� The online vegan community is one of the strongest vegan communities—the Internet has given us a way to cross countries and cultures and come together to talk animals, activism, food, passion, and the like. The Internet has done amazing things for the movement. It has given us a place to speak our minds — [...]
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The online vegan community is one of the strongest vegan communities—the Internet has given us a way to cross countries and cultures and come together to talk animals, activism, food, passion, and the like. The Internet has done amazing things for the movement. It has given us a place to speak our minds — but unfortunately we don’t always speak our minds nicely. What can make this bad situation worse is that the Internet provides a mask to hide behind—we don’t necessarily have to put a name or a face to our words.
Vegans are, in general, a group of passionate people. It’s often our passion, and our compassion – for our bodies, for our planet, for animals – that brings us to the lifestyle in the first place. This is why it is so upsetting when we get into nasty, heated quarrels on blogs, forums and comment sections. All kinds of people do this—not just vegans—but when a group so dedicated to compassion turns, well, uncompassionate, it’s a bummer. I know sometimes things make us angry. How can we not stir up a piss pot when we see things promoting animal cruelty – or just blatant hypocrisy – on the Internet?! If we pick a fight about something, aren’t we fighting for our cause? No. Not when our cause is compassion.
Ranting and raving does not support our cause. It will turn people off, damage our credibility, and make us look a bit loony! Getting nasty online, regardless of what we are arguing for or against, only further supports the stereotype that vegans are a bunch of angry activists up on their high horses. And it makes our fight for compassion look a wee bit hypocritical.
When we see something we disagree with online, why not state the point—but in a calm, collected, well-thought-out manner? If you’re so mad you can’t see straight, take a breather, do something else, and then come back and respond. Don’t take advantage of the fact that you can say what you want on the Internet without repercussion, or even identification. Would you say the same thing, using the same language, if your face was attached? What if your children were listening?
The next time you stumble on something that makes you furious, like Starbucks using beetles in their beverage mix, or that man from Georgia, Kirby Campbell, getting less jail time despite his cruel behavior toward animals, state your opinion, and do it with dignity, good research and strength. Compassion is the word, people! Live it.
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