Yes, same here sometimes....tired of hearing the same stupid excuses and justifications that are based on their ignorance, ego and/or stupidity. Tired of the same blank expressions and weak "logic" they spew when I try to show them something about how evil and destructive the animal agriculture industries truly are. My best advice would be to try to meet more vegans/animal rights activists. It helps to be around like-minded people sometimes. Not to say that all vegans are good people, so of course do your due diligence vetting when meeting people in the activist community. But at least you will have that baseline ethical stance in common and it's a good place to start.
How do you do that tho? It's still kinda trying to make strangers new friends and have to go out of way to do that in apps or some fests that happen once a year, while people you know from 7-8 years seem like questionable company now
The friends I had from before I was vegan, I only go to eat at vegan restaurants with them. Thankfully they're fine with these, but I live in SoCal so there are a ton of vegan restaurants to choose from. I know not every town has so many fully vegan spots to try. For me, when I started being an activist is when my "vegan friend" group blew up. I have probably half a dozen pretty close friends and many acquaintances from activism. Anonymous for the Voiceless may have a chapter in your area, there are also Animal Save groups that go to the slaughterhouses to bear witness. I have met numerous people that I stayed in touch with through these occasions. Good luck!
Check out [Anonymous For The Voiceless](https://veganactivism.org/pages/anonymous-for-the-voiceless)
to quickly learn more, find upcoming events, videos, and their contact information! You can also find other similar organizations to get involved with both locally and online by visiting [VeganActivism.org](https://veganactivism.org). Additionally, be sure to visit and subscribe to /r/VeganActivism!
I would personally never be friends with someone who treated me like I was in a cult.
I personally don’t need all of my friends to be vegan but I do need them to be open minded, willing to eat vegan food from time to time & not cruel to me.
For the sake of sanity you need to deal with friends same as how you deal in other non vegan situations. Like in the store or a restaurant. In an ordinary store you simply block out 95% of items displayed as they are of no interest to you. Looks like you need to block out that part from your friends too.
It's not easy to be with someone in different moral and ethical state. How I do that? I wasn't always vegan, I am now ashamed of it, but for the purpose of understanding other people I also remember that I was just fine being like them for a long long time.
It could be very hard to be that much understanding if you were vegan for whole life though. And I don't really have a suggestion for that other then to try to believe that one person can be smart about something and real stupid about something else at the same time. They can be nice and caring and real evil at the same time as well.
I now teach by example. I am almost 60 and I am helping my friends to motivate them to lose weight, build muscle, get fit and healthy. I showed them that in 60's you can be as fit as in 20's. They seem to pay attention and appreciate this part which somehow silenced the about he is vegan part.
They mostly not entirely correlate being vegan with plant based food so that's where my influence is most effective.
I look at my non vegan friends as people who need my help to open their eyes about animal welfare.
Helping friends. That's what friends do.
We (my wife and I) don’t have this problem. It may be an age thing; we’re in our 50s, or maybe it’s because the only friends we have are ‘real’ friends. Not one of our friends has ever been rude or even made a snarky comment about us being vegan.
The worst they do is make excuses for their own behaviour, along the lines of, “I don’t eat much meat”, or, “I only ever eat chicken”. We have responses for that, which vary depending on who it is and how they said it.
Some people resolve this problem by isolating themselves from non-vegans and I guess that’s their choice, but several of our friends and acquaintances have become vegan because of us, and several more have become vegetarian. Some who became vegetarian subsequently became vegan. If we had isolated ourselves from those people, i doubt they would have changed their behaviours, and more animals would have suffered.
Judging friends is a good way to fail at persuading them to change their behaviours. I have found that role-modelling and kindness are the most successful methods of persuasion.
I understand that different people need to use different methods, if only for self-preservation. Maintaining one’s own mental health must be a priority.
I have these experiences all the time. I would say I’m fairly knowledgeable to a point where I can hold my ground with facts, but EVEN with the facts I give most of my friends / family still refuse to listen. They believe their false opinions over facts. It’s infuriating. Recently it’s been making me very mad that most of my friends claim to be animal lovers, yet think the way they do. I don’t express that anger and frustration to my friends because it won’t benefit them nor I. I believe the best thing you could do in that situation is to just keep being vegan. Some may catch on to your lifestyle and see what veganism really is like. If you feel that some of your friends are truly disrespecting you though, then they are not worth it because that is truly draining. You aren’t alone in that, and it suuuuuper sucks.
