Pleasantly surprised to find out that they made John Stewart (Green Lantern) vegan in the HBO show called lanterns. Only a few episodes in but it has been mentioned in different ways. He didn’t like cheeseburgers as a kid, didn’t eat a steak and after a cow gets murdered with lasers at a slaughterhouse ‘that’s why I’m vegan’. I think it’s great to see more depictions of characters being vegan especially a cool black superhero.

So I’m a relatively new vegan and one thing I genuinely wasn’t prepared for is how defensive some people can get when veganism is simply mentioned.

For context, my family is very traditional and our food has always been heavily centered around meat, so I expected some interesting reactions when I stopped eating it.

Instead… basically nothing happened. They asked why, what I eat, we had a completely civil conversation, and some even said my reasoning made sense. My mom asked me for some recipes (unfortunately I have not yet evolved beyond a few good soups, so I wasn’t much help).

Which is why this recent interaction caught me so off guard.

My husband and I were having coffee with another couple, and they’re very open-minded, progressive, very much “you do you” people. I casually mentioned that I’d had a really good vegan burger at a restaurant and was trying to recreate it at home.

That was literally it. Good burger. Want to make burger.

And suddenly, this guy:

“Now I want a big juicy burger.”
“I’m hungry, let’s go eat some MEAT.”
“Meat is the best.”
“ALL meat is the best meat.”

Even his girlfriend eventually went, “Since when do you even eat that much meat?”

I really wanted to ask… ALL meat? Kidneys? Brains? Intestines? Every animal? Because I have follow-up questions, but I just ignored it because I couldn’t be bothered debating someone who seemed to be having an argument I wasn’t participating in.

And that’s the part I genuinely don’t understand. How does someone who is normally so open to people making different choices suddenly hear “I had a good vegan burger” as something they need to defend themselves against?

There was no criticism. Nobody was asking him to stop eating meat. I wasn’t even talking about ethics. Like sir, I was literally talking about a burger recipe.

Has anyone else experienced this? What is it about veganism that can make people feel personally attacked when no one is actually attacking them?

Was reading a book written in 1914 (America Through the Spectacles of An Oriental Diplomat). It's basically a Chinese diplomat's account of his time in America, as well as an analysis of the country's society, often comparing it to his own.

The appendix at the end included a letter he wrote for the Ladies' Home Journal in 1909.

"With regard to flesh food I am aware that there is a great difference of opinion. Vegetarians and others condemn the consumption of meat not only on moral grounds, but also because it is an unnecessary and unwholesome food. On the other hand, the majority of mankind do not see the necessity of giving it up, believing, as they do, that meat gives more strength than any other kind of food. It is difficult to convince people that they are wrong when they have been brought up with certain established notions. On this point, however, I have not the least doubt, for I can speak from my personal experience of the advantages of a non-flesh diet over flesh food. I may also mention that a Chinese friend of mine in Canton, three years ago, upon my urgent representation and advice, gave up eating flesh, but in all other respects he went on as usual - that is to say, he smoked tobacco, etc., and soon afterward he a much stronger man than he ever was before.... Of all physical exercise I find walking is the best. Whenever I can find time I walk for exercise, and the longer I walk the healthier I feel. I never get tired by walking, which fact I attribute to the beneficial effect of my non-flesh diet. When I was on the mixed diet I could not walk two or three miles without feeling fatigued, although I was then some years younger than I am now."

I fully realize that he likely didn't go all the way and stayed a vegetarian rather than a vegan, but it's still impressive for the time.

I say that I do not eat animals or bodily fluids from animals or other parts. This seems to upset alot of meat eaters. It seems to make them uncomfortable to have to be confronted with the fact that meat is animals. I do not say this and then argue about veganism, I say it when something comes up in a conversation or a setting where there is food in which I have to explain that I do not eat something. Just a short, "oh, I do not eat animals". I used to say that I was vegan, but then people wanted to debate me and I didn't want to do it (Yes I know some people think I am a bad vegan for not having all the energy in the world to debate everyone in my life every day). But I have noticed that the past 2 years when I instead say I do not eat animals people get more like irritated but are much less likely to want to argue with me and just awkwardly move on from the subject.

Does anyone have the same experience?

Recently my family has been buying a lot more plant based products. We’re doing a bbq today and for some reason my mom only bought soy patties and NO BEEF! I was surprised once I found out. She’s also been buying less dairy products and even switched from cow milk creamer to oat milk. I don’t really bring up my diet or lifestyle choices to them unless they ask, so it’s cool to see them eating less animal products just cuz they want to. Even my sister has begun eating less beef and pork and opts for fish and produce instead.

this might seem like a weird question but do you guys try to be vegan when you're gaming?

