Vegans being banned and comments being deleted from [email protected] for being fake vegans.

From my perspective, the comments were in no way insulting and just part of completely normal interaction. If this decision reflects the general opinion of the mod team, then from my perspective, the biggest vegan community on Lemmy wants to be an elitist cycle of hardcore vegans only, not allowing any slightly different opinion. Which would be very unfortunate.

PS: In contrast to the name of this community, I don’t want to insult anyone here being a ‘bastard’. I just want to post this somewhere on neutral ground. I would really appreciate an open discussion without bashing anyone.

PPS: Some instances or clients seem to compress the screenshots in a way they’re unreadable. Find the full resolution here: https://imgur.com/a/8XdexTm

Linking the affected users and mods: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

  • @[email protected]OP
    22•6 days ago

    Thanks for taking the time to comment here.

    The foods that are vegan and plant-based have zero animal products. It is not up for debate.

    From my perspective, that’s a classical strawman. No one said that food with animal products is vegan or that a restaurant that serves animal products should be considered a vegan restaurant.

    I just prefer a restaurant that still serves a large number of vegan options over the average omnivore restaurant that has no or just very few vegan options. That’s better for me personally but IMO also for the vegan movement as a whole as it eases access to vegan food for everyone.

    I went fully vegan 3 years ago - I don’t think it’s fair to call me or others fake vegans or flexitarians just because we have a slightly different opinion on a certain topic.

    • @[email protected]
      5•5 days ago

      I would trip over your description “a vegan restaurant that serves a bit of meat” as well, because it doesn’t make sense to call it “vegan” then.

      I can understand why someone would want to prevent the term “vegan” from being watered down.

      If a supposedly vegan restaurant suddenly offers non-vegan dishes, this carries more weight for vegans than if some other restaurant tinkers with its menu.

      You may have already advertised the “vegan” restaurant in good faith and now they’re stabbing you in the back.

      The change also shows that the owners themselves are not vegan. And then, of course, you question everything: were the ingredients ever properly screened? What about the wine? Were the chairs covered in leather? Were the candles made from beeswax?

      Just imagine a “vegan” restaurant that has an advertising banner for the elephant circus hanging on the door. Outrage would be justified. But they even put fucking meat on the menu.

      “Vegan” is a statement. People should not tag it on their business if they’re merely coicidentally plant-based and don’t actually care for animal rights.

      It would certainly have been more conciliatory for everyone if the mods had made it clear in the thread why they were upset about the comments. On the other hand, I can also understand if they were not in the mood for the hundredth discussion and would rather take the “easier” route and delete the comment. But I also think it’s excessive to justify it with “fake vegan”. You’re vegan if you leave your hands off the animals. Semantic considerations are not necessary.

      That being said, it’s wonderful that you’re both vegan and that the topic is obviously important to you. Don’t let a loose string on the jointly pulled rope divide you. We have more important battles to fight.

      Vegan btw

      • @[email protected]OP
        3•5 days ago

        I would trip over your description “a vegan restaurant that serves a bit of meat” as well, because it doesn’t make sense to call it “vegan” then.

        I was almost certain that I wrote ‘mostly vegan restaurant’ or something similar. Indeed, my wording wasn’t ideal.

        You may have already advertised the “vegan” restaurant in good faith […] shows that the owners themselves are not vegan. And then, of course, you question everything

        That’s very good arguments that I can get behind and which I would have been very happy to hear in the original discussion. With such an explanation I can understand one’s reaction much better. From my perspective, that’s exactly the kind of discourse that I seek when I write to a vegan community.

        Different people have different opinions and not in all cases the one side will succeed to convince the other. But still we should at least try to explain our stand point and likewise try to understand others.

        With posts like yours, you have a chance to bring change to the world. If you just ban and censor your opponents, you just keep on dividing society.