Anarchists and voluntaryists, those lunatics who believe that all human interaction should be voluntary and consensual, are some of the most demonised and misunderstood members of society.
Anarchists have come to the spiritual understanding that all human beings are sovereign and should be free, free to live their lives without a political ruling class extorting and violating them on a daily basis.
They are often ridiculed for championing the ideas of freedom, non-aggression and self-ownership, for suggesting that human beings would be better off without a violent gang of control freaks (politicians) imposing their will on society with their numerous fictitious 'laws' and 'regulations'. Anarchists understand that the greatest injustices throughout history -- slavery, genocide, mass murder -- were all once legal and carried out under the guise of 'law and order'.
When they point out that government and political authority is the biggest mass murderer in human history, and we would all be better off without its presence in our lives, they are labelled 'extremists' and 'radicals'.
Similarly vegans, those kooks who extend the non-aggression principle to animals and understand that humans have no legitimate right to enslave, torture, and murder hundreds of billions of creatures each year in the name of animal agriculture, are also wrongly demonised and mischaracterized by the media.
Vegansism, at its core, is an ideology based in compassion, love, and respect for all sentient beings and inhabitants of planet Earth. But, if you have been following the UK media lately, you may have come away with the impression that veganism is 'extreme' and that its advocates are potentially dangerous and/or violent.
This couldn't be further from the truth.
In this upside-down Orwellian nightmare reality we have created for ourselves, those who speak truth to power and seek to advance our species in any kind of moral or spiritual capacity are vilified and mocked. While those who maintain the status quo and perpetuate the myth that humans and animals need to be violently ruled over by 'authority' are respected and idolised.
Whichever way the media tries to spin it, choosing to NOT pay for the mass slaughter of pigs, cows, chickens, goats and fish is not extreme. Choosing, instead, to eat healthier, plant-based alternatives while promoting a lifestyle of non-violence and compassion towards all sentient beings is the next spiritual evolutionary step for mankind.
Paying for animals to be rounded up and exterminated to satisfy our base pleasures of taste and smell is extreme. Voting for a psychopathic gang of politicians, who routinely instigate wars of aggression that threaten our very existence, and thinking they have our best interests at heart, is extreme.
Vegans and anarchists are not 'extremists', they are revolutionaries, standing on the shoulders of giants, who dare to dream of a world with no rulers or masters. No slaves, wars, politicians, drone strikes, slaughterhouses or animal killing floors. A world in which both humans and animals can live in harmony, governed not by the legislative authority of man, but the cosmic moral laws of the universe.
Thanks for reading, In Lak'ech.
Health. Ethics. Environment. I originally came to the vegan diet for optimal health and now I get sweet-ass ethical and environmental benefits, it's been a great ride I must say.
The plant-based diet is the perfect companion to the counter-culture, self-ownership, non aggressive lifestyle! It is a great diet for anyone who actually takes the time to question the systems surrounding us, harvesting our money and time to our own detriment.
As Mark Sheppard above me wrote, the standard food systems of the world are fuuuuuucking extreme. Replacing the rain forests with cow grazing pastures? Injecting drugs galore into the shit you then put into your body? Mass slaughter of sentient beings with zero fucks given about their right to life? Shipping polluted fish, harvested by slave labor in Thailand to be processed in China then shipped to the USA to be sold to some person who is on a cocktail of drugs to treat diseases that are present in their body because of their diet? Are you kidding me? And it's extreme to just eat plants and forego animals and their juices? Nuts, clearly we live in an upside down world. A world I do my level best to separate from at every turn :)
I've never been much of a salesperson. I don't sell my lifestyle, the choices I make or the things I do. I just try to live the healthiest, ethical life possible. I'd like to think that this shows, and, when people ask me questions about the choices I make, I answer them, and provide them with as much information that they want. They can then decide to improve themselves or not. Their choice.
Preach it @mckeever!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Awesome comment, followed!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Only people unwilling to really look into would call it extreme, in my opinion. The current food system in most major countries is also pretty extreme in many ways. Extremely wasteful, for one. Extremely cruel, for another. At the same time, I've learned that most people are not swayed by any arguments for veganism, so sadly I've kind of given up that aspect of it. I do me, they do them, and the world keeps spinning.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Sorry to hear that you've given up trying to argue for veganism. Even if not one person went vegan through any of my blog posts, I will still post them because I believe it's the right thing to do.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I simply don't care if people listen to me. They don't listen to the screams of their "food". The world is going vegan one way or another! I have been told many times that I am extreme, I have been told many times that I am soft. It's all irrelevant to me, wrong is wrong. We are well past needing to raise and slaughter animals, or indeed use them in anyway. We are the higher evolved species on this planet yet so many of our practices are primitive.
Fight the good fight man, Fuck the haters. 😊
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Boom! Couldn't have said it any better.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank you for writing this, this dominant view that so many have over nature is human kinds greatest downfall.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Hi @mckeever
Thanks for sharing this message, I am glad to find the vegan community here on Steemit.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Excellent piece!!!!
Wow I just read that article you linked from the Independent...but this is good news, it means that we (vegans) are gaining power and momentum and that people are starting to listen. They feel threatened (of course, lots of money is involved) and will try to make us look bad, but I don't think that they will succeed. In 20 years we will look back at 2018 as the "time when animal slavery was legal". I love your article!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks! They had Joey Carbstrong dishing out vegan truth on the UK's biggest breakfast show last week, reaching millions of viewers.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
You have a new follower @evecab. 😀
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
So much truth! Taking life and eating meat is a choice. We don't need meat to survive. We'd all be better off if everyone went vegetarian/vegan. Vegan substitutes are also now on par with their counterparts in terms of taste and texture. Fortunately, I see how becoming vegan is becoming a trend. People are "waking up". Good times are ahead :-)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Me, every time I think about what peoples do to nature, how we genocide everything in the most horrible manner... I am having hard time suppressing violent thoughts. But my reasoning tells me, there is the way to do this smart, without violence. I hope to see things change.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
All misfortunes are due to human thoughtlessness and greed. Go vegan!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit