It's a delicate balancing act.
I absolutely get what you are saying about not pressuring people or making them feel 'pushed' into being vegan. There is always the concern that it only results in them shutting down, digging in their heels and shutting out the possibility of ever changing.
On the other hand, there are countless people who claim to 'love animals' and 'totally support' vegan ideals, yet are every day paying for animals to be exploited and killed.
As a law graduate, I have very little to zero faith in achieving a vegan society through legislation. This is not going to happen until nonhuman personhood is recognised in law. That's on the horizon, but there are huge blocks to it becoming a general reality.
Legislation almost always follows public opinion. Governments and courts will never recognise the basic rights of nonhuman sentient beings as long as the vast majority are paying to have them farmed and killed - there's just too much money in the industry.
You only need to look at fur farming as an example. Here in the UK, they didn't ban mink farming until there was only one mink farm left in the entire country.
My personal feeling is that people agreeing with the idea of a vegan society, supporting the efforts of vegans and paying lip service to animal rights is largely meaningless if those same people are actively supporting the continuing exploitation.
Those at the 'top' of the pyramid who we all pretend are running the show are actually pretty powerless to make such radical change. Real change comes from the ground up.
Only when enough people actually go vegan and withdraw their support from the machinery of (ab)use will change happen. Only when we already have, to all intents and purposes, a mostly vegan society will the 'system' step in to tie up the loose ends.
In that sense, people must realise that veganism as a movement relies on them personally to fulfil their moral obligation and make the necessary changes in their lives.
Otherwise, all we end up with is a huge growth in vegan capitalism and the tolerance to allow vegan menus in every diner, while simultaneously more animals are being killed every year.
I realise, of course, that most vegans are not vegan yet - they will only make that shift when they are ready. But I don't think we move them towards that tipping point by being too lenient.
It's no good having a fleet of airforce pilots who all agree in principle to the anti-war stance if those pilots are flying out every day and bombing children.
People must be held to account.
That said, when we are talking to people on an individual level, guilt-tripping achieves nothing.
Walking the middle way is hard indeed.
Apologies if this stream of consciousness is a little rambling. It's just some personal thoughts on the very valid points you raise.
