Every vegan will have been asked this question I am sure. An off hand, throw away question that just makes up part of a greeting with a friend or family member. But isn’t it just so frustrating?
My latest experience of this was from a friend checking in, the follow on was that they had a tasty meat based dish in the oven and it made them think of me. Talk about a double whammy! A stupid question followed by a slap in the face.
I know that it will have just been done in jest, but this sort of attitude is at the heart of what we are up against. What do they expect us to say? “Oh no I only cared about animals for a little bit, then I just couldn’t take not eating a piece of bacon anymore so stopped caring.”
Maybe the message just isn’t clear to non-vegans, it isn’t a fad, a trend or a phase. It is an outlook on life, the outlook on life that makes us compassionate human beings, that stops us being hypocrites.
Next time I get asked that I think I will just throw back “hell yeah, you still eating dead carcasses and promoting rape and murder?” Maybe then we will have a frank conversation about that seemingly trivial question.