For a change from people asking who is your favorite vegan celebrity or person you didn’t expect to be vegan or whatnot, I thought it would be interesting to see who is our least favorite vegan.
I know, vegans are usually good people (even outside of their veganism, that is), though not all of course, and we need to be able to admit that not all vegans are perfect, and be resistant against the association fallacy, which this is a test for. What is that?
In this context, association fallacy is assuming that because someone (or a sub-group within a group) shares something in common with a group of people, that group of people must automatically be similar to that person (or sub-group) in other ways. For example, Aileen Wuornos was a feminist, and a serial killer. Does that mean feminists are violent? Of course not.
The typical example of this fallacy is actually relevant but based on misinformation, which is that vegans are evil because Hitler was a vegetarian (not even vegan). This type of Hitler argument has become so common that it’s known as its own class of association fallacy called ad Hitlerum. Well, apparently he wasn’t actually even vegetarian, and it was a PR tactic deployed by Goebbels to make him appear peaceful, but even if he was, that’s not evidence that vegans inherently share any qualities with Hitler.
A common relevant example that vegans come up against is, some vegans are X, or Y or Z (don’t want to inflame people but I’m referring to different controversial political views that some vegans hold, even though they’re in the minority of vegans), and therefore all vegans are X/Y/Z. I hope we can see how this is illogical.
By the way, answering this question with “all of them” is acceptable (though it misses the point) but completely expected, which makes it less funny. I’m interested to know of a particular well-known person who is vegan but who you also don’t rate for one reason or another. And being “preachy” abour veganism I’m not counting as a reason because being outspoken about animal rights or the environment isn’t a negative quality, and shouldn’t be viewed as one. That said, name your target.
I chose that word deliberately. Do we not aim to be virtuous when possible? Wtf do I care if someone, who can’t look around and see the harm we are causing, feels condescended. Someone who can’t see past their own nose takes no space in my head.
Now I’m not talking about people who are unaware or who have no other realistic choices right now. They should be reached with some empathy and not forced to feel less than for dietary choices or availability, but forgive me for not giving a shit about the POS first described in my post.