Thread by @plsleaveamsg

It's hard for me, as an immigrant and largely plant-based eater, to fail to see how much effort white vegans put into advocating for animal rights and how nonexistent is their base of advocates for immigrant rights (you know, the people growing and harvesting plants?).

I want to vomit every time I hear the words "cruelty free" because even if animals weren't harmed, please believe that human exploitation (of immigrants and slaves) was used. Or do y'all only care about the suffering of those who cannot speak for themselves?

Vegan activism is so self-centric, because animals cannot speak in any language that humans can understand. As a result, while the focus is animal welfare, (white) humans get to be the voice and face of the movement. And so many vibe so well to this level of notoriety.

If you could use your privilege to change laws affecting workers, directly challenge companies using child labour (behind the scenes) give platforms for exploited workers to speam for themselves, etc, then how would you get your attention, amirite?

For many vegans, the public activism, the "brand", the "lifestyle", and of course, feeling superior to others, seems to matter more than informing and empowering people.

So many of y'all spend more time shaming fat people and telling us how eating meat is "unnatural" than you do explaining how factory farming pollutes groundwater, demanding better work conditions for migrant workers,or challenging the practices of companies who pollute the Earth.

You spend more time telling folks how much weight you lost and how veganism "cured" your depression than you do learning about food deserts, and the socioeconomic reasons impacting a poor/malnutritious diet.

Y'all will compare factory farming to chattle slavery and simultaneously ignore the actual slavery that companies like Nestlé use abroad every single day. Y'all don't really care about people or slavery at all. Just admit it.

Y'all will shame people of colour who eat meat as a small way of perserving their cultural backgrounds in West nations were we are forced ro assimilate in every other way, but ignore the appropriation of white chefs who cash out on that same culture.

Y'all will ignore how factory farming is a western invention that PoC parttake in for our survival and racially attack us, shielding white supremacist rhetoric behind environmentalism.

You could go after meat and dairy lobbyists, but that's too much work, right? Besides, politics aren't any fun! You might lose YouTube followers! Better to make your thousandth raw til 4 or what I eat in a day video.

Y'all's "activism" and "commitment to a better planet" is hollow and performative as fuck, but go awf.

I've seen so many vegans get on that ridiculous #strawban bandwagon on the premise of "pollution" when plastic straws are 0.003% of our waste, plastic bottles (seeg Nestlé) are clogging the ocean, and no one even stopped to ask disabled folks what they might need.

The zero waste vegan are doing a slightly better job of practicing what they preach but fail to see that minimalism is best practiced by those who can afford to buy items of the very best quality the first time around. Poverty doesn't allow this.

I can't any vegan who doesn't consider race, gender, ability, and economic class into the context of every single discussion seriously. What we do, and are able to do, is an extension of who we are.