Vegans Aren't All Who You Think They Are!

Some non-vegans seem to assume that vegans are a rather homogeneous demographic that is composed of mostly a few stereotypes such as hippies, health-freaks and anarchist punks who are all politically liberal and live in very densely populated areas. If this is what you think, listen up! Vegans are a very diverse group of people! There are vegans of every age, ethnicity, income, education level, political affiliation, many different religions and no religion at all. They live around the world in big cities and little towns. They range from strict raw foodists to deep-fried vegans and from tree-hugging hippies to SUV-driving consumerists.

Note that veganism is a lifestyle that strives to avoid supporting any abuse, exploitation or killing of animals when choosing what to purchase or consume, so all vegans are concerned about animals. Even here though vegans vary widely on exactly what our obligations to animals should be and how they have arrived at those positions. Some see veganism as a way to be "merciful" to animals (to quote Dominion author Matthew Scully), but don't think that animals have natural rights. Others do think animals have natural rights that should become legal rights.

Vegans whose efforts to advance animal welfare and/or animal rights extend beyond their own veganism vary widely between those who believe in prioritizing improvements to the welfare of animals as a means of incrementally abolishing the commercial exploitation of animals and those who see such improvements as unnecessary compromises at best or helping animal exploiters to deceive the public that they are "humane" at worst. Whether illegal activities, property damage, violence against animal abusers or sexy or shocking media campaigns are acceptable tactics in activism for animals is also a matter of fierce debate among such activists.

So the next time you start thinking of "those vegans" as some kind of stereotype, stop and remember how diverse I've told you we are. One of "those vegans" could be a lot like you!