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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI sometimes feel that being Vegan makes me feel superior to others. I think I am more intellectual as well. Maybe it’s because my brain cells aren’t clogged up with animal fat. Or maybe it’s because I take the time to choose what I eat carefully, and not just pound anything into my face. Some of my Vegan friends are way worse than me. As a matter of fact, sometimes they are downright aholes. When dining in public, they will stare at people eating meat and give them dirty looks. They also make snide comments to people in grocery stores who are standing in front of the meat cases.
I try to keep my act quiet and to myself, but these guys make sure everyone in the room knows they Vegan. It’s quite embarrassing.Unfortunately, this is my core group of friends. I don’t know many Vegans outside this circle, but are most Vegans stuck up, preaching, self centered aholes? Or is it just these guys? Because they are getting worse and it’s starting to affect me.
Comments
Tell them to stop being assholes! They might not be aware of their own behavior and how lame and stupid it is and need someone to tell them! The thing they do not realize is that EVERYONE, even if they eat the worst processed meaty crap EVER, is on their own path and have their own lessons to learn in this lifetime, no matter if it’s food related or not! Just because they take satisfaction in being vegan and it’s “their path,” doesn’t mean that they are superior to anyone! We ALL have stuff to learn in this lifetime and not everyone rides the same track! Sounds like they need a wakeup call. They are giving vegans a bad name and are using their diet simply to stroke their egos. Yuck!
Tell them to mind their own business; seriously that sounds a little hellish. Why not have compassion for those people, instead of scorn and resentment? Compassion is key!
It makes sense to be thankful for your own diet and health, but acting without compassion just because someone needs a different diet at that present moment in their incarnation is just crazy.
I agree with MOTH 100%, I have been a vegi for the last 21 years (am 31 now) (and now trying to be raw vegan) but I avoid having or trying to find a partner who is vegi/vegan exactly because of this problem. I dont like seeing meat in shops and I certainly don’t like the look/smell of it being cooked, but I hate it when people get superior over others because of their diet and the “know all” attitude really puts me off people! Also here in the UK I have found many of the vegi/vegan men to be quite serious and boring so they don’t do it for me I’m afraid. Also if you want to attract people to your life stlye vegi/vegan/rawvegan you need to do it by showing them how good it is to be such a person, not by making them think that all such persons are assholes! I just try to sugest vegi alternatives as oftern as poss, and give people nice vegi (now raw vegan) stuff to eat so they get shown the way in nicely – much more likely to work. tell them to read some Ghandi quotes about non-violence!
Here’s one: “Hate the sin, love the sinner” Mahatma Gandhi
I agree with Moth and Springleaf – there’s no need for that.
I find that I feel sorry for people who have a grocery cart full of red meat, Twinkies and SunnyD. These also seem to be the people who are dragging pale faced, sunken eyed, hyperactive, children through the grocery store. So, do we make better choices? Absolutely. Are we better than them? No, not necessarily. They are doing the best that they know….and that’s ok.
I believe in living by example. So, when someone comments on my flawless skin, or clear eyes, or shiny hair, I take the opportunity to talk about live food and some of the benefits. Sometimes they want to know and sometimes they don’t…...and that’s ok.
Peace, Karuna
I second all of the above folks – Moth, Springleaf, and Karuna – everyone is on their own journey. It can take a long time to learn new behaviors, but no one is attracted to it by being browbeat or scorned.
And we are all (in one degree or another) slaves to our own egos. Perhaps your (pardon the expression) rather militant friends would gently learn something from the following video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Ng1h50rnU&feat…
Being a peaceful role model is often the best way to teach.
When I was sitting in my tattoo artist’s parlor, having him work on my sleeve, he asked me why I was getting a large pineapple as part of it. So I told him it was about my commitment to my health, especially through raw veganism, and my way of honoring the earth. So, we got onto a discussion about vegans and I was explaining how it’s more than just about what you eat – it’s a conscious lifestyle. He laughed and brought up a couple of girls that had seen him the week before, all too eager to exclaim they were vegans… while carrying their designer leather purses!
