The Fragility of Vegan Critics

And what you can do about it

I said five words in a three second clip. She got my video removed. The fragility of vegan critics is a phenomenon worth investigating.

Vegans.

Globally, we’re one of the smallest minorities.

A tiny group of individuals with simple goals mostly driven by respect and compassion for animals… Okay and maybe a few narcissists who want to feel superior to everyone else (they do exist).

Unfortunately, vegans have a pretty small influence on society. We mostly focus on farmed animals, and these causes receive less than 1% of the global charitable donations.

Most of us vegans are trying to achieve our goals through collaborative means. We use discussion and debate to bring the truth to light. No riots, no assaults or murders, no burning down buildings. Just a lot of talking, and the occasional moral condemnation.

We try to connect with the goodness in people.

On paper, you’d expect vegans to be a blip on the radar for most people. Just a group trying to help animals in some of the friendliest ways possible.

But herein lies the problem.

What vegans say is so violent, so aggressive, so damn triggering, that many people go into fits of rage when they hear it.

I’ve seen a strange phenomenon that takes place when people argue with vegans - it appears many people lose their ability to think critically. Or at least, they lose a certain percentage of it.

Otherwise intelligent, empathetic people make some of the most deranged, backwards and callous takes. Something just switches in their mind. It’s like the full moon just appeared and they’ve morphed into a boring werewolf that drones on about plants having feelings or protein.

And the fragility of the vegan critic is not to be understated.

You’ll struggle to find as much victim mentality and DARVO as when someone is proven wrong or called out for their poor anti-vegan takes.

Exhibit A

Introducing the Instagram creator, “Blooms&Greens by Chloe”. Chloe isn’t usually a vegan critic. Her videos mostly focus on growing vegetables and flowers. I think she’s actually quite popular with vegans, which makes this quite strange.

She recently posted a video suggesting vegans are stupid while tapping her own head and saying we “must have something missing up there”, because a vegan criticised the exploitation of sheep.

I made this five word, three second response to her offensive video.

I assume she got a notification from Meta that informed her about my video, because she immediately got it removed from Facebook and Instagram for “copyright infringement”.

I successfully contested this and got it reinstated under Fair Use policies.

The next morning I woke up, and my video had been taken down again. My account was issued with a warning too, because this time she had falsely reported my video as “threatening or inciting violence”.

I appealed, and after a human review, my video was reinstated again.

She followed a path I’ve seen many vegan critics take:

• Attack vegans

• Attempt to censor and stifle backlash

I wish I could say this happens rarely, but we have another example of vegan critic fragility that just appeared in the UK news cycle.

Exhibit B

Introducing William Sitwell.

William Sitwell used to be a writer for Waitrose, the fancy UK supermarket. He was forced to resign after emails were leaked exposing him making strangely detailed jokes about killing vegans.

Excerpt from his leaked email

Seems like a lovely guy right?

Did William “take the L” as the kids say, or did his bad behaviour continue? We recently got an answer.

First, he popped up at the start of January with a piece for The Telegraph about how Veganuary is going to destroy his restaurant. Long story short, he’s complaining about dry January and Veganuary because non-alcoholic drinks and vegetables are cheaper and this hurts his business.

My heart aches for this poor soul.

Just a few weeks later and he’s back with another column for The Telegraph titled, “Farewell vegans, you will not be missed”.

In this one he’s:

• Complaining about when his emails got leaked

• Blaming the vegan who leaked his jokes about killing vegans for leaking his jokes about killing vegans instead of, you know, taking responsibility for making jokes about killing vegans

• Complaining about vegan chefs trying new recipes and making a name for themselves

• Celebrating the “downfall of veganism” because some companies removed their vegan options (despite recently complaining about how Veganuary is ruining his business)

• And boasting about his cousin who was eating plant-based but now isn’t eating plant-based

Again, to use some of the kid’s lingo - have you ever seen a more obvious crashout?

Why they do this?

My take is that they think being in the majority gives them a certain privilege. The privilege to dunk on vegans, and get away with it.

They get a false sense of security and entitlement from being in such a large group (people who aren’t vegan). They think it gives them a level of anonymity, that they’re just one of the many people who aren’t vegan, criticising vegans. They think they don’t deserve any repercussions.

But when a vegan responds with facts and logic that undermines them, proves them wrong, or simply exposes their nastiness, the fantasy is broken. They panic. And for many people, panic in the face of confrontation turns into playing the victim. That’s where our good old friend DARVO comes in.

What to do about it?

Well I can tell you what not to do.

These fragile vegan critics want one thing from the vegans, and unfortunately many of us are too willing to give it to them: They want you to lose your mind.

They want you to scream, call them an animal abuser, shout insults at them. They want you crazy, because you being crazy gives them more credibility. It “proves them right”.

There’s not a lot we can do about their fake victimhood, DARVO and tantrums, but there is a lot we can do about our own behaviour. Stay level-headed. Calmly unravel their nonsense. Explain concepts plainly instead of using highly specific terms that can alienate people.

You could use an LLM like ChatGPT to help “translate” the “inter-vegan” language to something more general. When we’re dealing with the public, it’s important to try and use language they generally use. Otherwise, we risk giving the critic credibility simply because they sound more convincing.

These tips probably won’t make a difference to the fragile critic. Either way, they’re likely to have a meltdown. But it can help us reach those watching from the sidelines.

We want people to see all this and say, “hey, I thought this person’s critique of vegans was good at first but the vegans are making better points.”

We don’t want them saying, “Ha, look at all the triggered vegans. This guy got them good.”

How we’re viewed in society can have a direct impact on animals. If people don’t listen to us or take us seriously, they won’t change. If they don’t change, nothing changes for animals.

The fragility of vegan critics isn’t going anywhere. Enjoy it when you can (it can be funny, like with our crashout king William Sitwell). Respond accordingly when necessary. Expose any petty, cowardly behaviour to the masses in as convincing a way as possible. And whatever happens, keep moving forward.