where has the last year (or two!) gone?

 It's been a whole year and a day since I last posted (which means I've now been officially vegan for fourteen years!), and while I meant to get back into blogging more regularly, that obviously didn't materialize. Not that I don't have a bucketful of posts in my drafts folder (34, to be exact, going all the way back to 2011 for heaven's sake), but I just realized too that I only posted TWICE last year. So, what happened?

In part, looking after my mom has taken up a lot of my time and energy. Back in 2018, I posted about her dementia diagnosis and my taking a one-year leave of absence from work to become her caregiver. Well, I never did return to work after that leave of absence, and Mom's condition deteriorated quickly enough that in 2021 she finally went into long-term care. (Was supposed to go in March of 2020 but a pandemic rudely intervened.) And if I naively thought that all my tasks and worries would be over now that she was getting 24-hour care, ha! Nope, that's when an extra workload begins, but that's another story as is life in long-term care during COVID-19. 

Mom will have been at her current facility for 1½ years come September when she turns 95. When she first arrived she was still mobile and using a walker. Now she's completely immobile, stuck in a Broda chair, and her legs are contracted like a pretzel. She was still verbal and lucid enough, but now there are many times when her words are complete gibberish. She's often agitated, distressed, calls out for her mother (in Dutch, moeder, MOEDER!), and doesn't always recognize me, even though I'm in daily.

I can tell you as well that by having to witness her suffering and that of some of the other residents, I have become an even more staunch supporter of MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying - made legal in Canada in 2016) than I was before. Mom wouldn't be eligible for MAiD anyway as she can no longer give consent, and the faith-based institution she is in is dead set against it (the term "dead set" striking me as somewhat funny in this particular context), but I tell ya, I would want MAiD for myself even if it killed me. (Okay, gallows humour appears to be getting the better of me, snort.)

Seriously though, watching a parent go through this end-of-life hell is probably one of the toughest things one can do. And it makes you question why we're willing to grant pets (that most of our species considers to be inferior) a dignified and merciful ending to their suffering, while making it so difficult for people. It doesn't make sense.

So, that's a big part of why I've been absent. Another major reason is my bewilderment at how completely cockeyed our world has become, and the despair at the lack of power individual folk have in not being able to stop that trajectory. If we thought that Donald being elected back in 2016 was absurd enough, societal regression seems to have ramped up even more. I can't believe the times we live in, and it feels like it keeps getting worse. 

Last year I started a draft post of what was pissing me off, and some of the items included the number of vegans embracing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and retweeting fools like Theo Fleury, the passing of the horrendous Texas 6-week abortion ban, folk who still insist that global warming and climate change is a hoax despite the increasing in-your-face fires, floods, hurricanes and other "natural" disasters witnessed worldwide, the infantile and ridiculous obsession in the US with the right to keep and bear arms, and the seemingly unlimited American tolerance for gun violence no matter how many people and children get killed. 

So far in this year Ottawa was held hostage by the "FreeDumb Convoy" in February, we're currently in the seventh wave of COVID in Ontario and the umpteenth outbreak at my mom's LTC facility, the right to abortion healthcare in the US was stripped after 50 years by Supreme Court justices deciding that individual states have the right to enforce forced birth upon their citizens, the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas illustrated how many Americans STILL worship guns above all else, 3600 people were killed by extreme heat waves in Europe in July, and of course the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has already displaced 14 million people and ended the lives of at least 20K. It's mind-numbing.

Animals haven't fared well either. Flooding in the province of British Columbia back in December killed more than 640,000 pigs, cows and chickens, but climate change denial lives on. In that same province, 2 animal rights activists were recently found guilty of Break and Enter and Mischief, while in a gross miscarriage of justice the farm owners faced no consequences whatsoever for their legal and illegal abuse of animals. After Ontario passed their "Ag Gag" law in 2020, federal "Ag-Gag" Bill C-205 passed its second reading before Parliament dissolved as a federal election was called. Now, an almost identical bill reintroduced by the same member, John Barlow, will again be up for debate. 

Even species more favoured by humans, like cats and dogs, are sadly being surrendered in record numbers to animal shelters. Blame it on inflation or lifted COVID restrictions enabling people to work at their workplace instead of at home, but many supposed guardians of these animals are abandoning their caregiving promise.  

I ended up abandoning my what-pisses-me-off post because it was getting too long, and too damn depressing. It's hard to know how to make a difference, and what words to use to reach those who don't seem to care or want to know about how humans are succeeding in destroying our environment, animals, and each other. As one reader of this blog once commented, it's so tiring saying the same thing over and over. Exactly.

And there are times when I think that if our human species is that hell-bent on destroying themselves and everything around them, well, so be it. When I was lamenting the choices in our last provincial election, someone said to me that we get the government we deserve. If that's true, then in the same vein humans collectively get the environment we deserve as well. But future generations will be stuck with solving all the needless problems they didn't create and don't deserve, and animals certainly don't deserve the extinction of themselves and their habitats.

So where does that leave us? What can we do? I don't have the answers of course, and I find it maddening to keep having to watch our species not only messing things up, but implementing laws and policies that were more typical 70 years ago. I mean, we might as well be living in 1952 given the extreme right-wing conservative push-back in too many places. The prime minister of Hungary (considered a hero by far too many conservatives) has openly lamented Europe becoming a "mixed race" society, and doesn't even seem to recognize the inherent racism of his views.

And while we watched reproductive rights being stripped in so many other countries, who would have thought that nine individuals (but especially three) could screw over millions of people in the US? I had a letter to the editor published, by the way, warning that Canadians shouldn't be complacent about our abortion rights as too many groups and politicians here are stoked by the unjust overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

As I said, all this nonsense going on perplexes and bewilders me to no end. But it does make it clear that we as vegans have to fight on all fronts and on behalf of ALL animals (including human ones) if we're going to help this planet become less topsy-turvy than it is.

That's it for now from me. Hopefully it won't be another year before I reappear again!

Comments

Krissa said...

Hi there HGV!!! I saw this post a week ago or maybe a week and a half, and wasn't able to read it, but kept it in my inbox and have finally gotten to read it and I see that you're posting again so that's really awesome!

I'm sorry your mom isn't doing so well. I'm sure it's way worse to see than you'd even be able to write even if you weren't trying to keep it simple (I feel like you didn't go into greater detail about what it's actually like to deal with this situation, but maybe I'm wrong). You really stepped up and have been a wonderful caregiver and advocate for your mom. I'll save the rest for email (which I probably should have done before going to your blog, but I was excited to see you posted!).

I don't even know what to say about any of that because I'm just... well, yeah, I should have emailed first. So rather than go into everything going on here, I will just say that the one thing I can absolutely speak to about what you posted is that the irresponsibility and negligence that went with that whole campaign during Covid (the quarantine times) to get folks to adopt vulnerable shelter cats and dogs made me sick. Even in the middle of my own inability to do much more than that basics of self care at the time, I wrote in comments in a nice way trying to dissuade people from doing that, like giving 'pets' as Christmas gifts, but to no avail and I'm disgusted at the result.

Breaking up the wall of text, but this is still about the paragraph above, I do have compassion for human beings in bad situations and I know some people need help, but I get far more upset about the fact that other species who get absolutely no say in their own lives are at the mercy of our species. It's....they haven't invented a word for what it is yet! Snort!

Anyway, I see that you posted more and I'm all excited now to see what you've posted so I'm going to do that before I email because right now I can actually sit down and take the time and focus to do it.

Welcome back to blogging HGV!!! Your posts have been missed and I don't mean only by me. You have a wonderful voice for non-human animals and it's good to see you back at it. Sorry the world is an even more dismal place than when you had to take an hiatus, but your return is needed and welcome!!!

ReplyOctober 01, 2022 at 10:30 AM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

Hi Krissa! Sorry for the late reply, but thank you for commenting. Appreciate it! :)

Yep, I could have gone into much more detail about Mom, but suffice it to say that she's suffering on a scale that is just sad to watch. And this is in one of Ontario's better non-profit long-term care homes. But no matter how good the home itself is, with the pandemic and both chronic and acute staff shortages, the system itself is broken. We had REALLY hoped that for her sake our mom wouldn't have reached her 95th, but she did, and there's nothing we can do (other than provide her with a bit of comfort every day) except watch it play out until the bitter end. I keep telling my family that I'll likely need years of therapy after this, snort, but to also warn them to start seriously thinking about how to avoid Mom's fate.

I agree with you about the cats and dogs campaign. As nice as it may have seemed at the time, I don't think there was a lot of forethought about what would happen when restrictions eased up. Can't remember which provincial park it was, but one of them at least had to put up signs asking people to please not dump their pets there (dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.,) as they wouldn't survive on their own. Making me think that the words 'stupid' and 'selfish' could be synonymous with 'human.' Just sickening.

Also disgusting is the ban that has come into effect from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on the import of rescued dogs from over 100 countries. Ostensibly because of a fear of rabies. That means that a lot of dogs who could have been saved, for example, from the dog meat trade, will now no longer be able to be rescued by Canadian dog rescue groups. Keep in mind too that CFIA is also the agency that sets the inhumane livestock transportation standards. In other words, they don't give a crap about animal welfare no matter what their website says.

Thanks again. I'm going to try and post at least a couple of times a month when possible, and will try to email you soon! :)

ReplyOctober 07, 2022 at 03:45 PM

Krissa said...

Oh my goodness! I'm further behind than I realized. I'm not getting the alerts I used to get when there is a reply to my comments. Although, I never check my spam folder, maybe it went there.

I just emailed you and it's funny, not funny that what I sent fits in somewhat with what is happening with your mom. I'll just let you read the email and not go into detail here. For anyone who may read this comment and wonder, I don't mind saying it's about MAIDS because anyone who knows what that is and reads your blog won't be upset or triggered.

About the ban on rescue dogs in Canada, I got an e-news update from Soi Dog in Thailand this week. That ban was really devastating on them. But I don't need to tell you that. They featured one of their dogs that WAS adopted to a Canadian home so that's nice, but yeah....our fellow animals continue to bear the brunt of all the messes we humans make.

On a 'nicer' note to end this on...I'm going to see if there is anything in my spam folder because I didn't know you'd replied to this comment!

ReplyJanuary 21, 2023 at 06:07 AM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

Hi Krissa, yeah, I don't believe the new system will alert you when I reply to a comment. I'm probably lucky that at least it'll alert you to new posts! I hope. Not that I'm writing any at this point, but maybe in time...

So it's been more than 10 months since this post and things haven't gotten any better on the political stage, but I'll save my comments for the "woke" post as things have exploded even more on that front!

On a personal level, I'm still adjusting to Mom's passing, but the only thing I'll say about it here as sort of a piece of advice for anyone putting a parent into long-term care is BEDSORES or pressure ulcers - absolutely awful as they develop very quickly, smell horrible, cause great pain, and unfortunately MANY residents will end up getting them, so be on constant guard for them. It's one of the images/smells that will haunt me forever. :(

And rereading the post it strikes me that I mentioned euthanasia for pets as that is where we're at with my kitty in likely the next couple of weeks as she has declined quickly and is suffering. Hard to watch, but at least with her we know that we can give her a merciful end sooner rather than later.

Still, first Mom, now Midget, it's been quite the journey...

ReplyJune 06, 2023 at 07:50 PM

still vegan after all these years

 I sometimes wonder if I should change the title of this blog already. Have Gone Vegan makes it sound as if I've just transitioned, whereas this is my 13th! year since giving up consuming sentient beings. So, thirteen years have flown by and I'm still alive, which according to this ex-vegan is quite miraculous as they "Do not consider any version of a vegan diet to be acceptable, safe, healthy or remotely appropriate for human beings.... I think veganism is dangerous and nutritionally defective. Failure is the only possible outcome of that defecient [sic] diet." Well! 

They also cite the Faunalytics' Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans saying that 84% of folk will abandon vegetarianism/veganism, but then throw in a time frame of within the first five years that I don't see listed in the study. And as a former researcher myself, I seriously question aspects of the study even though I support the organization and am a monthly donor. For example, grouping vegetarians and vegans together is like saying that apples and oranges are the same kind of fruit. No, they share similarities, but shouldn't be conflated.

As an illustration here's a statistic from their full report: Interestingly, while 86% of lapsed vegetarians abandon their diet, a smaller proportion (70%) of lapsed vegans do so, suggesting that while people are far less likely to adopt a vegan diet, vegans are also less apt to start opting for meat. I think 16% is a fairly big difference, and that's just one example.  Also, if you look at the actual numbers of the study sample (N= 11,399), you'll see that of the total number of 1,166 former vegans and vegetarians, 129 were vegan. Yep, you read that right. Percentage wise they indicate that of the 10.2% (1,166) vegans and vegetarians grouped together, 1.1% (129) were vegan and 9.1% (1,037) were vegetarian.

But stats can be deceiving (as one who used to manipulate them for a living I know), because another way you could look at this is to see that of the 1,166 former veg folk, 11% were vegan and thus 89% were vegetarian. In other words, this could be viewed as more of a study of former vegetarians than vegans.  If you then add in that the study definition of vegan/vegetarian was based on dietary inclusion only, and given that most vegans don't even consider veganism to be a diet, motivation would appear to be a key factor in how many vegans lapse as opposed to vegetarians. Hmmm... 

At any rate, IF veg folk DO abandon their "diet" within the first five years as claimed by the ex-vegan turned enthusiastic fisherwoman and licensed hunter quoted up above, then I should have ditched my principles 2.6 times already. But even in my dreams I consistently identify as vegan, so that's not likely to happen.