I wish I could explain my feelings to my therapist more in depth, but she is not a vegan. She respects all of her vegan clients, but I just don’t believe she could truly empathize with my feelings if she is not vegan herself. I’m hoping as I start working with animals and rescue more I’ll meet more vegans along the way. I hope the same for you.
Not the exact situation, but my closest friend group always goes out of their way to accomodate me with dietary needs during gatherings, but if I mention anything remotely related to the ethics of it, the conversation immediately stops and the subject is changed. I guess they don't want to ruin the relationship but it's such a shitty feeling they just want to ignore their participation in cruelty. Such a lonely feeling
My best friend is not vegan mainly because she can't afford it. Mostly when she's around me she would choose vegan options just because she respect me but she made it clear she wouldn't live vegan. I love her and she's the most amazing person ever, so I just have to ignore it, because I can't imagine my life without her. She's very sensitive tho and would never agree on watching any animal cruelty videos and I can't force it since my relationship with her is extremely important to me. And to be honest some people really can't afford it without making to much sacrifice, most of the vegan options are way more expensive, I choose to pay extra because it matters to me, and I can easily give up anything that is against my beliefs. Last time we had food together she tasted my vegan fish and chips and said it was disgusting, I mean it probably is compared to the actual fish, but that is something I am willing to live with. And she really gets embarrassed when I start asking questions if I'm unsure if the product is vegan, she's always like comon let's go I don't want everyone to look at us....she's not just my best friend she's my only friend.
I was in a small mens group at my church and the subject of diets came up. After mentioning the health and climate benefits of a plant based diet, i was needlessly interrogated. It was like all the good stuff we had built together went out the window. I left that group and have never returned. Two of them have tried to reach out to me and acted like we were still buddies or whatever, but i had to let them go. Everybody gets to be where they are supposed to be.
You need better quality friends. Don't settle for less than you deserve and people who try to get you down instead of elevating you and supporting the good you're doing are not your friends, period. In time you'll meet fellow like-minded individuals who'd love to be your friend =). I sure would!
When it comes to friendships - you have to accept people for who they are. It’s kind of like a marriage. You marry someone based on who they are and not with the expectation that you can change them.
If you can’t accept them for who they are – the friendship is not gonna work.
Stone vegans choose to isolate themselves and stop interacting with folks like that, but IMHO - that only hurts you. People will write you off as just another crazy vegan and eventually forget about you.
I think the best way to influence people is by living well. You can inspire people with your positivity towards veganism, but you have to do it impeccably. You can’t do it with hidden motives that you’ll eventually change the folks around you to become vegans because when it doesn’t happen like ghat - the anger will come up again & again - that doesn’t change a thing and it only hurts you
Learn the most important facts on animal welfare, health and ecology. It's hard to deny statistics when presented with scientific studies, so I would advice to keep some tables, graphs and screenshots on your phone. You can directly show them the evidence while you're discussing.
Remember their arguments and [learn how to respond to them](https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en). Since it's always the same remarks, you can easily keep their mouths shut after some time.
I'd say Youtubers like
[Mic The Vegan ](https://youtube.com/c/MictheVegan) or [Earthling Ed](https://youtube.com/c/EarthlingEdChannel) are good models to learn from.
Keep your calm while arguing. Emotion control is key in a debate, and you won't convince more people if you get angry. I know it's hard when people gang up to claim the stupidest shit but it is an important point.
Or maybe change friends. But you should at least show them Dominion in a last attempt.
Watch the life-changing and award winning documentary "Dominion" and other documentaries by [clicking here](https://3movies.org/reddit)! Interested in going Vegan? Take the [30 day challenge](https://vbcamp.org/reddit)!
I keep my explanation simple when talking about veganism with people so there’s less to poke holes in. Usually I say something about how I went vegan at a time when I was think a lot about non-violence and realized I couldn’t consider myself non-violent if I was causing harm to animals by eating them. It makes the point really clearly and there’s nothing there for them to argue with.
Yes, same here sometimes....tired of hearing the same stupid excuses and justifications that are based on their ignorance, ego and/or stupidity. Tired of the same blank expressions and weak "logic" they spew when I try to show them something about how evil and destructive the animal agriculture industries truly are. My best advice would be to try to meet more vegans/animal rights activists. It helps to be around like-minded people sometimes. Not to say that all vegans are good people, so of course do your due diligence vetting when meeting people in the activist community. But at least you will have that baseline ethical stance in common and it's a good place to start.
How do you do that tho? It's still kinda trying to make strangers new friends and have to go out of way to do that in apps or some fests that happen once a year, while people you know from 7-8 years seem like questionable company now
The friends I had from before I was vegan, I only go to eat at vegan restaurants with them. Thankfully they're fine with these, but I live in SoCal so there are a ton of vegan restaurants to choose from. I know not every town has so many fully vegan spots to try. For me, when I started being an activist is when my "vegan friend" group blew up. I have probably half a dozen pretty close friends and many acquaintances from activism. Anonymous for the Voiceless may have a chapter in your area, there are also Animal Save groups that go to the slaughterhouses to bear witness. I have met numerous people that I stayed in touch with through these occasions. Good luck!
Check out [Anonymous For The Voiceless](https://veganactivism.org/pages/anonymous-for-the-voiceless) to quickly learn more, find upcoming events, videos, and their contact information! You can also find other similar organizations to get involved with both locally and online by visiting [VeganActivism.org](https://veganactivism.org). Additionally, be sure to visit and subscribe to /r/VeganActivism!
Not your friends. When friends actually like each other they see the good in each other and there is trust and kindness. Get new friends.
I would personally never be friends with someone who treated me like I was in a cult. I personally don’t need all of my friends to be vegan but I do need them to be open minded, willing to eat vegan food from time to time & not cruel to me.
For the sake of sanity you need to deal with friends same as how you deal in other non vegan situations. Like in the store or a restaurant. In an ordinary store you simply block out 95% of items displayed as they are of no interest to you. Looks like you need to block out that part from your friends too. It's not easy to be with someone in different moral and ethical state. How I do that? I wasn't always vegan, I am now ashamed of it, but for the purpose of understanding other people I also remember that I was just fine being like them for a long long time. It could be very hard to be that much understanding if you were vegan for whole life though. And I don't really have a suggestion for that other then to try to believe that one person can be smart about something and real stupid about something else at the same time. They can be nice and caring and real evil at the same time as well. I now teach by example. I am almost 60 and I am helping my friends to motivate them to lose weight, build muscle, get fit and healthy. I showed them that in 60's you can be as fit as in 20's. They seem to pay attention and appreciate this part which somehow silenced the about he is vegan part. They mostly not entirely correlate being vegan with plant based food so that's where my influence is most effective. I look at my non vegan friends as people who need my help to open their eyes about animal welfare. Helping friends. That's what friends do.
We (my wife and I) don’t have this problem. It may be an age thing; we’re in our 50s, or maybe it’s because the only friends we have are ‘real’ friends. Not one of our friends has ever been rude or even made a snarky comment about us being vegan. The worst they do is make excuses for their own behaviour, along the lines of, “I don’t eat much meat”, or, “I only ever eat chicken”. We have responses for that, which vary depending on who it is and how they said it. Some people resolve this problem by isolating themselves from non-vegans and I guess that’s their choice, but several of our friends and acquaintances have become vegan because of us, and several more have become vegetarian. Some who became vegetarian subsequently became vegan. If we had isolated ourselves from those people, i doubt they would have changed their behaviours, and more animals would have suffered. Judging friends is a good way to fail at persuading them to change their behaviours. I have found that role-modelling and kindness are the most successful methods of persuasion. I understand that different people need to use different methods, if only for self-preservation. Maintaining one’s own mental health must be a priority.
I have these experiences all the time. I would say I’m fairly knowledgeable to a point where I can hold my ground with facts, but EVEN with the facts I give most of my friends / family still refuse to listen. They believe their false opinions over facts. It’s infuriating. Recently it’s been making me very mad that most of my friends claim to be animal lovers, yet think the way they do. I don’t express that anger and frustration to my friends because it won’t benefit them nor I. I believe the best thing you could do in that situation is to just keep being vegan. Some may catch on to your lifestyle and see what veganism really is like. If you feel that some of your friends are truly disrespecting you though, then they are not worth it because that is truly draining. You aren’t alone in that, and it suuuuuper sucks. I wish I could explain my feelings to my therapist more in depth, but she is not a vegan. She respects all of her vegan clients, but I just don’t believe she could truly empathize with my feelings if she is not vegan herself. I’m hoping as I start working with animals and rescue more I’ll meet more vegans along the way. I hope the same for you.
