The Kind Diet vs. the Judgemental Diet: Alicia Silverstone vs. Reality.

you're like I'm your worst mom nightmare
because my son only eats chicken fingers I wear leather I had cancer I know maybe I wouldn't know if I was like a clean healthy ADA her so what would you say and do you judge you're very outspoken and everything that you say so do you ever feel judged and do you judge Wow there is a bit of a subtle irony here in contrasting the topic of this video to Alicia Silverstone to the promoter of the kind diet she used this term the kind diets refer veganism um and in that little clip of an interview it's obvious that she is perceived as judgmental and outspoken what she says no matter how you market it no matter how kind you pretend to be people are going to perceive you in the workplace in your own family etc etc as outspoken and judgmental and they are going to feel they're gonna feel judged they're gonna feel spoken to how else am I going to say it no matter how you approach these things veganism as a diet as a political practice as an ideology veganism is simple but it's not easy I think we have to keep in mind that's simple and easy are two very different things whether we're talking about the simplicity of veganism as an ethical concept as a moral argument it's simple a child can understand it's simple but it's not easy it's not easy to explain it's not easy to live with it's not easy to convince others though or even if we're talking about the nutritional side of it the advantages veganism has a diet are stark they're striking they're shocking they show up in the epidemiology they show up under a million different headings most obviously heart attacks cancer etc etc but nevertheless simple is not easy even though the advantage of the vegan diet may be simple simple to convey simple to prove simple to believe in still living with the vegan diet is not easy convincing others to live is not easy and just maintaining your sense of space and boundaries is not easy so I've got a letter here from a longtime supporter on patreon Curtis aka not Curtis Curtis wrote into me thanks very much for your support Curtis I do indeed rely on the one dollar a month the people who value this channel want this channel to continue the people who want to talk to me and people want me to take the time to read their comments and write back to them Curtis was replying to an earlier video I made in response to a bodybuilder professional bodybuilder use of the YouTube channel named BIOS three training well I talked about the kind of respect that day-to-day vegans have to fight for just to maintain their sense of boundaries in the workplace just to avoid things such as what Curtis talks about here other people forcing you to eat meat other people disrespecting you actively getting your face interfering with your day-to-day the Curtis right in response to that video this brings to mind a couple of recent events and discussions around them in the workplace during one of the monthly staff lunches of my workplace were consultants about 50 percent of us regularly working remotely so it's also a team-building exercise the vegan option ordered for me at a Mexican restaurant was veggie nachos - the cheese and sour cream but it had sour cream anyway one co-worker was insisting that I should eat it and their repeated insistence on this turned into a heated discussion I ended it with quote I don't just not expect you to agree I expect you to never care about animal ethics we're only having this discussion because you can't show me the respect I deserve and you won't [ __ ] off another encounter in a previous month involved a co-worker trying to slip meat into my food as a prank it very nearly became a physical confrontation oh and today there is a homemade sausage competition five meters from my office window today smelling gross burning fat that got torn from a feeling animal's body hearing hurdy guffaws at jokes about heart attacks etc it is not a good day to be beating for me so look guys it is a struggle and that's what this channel is all about at its core is talking about that struggle yes I'm interested in the future of the movement yes inter skinning politically organized to make a positive difference yes I'm interested in publishing a children's storybook doing outreach and education and all kinds of positive things for future movement but at its core the reason why I record videos talking about my feelings and talking about my life and what have you one of my main reasons for doing this is exactly to share with others what that struggle is and when I first came on YouTube it seemed to me that everyone was just giving this candy coated picture of veganism that instantly your hair and skin get better that your life becomes so fabulous but they're fixed so wonderful and nobody was talking about the struggle and you know piece by piece I do see other vegan youtubers coming online keeping it real keeping it raw talking about exactly what it is day in day out whether it's your own family in the workplace or what have you that makes it a struggle but I find that these concepts this whole overly familiar language of don't judge me I won't judge you it's shockingly irrelevant to what that struggle is and how it works day in day out the people who will not respect you if you are a dogmatic and uncompromising vegan do you actually think they'll respect you more if you're a wimp if you back down if you're non-dogmatic non-judgmental vacillating and compromising I mean if you give an inch you think they won't take a mile if you say it's no big deal for you to eat cheese pizza at the office meeting or you need chips with sour cream on them wherever the other grows you think they'll respect you more when you show them how little morality matters to you as opposed to showing you how much it matters I doubt that I think we really have a culture that in a very false and incidence ear way valorizes compromise and it's worth examining why we valorize compromise why it is that we assume that being uncompromising is going to lead to negative outcomes and at being compromising is going to lead to positive ones I just end you judge Wow oh hi I'm dive we're so cool but the kinda is there's room for everyone like at the ice age people eat a burger while you're reading it whatever however you got to read it so that you can find if you want to feel your best you want to really look your best two's not so bad but if you want to feel better than you've ever felt and really connect to who you truly are as vegans in our own private lives in our political lives we have enough time to try every which way try every wish every maybe at one job at one time you try being compromising and vacillating maybe in some context you just don't mention that you're vegan at all the food just sits there and you don't eat it you don't even tell people why you know life is long you'll get to try many different strategies see many different results from them but the bottom line is if you want people to respect you you've got to tell them who you are why you are this way and why it matters so much to you and I think you're always going to get better results if you're honest with people about that if you're honest about what it means in your life why it's a struggle for you why you think it's worthwhile and if you don't pretend that you live in this judgement free zone oh you don't judge me I don't judge you then we all get along because ultimately what we care about is vegans our outcomes and not egos it's not about my ego it's not about your ego at the end of the day it's about the blood and feces of millions of cows pouring into the rivers and oceans all around the world it's about suffering an ecological devastation on a literally unimaginable scale in order to produce food that is not only unnecessary but is actually unhealthy for a population of billions of people living in a state of voluntary ignorance veganism either you are going to stand up and say it ends here it ends with my plate it ends with my decision or you're going to shrug your shoulders and say me too because you don't want to cause five seconds of this disruption when you sit down with another mom in between I don't even know I describe this at least you're Silverstone sitting down with two other parents or you don't want to disrupt the meeting with your co-workers or whatever that social situation may be ultimately veganism is based on a rejection of convenience because some things matter more than convenience whether you think of that in terms of morality ecology health or all of the above if your morality matters less than your momentary convenience what you're really saying is that you matter less and you can't expect anyone to take you seriously ah ba Liu Yin