Member-only story
Kindness or Collusion?
Why Vegetarianism is the Opposite of Veganism
People often lump vegetarians and vegans into the same broad category, as if they are essentially two points on a sliding scale, with vegans as a kind of extreme, hardcore or ‘pure’ version of vegetarians. After all, aren’t both vegans and vegetarians driven to make dietary change in order to reduce animal suffering? Aren’t they both motivated by kindness?
Vegetarians are often seen as gentle, caring individuals who go out of their way to avoid causing unnecessary suffering to animals, simply because they don’t eat meat while vegans are usually viewed as little more than extreme, radical, militant versions of vegetarians.
But is being vegetarian really a kindness… or is it simply collusion with the multi-billion dollar global animal abuse industry? I want to examine the idea that, far from being the benevolent bedfellow of veganism, vegetarianism is the opposite of veganism and is actually much more aligned with carnism (the ideology and practice of eating the flesh of sentient animals) .
This idea that vegans and vegetarians are allies in the fight against the cruel and abusive animal agriculture industry is ludicrous if you stop for just a minute and think about it. Vegans live their lives in such a way as to avoid causing harm to sentient beings as…
