I do agree with you and @ronel that everyone has right to his / her opinion on everything. But how, when and where the opinion is expressed in our civilized society may be of some concern. e.g. if some one is publicly making a false allegation or insulting or resorting to name-calling or just offending the sentiments of others for the sake of his or her own fun, would you still defend the offender on the pretext of right to personal opinion? It may be a different story if opinion is expressed explaining the interpretations and circumstances applied to arrive to that particular conclusion.
And of course, as you said, no labels are necessary. But labels are just for the convenience of expression and are part of a language. When I turned vegan, I wasn't even aware that people of my kind are labelled as vegans as I didn't know this word then. So if this word was used to describe people like me, I didn't had any objection. But labels doesn't imply that it's a religion or some kind of dogma. It's just a word with some meaning. Just as you said, it's some kind of a lifestyle and that's it.
But if a lifestyle is interpreted as anti-social or horrifying, when it is not, then I think defending and dispelling the misinterpretation to be my duty. As it not only put myself in bad light but the whole of vegan community. And when Andreas was trying to list 10 most horrifying things, veganism came to his mind. This speaks volumes about how he perceives vegans. What if a person unknowingly walk into him some day and "dare" to introduce herself as vegan, would it be safe or a pleasant experience? Can vegans now ever think of hosting and organizing his talks despite their willingness to do that?
And even if it was a sarcasm ...a bad one though, he is riding on some per-conceived negative image of vegans and solidifying that mindset in public. With this he is also trying to establish negative connotations to veganism in all of his audience, including the ones who didn't have yet made any image about vegans. That's how a celebrity influences his/her fans to adopt his/her personal thought process which has nothing to do with his/her work.
I'd really appreciate if you can link your related posts here. I couldn't find them at your blog though I tried only a little. Thanks!
Hi @xyzashu thanks for getting back to me. You are 100% right that unfortunately he is influencing his fans, because this is how unfortunately again the celebrity works: You worship someone and you tend to take as true or valid whatever he says. It is true and he has to be aware of that. Because vegans are not monsters , but I think a person like him is actually aware of this. He is maybe instead not aware of the fact that due to celebrity someone might take way to seriously his irony.
Also you said he is riding on some pre-conceived negative image of vegans. And I agree with that too. And this is actually the enemy to fight: this preconception. Because the common mindset about vegans is like "a bunch of boring people judging everybody from what they eat", right? This is sad and it needs to be changed because the prime mover of such a choice is actually humanity and love for animals and nature.
So my opinion is that attacking this guy publicly or making him notice that he did something wrong, will only make him kind of hero or martyr against those bad bad angry vegans, you know what I mean?
I think the best way to fight a bad sarcasm back is with a good sarcasm or with irony.
What if we tweet to his account that we are those horrifying vegans and we are coming to his house with an army of calves and sweet little lambs to torture him until he becomes vegan for the love of them? lol now I'm just saying bullshit, but I hope I made my point clear.
Anyway these are the articles I wrote about being veg and why you should not be one and why you should actually be one! :)
PART I https://steemit.com/vegan/@thefranek/4-reasons-why-you-should-not-go-veg-and-the-only-reason-why-you-shouldn-t-actually-be-a-meat-eater-part-i
PART II https://steemit.com/vegan/@thefranek/4-reasons-why-you-should-not-go-veg-and-the-only-reason-why-you-shouldn-t-actually-be-a-meat-eater-part-ii
I liked your idea of counter sarcasm 😊 Please go ahead with that.
And now looking at your blog posts, I found that I had already read them. Thanks anyway to pointing me back there! Loved it.
Thanks @xzyashu! I'm happy you liked them. And I'll think about something for the counter sarcasm. VEGAN TERROR IS COMING 🌿🌿🌿 😂😂