Veganism Jumped the Shark. And Here's Why.

when did veganism jump the shark for
those of you don't know the phrase in English jump the shark is an old 1990s internet phenomenon referring originally to a TV show called happy days where there was one episode in which the plot came to a tremendous crescendo one of the characters on a motorcycle attempted to jump over a shark a shark in an aquarium and the idea is it's some kind of tremendous event after which TV show it's not necessarily that it becomes worse and worse but it can never attain its former glory again so this thing we're doing here which is only partly on the internet and partly in real life partly on YouTube but yeah YouTube's been a big part of it last five years really has been don't kid yourself um when did veganism jump the shark I was reminded of this today thinking of the very first controversy that really got other vegans hating me and how instructive that example was now a lot of you love you a regular what viewers you'll think you know what controversy I'm talking about but you don't we need you mate who's gonna make ma close line a second guesses ethics who's gonna troll supermarket customers to get their take on eating meat we need people who spice it up in this youichi community all the other vegan channels they all have the unique perspective we need your perspective you're taking action in your life and you want to get better and I really admire and respect that you know visibly Conchita shaped oh there was a really funny thing that happened way back when I was still in Victoria attending classes at UVic where there was a guy who back then was vegan who back then was a sincere vegan activist called vegan cheetah today he's ex vegan and anti vegan and he became a horrible human being became the most hated and infamous figure for years but this is before all of that before all of that he was a small channel really like 1,000 views per video or less he was a small Channel nobody new people are new when people like me there were other people contributing to YouTube who knew him that was about it he was a small channel like Dom Bower or something like everyone everyone who's a part of vegan YouTube knows Dom Bower but Dom Bower isn't famous and doesn't get a lot of use for video anything he was a it was a small voice and you know he just come on and he made a really sad video that even though he'd he'd tried to quit heroin he'd already been in and out of jail had been in a rehab he had a situation where he broke up with a girlfriend a short term girlfriend and he relapsed and he voluntarily turned himself in like he went and used heroin again and nobody caught him he didn't get arrested he went and he turned he decided to go go back and do rehab again and a whole bunch of people contributed little clips of videos that basically said get well soon we want you to we want we value you as being part of the vegan we want you to be here we want you to be one of us now the controversy that ensued had to do with who would edit it and produce the video there was another guy who was supposed to do it and he screwed up and he had blown his deadline for months and I said to him we'll look I've got the clips do you want me to go ahead and edit together because you've missed your chance you've screwed up and he said yes which he later lighted but he said yeah you can go ahead and do your own thing with it he said he was gonna do his own project with it in future but it would take more time and it wasn't well he wanted to do with it wasn't what people were expecting of him and wasn't what I was gonna do she's just I edited together the clips and made this welcome home get well soon video for the guy but when you think about the constellation of good intentions that's involved there the type of collaboration of those people coming together and yeah I ended up editing the video and uploading it but whatever and I remember in the video yeah I just joke around I said to him that I can still benchpress more than he does or something that makes him joke never happen again never happen again on any issue and of course there's been so many like more important issues or tragedies right I mean there there have been vegans there were people within the movement that terrible things happened ooh okay but of course this is the sad way in which it's even more instructive what happened immediately after the video was done after it was wrapped after was uploaded to my channel everyone started pointing fingers at everyone else and making up ludicrous conspiracy theory so that was when a vegan revolution started that's the name of his channel Josh he started blackening my name he claimed that I was secretly working for the CIA to destroy veganism from within like that was when he started really putting out all kinds of negative stuff against me he did an interview with Charles after that with vegan cheetah and more than 50% of the recording is about me his theories about me and the office it's kind of and it wasn't just me it wasn't just you know backstab you direct for me there was backstabbing between other people in that video you know sorcerer morale was in the video I remember I won't say who there was another person in the video who's now quit vegan YouTube and deleted her channel I remember someone told me she wasn't a real vegan that she would buy bread and didn't care if it eggs or milk in it he'd seen this himself and you know there was nothing to win Oh people started tearing each other down people started tearing me down and you know there was nothing wrong there was there wasn't like it was a cause here to be sad about there wasn't a crisis and there wasn't like a struggle for some kind of scarce commodity we were trying to control right so you saw the kind of glimmer of hope of positivity of people working together and then you saw the darkness and the hollowness behind it just like that and I wish I could say looking back at the last five years the last ten years whatever school the time I wish I could say looking back that yeah you know there are a lot of situations like that there are a lot of situations where people come together and really collaborate to do something nice to do something positive to reach out to someone and say hey I heard you went to drug rehab I hope you get well soon I hope you know that when you come out you come out clean we want you to be part of the vegan movement we care about you we value your YouTube channel and we value as a vegan activist I don't know even even one other one other example now kind of it there are reasons for this right like even that one I mentioned okay so there's this one girl and she said she was vegan but Ashlee sheets bread that has milk powder and eggs and stuff okay it's not meaningless there's something there so there's some phone of contention right I totally admit it um you know Wayne's young let's say Wayne's young goes to prison it's very unlikely but it's possible he's got this court case whatever I just saw his his video very dramatic very well edited video he put out his propaganda piece presenting himself as a murderer and a hero because of going to prison I I disagree with what he's saying politically but regardless it's a very well movie matil at under 400 views had been up for a couple weeks this is a leader of a major international vegan organization direct action everywhere he gets fewer YouTube views than I do why one of the reasons is you won't collaborate with me and I don't just mean me I mean me and me and me and you and you and you and you all the people like me even if each one only has a couple thousand viewers right Wayans Young is sitting there with his piece presenting himself as a great martyr and a hero with his 390 views on this video it put so much effort into even though it's part of future and he doesn't even reach the people I reach with that message because he will talk to me now if he talked to me of course you'd have debate you'd have you know I'm not gonna be an uncritical fan for this guy but there might be some kind of synergy and collaboration another's I mean Gary Franchione a huge figure in the movement big movement fewer fuse on YouTube than I do go check his channel he obviously got disheartened and gave up sometimes go oh I'm I'm not a more important person to give heard no question he's way more important than me but again why why why did he fail why do you fail to connect with people here on YouTube or in the movement in real life because YouTube its importance as a bridge to really it's because he never came on my channel and it's not just me it's me and me and me it's you and you and you it's a lot of people like me it's a lot of people at you in the ideas it's because he never had a video like that like for Charles where everyone throws in a little piece I could I could keep going on down the list the young woman in England who founded the Earthlings experience right YouTube channel tried out became nothing and you know not insulting her but her whole movement dried up and became nothing even though it was it was groundbreaking and she got mainstream media coverage she had all kinds of things behind her uh uh and then she was her movement was knocked off and imitated by Paul Bashir and Paul Bashir's movement again allegedly a huge international movement the videos on his channel get suspiciously few views and I think we know what that is again there's no collaborations no cooperation that is when veganism jump the shark and that is why veganism jump the shark is because each one of these leaders in each one of these movements sunk into a kind of doleful isolation and the synergy and the potential for cooperation and the potential to challenge one another's opinions and come up with creative and dining new perspectives just just creativity as such disappeared I mean really people like to disrespect my truth but the fact is that you know my name is I don't know you