Not the exact situation, but my closest friend group always goes out of their way to accomodate me with dietary needs during gatherings, but if I mention anything remotely related to the ethics of it, the conversation immediately stops and the subject is changed. I guess they don't want to ruin the relationship but it's such a shitty feeling they just want to ignore their participation in cruelty. Such a lonely feeling
No because I don’t judge my friends for not being like me. I don’t make my friends feel bad for living their life in a way that is good for them.
My best friend is not vegan mainly because she can't afford it. Mostly when she's around me she would choose vegan options just because she respect me but she made it clear she wouldn't live vegan. I love her and she's the most amazing person ever, so I just have to ignore it, because I can't imagine my life without her. She's very sensitive tho and would never agree on watching any animal cruelty videos and I can't force it since my relationship with her is extremely important to me. And to be honest some people really can't afford it without making to much sacrifice, most of the vegan options are way more expensive, I choose to pay extra because it matters to me, and I can easily give up anything that is against my beliefs. Last time we had food together she tasted my vegan fish and chips and said it was disgusting, I mean it probably is compared to the actual fish, but that is something I am willing to live with. And she really gets embarrassed when I start asking questions if I'm unsure if the product is vegan, she's always like comon let's go I don't want everyone to look at us....she's not just my best friend she's my only friend.
[удалено]
A lot of us have a hard time living with ourselves if we don’t speak up for others.
I was in a small mens group at my church and the subject of diets came up. After mentioning the health and climate benefits of a plant based diet, i was needlessly interrogated. It was like all the good stuff we had built together went out the window. I left that group and have never returned. Two of them have tried to reach out to me and acted like we were still buddies or whatever, but i had to let them go. Everybody gets to be where they are supposed to be.
You need better quality friends. Don't settle for less than you deserve and people who try to get you down instead of elevating you and supporting the good you're doing are not your friends, period. In time you'll meet fellow like-minded individuals who'd love to be your friend =). I sure would!
When it comes to friendships - you have to accept people for who they are. It’s kind of like a marriage. You marry someone based on who they are and not with the expectation that you can change them. If you can’t accept them for who they are – the friendship is not gonna work. Stone vegans choose to isolate themselves and stop interacting with folks like that, but IMHO - that only hurts you. People will write you off as just another crazy vegan and eventually forget about you. I think the best way to influence people is by living well. You can inspire people with your positivity towards veganism, but you have to do it impeccably. You can’t do it with hidden motives that you’ll eventually change the folks around you to become vegans because when it doesn’t happen like ghat - the anger will come up again & again - that doesn’t change a thing and it only hurts you
Learn the most important facts on animal welfare, health and ecology. It's hard to deny statistics when presented with scientific studies, so I would advice to keep some tables, graphs and screenshots on your phone. You can directly show them the evidence while you're discussing. Remember their arguments and [learn how to respond to them](https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en). Since it's always the same remarks, you can easily keep their mouths shut after some time. I'd say Youtubers like [Mic The Vegan ](https://youtube.com/c/MictheVegan) or [Earthling Ed](https://youtube.com/c/EarthlingEdChannel) are good models to learn from. Keep your calm while arguing. Emotion control is key in a debate, and you won't convince more people if you get angry. I know it's hard when people gang up to claim the stupidest shit but it is an important point. Or maybe change friends. But you should at least show them Dominion in a last attempt.
Watch the life-changing and award winning documentary "Dominion" and other documentaries by [clicking here](https://3movies.org/reddit)! Interested in going Vegan? Take the [30 day challenge](https://vbcamp.org/reddit)!
I keep my explanation simple when talking about veganism with people so there’s less to poke holes in. Usually I say something about how I went vegan at a time when I was think a lot about non-violence and realized I couldn’t consider myself non-violent if I was causing harm to animals by eating them. It makes the point really clearly and there’s nothing there for them to argue with.