And while I don't get how former vegans (some might argue they were more plant-based than vegan) can turn their backs on animals, I do certainly understand turning down the dial on activism as being vegan is hard. Not in terms of food, in my opinion, but the emotional toil of witnessing animal suffering and death, the indifference and denial of others if not downright hostility, and the incremental pace at which change often seems to occur. Being a vegan and seeing real progress is a long-term prospect, and not for the faint-of-heart. 

So I would argue that being vegan is sometimes all you can do given other life circumstances. Full-on or even part-time activism is great if you have the time, energy and inclination, but please don't feel you're not doing enough, because just by not consuming other sentient beings you're already saving lives and making a difference.

And if you do feel you can contribute a bit more, consider what I think of as being more passive forms of activism: wear t-shirts with slogans, put stickers on your car* and around the community, have individual conversations face-to-face when appropriate (my best interactions with folk have been in grocery stores, for example, instead of anything posted online), chalk animal-rights messages, and other smaller actions that feel doable. Anything is better than nothing as they say, so don't feel it doesn't count if you're not up to doing bigger things like protests. Just being vegan and setting an example is activism in its own way, and all of our actions DO add up. :)

* like this! Was tickled pink/red? when I saw this vehicle in my rural small town. Had a lovely chat as well with the owner who wasn't sure what my reaction would be as I asked if this was their car, until I gave them a big smile and a huge thumbs-up when they said yes.

Comments

Debra Roppolo said...

Brava! So good to see a post from you. (Been more than a year and a half for me, I think. I'm just...exhausted from saying the same thing over and over again.)

ReplyAugust 03, 2021 at 04:38 PM

Have GoneVegan said in reply to Debra Roppolo...

Thanks Debra! Yep, it gets to be really tiring, doesn't it, and seemingly futile half the time.

It's a shame though as you're such a good writer. If I ever had the gumption to try writing a book, I'd want to hire you as my editor! :)

ReplyAugust 06, 2021 at 08:18 AM

Krissa said...

First of all... HAPPY 13 YEARS!!! Wow, it does seem that long, but still it's hard to believe. I remember when you became vegan. :) You were still in H......., and I was on E....... in Berlin. Long, long time ago!

Now, on to the post...cute car! :) ... And, great to see you've posted again! I'm not being rude to you by this, but I'm not clicking that link to the "former vegan". I have my doubts that they ever were vegan even if they've constructed something that looks like an actual history. And I know you understand, based on your knowledge of trickery as far as stats go...it can and does go beyond just manipulating stats. And I don't want to give them any support, but I'm glad you're shining a light on shadiness.

I appreciate that you've kept my cow friend on your page all these years. Rather than write a detailed background story, I'll try to keep this short (ha, I've written that in so many comments, but here goes - and coming back up to add this, that I failed again in keeping it short) for anyone reading this comment...I was almost entirely vegan, having become "cruelty free" in 2007, but still eating free range eggs, so not vegan. The cow in the photo to the right was my friend. She lived with a herd next to the actual offices of the national headquarters of the animal protection offices of Germany, located on the outskirts of Berlin where I volunteered. Their lives were awful. In the summer, they desperately turned the few water buckets they had upside down on their heads out of unbelievable thirst. In winter, they never had water because it froze or was simply left empty. I assume they ate snow, but I never saw them do that. They were given hay in the winter, but not enough and in the summer they were happy if the sun didn't kill the plants and grass because that was it if they wanted to eat.

During my getting to know my friend and after HGV already became vegan, I saw a report about 'free range' eggs and the lives the chickens suffered and the fraud about the numbers stamped onto eggs here in Germany to indicate whether the chickens are free range, floor range or caged. Seeing my cow friend made me realize, it is all lies. I became vegan the day I saw that report.

My cow friend used to see me way off in the distance and would start mooing and jumping around, very similar to a dog, when she saw me coming. One day...I saw what looked like something I'd seen in my youth in the US growing up in the Midwest...a very specific metal "walkway" show up in their pasture. It was worrisome, but it wasn't until days later that the truck with the grotesque cartoon smiling cow face with a chef's hat on to add insult to injury (putting injury mildly) and the words (in German) "bio meat" showed up.

The photo you see on the right side of this page is a cow who felt feelings the same as we humans do and who suffered the way we do and who was thought of as nothing but "Euro" (money) signs even while she lived right next to the animal protection offices for an entire nation. And she was rounded up onto a truck with her friends and possibly family one day into a truck with a hideous cartoon and driven to her death, which I know for a fact was gruesome.

