Vegan heartache #1 – The vegan bashers you love and care for

Feel like you're going around in circles with your non-vegan friends?

This one is mainly for my fellow vegans, but the rest of you are welcome to listen in. Ya, even if you're trolling to dig up dirt and gloat. All are welcome to give me page views. That is, after all, how I get paid. Feel free to pass it around too. I love it when haters do that. Ka-ching! LOL I'm just giving you crap. I love all my readers, vegan or not and I appreciate you. I wouldn't be here without your support. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I have addressed this before, but I feel like talking about it again.

My vegan friends, did you ever feel that you could make a list of everything you've had said to you in response to your choice to be vegan and answer it all (for the 199^th time) but what would be the point because nobody really listens anyway? Ya, that's how I feel today. "If you were stranded on a desert island...., but, but, but if we all went vegan, animals would over-run the earth...., Where do you get your (insert nutritional need)? What do you eat? How many licks does it take?" Wait, that's something else entirely.

Anyway, my veg buddies, I am so sick of all these questions. I don't mind answering them for people who really want to know the answer. The thing is, though, most of the time, when people ask vegans questions, they don't even want the answers. What they want is to prove us wrong. Now, we all know that the facts are on “our” side even though we are all in this together and there really are no sides, except the ones we all invent.

So, I'm thinking, wouldn't it be a hoot to print up a document containing all the factual answers to the mean spirited questions and comments with applicable links and sources? So that instead of answering them, we could just pull one out and hand it (or message it) to them. “Here you go. This should answer all your inquiries. Reference # 87 – The dairy industry is the meat industry.” Wait, that's been done many times over? They're still not listening? They didn't even read it?

Of course not. Because some people's main interest is not to learn. It's not to change. It's not to grow. It's to stay tucked away in their personal comfort zone, blissfully unaware of the atrocities of the industries they patronize, lashing out at anyone who so much as suggests that there may be a better way of doing things than the way they have always been done (Like that's working SO well.).

Because, if they knew what we know, assuming they are nice people, which I believe most of them are, they would have to change. 

Or maybe, they just have better things to do than to listen to us ramble on. I do like to ramble on about my favorite subject. Don't we all, vegan or not?

The point is, with certain people, even people you love with your whole heart and soul, there's really no point in addressing their inquiries and insults. What's a vegan to do? Well, you do what everyone does when faced with rudeness, bullying and general mean-spirited comments and questions. You walk away, leave them in the most kind and peaceful way possible and live your life as a shining example of compassion. A sense of humor doesn't hurt either.

It's not a competition or even a race, my friends. It's not about you. It's not about them. It's not about any individual right. Folks, we're all connected, vegan or not. Whatever any of us do impacts every one of us. Vegans need to remember that too. So, get a sense of humor, grow a huge pair (because you WILL need them) and try to be as nice as you possibly can when people insist on being biased and critical. And whatever you do, don't comment on mean spirited Facebook posts like I sometimes do. 

Heaven forbid you might express an opposing opinion to vegan bashing. It's in style, you know.