I'm talking about all forms of gaming like RPGs where you can eat different foods, Hunting Simulators where you kill, Cozy Games like Stardew Valley where you have a farm and so on. Especially in games where you can create your own character and can resperent yourself in a game.

I'm vegan since a few month now and a gamer since I can think. Before I didn't worry about it at all but recently it got me thinking. Technically the stuff in games is not real so no animals get hurt or exploited. I mean it could be a fun challenge to play Skyrim, Witcher and Crimson Desert in a vegan way. But it feels a bit weird to cook a steak in Minecraft or shoot chickens in Counter Strike. In some way or another it also still represents the objectification of animals but it's also just a game...

What do you people think about this?

If you've seen it, what are your thoughts? Personally, I think the video is very well made. He went into it as a joke, but ended up making some genuinely great points along the way. For instance, he points out that taking "unnatural" B-12 pills is no different than relying on everyday unnatural things like refrigerators or computers. He also notes that the best way to improve vegan options is simply to be vegan, since growing demand puts pressure on corporations. I also love his take on how the diet is only half the experience, the social aspect and having a supportive community are what really make it sustainable.

His perspective seems really approachable for non-vegans, so I hope this video encourages more people to make the switch, or at least start cutting back on meat. Would love to hear what you guys think!

I know lot of people here are going to be mad but let me ask you, how do y'all think than an sheep, an HERD animal who cannot interact with other sheep and who cannot even graze as an ruminant is "happy" ?

"But she learned how to use her wheelchair!"

Learning something mean she's just alive and smart but it doesn't mean this life is okay for her

some people here even fucking dared to say that humans are suffering too and it's an reason why Kiki should be kept alive.. seriously..

Sheep are stoic when they are stressed or in pain, that's why they do not move when sheared, I even saw some being slaughtered and look "calm" so no, we cannot always definite their emotions just because they do not jump around in panick

Also, seriously people think she's dancing when in reality she just try to find a way to escape the LOUD MUSIC blasted next to her, as an prey animal that's also torture to not being able to run away when uncomfortable or feeling dangers

She's just in pain, she have an terrible life for an sheep, keeping an animal alive even if they are in pain is literally abuse, you don't even see this shit in some farms..

A lot of vegans don't know anything about farm animals even tho we want to protect them, but this lack of knowledge just give us an bad name and give the opportunity to fHarmer to be seen as better people toward those animals.

Sometimes, loving animals is letting them go when there's too much suffering, I'm saying all of this as someone who rescue farm animals.

It's kinda wild when you think about it, the whole visual language of eggs is hens wandering around a meadow and the actual conditions most laying hens live in look nothing like that 💀 That gap is the entire problem really, people buy the carton image because they've literally never been shown anything else.

So ARBA (animal rescue + welfare org) is trying to close that gap with animation. They run public awareness campaigns about laying hen welfare and they want short animated videos for social... the kind of thing that can show people what's really going on in a way that's clear and actually watchable. Animation's kinda perfect for it, you can get the reality across and still have people not scroll past.

And they make it easy on the animator... they hand you the info, the key messages, the guidance for each video, EVERYTHING. You're just doing the part you're good at 🙂‍↕️ Turning a message into something people stop and watch.

It's volunteer/unpaid. But it's short (few weeks) and it's a nice reel piece... advocacy animation that ships into real campaigns :) Good if you do motion/animation and want something with a bit of weight behind it.

Here's the link to apply for this opportunity to help: https://flockwork.org/requests/i11vf0sg6nsq60rcrm9cjun7?source=reddit

Hello,

I'm a vegetarian foreigner living in Brazil. I wanna go vegan and would love to have some tips/experiences from people from/living in Brazil.

How do you manage it, especially socially? I've never met another vegetarian since I'm here (a year and a half). I end up eating rice and vinagrete in every social thing I'm invited to (churrasco). Sometimes they dont put meat in the beans so fortunately i can eat but idk why I never feel full if I eat only rice and beans, I need another protein.

I don't have much money so I can't buy meat/cheese substitute so I make my tofu from scratch and I eat a lot of PST. Nuts really expensive. There is no vegan restaurant where I live, the closest is like a 3-hour drive from my city. I get laughed at when I say I dont eat meat.

