if that is what Militant is, why are you proud that you’re not. I don’t find it particularly admirable that you admit that you are a lazy, ungrateful, apathetic, passive Inactivist. I don’t understand why someone would brag about that.

Meanwhile, if there is a strident, screeching, hateful, harridan example of militant – it would be this Veggie Girl.

Who knew that “consciously raised and slaughtered meat and eggs” – as Veggie Girl points out – is now acceptable to vegans.

How is it helpful to attack someone like Rachel Kesley, the chef at WaterCourse Foods, who was a vegan for three years but decided to add consciously raised-and-slaughtered meat and eggs back into her diet

.

Never heard of Rachel -the meat eater – Kesley until now, certainly never heard anyone “attack” her.

But let’s get away from the hyperbolic violent rhetoric for a minute – by “attack” does Veggie Girl mean that someone found Rachel and physically hurt her? Or in Veggie Girl’s world does attack equal “they used mean words”.

Come on, Veggie Girl – turn down the violent language just a notch, and then your attack on Militant Vegans may, perhaps, possibly have a bit more credibility…. and a lot less irony and hypocrisy.

Militant is a meaningless word in the context of fighting for justice and rights, and is used to discredit that person or group which someone disagrees with. One step away from extremist, emotive but useless.

Because in the parallel bizarro world that Veggie Girl lives in, eating “humanely slaughtered meat and eggs” is peaceful veganism, but pointing out humane is a myth is somehow militant.

Your poor dear, how do you get through your day, it seems like just about every vegan out there that you meet is militant and out to get you.

Because as this blog piece seems to think, you can have non-cruelty milk, cruelty free eggs, compassionately slaughtered meat and if you are really really nice, to the animal abusing death industry, and say pretty please with a cherry on top, you may just…

inspire them to adopt humane practices

Fail!

It seems that in the opinion of this Veggie Girl – humane slaughtered meat, and compassionate meat eaters who fight for welfare reform is what “vegan” is… and anything else is “militant”.

Hey, Veggie Girl, wanna see what “humanely slaughtered” meat looks like:
guess what – it looks exactly like inhumanely slaughtered meat.

Is this simply “dog whistling”*… “militant” is this the new phrase designed to attack “direct action” vegans? Because Francione has the market cornered on veganism as the new peace movement. … Is that what this is? Will anyone who has a different approach to the Minions of Gary Francione now be branded “Militant”?

Personally I have no problem with Gary Francione, at least when he talks about Veganism, he does prevaricate about what vegan means to him.

Is this some inference to ALF – balaclavas and camouflage?

In a similar way to the use of “new welfarism” and its design to silence Direct Action vegans, is militant meant to have anyone who speaks out on behalf of veganism quaking in their non-leather boots at a label?

My first impression, was this concept was the work of The Professor and His Minions, being all anti-violence, anti-ALF… but this “It’s all about Me-Me-Me Veganism” is more reminiscent of Tasha, the formerly Voracious Vegan.

As Rachelle, commented on Veggie Girls piece : You probably don’t mean militant. You probably just mean someone pointing it out to you and you don’t like it.

But let’s get real for a minute – why do we do this, why do we hyphenate vegan… ethical vegan, direct action vegan, mda vegan, abolitionist vegan, liberation vegan, and now militant vegan?

To quote Veggie Girl – Get off your high horse

Edited to add – An Open Letter From A “Militant” Vegan
Veganism is absolutely essential to the animal rights movement as veganism IS justice for animals. Yes, we are passionate, but not aggressive. Yes, we are relentless, but not lazy. Yes, we are unwavering…. Yes, we are vocal, as justice has never been won by silence.

*Dog Whistling= an Australian phrase, used in politics, involving coded words, that send one benign message to the general public, but another message to the target audience. Particularly around issues of race, for example “illegal refugees”.

Edited to add: thank you everyone who took the time to explain what “militant” means, I wanted to look at why there seems to be an increasing use of the phrase “militant vegan” by other vegans as a way to divide the AR movement.

When a vegan tells you to “shut up, youre too militant”, I’m asking, why they feel the need to do this, where as recently, the phrase used was “shut up, youre new welfarist”.

I am never going to shut up, rights are not given to the patient, the quiet, the meek – rights are fought for, its hard work, loud noisy agitation

Feedback welcome

Dr Steve Best “borrows” BBC homage to British Suffragettes

Dr Steve Best, animal activist, associate professor at a Texas University and one of the leading voices in militant activism in the United States, a man who I think has been good for animal rights in his fight for “total liberation”.

However, Dr Best recently blogged this fascinating piece about the British Suffragettes

Note to pacifists: the UK suffragettes used sabotage, arson, and CD to win their campaign, attributed “Filed under: Uncategorized by drstevebest”. (*CD= civil disobedience)

Screen shot

Click image for full size

This blog piece explores the history of the fight for women’s vote (suffrage). It shines a light on some of the leading figures in the women’s Suffrage movement, and some of their tactics – arson, violence, sabotage and civil disobedience.

It starts with “The votes-for-women movement exploded in popularity the UK in 1903 – hence this year’s centenary celebrations – but the story of the campaign begins before the reign of Queen Victoria.” (source: Steven Best’s blog article – Note to pacifists: the UK suffragettes used sabotage, arson, and CD to win their campaign)

This is what made this piece stand out, something in the phrasing didn’t sound right. The maths didn’t add up.

We are long past the centenary.

So let’s try that again
“The votes-for-women movement exploded in popularity the UK in 1903 – hence this year’s centenary celebrations – but the story of the campaign begins before the reign of Queen Victoria.” (Source: The history of the suffragettes By Dominic Casciani BBC News Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3153388.stm dated : Thursday, 2 October 2003, 16:07 GMT 17:07 UK

A quick string search found the BBC article, dated 2003, written by Dominic Casciani. I can find neither the name Casciani or BBC or a link to the original article in the Best blog article.

The a screen shot of end of the Best page is found here: graphic of the end of the article, to show that there is no attribution at the end of the blog piece either.

The original BBC piece was written in 2003, to coincide with the centenary of the “votes-for-women” movement, and uses the word “centenary”, which is what the year 2003 would have been.

Although it is possible that the BBC borrowed their piece from Dr Best and back-dated their website, I’m not sure that it happened that way

Even the images used to illustrate these pieces are the same.

This 2011 version of this article has been reproduced here: Negotiation is Over , using the title of the Best blog post, rather than the original title on the original 2003 web post.

It seems strange to me, that so many in the militant divide of the animal rights infighting, point the finger at the “Cult Of Francione”, yet fail to notice their own enthrallment with Steven Best, to the point that anything he says is taken and reproduced as if it was sacred words – without even checking if someone else had written them first.

A simple reading of the text of the blog piece should alert any reader that phrasing is odd. It is 2011, it seems strange year to be celebrating the centenary of 1903 event, not even the British would take that long to organise a celebration.

I am not out to cause trouble for anyone, lest of all a university professor. However, I have been a university student, and If I had have handed in a paper that was as similar to something else, as these two articles are, I would be given an automatic fail.

I am also sure if someone went through my blog they would possibly find instances of graphics and pictures that haven’t been attributed correctly (though wordpress has a function that allows you to insert public domain graphics, which makes this easier). I try hard to list sources, and if I cannot find a picture I like, I will create my own.

I am probably going to end up alienating every animal rights activist and vegan who I have ever respected in posting this piece, but surely the leaders of the animal rights movement should be held to higher standards than a teenage undergrad. I am probably going to lose every shred of credibility I have ever had as a blogger on animal rights.

I imagine I will get hate mail, saying why must I be mean to Dr Best. I hope not, I don’t think it should be sacrilege to point out the similarity between the two articles.

I sincerely hope that followers of Steve Best can respect my reasons for pointing this out. I did not enjoy writing this, I even put out a request of other animal activists, if they could double check for me, and see if what I read was accurate.

I will happily remove this post, if I am asked to
(Edited to add, I will happily remove this post, IF I AM WRONG and am asked to).

Tasha and her “meatgasms” – Vegan-No-More

Annoying the vegan abolitionists and the direct action vegans since March 2009.

Over-hyped Saga of the week:
Tasha (the blogger formerly known as “Voracious Vegan”) and her “meatgasms”

When Sally Met Harry: I'll Have What She's Having

After last weeks 15 minute outrage regarding Alicia Silverstone Is She / Isn’t She Vegan (see post: what do you call a cheese-eating vegan?… a celebrity) comes this little blog post that had the twitterverse a-tweeting.

Vegan No More

The former “Voracious Vegan” is now just “Voracious” (which according to Webster’s dictionary, is a synonym for “greedy, rapacious”.

After 3/1/2 years on a vegan diet, Tasha eats meat and is “moaning with pleasure and joy” (hence the title of my post).

The only appropriate response to this publicity fuelled confession, from Tasha, is ignore it until it goes away. But the online vegan community is small, we like to laugh at the ridiculousness.

My first bite of meat after 3.5 years of veganism was both the hardest and easiest thing I’ve ever done. Tears ran down my face as saliva pooled in my mouth. The world receded to a blank nothingness and I just ate, and ate, and ate. I cried in grief and anger, while moaning with pleasure and joy.

