In my experience, people believe vegans are obnoxious and preachy.

A few years ago I messaged an old friend, we talked about how we’ve changed, and when I said I’m vegan, they asked if I was going to try to convert them.

That friend now is practically vegetarian (which I partially attribute to how I handled ongoing conversations about it).

I think the best thing I can do is show people that I’m not going to be an asshole, while occasionally sharing food with others to show that I can substitute almost everything.

Sometimes I get an opportunity to discuss ethics, which comes after establishing the optics of an open and a non judgemental stance.

These conversations usually end in an understanding of hypocrisy (as their own arguments inevitably fall through).

Ultimately, the burden of proof doesn’t lie with me to explain why it isn’t okay to exploit non-human animals, but rather, what moral basis do you have to exploit non-human animals.

For me personally, I think the climate crisis is gonna be the biggest catalyst for vegan activism in the coming decades. If not converting to veganism fully, it’s for sure going to get a lot of leftists and libs who try to care about the environment to reduce their consumption of animal products. I am jaded but I feel like someone reducing their consumption to like 2-3 meals a week with animal products(like I did for a few years before going vegan) is a small victory at least. I’d still rather it be zero consumption, of course.

As a member of our local Food Not Bombs, I feel like the unhoused just want a hot meal, or food or any kind. They don’t seem to care so much if it’s vegan or not. I will say in our local chapter, we do have like 2 new vegans. The one I know for sure did Veganuary in 2024 and stuck with it(good for her!). So maybe bringing volunteeers over to veganism but I don’t think it affects the unhoused one way or the other. And even with the one or two new vegans via FNB, that’s still a drop in the bucket of a city of 350,000.

I’ve seen shitposting and struggle sessions work to some degree on reddit at least but I still think it’s a drop in the bucket. I mean, one new vegan is a win regardless, but we ultimately need a mass movement and I think the climate crisis is that potential. The hard part is getting people to understand that of all the shit destroying the planet, that is one of the few things we as peasants can do to bring effective change, but it’s gonna take a lot of us. But, that was one of the thoughts that got me to go vegan, so I mean it worked for me.

Also sorry I haven’t posted food pics lately. Made a few veggie hummus sammiches, some beans and rice, and also used a certain brand of soy curls for the first time this week for tacos, and they were a hit with the whole family of meat eaters.

Team shitposting.

While veganism is an essential part of FNB and I think it’s a great way to build community with fellow vegans, I see it more as anti capitalist and anti food waste. When I was involved 20 years ago (🥲) we were very conscious of not making a big deal about the fact the food was vegan. Serving food was the priority, we didn’t want people to have to listen to us talk about veganism in order to access it.

I don’t do any vegan activism tbh. I am unapologetically vegan and try to demonstrate how cheap, easy, and delicious veganism is in my daily life. Growing my own food and weed and sharing that with others is vegan adjacent but more about building community and skills.

I posted this then got really busy at work. For me the most effective activism is targeting vegetarians who already somewhat there and ready to make changes in their life and to try to make them see the dissonance in maintaining the consumption of animal products if saving animals was the reason they did it. When I helped run the vegan circlejerk for years I got hundreds of messages of people thanking me because the stupid memes really changed peoples minds. If you would have told me this before hand I would have never believed it.

In my own life the most success I’ve had with people is the vegan health message. Now that I’m over 40 along with most of my friends we are starting to know friends who died of heart disease and watching our parents really suffer the effects of a carnist diet. Explaining the whole foods plant based diet to my close friends have gotten one of them to come on board first for health then see the animal exploitation for what it is once the meat goggles were off. Even though I don’t believe there are “vegans for health” and “vegans for the environment” I do believe that the plant based diet is a good inroad to get people to make changes and get on board with the animal rights message.

Diversity is the most effective form of activism. There is no one silver bullet, but all types strengthen each other.

It takes famous people to use their reach to promote and inspire the vegan message. It takes entrepreneurs who create awesome food, cool clothes and enjoyable entertainment. It needs creatives who make interesting media and art. It needs scholars to work out the ethical nuances. It needs the average Joe who simply leads by example. It needs the radicals who wake people up with shock value. We need lawyers who sue animal abusers to the ground. We need farmers to switch to plant-based farming. We need outgoing people that organize events. It needs teachers and parents who encourage empathy. It needs… just a shit load of people.

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and sees themselves in certain roles more than others. And that’s a good thing, because we need these different approaches.

For me personally, it feels most effective when I seek out and support other vegan people. Activism is best unfolded together.

I also do shitpost a lot btw. I believe in rare cases that this can also make people start to think. But it’s actually mainly coping therapy.

I quietly laugh when colleagues and friends get regularly food poisoning and I’m not allowed to tell anyone about it 😭

I don’t think vegan activism is useful at all. At least not the kind that follows the laws of the human supremacist systems we live under - and even then, while effective for a select few individuals, I do not see change coming out of those.

There is no path towards a vegan world to be taken, the best thing to hope for is the utter destruction of all regimes, and the annihilation of human supremacy one way or another. Which is something no individual can bring about, and it probably won’t happen for centuries, so it’s moot.

Might as well make your own reality and surroundings the best they can be. There is naught left to do for us.