Have you ever wonder why being a vegan is difficult in some communities where vegan food might not be available at all, friends and family question your decision of turning vegan and people in general accuse you for being extreme in your diet? Well, even though veganism is a simple concept that we eat only plant-based food, just like what normal people eat without animal products, this lifestyle seems to be a problem in people's perception. I have been wondering about this question too until I come across a video shared by an animal activism Facebook group that introduce the ideology of carnism. We have heard about carnivorism, but carnism is a totally different thing which exists only in human communities. According to Melanie Joy, a psychologist from Harvard University, carnism is a belief that restrict us to eat only certain animals.
Joy pointed out that each community in different part of the world has different level of acceptance for types of meat that we consume. We may own a dog as a pet, but not as a farm animal who will be slaughtered when the time comes like what happened in Yulin dog meat festival. She explained the three reasons that lead to this 'speciesism' (similar to racism, I think you get what I mean): denial, justification and cognitive distortions. I won't go into detail on the explanation she has made as you can watch the video or read the book later on. These three terms are exactly the description of non-vegans' behaviour towards vegans when they feel that they are being threatened to be accused as bad guys for consuming meat when the vegans had just simply stated the reasons of them going vegan without being judgemental at all.
I can be considered as an angry vegan two weeks ago after watching various documentaries on problems caused by animal agriculture towards our health, environment and humanity. Driven by this rage towards all the misinformation that we are being force-fed all these while and covered-up injustice faced by billions of innocent souls every second in their life, I frantically bombarded my Facebook news feed with animal welfare related posts or anything that I think people should know about the real animal agriculture industries. Now that I have calmed down from days of emotional roller coaster (it was really tiring) and I can think more clearly from the perspective of non-vegans, since I was one for more than 22 years. In order to reach out to more people on this issue, I have to keep reminding myself that, not everyone knows the truth. Slaughterhouses don't have glass walls, we don't even have the chance to witness the butchering of a live animals which are called food (it might be common to watch slaughtering in Malaysia though) or to hear the painful cry of a mother cow after losing her calf. It's a reflex reaction when non-vegans react with statements that do not make sense because the awareness is not there and there is no way they can defend their meat-eating habit sensibly. It will take time for the truth to diffuse into their mind which is often clogged with information portrayed in advertisement or traditional cultures that do not treat animals as sentient beings. I like how Joy conclude the main factor of people's denial, justification and cognitive distortions towards meat eating - because we care.
Deep in our hearts, we do not want the animals to suffer, we do not want to see the animals crying for mercy, we do not want to be the bad guys who are causing all the pain that innocent beings go through day after day. So we turn our back towards all the truth even though we have heard about them, we carry on with our normal life with meat on our table with leather on our shoes. Humans have empathy, we cringe when we see other people in great pain and it's a natural instinct to want to help. We wish to see cows relaxingly chill out on green pasture, young goats playfully bounce around like puppies, cute wagging tails of ducks swimming freely in a pond. It will be in such a Garden of Eden to have all animals free from any form of unnecessary harm.
So don't let the guilt turn your defensive mode on when you encounter messages about veganism. Open up your heart as the animals need your voice and action. They can't speak, but we can.
A short video on The Secret Reason We Eat Meat by Melanie Joy: