Some thoughts on the subject of veganism.

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Years ago before I became vegan I never would have predicted the subject of veganism/diet would have become so massive/popular/widespread.

Photo by Rustic Vegan on Unsplash Even though I consider myself vegan and have researched the subject in depth for close to 4 years now I try to stay open minded and.. I've been watching some of the debates and reading many of the comments associated with such and in general and it's just surprising to me sometimes. Many people have become violent over the issue on both sides and many have resorted to violent language as well on both sides. Also before you misconstrue what I said when I use the word violent, the word violent according to my etymological research is suppose to basically just mean "strong" or "forceful". You can have a violent wave in the ocean that harms no one, violent doesn't necessarily mean anyone is being harmed or that anyone is attempting to harm. Though many people on both sides do get their lives threatened and there have been some physical altercations as well. I've actually had my life threatened numerous times before for trying to stand up for the animals in a similar way that I have from speaking out against illegal/corrupt wars. I've personally found that the vitriol I've got from animal exploitation defenders is the most extreme out of any arena I've spoken out in.. Even in anti war circles which is pretty surreal to me. I can sort of understand, from the vegan perspective people are often speaking out to what they perceive as injustice done to animals. Torture, murder, rape, enslavement of sentient beings that cannot speak our language and who don't deserve such treatment and it even goes further to the destruction of our environment and threatening the survival of our own species.. And on the other side animal eaters often believe exploiting animals is not only normal, natural and healthy and that there's nothing wrong with it but that a vegan diet is unhealthy and that there's a conspiracy to make people weak by the people in power and that their very health and the health of their loved ones is on the line. The debate is only growing and becoming more and more prevalent and intense. And recently a few interesting exchanges happened I want to touch on briefly. Askyourself vs Stephan Molyneux and Vegan Gains vs Sv3rige. The debate with Askyourself and Stephan was pretty good, very civil and respectful and much more about the philosophy and morality and while I've appreciated Stephan in the past as he helped me discover anarchy and a higher understanding of freedom.. He also lost me when he started defending Trump and also with his stance on veganism. He was unable to really offer a good answer to the "name the trait" question and was doing mental gymnastics and it wasn't very compelling what he said. They talked about a future more in depth debate which I hope happens cause that would be great to see and I'd be curious as to how he continues to defend his position when it seems like there really is not logical answer in my opinion. Then the debate with Vegain Gains and Sv3rige was just weird.. Sv3rige asks for proof but never offers any of his own proof and basically rejects all science except that which supports his position and almost always says stuff in absolute manner and expects testimonial anecdotal evidence to be satisfactory when anyone can say anything and that doesn't make it true, especially for the masses. Looking at the comments on both of their pages each side thinks their guy won.. The vegans think Vegain Gains won and the carnivores/animal exploiters think Sv3rige won.. It's so bizarre and weird to me. I guess it shouldn't be.. I've seen people cling to their beliefs so much in my life that it shouldn't surprise me at all. Yet.. It's still just so weird.. I think the main thing I'm noticing is a massive confirmation bias, on both sides but especially the animal exploiting side. Both in what I've observed and experienced in personal debates the animal exploitation defenders tend to cite certain info that they believe in and totally disregard and ignore anything that challenges their belief system. There's just overwhelming evidence of so many healthy people at the peak of human physical fitness in virtually every sport winning world records and doing it all on plants and that alone to me is enough for me to ask myself.. Well if they can be so healthy and do so much on just plants, why can't I? I don't need any studies when looking at it that way, though the overwhelming amount of studies and especially credible/non industry funded studies are on the vegan side. As much as animal exploiters claim that vegans in general are deficient in nutrients, studies show we are not and the top athletes in the world who are vegan show me that without needing to resort to studies. I've met or seen quite a few people who've been vegan either since birth or most of their lives and who are at the peak of human health and fitness and.. Clearly it works for some people, I don't know why it doesn't seem to work for others? I have some theories and one of the main ones has to do with gut bacteria and how people become adapted to foods they've eaten a lot of throughout their life and so it can be difficult for them to switch to new foods. Though in the end.. It keeps coming back to this for me. If I can be healthy without intentionally harming other sentient beings with my life, why wouldn't I? After close to 4 years of eating vegan, I don't feel like I'm missing anything. And I see countless other people who are similar and who've been vegan much longer. I have thousands of vegans on my Facebook friends list and I see overwhelming evidence on a regular basis. Animal agriculture is likely the #1 cause that is destroying our environment in many ways and that it is unsustainable with our population and hunting is as well with such a large population, so in order to make it work you would have to reduce the population greatly which is sketchy as heck. It just seems to make an overwhelming amount of sense to me that veganism is the healthier route for individuals and the planet after years of studying it and living it. Though clearly there's a lot of people who disagree majorly and even violently so and who wish physical violence on people like myself for simply wanting a healthier more peaceful world. It's fascinating and amazing to me that there is such a large debate over this still, it doesn't seem like it should be so contested and that more people should realize what I and so many others have realized. Yet.. Here we are. A world that is so addicted to exploiting animals and so confused about what is healthy that we might extinct ourselves because people can't give up enslaving and torturing and murdering innocent sentient beings. PS.. To the couple people on steem I've debated this with in the past and stopped responding to, I apologize. I've been extremely busy and unable to keep up with my messages. I hope to some day get back to those conversations.

Photo by Victoria Shes on Unsplash
Originally posted here: https://steemit.com/vegan/@apolymask/some-thoughts-on-the-subject-of-veganism