Large Popcorn; Hold the Plant-Based Butter
By M.P. Cremer
It’s been a while since the vegan, animal rights and anti-ag Facebook groups I’m in have lit up with a good debate. However, yesterday one group in particular lit up like the Griswold’s house on “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and boy, did I grab a giant bucket of popcorn to sit back and watch the show.
Shannen Michaela is a popular Instagrammer who was vegan and is now a meat eater. She speaks out about what she believes in and often documents herself eating raw meat such as beef liver.
Granted, I don’t like to eat raw liver myself, but if this lady wants to expose veganism for what it really is and gets the attention of 249,000 people by biting into raw animal meat or organs, more power to her.
A member in one of my vegan groups, we’ll call them User One, posted a video of Shannen talking about being a “recovering vegan.” In her video, she talked about “the typical lifecycle of a vegan” from her perspective.
She shared the first step on the road to vegan entails watching a movie called “The Game Changers” which she dubbed as “vegan propaganda,” to which she said might inspire some to go vegetarian. Then, once those vegetarians learn about the dairy and egg industry, they give up dairy and eggs from their diet as well, “for the animals, your health and the planet.”
In the next step, Shannen said you feel great on your plant-based diet but before too long, “you don’t quite feel yourself anymore. You start feeling tired all the time, you’re frequently hungry, bloated and you’re bruising easily – but you never connect the dots veganism is doing this. Afterall, you can get everything you need from a vegan diet, right?”
Shannen went on to list several health issues stemming from the vegan diet. The next step, according to Shannen, is going to your doctor but having blood tests come back normal. She said your vitamin supplement intake grows but you still feel the same: bad.
“But one day, the illusion is shattered. You become aware a restricted diet filled with seed oils, superfoods, hard to digest vegetables and ingredients shipped from halfway across the world isn’t sustainable, cruelty-free or healthy. By that point, you realize veganism is a scam,” Shannen concluded.
User One shared the link to Shannen’s Instagram video with the caption, “The truth!!!”
User One, bless their heart, got ripped to shreds by their own people.
In 58 comments, this user was scolded, name-called and mocked. The user explained in the comments this was just their personal experience with a vegan diet, and they could very well still be an animal rights activist.
Notably, another user commented on User One’s post and said, “Aw, imagine being so offended by saving animals from slaughter.”
User One responded with, “I’m not offended, I think it’s amazing people can be so caring towards other animals – just saying, veganism isn’t for everyone, that’s all.”
User One later said the group couldn’t handle when someone questioned their “fascist views” which allowed another fight to break out in the original post’s comments.
Was it wise for User One to share an anti-vegan video in an overly-pro-vegan Facebook group? Maybe not.
Were they trolling? Potentially, but I digress.
You know when you get in an argument with someone and then they do something to prove your point? Or when someone gets upset with you for making a certain action or saying a certain phrase, then seemingly moments later, the upset person does the exact certain action or says the exact certain phrase?
And you know the face you make when it happens? The face with a subtle smirk and raised eyebrows? Maybe a small flare of the nose?
Yep, that’s the exact face I made while reading this entire monstrosity on my computer screen – the face of hilarious irony.
I don’t even have to provide my opinion on all of this, y’all know it by now and the face I described in the previous paragraph says it all.
Bottom line: User One was right. Veganism isn’t for everyone.
It dang sure wasn’t for me when I tried it a few years ago. Whether you agree with the animal rights movement or not, you can’t deny there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
And the icing on the cake of this entire ordeal? User One, and subsequently all the other 5,000 plus members of this vegan Facebook group, learned many of their own aren’t the animal loving, non-meat-eating saints they claim to be. Even if only one animal rights activist-vegan learns the truth, then I think we’re making progress.