Human beings become vegan for many reasons. Those who go on a diet, may possibly abandon that diet at a certain point. The vast majority of us remain vegan for all our lives because it is not in us to abandon the memories (and if they are still inspirations and not memories yet) that led us to where we are today.

(picture me with an "oops, sorry" face right now as I apologize that I wrote such a long comment...I really did try once again to be more concise...and again failed).

I would like to thank HGV for being an inspiration to me and to many others. It's "crazy" to know we've been vegan after all these years. :) wink, nod to your title. ... Keep staying safe and healthy!

ReplyAugust 04, 2021 at 02:01 PM

Have GoneVegan said in reply to Krissa...

Hey Krissa, I know, a long time ago, we're getting old my friend! :)

No worries about the long comment, it's good for me to be reminded of your story, and great for those not familiar with it!

You're right that people don't realize that behind what they just consider to be "meat", was a living being with many of the same feelings as humans have and social connections to family and friends.

But the animal ag industry perverts even this by presenting those animals in images and cartoons where they're seen to be smiling or laughing even though they have nothing to smile or laugh about. You mentioned the smiling cow face cartoon, which is similar to a brand we have here called The Laughing Cow - a cheese product company.

Vegans are often accused of anthropomorphizing animals' legitimate emotions, but then the industry turns around and does the same thing. Worse, they present images of animals being happy to be abused and killed in an attempt to persuade consumers that animals actually WANT to give up their lives for us. It's sickening.

p.s. speaking of crazy, I registered for a try-duathlon this weekend where I have to run 1km, bike for 10km, and then run again for 2.5km. Gah, what did I do???? Will let you know if I survive... snort.

ReplyAugust 06, 2021 at 08:06 AM

what will it take for people to go vegan?

 Well, that's the million-dollar question isn't it? And if the answer was an easy one, an awful lot more people would have gone vegan by now.

We also would have avoided the bickering between camps advocating different approaches. Abolitionists, incrementalists, welfarists/new welfarists, reductionists and utilitarians, whatever term you want to use; you can find a group that most closely matches your own philosophy or perspective. Mine, by the way, is one I termed pragmatic abolitionist about five years ago.

One of the many frustrating things for long-term vegans is the amount of time we've spent trying to achieve our goal, but with seemingly little to show for it. As one reader shared when I first starting writing again this year, I am bone-weary of trying to find new ways to say the same thing. It is frankly exhausting. Yes, yes it is. 

Vegans and animal rights activists have been saying the same things over and over and working for a long time in trying to bring about change. Here are a few of the tactics we've tried:

• education
• protests and demonstrations
• undercover investigations
• direct action
• leading by example
• changing laws and legislation
• animal sanctuaries
• introducing new vegan products
• incremental steps like Meatless Mondays 
• appeal to logic and rationality
• appeal to emotion
• media (books, blogs, documentaries, vegan characters in movies and TV, etc.)

Which ones have worked better than others? Hard to say. 

I view education as a cornerstone and vital part of reaching people, but remember reading that Vegan Outreach had distributed something like over a million pamphlets (don't remember the exact number) one year and thinking, but if you multiply that by the number of years you've been doing exactly that, shouldn't there be more vegans by now? How much more information do people need? Apparently, lots. So I don't want to denigrate that particular organization (indeed, I was a financial supporter for a long time) or any other as I realize that educational materials still have their place, but it's only one avenue of outreach.

Leading by example is crucial, I think, as the ripple effect of that can't be underestimated. Set a good example, and that may influence more people than any loud in-your-face exhortations to go vegan.

Two people, who I believe have probably contributed to more people changing their dietary habits than they may ever know, are Steve and Derek of HEEFS. They exemplify kindness in a way I never could, and if ever a couple found their right mission in life it would be them. Opening an animal sanctuary is a purpose they probably couldn't even have dreamt of in their prior lives, but seems like the magical fit that has changed multiple lives for the better.

And animal sanctuaries are a great way for people's minds and hearts to open unreservedly. Because if folk only think in terms of products on their plates without even connecting them to the animals they're derived from, than sanctuaries place those animals directly where they belong: in the center. In the center as individuals with personalities, a desire to live, and a wish to form bonds with others. I would think it'd be very difficult to interact with a cow or a pig or a chicken and then have their cousins for dinner a few hours later. At least, one would hope.

Vegan products? If I think of the range and accessibility in just the past 12 years, well, to say it's exploded is not much of an exaggeration. There was a time when your options for anything vegan was limited to either specialized health stores or huge grocery chains. Now even the most generic stores like Food Basics and No Frills carry a lot of plant-based items as well. That would have been unthinkable 12 years ago. 

