Tess Begg vs. Joe Best ("Lifestyle Veganism" vs. Real Politics)

this video is going to be tricky to make
because we are talking about the shallowest of the shallow and we are also talking about the most profound of the profound in reality in 2016 there's a distinction between lifestyle veganism and vegan activism even within this completely phony and peculiar sphere of digital veganism as I call it um now there shouldn't be and I think in some kind of philosophical or abstract sense there isn't a difference between lifestyle veganism and vegan activism but if you want to know what I'm talking about you can take it Landsat a YouTube channel like tests beg a name I didn't even know until yesterday came up in a conversation with another vegan there are vegans actively depicting and promoting um bikinis and beaches and bicycles and buffets and plates full of fruit and showing off a lifestyle of self-indulgence luxury athleticism healthy eating but it's what I like to call a permanent vacation right now for contrast to that and and look sexuality is also a huge component of all this whether it's male virility or female sexuality it's I don't have to spell it out for you guys look at any of these channels it's part of what's being bought and part of what's being sold the dream of a second youth for older people and obviously for young people it's a component of the transaction now the contrast that you can take a look at London vegan actions they also have a YouTube channel London vegan actions they're young women of about the same age I don't know anyone's age exactly in this comparison London vegan actions they're filming themselves you know standing in front of a restaurants chanting about foie gras trying to get foie gras taken off the menu they're doing street activism one of their forms of activism was sitting in the Sun way the London subway system and showing film showing video of slaughterhouse conditions trying to get strangers interest in veganism so look you know in a real sense there is no difference between lifestyle veganism and vegan activism like in real life the same people who are doing these actions who are attending these protests they probably they may go on vacation once in a while to I don't know maybe they never go on vacation they're not depicting themselves as being on permanent vacation they're not showing off what they eat for breakfast that morning and they're obviously they're not motivated by the fantasy that 10,000 people will watch a video carefully edited together of what I ate for breakfast this morning but they still got to eat breakfast and you know it may be that some of the people who present the grimy estranja most political and activist version themselves so that's what they choose to broadcast that's what they choose to present to the world engage the internet those same people for all I know they go on vacation in Thailand once in a while or they have a they have a breakfast buffet that's even more luxurious than anything you see on the so-called lifestyle vegan channels so it's a distinction that's more apparent but real but it comes back to our subject here in a kind of dynamic way the homie Joe best who has gotten himself into a lot of trouble in the vegan community the community that is not a community um he's put up a series of monologues basically complaining about how excluded he feels and that he's now gonna stop were you even referring to himself as vegan and talking about the political implications of this and he's saying honestly enough how hard it has been for him to be a guy transitioning from eating meat to veganism and to be accepting community of his own in profession so on now look the problem has been and this is invisible to Joe best himself because he's knee-deep in the game and there's a sexual component to this Joe best man you aren't on that subway in London showing that film of slaughterhouse conditions you're not at the slaughterhouse filming either okay you're not doing legit activism or political agitation or even public education of any kind okay if you were the fact that you are a fat bald middle-aged man would not be such an obstacle to you it really wouldn't I'm probably older than Joe best I think I don't know his age either but I mean I'm a middle-aged intellectual I don't pretend to be something I'm not I don't pretend to be tests beg and I don't pretend to hang with tests beg if I met someone like her I might have a polite conversation but someone who's dramatically younger than me and someone who's involved with you know trying to capitalize on trying to commercialize that kind of luxurious lifestyle that's not someone I'm gonna have a lot of common ground with and we all know the story with Joe best it's an understatement to say you know he was trying to get in on that lifestyle vegan world he was trying to you know be a be a member of himself and he was trying to get involved with romantically several women who were playing exactly that game women who were I mean if I'm gonna be blunt part of what's going on here is is what I call the the rise of the freely clones people who are trying to to clone trying to imitate the success of freely and her channel her fame her money and so on but I noticed you know most of freelee's imitators they do not keep it real in the way freely does although it's not every video like it's not that big a percentage of what she does