After browsing around some websites & forums for new recipes I have been reminded of the existence of a certain type of people; The Vegan Police.
(Found here, from Scott Pilgrim VS The World)
Like The Breastfeeding Police, The Immunisation Police, The Recycling Police & The Exercise Police, The Vegan Police are full of their own importance & drunk with the “knowledge” that they are right.
The Vegan Police take it upon themselves to educate you about what is & isn’t vegan. The Vegan Police like to chastise you for knowingly or unknowingly ingesting something “wrong”. The Vegan Police award themselves medals of honour depending on how long they have been “hard-core” vegans for (“20 years? That’s NOTHING! I was vegan since before I was even born. Since before my MOTHER WAS BORN MAN.”). The Vegan Police, in simple terms, are dicks who don’t do anything to promote the vegan cause but everything to harm it, put succinctly in this piece from veganoutreach.org;
“It is imperative for us to realize that if our veganism is a statement for animal liberation, veganism cannot be an exclusive, ego-boosting club. Rather, we must become the mainstream. Fostering the impression that “it’s so hard to be vegan – animal products are in everything,” and emphasizing animal products where the connection to animal suffering is tenuous, works against this by allowing most to ignore us and causing others to give up the whole process out of frustration.
The way veganism is presented to a potential vegan is of major importance. The attractive idea behind being a “vegan” is reducing one’s contribution to animal exploitation. Buying meat, eggs, and/or dairy creates animal suffering – animals will be raised and slaughtered specifically for these products. But if the by-products are not sold, they will be thrown out or given away. As more people stop eating animals, the by-products will naturally fade, so there is no real reason to force other people to worry about them in order to call themselves “vegan.”
We want a vegan world, not a vegan club.”
I don’t ever want to be a member of The Vegan Police, but at the same time, since something about them seems so clearly unhinged, I don’t want to piss them off too much either, which is why I hereby revise my dietary status from “Vegan” to “Vegetarian”. “Already?” I hear you ask, obviously bemused. “Already.” I solemnly reply, & here is why;
Yesterday, I was asked a question that I was never asked in all my time as a “hard-core” vegan, & it was whether or not I would eat eggs from pet chickens, not only pet chickens which I had seen with my own eyes, as well as their pen & the way they are kept, but chickens that we used to keep ourselves. Our very own chooks which we had to rehome when we moved, their new owner had swapped the Mr some eggs for some Spinach, Broccoli & whatnot.
Of course I would. My whole argument for a vegan diet is not to eat things that I wouldn’t be willing to go out & get for myself, so saying I wouldn’t eat eggs from the very same chooks that I used to take Punk out to see while we collected their eggs… that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? But that would make me a vegetarian, not a vegan, & an ovo-vegetarian at that. I don’t like that term in the slightest, it seems a bit perverted to me somehow, so I am going to say, as I read here, that I am a vegetarian that eats a mostly vegan diet, vegan ‘cept for those damn eggs from 5 lovely chickens, living out on a farm nearby.
So there you are, Vegan Police. I have admitted my sinful thoughts & am resigning from the ranks of The Vegan Army. I will not perturb you by saying I am “…mostly vegan” or “vegan except for…” & in return, you can’t arrest me or kick me in the head with your pleather stomping boots when I make a veggie frittata.