Do you have vegan/vegetarian friends? Is it common in your social circle to be one? Or at least not that rare? I attended a wedding this week and among maybe 100 guests I was again the only one not eating meat.

edit : to add more context I'm from the interior of SP

edit 2 : actually it's deeper that not knowing what to eat at a churrasco. im grossed by the meat, the frenesy the people entered in, the quantites... but it's the only social event my husband (Brazilian) and I get invited to, regardless the financial means of the different hosts

Soy de España y últimamente he notado que los productos veganos de Lidl están desapareciendo poco a poco. Cada vez que voy parece que hay menos, y en mi Lidl de confianza prácticamente solo quedan los bloques de tofu y algún que otro producto empanado.
No sé muy bien qué está pasando ni si es algo que ocurre solo en mi zona, pero también he visto varios vídeos en TikTok de gente diciendo exactamente lo mismo. ¿Alguien más lo ha notado?

Hello! Bit of a random one.. I am an artist and am about to start an atelier drawing/ painting course. On the list of materials is a chamois, which is a small scrap of leather used for charcoal blending.

Is anyone aware of a decent vegan substitute for this? I’m obviously not going to buy leather!! But I want to be prepared for the class! Thanks in advance!

Why do non vegans repeatedly use this argument that “humane” killing is ok. The bottom line is they do not want to be killed. Nothing wants to killed unless they are a suicidal human. Cows, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats. They all want to live, why is that such an absurd thing to give back to the world? Why are we framed as the crazy ones? I’m so fucking sick of it. I don’t care how the fucking animal died. The fact is, you are killing something that wants to live and we have proven through our very existence that it is not necessary to eat meat to survive.

Both were ASPCA workers and we talked about how all animals should be shown compassion. They said they loved animals. 

But they said they weren’t vegan. So we discussed having compassion to all animals, including those most people eat. 

And when I asked how many more animals should die in their name: zero or more than zero, both said “zero”. 

We must have compassion for all animals. And, we must have compassion for those not yet vegan. Speak from the heart with love.

I just spent a week in the hospital, where I learned, on top of why I was there, I’m pretty severely iron deficient. I have more labs and a hematologist appointment in about 3 weeks, but I want to come in prepared because I’m not about to tolerate being told to eat steak. Yes, I have Google like anyone else, but anyone going through this and/or have any tips on how to increase my iron intake without consuming animal products? Keep in mind, I’m likely anemic so I need pretty high sources. Thanks in advance!

I'm vegetarian and want to start eating more vegan-for ethical reasons.

I'd love some advice please.

I am a constant traveler. 10-ish countries per year. So I never have access to the same foods.

Are there some vitamins or foods you pack with you so you always have a balanced vegan diet? I always carry seeds, nuts, and nutritional yeast. Any other ideas? Something fermented would be great.

Thank you so much.

My boyfriend and I are both vegan and want to start making our own vegan lunch meat. He wants to get a deli slicer and I'm horrified at buying it used knowing what it was used for. He thinks it being stainless steel it would be fine and brings up the fact that it is better for the environment to get it second hand. I know I have contamination OCD so I might not be thinking clearly about this. So we came to reddit to hear what our community thinks.

I am trying to live a vegan life style for a week and I am on day one and miserably failing. meals are not an issue, I just didn't really think about snacks at all. I have adhd and take meds that supress my hunger, so I only notice when it's way too late to cook so I need QUICK SNACKS.

thank you so much

I'm an autistic vegan 17 year old, and I went vegan in august (finally) but ever since i went vegan my parents have stopped buying food for me really. The only things i really have in my house that I can eat are tofu, vegan butter, tater tots, nutritional yeast, and rice. I don't really know what to do because I can't support myself yet, and I keep asking my mom to buy me food but she never does, or if she does its like two things. Im hungry all the time but don't really have anything to eat besides like 5 things, i dont know what to do :(

Update: Thank you for all the kind words and comments, and good ideas. It means a lot to me, my partner and I decided on the plan of going to a food bank every couple of weeks and then using my paycheck to pay for bags of beans, rice, and some canned/frozen fruits/vegetables. Then her helping me pay for tofu, and tvp. Im making a DMV appointment to hopefully be able to get somewhere on my own so I don't bother the people at the food bank forever, and so I can go to the dollar tree more frequently for food. Thank you all again so much; I will keep myself safe, and you all should too ♥️🫂

Everyone donates to the sanctuary with the cute rescued pig. nobody donates to the thing that stops that sanctuary from getting sued into oblivion. and it turns out a LOT of small animal orgs are one zoning fight or one nasty lawsuit away from just... ending. Not because they did anything wrong... because legal help costs more than their entire annual budget.