freely has put out really honest talk about her drug use about her past jobs as a waitress in a cocktail lounge she's talked about real life in a in a pretty gritty and honest way down earth that you will not find on the channels of most of our imitators but also look I mean imitation lightning doesn't strike it's always going to be different because it's not the first time it's always going to be different for you because you didn't invent it right so look I mean this is the this is the brutally honest truth Joe best is complaining that he's not welcome in veganism but the reality is he is just not welcome in the phoniest shallowest side of lifestyle veganism and of course he's not that's the side of veganism we're being beautiful matters were being young matters being athletic matters and of course being 100% vegan matters and his experience would be totally different and be complaining with something completely different if he were involved in I don't know what to say political vegan veganism real vegan activism public education any kind of charity work I mean if this guy were producing illustrated books to educate children about vivisection oh he would have a level of respect from the community the community doesn't is completely different from the way he's regarded because we all know the game he's playing there in Thailand and I ain't even hating on the game I'm not I'm not trying to shame you Joe best I mean I don't play that game myself but you know it says old as planet Earth Earth ain't gonna stop turning around and you know guys like you ain't gonna stop doing what they gotta do now I feel like this video has already gone on to its limit but the truth is I had a completely separate issue to raise here that I think Joe best is oblivious to all right let's try to tack it on now you don't know how suffering will change you and part of being vegan being a committed ethically motivated vegan being a hundred percent vegan it involves some suffering okay Joe best has this flippant attitude of saying well he's mostly vegan but sometimes he goes to the 7-eleven this is in in Thailand and you know they don't have the bread he usually buys so he buys some other bread and he doesn't read the label and he doesn't care whether or not it contains some milk powder or something like this he eats meat and she's once in a while out of convenience in this way it may not be a lot of suffering Joe but you know what there are people of principle who on point of principle will go hungry rather than eat that bread with the milk pattern and if you had that experience I can say you don't know how that suffering would change you that's one of the things in life you can never anticipate you can never see into the future suffering will change your character it will change who you are to the core of your being and now this is this is not intense suffering it's not I mean you can go for a day without eating at all and be okay I've done I did a bike trip probably over a hundred and fifteen kilometres I got off the bike in this small village in Thailand and I could not eat anything in the whole village I couldn't even get white rice I managed to get soy milk done some of the brands of soy milk in Thailand have have milk powder so you kind of watch over that so I mean you know I was completely burnt out and exhausted and I got I had like Gatorade and soy milk and no solid food it's a matter of principle I've I've probably said this in the channel 4 I've been to business meetings where there was a fabulous buffet I'm thinking about in like Hong Kong especially this also have you in Thailand I went to lavish buffet for business function and I didn't eat a goddamn thing I went hungry and I sat there and the meeting continues and I have an empty plate and everyone around me is eating dead animals because you know even the rice has little bits of pork in it or whatever you know everything God now that I remember that in in Taiwan that was a huge problem I work inside a museum it was quite isolated in Taiwan and there even the rice had pork fat even the noodles everything had had meat and yeah I would I would eat nothing and sometimes you know that was it like for the day you would go to these banquets that were part of the business meeting you you really didn't have another choice people can give all kinds of examples of much more intense personal suffering in their lives that come out of being vegan and obviously this is nothing compared to the suffering of the animals or what have you but yeah Joe it is natural people who have that experience who have that level of commitment and care people were willing to go hungry on pointed principle how are they gonna look at you and you're presenting yourself not just as an anonymous schlub but as a community leader right and you put yourself in a leadership role and again there's a sexual component of that we know why you did that right let's keep it a hundred all right let's keep it a hundred percent honest and real here lifestyle veganism is not open to everybody vegan activism political agitation is not open to everybody but yeah if you're a middle-aged bold intellectual and you want respect because that's what he's complaining about is disrespect you know there are a lot of different ways for you to earn respect in this community community that doesn't even exist but trying to play games with tests beg that ain't one of them