Most people seem to have this need to be labeled because they really don’t know who they are or what they want out of life, and they’re too scared to actually find out! So, they cling to these labels and let those labels define them, because then they don’t have to worry about “fitting in” with any groups of finding their place in the world. And in this day and age, “vegan” seems to be a very trendy label to have.
So, now that your friends are vegans, they stick it to almost religiously because they’re insecure. Every time they make a snide comment to someone buying a hamburger, they’re really just questioning their own self-worth. It’s the same as a high school clique “hating” on another pretty girl because secretly they are scared that she might be a better person than them if she’s prettier. (I feel like I’m rambling now…)
It’s not easy being the “odd one out” in the group, i.e. the raw vegan among omnivores, but if your friends love you for who you are, and not what you are (i.e. vegan), then you’re surrounding yourself with the best people you can. Don’t get me wrong – it would totally rock to have some veggie/vegan friends, because I’d be able to eat at all these restaurants I’ve been dying to try… but, I wouldn’t change my omni friends for the world. They’ll always be there for me.
Examine why you are personally a raw vegan, and then think about why your friends are vegan. Do you have any other things in common? If veganism is the only common ground, it might be time to find some new friends.
I personally think anyone who acts like a complete ass because they believe their way of life is superior to anothers needs to either shove their head farther up their butt or have someone very sarcastically and painfully remove it for them. I have been around people who run multi million dollar companies who act more human and compassionately than some others who are in denial about the smell of their feces. Those people are most likely on their first life cycle. Try to branch out a bit, you’ll find that even people who aren’t GASP vegan are actually pretty great and make much preferable company.
NoBones – you might find you’re more intelligent because of your food choices, but you’re not more intellectual unless you mean that not cooking your food has led to you having more time to read some shakespeare or study up on your astrophysics. Further, the choice of vegan and/or raw might lead you to be more intelligent than you might be on SAD for various physical reasons, but it does not make you more intelligent than other people eating SAD. It just makes you a cleaner/healthier version of you. My first encounter with a vegan was in college. my roommate became a ‘rainbow’ person (before running off to join the dead tour and leaving us with a month of unpaid bills and a carpet that never stopped smelling like patchouli), and she brought home a vegan friend from one of her weekends spent barefoot in the woods. this girl – the daughter of a rich princeton professor – gave me a lecture for a half hour on why my use of honey was morally repugnant and akin to putting bees in concentration camps. Yes, she went there. Even though I have been a vegetarian since I was 15, I developed a mild but pervasive disdain of vegans starting there. Not because I disagree with the diet – I think it can be a fabulous diet – but because a lot of vegans seem to need the world to acknowledge the sacrifice they are making and the control they show over their diet by treating them as some kind of superior beings. For some vegans it is not enough that they live the way they want to live – they need the adulation of others to reward their voluntarily-assumed restrictions. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t find this to be true of many to most vegans. But the preachy superior ones tend to dominate because they are vocal. Or maybe I’m just bitter because I love cheese so damn much…
This topic could be applied to any number of things: religion, race, ethnicity, patriotism.
Live and let live!
Veganism = COMPASSION
Ok, yes, veganism does equal compasssion for animals, but does not guarantee compassion or understanding for people. It just means you wouldn’t eat them. I agree with carmentina 100% Let those without sin cast the first stone and let it be.
Ok, yes, veganism does equal compasssion for animals, but does not guarantee compassion or understanding for people. It just means you wouldn’t eat them. HAHAHAHAH ROTFL!!!!
If people start tasting like mangoes, make me a nice butt burger. Otherwise I’ll stick to produce, thank yee very much!
Oooo, a butt burger? I’ll take one of those too! ;)
:) you guys are too funny :) :)
Mango flavored butts…now that’s what I call quality. Could you imagine going out on a date and telling someone your butt tastes like mangos????