But what I love about the ubiquitousness of vegan products is that it normalizes veganism. People may still not always react kindly to the word or idea, but they sure know what it means now. And while it's thought that some of the sales can be attributed to meat-eaters instead of vegans, so what? Isn't that what we actually want? Vegans are already part of the choir so to speak, and in my opinion, who eats vegan items is less important than that fewer animals are consumed.

I'm not going to go through every item on the list as I'm sure it's evident that each approach has its potential merits and downfalls. And because we don't know what will eventually turn a person vegan, having a multitude of ways, entry points, and even reasons will likely help turn more people vegan than just one approach.

Because the one answer that we do know for sure about what'll take for people to go vegan is that we just don't know.

We don't know what will be the societal tipping point. What environmental, economic, or health factor (or something that we haven't even thought of) will be the one thing that changes everything. Possibly in the future we'll be able to look back and say, there, that day, or that event, or that incident is what really got the ball rolling. In the meantime though, I think we just have to go with the approach that makes the most sense to us personally, and that gets us to stick with the mission. I'm also all for groups (like Faunalytics, for example) that can quantify for us what approaches do seem to bring about the best results.

In short, be wary of anyone who feels they have the answers, or worse, THE answer, when it comes to ending animal exploitation.

Note: still haven't read How To Create A Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach by Tobias Leenaert. Wouldn't be surprised though if our perspectives greatly align, but will post before dipping into his book and come back to expand (if need be) after reading. 

Comments

Debra Roppolo said...

"I am bone-weary of trying to find new ways to say the same thing. It is frankly exhausting." God yes. I may even have been the one who said it; I don't remember.
I need to read Tobias Leenaert's book too. Thanks for finding the energy to write this post.

ReplyAugust 20, 2020 at 09:55 AM

have gone vegan said in reply to Debra Roppolo...

Haha, that WAS you. Thanks for reading. Always appreciated! :)

ReplyAugust 21, 2020 at 07:03 AM

Kymberlie said...

This is Typepad Support testing your comments. Please feel free to delete this.

ReplyAugust 21, 2020 at 09:50 PM

Krissa said...

I am so sorry to be so far behind! The reason is something I could copy/paste...living situation. The weather is actually what knocked me down for the count lately.

Thanks for mentioning Esther's family. They are hands down the best ambassadors for veganism (Esther Approved) for more reasons than I can count.

You became vegan before I did. I held on to eggs until I realized that no farmed animal is having a nice life - thank you for keeping my cow friend on your page...she is one of the victims of "happy, bio farming".

I no longer have an idea about how to help others become vegan. The one thing I know is that presenting our fellow beings who suffer through any of the countless things we humans do to them as individuals is absolutely necessary.

I'm afraid that our brothers and sisters are going to be left behind because it's easy to do that in the current climate. You are an amazing voice and speak so much more eloquently than I can. I appreciate you and Steve, Derek, Esther and all the rest of you who advocate so much more than I do.

I know that all "ism's" are wrong (at least the ones I can think of when asked what are ism's)...Speciesism is by far the worst and the most vulgar. Thank you for what you are doing to fight against it.

ReplyAugust 24, 2020 at 01:26 PM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

Hey kiddo, I hear ya about living situation, and you guys had another heatwave? Yikes. Another thing we can thank humans for, although climate-change deniers (many of whom may be anti-maskers to boot) will undoubtedly deny human responsibility too. What a world...

It's hard trying to change it, and people's minds, so sometimes all we can do is bear witness and say out loud that we don't agree with what is going on. Not that that may help, but it's the least we can do.

I agree that the HEEFS gang do more for veganism and animal rights than they probably realize, and in such a positive way too.

Your cow friend will always be on the page. She exemplifies one of my favourite mantras right now: Someone, not something.

Try to stay cool! :)

ReplyAugust 25, 2020 at 03:34 PM

have gone vegan said in reply to have gone vegan...

p.s. Typepad Support was testing my comments, because for some odd reason the Chrome browser doesn't recognize me when I reply to comments and throws them in the spam folder. Even when I sign in it says, nope, don't know you. So glad other people can at least comment without issue! Right now I either have to publish from spam folder or use Internet Explorer if I want to be recognized. Ah well, bigger problems in the world, eh? ;)

ReplyAugust 25, 2020 at 03:39 PM

whose lives matter continued: part B

 Hello! If you haven't read part A yet, feel free to do so now. More importantly, if you haven't read the original whose lives matter? then you'd better do so tout suite!

