Let's get organized: my pitch to a room full of 100 vegans.

hey guys black-and-white video for a
black and white issue um I just got a Skype call from fellow vegan activist and he put to me the question if I were standing in front of a room of 60 to 100 vegans what would I do with the opportunity here in the town I'm living in town where I'm renting an apartment the town where I have a home and he was asking me this because tomorrow he's going to be in exactly that situation he has the opportunity to give a lecture or give a pitch to try to make something positive happen in terms of getting people motivated of getting people organized so I want to reiterate first and foremost this is a question of what would you as a vegan say to a room of other people who are already vegan and the second thing I want to emphasize was this made me immediately reflect wow that's an opportunity that I've never had so although I've made my pitch again and again here on YouTube spoken to the audience people here on YouTube I've put out my own you know vegan manifesto I've talked about questions of method and how to get organized and someone I've never had the opportunity make that kind of pitch to remove vegans and there are different reasons for that including the fact that it seems like the main vegan organizer here in Victoria actively wants to exclude me and silence me and I've now sort of confirmed that by speaking to other people indirectly and asking what's going on why can't I attend these events why can't I participate and so on so if that's how it's gonna be that so it's gonna be and as soon as I figure that out of course then I also started getting in touch with other vegan activist here who are not so happy with the leadership of Jordan right shirt and he want to make something positive happen maybe I can start putting together some events you know with the counter-current of vehicle vegans here who've already grown disaffected with the you know self-appointed dictator for life of veganism in the small town of Canada we'll see what happens but nevertheless I've never actually had this challenge the answer I gave this guy via Skype call he's a patreon supporter by the way that's how I know him he sports me pays $1 a month on patreon to make this channel happen I appreciate and which does indeed give me the opportunity to come here on YouTube and talk to my my small and highly cynical audience of vegan aspiring activists but I said to him look what I would say in these circumstances won't surprise you because you've already seen my youtube channel I would put together a pitch that starts by saying look here we are in a room or 60 vegans over 100 vegans but as long as each one of us is isolated we're very limited what we can do and when I'm here to tell you is just how much we can accomplish with a group of just 30 people who are organized and motivated I'm not asking for your money I'm asking for your time and your interest in getting involved I just saw a video on lai vegans channel so most you've probably never heard of lai vegan I shared the link within patreon talking with this video lady again as a video talking about his attempt to Pastore his involvement in a movement to pass new laws reforms concerning the rights of elephants in Pittsburgh and the video involved for example advocacy and lobbying at City Hall concerning particular forms of cruelty against elephants used in circuses and zoos and they succeeded they've actually gotten some new laws passed and close to the start of this video he says he says something very briefly like he says he's very grateful to have been participating with and involved with this group of people who made this happen and he has a photograph and I paused a count I forget if there are 27 or 30 people in this photograph but hey there are 30 people in the same place at the same time working together to make something happen in politics so if I were giving this pitch I might put up that very example I might put up that image and say hey here here are 30 people in Pittsburgh who changed the law here are 30 people who changed the lives of a handful of specific elephants sir I don't know how many elephants there aren't Pittsburgh it's not there are millions of elephants living there whether it's a few a few hundred or a few dozen I can't say and of course they also created a platform for advocacy and engaging people in these issues to talk about animal rights to talk about veganism etc etc fundamental moral in ecological issues that are at the base of this movement I've heard of some of that and I would put forward a series of examples have to draw them out of a hat of hey let's talk about Mothers Against Drunk Driving let's talk about how a group of people who care passionate about an issue can form an organization that's non-violence it's not based on street protests it's based on lobbying government public education and outreach and that today has representation coast-to-coast in school classrooms incredibly powerful that they do student education to try to convince people to not drive drunk to not take arrests involving alcohol tonight not use alcohol responsibly or to avoid using alcohol at all etc etc I think their message is well-known with it be summarizing it and by contrast here we are as vegans and as long as each one of us remains isolated every day in schools across America or across the state or across the city every day in schools children are being taught that chicken eggs are healthy and that cheese is healthy and in the school cafeteria they're being fed chicken eggs and cheese sometimes for a profit sometimes it's a kind of charity to feed students and we don't have any kind of voice we don't have any ability to dispute that or lobby directly with a School Board and we also don't have the opportunity to educate the students and challenge what's basically advertising and propaganda that's telling them things are healthy for them and safe for them to eat that are neither safe nor healthy right but if we get organized if we become a little bit more like Mothers Against Drunk Driving we could be a powerful voice that of course to some extent impacts the lives of animals but to a much greater extent you know influences the future transformations of our culture changes human behavior culturally and even legally and legislatively so put together a bunch of examples like this another one I like to talk about is you know leather and the fact that leather isn't just immoral it has terrible ecological impacts and also is terrible health impacts leather is made modern leather is cured with a chemical called chromium hexane if you actually just have a closet full of leather clothes believe it or not the air pollution coming from that leather is damaging your health it's damaging your children's health and so on and we can present some really scary you know scientific facts about that now in terms of starting a conversation with meat eaters people have never heard about veganism before it's completely different to approach them and say hey you know what I want to let you know something you probably don't know did you know leather actually has a negative impact in your health having having a leather couch or leather clothing in your home is exposing you to chromium vaccine and these other health damages in terms of starting a conversation in terms of a basis for whether it's lobbying government or outreach in public education that's completely different from walking up to a stranger on the street who's wearing fur and telling them hey morally you're a bad person because you're you're wearing you're wearing foreign public it's it's just different okay and you could structure and outreach and public education campaign and political lobbying etc around this issue of leather for example so this is my answer to his question what would you do now if you had the opportunity to make a pitch this way to a roomful of sixty vegans a roomful of 100 vegans and I had to reflect I've never had that opportunity but for those who've been watching this YouTube channel for a long time it won't be surprising to you I would probably try to pick out some case studies and some examples like that whether it's something small and specific like hey thirty people in Philadelphia managed to pass cruelty legislation anti-cruelty legislation to protect elephants or if it's something larger like hey let's look at some cases in India where the whole city was declared vegetarian let's look at cases where slaughterhouses were shut down when you have a culture that really you know embraces veganism or at least vegetarianism one on some level where it's possible to lobby for profound change in that way or if you try to pick out some issues that offer a specific opportunity for our outreach in between and you know what you're really asking people to do at that first phase is to give you their email give you their email address or give you their Facebook contact give you some way to get in touch and keep in touch and to start with that first faltering step whether it's five people 15 people or thirty people so that we can move beyond the very limited impact we can have as isolated vegans of course if you're if you're an isolated individual person with a vegan diet that's great that's tremendously morally positive but the potential we have to make social change political change cultural change for the long-term to educate others and yes the impact ultimately the lives and welfare of specific animals the ecology of specific river basins you know oceans etc that's gonna come by taking those next few steps that starts with me asking people hey I'm not asking for your money I'm asking for your time your attention your email address and for us to try to get organized to make something positive that