Anywayyy TIL there's a nonprofit... Animal Defense Partnership... that just does that work for free. free legal services for animal orgs (+ plant-based food system stuff). they're probably the quiet reason a bunch of these groups are still standing, and most people have literally never heard of them, which feels backwards atp.

They need someone to help them actually tell people this exists. It's like taking their real work (client wins, legal resources, webinars) and turn it into stuff people actually read. They already have the branding + templates + a whole content backlog, so you're not inventing a voice from scratch... just making the good stuff visible.

Lowkey a great portfolio piece if you're into comms/social/design... real org, real mission, actual published work you can point to. It's an unpaid volunteering position (they give their own services away for free, so...)

Here's the link if you wanna check this opportunity out:
https://flockwork.org/requests/pkn886codcxuydkqxa69er22?source=reddit

These are underrated orgs and they could really use some help :)

I know this discussion of dating non-vegans has come up 100 times.

I'm on the spectrum and have a cocktail of other neurodivergencies. (Yeah, I do go to therapy, and I am kind to people). I'm shy and reserved, and it takes me time to open up to people. I'm not super funny and charismatic on first dates, like a lot of people normally are.

I don't think regular people are asking for too much by wanting to date a vegan. But I feel like for me, being vegan + all the other things I have on top of that would be too much.

If I'm already filtering out 98% of people by just existing, filtering out another 98% by only dating vegans that would be really trace odds.

I already feel like I'm pushing it, even when dating vegetarians and omnivores. So I feel like don't have room to have anything else about me that's polarizing.

(I've been on like 50 dates the past few years, only 2 were vegans - neither of them led to 2nd dates.)

Say Lisbon has opened a new vegan hub, with many restaurants, shops and cultural activities related to veganism. Would you consider visiting the city...

Hi everyone! I think it’s the best place to ask for honest advice, since only vegans sincerely do respect animals.

I have found an announcement about a wounded badger on the road and took him to the clinic, since we have no wildlife rehabilitation services.

The vets today had told me that the baby has 4 bullets from hunters and no sensitivity in back legs (can’t walk), plus she can’t defecate on her own.
I decided to leave her in the stationary and pay for all possible treatments since doctors said there is 1% chance she may recover.

I can’t imagine to be the one to decide about the animal’s life. Who am I to take her life?(( I can’t think about her being euthanized and it breaks my heart. I will be the awful person I do it. But I also understand that she will suffer with such disabilities. I’m in the ethic conflict and I would like to hear all the opinions and advices from fellow vegans 🥹💔

hi all, kind of a niche question but i hope someone out there is able to assist in some way!

i am looking for vegan satin products that aren’t made from plastic, specifically on the market for some nice thick scrunchies. i’m struggling with hair loss/hair health and getting into hobbies that require my hair up for extended periods of time.

so far i have only found silk scrunchies and all the vegan ones are super thin and flimsy and also made of polyester.

any advice or brand recommendations appreciated!

We pour so much energy into the big national animal fights, but a shocking amount of what actually changes for animals happens way down at the local level... your city council, your county. Whether glue traps are legal (those things are so horrible if you've ever looked into how they work). Whether you're allowed to keep your companion animals in rental housing. Small ordinances that quietly decide real outcomes... and almost nobody votes in those elections or even knows where the candidates stand :(((

Anywayyy there's this all-volunteer group (Ventura County Voters for Animals) doing something lowkey brilliant about it. They're running their first-ever candidate scorecards across all 8 cities in their county, actually rating local candidates on how animal-friendly they are so voters can walk into the booth and know. Ofc it's not unglamorous AND on-the-ground democracy stuff and it could genuinely shape who ends up in office.

They've already done all the scoring + content, they just need someone to turn it into clean, print-ready leaflets people can actually read at a glance, one per city. It's not really "make a flyer"... it's more like, you're the difference between this info sitting in a spreadsheet and it landing in an actual voter's hand right before they decide. A design that literally goes out into the world and does something :))

Lowkey a great portfolio piece if you do design!! Also real print work, real civic impact and an actual thing you can point to that went out during an election. It's unpaid ofc (100% volunteer-run grassroots group, no budget)

Here's the link if you wanna check it out:
https://flockwork.org/requests/pwcsd1ayadvj9r9ooex0yxii?source=reddit

These little local pushes are where a lot of the real stuff quietly happens :)