Member-only story
Are Vegans Judgemental?
Why That Is The Wrong Question To Ask
Vegans are always being accused of being judgemental.
It seems like par for the course.
It’s usually meat-eaters who accuse vegans of ‘judging’ them. Sometimes it’s vegetarians, who still consume dairy and eggs, but feel vegans shouldn’t ‘judge’ them negatively for this fact because, “Hey, at least we’re moving in the right direction.”
“You do your thing and I’ll do mine,” is a common response whenever the issue of veganism is brought up, along with other classics like, “Live and let live.”
On the face of it, it might seem that non-vegans have a valid point in this context. After all, don’t people have a right to freely choose their own way of life? Isn’t what we eat a matter of personal choice?
Well, yes and no.
I firmly believe that people should have the freedom to live as they see fit, as long as their lifestyle choices don’t harm others. The problem, of course, is that eating animals does harm them. By definition, you cannot eat someone’s flesh without harming them.
Sure, you could argue that eating the flesh of a road-kill victim isn’t harming anyone, since they were already dead when you found them, but then how many meat-eaters do you know who only eat…