In that post I was trying to convey why saying All Lives Matter (abbr. to ALM from now on) in response to Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a problem. And while I believe ALM may be said in different ways by vegans (as in, all animal lives matter too) and non-vegans (as in, non-black lives, but mainly white lives), it's still problematic regardless of who says it.

To restate, BLM doesn't mean that only black lives matter, but that their lives matter too, and that all lives CAN'T matter until black ones actually do. And while some may suggest that black lives already matter, systemic racism says otherwise. People denying that systemic racism exists clearly say otherwise too. 

BLM is a movement that has gained traction for a reason. While the need for it has existed for what probably seems forever, enough people are standing up now and saying enough is enough, and their voices can no longer be ignored.

I cited a couple of examples of other campaigns where the message is not given the same type of pushback, and the fact that they don't indicates the stronghold that white supremacy and racism has. I also talked about the existence of systemic racism here in Canada as well, and provided links to books and actions for allies.

A few more examples of why saying ALM is not appropriate include a house, a pool, and a birthday. From my reply to a comment: The analogy that I've often seen used to explain why saying ALM isn't appropriate is the 'house on fire' one. Basically, if one house in a neighbourhood is on fire, it is appropriate to focus all attention on trying to put out that particular fire, and not worry about the other houses. One could argue that All Houses Matter, but in this instance the house on fire gets priority. Another analogy I've seen is the lifeguard one. If a person is drowning, then that person gets helped, not everyone else in the pool.

The birthday one I just mentioned goes something like this: if you're at a party wishing someone Happy Birthday, it doesn't mean that no one else has birthdays or that those birthdays aren't equally important, it's just that they're not being celebrated or focused upon that particular day.

I provided a few links to other articles that explain this better than I could, and am quoting from the first link here:

When someone counters “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter,” it’s appropriate to use the metaphor of a neighborhood: if someone’s house is on fire, while others are not, whose house is the priority? Similarly, choosing to insist that “All Lives Matter,” including those of non-human animals, is not technically wrong, but still distracts from and diffuses the potential impacts of an important and necessary racial justice movement.

The author of Stop Comparing Black Lives Matter to Animal Rights makes the powerful argument that non-black vegans should NEVER make that comparison:

Why? The reasons why are multiple, but let me start with the most basic: You already enjoy the opportunities and privileges that Black people are fighting for.

They end with saying:

Please, vegans with privilege, I’m asking you to join me: Show up and fight racism without equivocation, suppress that impulse to compare the plight of non-human animals to the plight of your fellow humans, see that society’s compassion will never extend to animals before it extends to all humans, and recognize your privilege as a non-Black vegan to fight for animal rights without having to also fight for your own rights.

One more link includes 9 different explanations as to why we should stop saying ALM, which means that something should resonate with everyone, hopefully.

As I mentioned in part A:

Right now the world is also more fully waking up to the reality that racism plays a role in every institution and layer of society (systemic racism), and while some vegans may continue to not want to deal with that, may continue to insist that our movement should only focus on nonhumans, a veganism without intersectionality at its core is like a feminism that doesn't want to include all women in its fight for equality.

...Which is why as vegans, we have to fight for the most marginalized of ALL groups, including both animals and humans. Fighting against speciesism is important, but without paying attention to other interlinked forms of oppression, veganism misses the mark.

One last thing. I would suggest that vegans saying ALM is even more tone deaf than when non-vegans do, in part because of the importance of intersectionality, but also because of the very history of black people being compared to animals themselves.

As a white person who doesn't suffer from systemic racism but likely benefits from and upholds it, I'm clearly not the one with any authority on the subject matter. But if I'm going to try and be an ally, and put forth the notion that vegans have to be allies if veganism is important to them, then all I can do is learn as much as possible and do the best that I can.

And if I can offer up one piece of one-word advice (before I shut up) that everyone (myself included) really could do much more of, it's this:

LISTEN

Comments

Krissa said...

Not all human lives matter the way that word is being used. Humans lord over every other species. It is all intertwined.

My black friends approve what I wrote there. We've discussed it.

Thank you so much for being an advocate for what is right! You are speaking to more people with this blog than you will ever know. The problem is complex and the answer won't be simple.

ReplyAugust 24, 2020 at 02:10 PM

Krissa said...

My comment above wasn't supposed to sound the way I think it reads.

This is a complex problem and there is no good solution! Everyone I know agrees on that.

Thank you for being a voice for those who need a voice, any and all!

ReplyAugust 24, 2020 at 02:15 PM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

I agree, those who tend to say All Lives Matter don't usually really mean ALL human lives, but certain human lives. At least, if actions indicate values more than words do.

