Experiments in Living

Since becoming vegan, and frequenting vegetarian and vegan message boards and email lists, I have encountered a vociferous minority of fundamentalists. These characters have given me the inspiration to create a composite persona I shall call the “Fundie Vegan”.

Rather than get into an argument with these people, like some other veg*ans, I bring you, the readers of Experiments in Living, the latest rants from Fundie Vegan. Seriously, nothing is good enough for these people. When a forum member posted about enjoying some yummy Redwood food chicken style pieces, FV attacked him as he had bought it from Asda, and since they are a member of Wal*Mart, he was therefore supporting a hideous multinational which is single handedly responsible for the credit crunch, rising fuel costs and starvation in the third world. OK, I might have embellished that a little, but you get the picture.

Here’s FV’s latest, a letter sent to the owners of a B&B, proudly posted on a message board to show just what an arse they are how strongly they feel about veg*nism

Dear Bed and Breakfast owners,
I have looked at your website and am astonished that you mention
‘vegetarians who eat fish’. Anyone who eats fish is not a vegetarian.
I am pleased to see that you cater for vegans as well as providing views of
red kites but would not pay as much as £25 for an evening meal if there was
the risk of being in the same room as someone eating a dead animal. I know
many vegetarians who feel the same so I urge you to change your policy on
serving fish.
Best wishes,
Fundie Vegan

Now I’m sure FV isn’t the only veg*an to find the sight of omnis cutting into their rare steak slightly nauseating, but the tone here says it all. If FV is offended by the risk of witnessing someone cutting into meat/fish/soy nugget, then so be it. Don’t go to that guest house. The thing that really got me was that they hadn’t even visited said guest house, but were taking the owners to task over their website.

Western culture is predominantly a meat eating culture. Chances are that unless you become a hermit, you will, at some point, see someone munching into some kind of flesh food. FV’s behaviour just reinforces the stereotype that veg*ans are preachy, dogmatic and a pain to be around. Grrr!

Tags: vegan, vegetarian