She eats one steak, and instantly her health is miraculously returned (quote: I had only eaten a small piece of cow flesh, and yet I felt totally full, but light and refreshed all at once) Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! Praise Buddha! Praise Allah! Praise Deity Of Your Choice…. Let’s get real

Oh my, tears are running down my face right now, from laughing so hard. I am almost literally rolling on the floor laughing. People in the cafe I am writing this from are looking at me, I haven’t laughed like this for a long time. Is this Tasha woman serious?

What kind of nutritional deficiencies are cured in an instant? Does this sound accurate to anyone?

Here is another, less funny, extract:

I delicately broached the topic of my ill-health with several vegan friends. I even made comments on other blogs and on twitter highlighting my struggles. The response was nothing short of shocking. In the span of just a few days I received an outpouring of emails from fellow ‘vegan’ bloggers, who told me in confidence that they weren’t really vegan ‘behind the scenes’. They ate eggs, or the occasional fish, or piece of meat, all to keep themselves healthy, but were too scared to admit to it on their blogs. I even received emails from two very prominent and well respected members of the vegan AR community. One a published and much loved vegan cook book author, the other a noted animal rights blogger, their emails detailed their health struggles and eventual unpublicized return to eating meat.
Vegan No More

She makes a few delicate comments and true celebrities vegans are pouring their inner most secrets out in an email? Does this sound logical to anyone?

People who make their living based on their vegan reputation would risk it all by confessing in an email to someone who is now clearly anti vegan (her quote: “I can no longer think it is wrong to eat animals” shows where her beliefs are).

And if this is true (IF!) name them. Go on, name names. Do not go around making baseless accusations, by throwing around these allegations, everyone is under suspicion.

Maybe that is what she wants. It’s a cheap shot, and I prefer to not believe her.

I do not want to go around suspecting everyone I read to be a pseudo-vegan. That is a Stalinist tactic that does nothing to foster cohesion and a sense of community, in what is otherwise a fragmented and fractious group.

Tasha has now giving up veganism, whatever that meant to her (it sounds like it was purely about diet), and has turned into a “feminist”…….. (Oh feminists – may the goddesses have mercy on your souls that this woman is speaking for you, how long before she decides she is really a patriarch and move on to the next cause de jour)

But on this, the abolitionists, the liberationists and the unaligned, all agree – hahaha, (hint: Tasha, we are laughing at you, not with you).

Vegan No More is great for a laugh, so is the responses, the blog posts, the gossip, the comments. I haven’t seen the vegan community so united in, well – ever!

The whole thing is a gift to the vegan community online, for once we could put aside our petty differences over which we fight so viciously, and get a great laugh at this nonsense, this completely laughably ludicrous self-serving, rambling, incoherent piece of anti-vegan propaganda.

And, while there are so many other things I would say, but I won’t, because I’m not a mean person. Instead, I’ll leave the talking to others. All these articles are well-worth following the links, and reading the original articles, and comments:

* From the dietitian
Do Ex-Vegans’ Stories Make the Case Against Vegan Diets? by Ginny Messina
“…….. In her more than 7,000 word post, she’s rather vague about these details, as is Lierre Keith in her book. I do know that a lot of vegans think they are eating healthfully when they really aren’t. And I believe that a lot of vegans get sick and return to eating meat when all they needed was more sound information about vegan diets and less misinformation from the pseudo-scientific anti-vegan world ………”

* Satire perspective
Omnivore: Fail by Vegan Feminist Agitator
“…….. The path from which I began straying from omnivorism was painful, difficult, heart-wrenching even. People might try to tell me that I did something wrong, that I just didn’t try hard enough, but they are mistaken: I tried with all my being to live as an omnivore……”

* the activist
A worthy reply to “Vegan No More”
“……….. I see incredible potential and use for websites, blogs, chats, forums as sources of information, connection points for activists, and means of fast communication. But when things degenerate into repetitive arguments, shit-slinging, defamation and egotistic posturing … well, time to turn off, both figuratively and literally. So that’s all the time I’m giving to this odd internet chapter which will be known as “Vegan No More” (after the ex-vegan’s blog post of the same title)……….”

* the fair and balanced response
A vegan controversy
“……….. My problem stems from her reasoning. My problem stems from her complete reversal to proselytizing that vegans are the ones who are wrong. … My problem stems from her rejection of science in favor of finding a new moral high horse to ride. She no longer believes veganism isn’t right for her or the planet, so you shouldn’t either………”

* the vegan community weighs in
Your Daily Vegan: Vegan Defenders talk back
“…………..Oh, that vegan defector? Defector- is she implying that veganism is as horrible as life in North Korea? The movement she was once such a zealous member of was really just the same as living in a communist dictatorship? She’s a fraud. She’s a once-self-described vegangelist. What cause will she attach herself to next? Apparently the meat-eating cause. ……………”

[Side bar: Tasha claims to have received "death threats", my response to that is
honey, if you are receiving death threats, that is an issue for the FBI, or since you are living in an artificial oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert (which probably has a much bigger impact on the environment than a few grains, which you complain extensively about), try interpol. If you seriously believe vegans want to kill you, blogging about it doesn't really convey that seriousness.]

Feedback welcome.

what do you call a cheese-eating vegan?… a celebrity (the Alicia Silverstone saga)

I get a lot of flak when I point out that many of the people the vegan community holds up as heroes aren’t actually vegan.

I am told that they do more for veganism that I ever will (yeah, maybe, but at least I don’t eat animals!)

I am told that nobody is perfect, and then my critics trawl through my life trying to find somewhere that I’m not perfect either (yeah, maybe, but at least I still don’t eat animals).

Cover via Amazon

Here is Ms Not So Perfect Vegan Alicia Silverstone advocating CHEESE – again.

Alicia Silverstone Confesses: I Cheat on Vegan Diet!

Even a proud vegan like Alicia Silverestone gives in to temptation once in a while.

The actress and author of The Kind Diet confessed that sometimes she slips up — and dairy is her downfall.

“If I was at a party and there was a tray of cheese sitting there and I had had drinks, then I might have a bite,” Silverstone confessed to UsMagazine.com at an EcoTools event in NYC on Wednesday.

Silverstone doesn’t let her momentary lapse get to her, though. “It’s human,” she said. “It’s a really good reminder that sometimes you need to have what you remember is this good thing. Because then you have it, and you’re like, ‘Actually that wasn’t better than the recipes in my book,’” Silverstone told Us.

“Being flexible that way makes more people comfortable,” she said. “If I’m rigid about it and I’m perfect, then no one is going to be able to be like me because I’ll be this icey, rigid thing.”

Silverstone credits the vegan diet with better health. “I haven’t been to a doctor in 13 years,” she told Us. “I don’t have to worry about calories, I don’t have to worry about how I look because I know that what I do makes me look my best.”

For a start, I’m not sure there is such a concept as “cheating on a vegan diet” that would make it… um – not vegan!!

Like a virgin who cheats on virginity, gets pregnant and says, but I’m still a virgin, I only cheated a little!

Once we start having the concept of cheese-eating vegans, its a slippery slope til the word “vegan” means anything that people want it to mean.

There already is a perfectly valid word for someone who avoids meat but eats cheese….. VEGETARIAN!

Ever tried to define vegetarian?
A coworker told me once there are two types of vegetarian, those who eat meat and those who don’t, no matter how much I tried to tell her that a vegetarian who eats meat is not a vegetarian in any sense of the word, she would not be swayed…
there is the fish-eating-vegetarians, the fur-wearing-vegetarians, the chicken-and-bacon-eating-vegetarians, the vegetarian-3-days-a-week-and-steak-on-the-rest… the word “vegetarian” has become pretty much useless.

I was out to lunch with friends recently, one who is a vegetarian told the wait staff “I’m a vegetarian, no meat in the stir fry vegetables” it came loaded with prawns. She sent it back.

One of the reasons that the word / concept “vegan” was invented in World War 2 was that vegetarians on got rations for cheese and eggs as replacements for meat, and so began a campaign to be recognised as not consuming animals products. There are many other reasons too, but this was one of the earliest fights for recognition, that a vegan was something separate to vegetarian.

No one stands up when people assume that meat=cow/lamb but not meat=fish/chicken/pig.

The amount of vegetarians who eat fish or chicken or pork/ham/bacon is so strange. And people just accept that it is a sub-set of vegetarian.

So, when people praise Alicia Silverstone for her veganism, do we accept it, and think, but she does so much for her diet book, oops I mean veganism – or do we go, “yes, she might do a lot for animals but she really isn’t vegan herself”.

If it is okay for celebrities to cheat – how big of a celebrity does one have to be? Movies? Magazine covers? Is there like, a slide scale of celebrity A-list and B-list can eat cheese, maybe C-list – but once we hit the D-list celebrities they can’t get away with calling themselves “vegan who eats cheese”? When was vegan redefined as – something you do only when you are a commoner?

And as for Alicia’s comment that she eats cheese when she has a drink… Really, when was vegan redefined as – something you do only when sober?

Then there are instances of people who identify as “vegan” (such as this brainless moronic post: Alicia Silverstone cheats on vegan diet with dairy as her downfall which says sometimes a little egg and dairy are good, because it shows others we are flexible, and that the author herself “I end up having bit of dairy or a baked good with some egg in it” – hun, you ain’t vegan!!) complaining about those who forgo all cheese as being “militant”, I beg your pardon – not eating cheese is not being “militant”, it’s actually just plain Vegan.

I respect what Alicia has done for animals, and if people go vegan because they read her book, good for her, but people also go vegan when they visit PETA websites too, and many, many vegans don’t like PETA, and compare that to the hatred directed at Sea Shepherd for not being vegan, and people change because of SS too, so why the double standards? I really hope it isn’t because she is young, blond, white and famous.

How many vegans out there don’t eat cheese, or any other dairy, and find ways to get alternatives.

In this post Alicia Silverstone goes Vegetarian, Alicia describes her eating of BK Veggie Burger, its “yummie”, that Burger King burger also contains egg and milk.
That original twitter comment is found here http://twitter.com/AliciaSilv.

Why do people go through all sorts of contortions to redefine vegan. It is simple – not animal products. Not just sometimes, all the times. If you accidently eat something, then you move on, but for Alicia, it doesn’t seem to be an accident, it seems to be a pattern.

Take a look at her answer here:

What do you do when you crave non-vegan foods?

Alicia Silverstone.: Well, I never crave non-vegan foods, because vegan foods are so delicious. When I’m out and there are no vegetarian foods available, then I just make the best choices I can. Sometimes, it’s to eat nothing at all, or I’ll have the least offensive thing. Maybe there’s a salad with goat cheese, or potato salad with a little mayo. That’s what it’s about — making the best choices under all circumstances.
Alicia Silverstone Quit Counting Calories – With Her “Kind Diet”

Actually… NO, veganism isn’t defined as “making the best choices” – it is In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.: Vegan

But, at what point do we stop watering down what “vegan” actually means, people call Bill Clinton vegan in the exact same interview he discusses eating fish (He actually seems to be making a lot of changes to his dies, it is “almost vegan”) – vegan has a meaning, do some people want that label so badly that they will ignore its meaning? I could call myself anything I want, doesn’t make it true, calling yourself “vegan” when you clearly aren’t doesn’t make veganism flexible, it totally strips all value and meaning from a word that has a specific definition.

… how would ordinary (by that I mean, Non celebrity) vegans who don’t “cheat” (which I find a silly word, its not “cheating” its eating cheese) feel going to a vegan restaurant being served cheese, honey, eggs, once that happens, the people who actually are vegan might have to explore a new word.

Meanwhile comments such as:
Brent Phillips (on facebook): Someone call the vegan police! Revoke her vegan powers

People who make comments like that, are they vegan themselves? I know how hard it is for me and vegans I know to live a vegan life, someone who doesn’t encounter difficulties occasionally, maybe there is a reason.

And as for “revoke her vegan powers”…. um, do you consider cheese and egg to be vegan? If you think there is something wrong with pointing out that Alicia Silverstone is a vegetarian, not a vegan, then there is definitely something wrong with your definition of vegan.

Image by Pulicciano via Flickr

Portia de Rossi’s Aha! Moment

I had no appetite for meat sauce. Giving up beef wasn’t just some fleeting idea. Over the next year, I stopped eating all animals and animal products. I always thought going vegan would be difficult, but I genuinely don’t crave meat or cheese. And I feel happier, like I’m contributing to making the world a less violent place. Before that morning on the farm, I ranked an animal’s value based on how “human” it was. Now I don’t judge other beings that way—every animal has its own intelligence and sensitivities. They’re all lovely, worthwhile, and deserving of our respect.

Comparing the words used by both Alicia and Portia, and how they see veganism:
Alicia uses words like: “recipes”, “calories”, “look my best” and the words “Losing Weight” are in the title of her diet book
………. compare that to Portia de Rossi : “intelligence”, “sensitivities”, “respect”, “deserving”, “worthwhile”, “contributing to… the world”

And yet, Alicia is seen as a true champion of kindness and veganism, and Portia is just a bimbo lesbian.
Portia de Rossi, probably doesn’t get enough respect for her awareness.

For more on this topic – whether it is a good thing for vegans to expand the definition to include cheese and eggs like Alicia Silverstone does
What Lines Do You Cross on an ETHICAL Vegan Diet?

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Written by RedGlitter of VALA http://redglitterx.wordpress.com/

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