Yep, not a simple problem, thus no simple solutions either...

Not sure how many people this blog actually reaches, but I'll keep talking for as long as I can. ;)

ReplyAugust 25, 2020 at 04:24 PM

whose lives matter continued: part A

 This is a follow-up to whose lives matter? as I thought a few links that I included in reply to a comment would be helpful in a post as well. (Note: I rambled on too long, so those links will be included in part B.)

But first I want to say a few things. I've been vegan for a long time now (twelve years), and I'm sure I'm not the vegan I was when I first started this journey, just as I'm no longer exactly the same person in general. And while I believe my core values haven't changed, I wouldn't be surprised that if I looked at my posts beginning from 2008, I could find a few things that would make me cringe today. And that's because nothing is static. You change as you grow, and your viewpoints and philosophies refine themselves as you incorporate new information. That's a good thing, both personally and for whatever cause grabs your heartstrings the most.

So I would say the biggest change is likely the realization that the problem which requires veganism as a fix isn't simple, therefore the solutions won't be either. Platitudes, easy sound bites, and single-pronged solutions aren't the answer; otherwise the world would have become vegan a long time ago already. I'm more comfortable now with realizing that the solutions by necessity will be multi-pronged, have a variety of elements that some would describe as welfarist/new welfarist, abolitionist, intersectional, etc.

It could also be that change will come about quicker because of market forces, consumer innovations, environmental or economic necessity, and I'm okay with that. If more animals end up staying alive because of something like cultured lab-meat, for example, than a massive change in people's moral perspective, well, I'm okay with that too. 

Another thing I've come to realize more fully is that vegans, because they're human, are complicated. Being vegan doesn't automatically make you a better or nicer or more compassionate person. There are likely as many assholes among vegans as there are in the general population, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. Infighting shouldn't come as a huge shock either. No matter how noble a social justice movement may be, it's still comprised of imperfect humans with internalized prejudices.

Most vegans are driven by a sense of compassion, sure (well, one would hope), but that doesn't mean that racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and on and on and on, hasn't affected the movement. Just as the world grappled at large with the notion that rampant abuse of power leading to sexual harassment and assault is more of a norm than an exception, stories of sexism within the animal rights movement were front and centre at the same time.

Right now the world is also more fully waking up to the reality that racism plays a role in every institution and layer of society (systemic racism), and while some vegans may continue to not want to deal with that, may continue to insist that our movement should only focus on nonhumans, a veganism without intersectionality at its core is like a feminism that doesn't want to include all women in its fight for equality.

And that realization (the importance of intersectionality) has probably been the biggest shift in my own approach to veganism over the years. Because at heart, the ending of oppression is what veganism is all about. Which is why as vegans, we have to fight for the most marginalized of ALL groups, including both animals and humans. Fighting against speciesism is important, but without paying attention to other interlinked forms of oppression, veganism misses the mark.

As I said, I've said too much, snort, so will continue this discussion and links in part B.

Stay tuned.

Comments

Krissa said...

You became vegan before I did and you are someone I absolutely respect because I know you. You have integrity and are an honest person.

Something I know for sure from this post is "There are likely as many assholes among vegans as there are in the general population"... Yes, there are.

You have done an actually amazing job of writing down an intertwining of the prevailing social problems and how they relate to being vegan.

Sorry, I just realized this is reading more as a powerpoint presentation than as a comment.

I know that the problems in society are linked to what happens to non-humans. I (dang, I don't want to write this,but at the same time it's how I feel), just feel like human beings are never going to behave correctly on several levels and that "animals" are going to rapidly get lost in a shuffle.

No human should be judged on anything other than their behavior. Sadly, that is about as likely to happen as folks becoming vegan.

Your post isn't as hopeless as my comment is and I'm sorry for that. Thanks for speaking up for those who can't!

ReplyAugust 24, 2020 at 01:47 PM

have gone vegan said in reply to Krissa...

Oh, no apology needed, there are times when I feel pretty hopeless myself. Humans can't even behave decently towards each other (yours truly included, sometimes), so wanting them to behave decently to other animals they don't even feel they need to respect may be asking too much.

I sometimes think that any change benefitting other animals will only happen when humans don't have a choice. When, for example, some environmental catastrophe forces consumption habits to change.

On darker days I even think that if the human race were to go extinct because of their self-serving behavior, well, it would serve them right. I'm not a naturally positive person, haha, and being vegan just amplifies that, but I try not to have that deter my efforts completely, snort.

All we can do is keep trying...

ReplyAugust 25, 2020 at 04:10 PM