So we’ve covered how NOT to talk to non-vegans.
You know meat contains poop!
You know milk contains pus!
[cricket sounds]
Not my…proudest moments. But today we’re going to talk about how TO talk to non-vegans.
I promise I won’t hit this time.
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. I’m asked all the
time about how to effectively talk to non-vegans, or even pure “dietary” vegans to help them
make the connection or a deeper connection.
I’d argue that perhaps the most difficult aspect of going vegan is the question of how
to relate to friends, family, and other people who are non-vegan. As brand new vegans, your
eyes are wide open to all of these realities you’d never before considered and you can’t
quite understand why everyone isn’t having the same earth-shattering revelation. So communication,
especially grounded communication, can become difficult, and what often comes out is either
unbridled overzealousness, militant anger, incomprehensible sadness and crying fits,
or some other often bizarre attempt at expressing astounding new realities you’ve awakened to.
While I do have some videos that touch on this matter and the social and familial challenges
of veganism, which will be linked up there and below, I haven’t yet made a direct video
response. Well it just so happens that in the Q&A session for a speech I gave recently,
these very questions were once again posed.
I kept these answers out of the official Q&A video for that speech as these are more geared
towards those of you who are already vegan and are now trying to navigate the difficult
landscape of talking about veganism with others. So I thought I’d share with you my on-the-spot
answers from that session, and I so hope that they are helpful.
Yeah. Smack ‘em in the face. No…that's what I want to do sometimes. I have a video
where do I run around and I punch people. I'm sorry, also just so you know I do this
twenty four seven though sometimes I sound like that I have this video you know I live
on this computer so that always it always comes out my mouth and I apologize
but so with non vegans again it's going it's going to depend so much on the person and
where they're at in if you're walking down the street you see someone eating a hamburger
it's not going to be the time to be like “hey you know…” but if you're talking to family,
friends, loved ones or even at work what I always tell people, people email me all the
time and say like you know how do I become an activist? How do we start talking about
this and I think a lot of us think that we have to do things like that we could have
we have to like do a presentation you need to go you know talk to everyone and you do
these huge things we really there are always these opportunities in daily life. These tiny
opportunities that we can take and I think some of the most powerful activism happens
one on one with just even the smallest of exchanges you know it can be I can be something
as simple as like if you have a friend who is really into rescuing dogs and cats you
know maybe there there's someone who is into that they volunteer at the shelter or anything
and you can share maybe a story you heard about like you know at a farm sanctuary where
sometimes pigs will jump off slaughterhouse trucks and in the end you know they're found
and people take them in and so it can even be like “you know, I know that you're really
in the animal rescue I heard about this you know pig that got rescued you know here's
this cute You Tube video of them even these really like subtle ways of kind of introducing
the fact that you know what's the difference between this animal and this animal. In general
because I can't speak to every situation and every person I find the most effective manner
is meeting people where they are at, finding that common ground like finding what their
interests are and where there is an entry point because for each person that's going
to be different like maybe there are super health nut and they're really wanting to like
cleanse or something you can kind of start bringing in some information about you know
what animal products do to your body. If they are a really huge environmentalist and they
recycle. And they bike everywhere you know you can drop some of the facts that are just
astounding you know because that that can really hit someone but I think in general
it's kind of meeting them where they are at and trying to make it as approachable as possible
and as non-confrontational as possible now there's a balance there between like I try
to be really approachable with my activism but I will never compromise on the actual
facts and on their actual morals I'll never say oh it's OK to do X. Y. or Z. because you're
trying your best and there's a there's a way to walk that line and it's difficult at first
but kind of doing that of like being approachable honoring where they're at while not excusing
away behavior but we have to kind of try to meet people where they're at in and lead them
rather than expect them to be where we are because once you go vegan and you do realize
all these things it's almost unfathomable that other people don't see it you know. And
I think it's very much like when we're children and the older we get the more we kind of forget
what it was like to be a kid and then we even get awkward around children which is strange
because we were children you know like why are we like what we don't know how to talk
to kids even though we were kids and it's the same kind of thing when you go vegan you
become so distant from when you weren't vegan that it's like how do I even talk to these
people you know I think a lot of the two is trying to remember where you were at and remember
that like I said you're going to get people who are just aggressive and rude and not open
but a lot of people just don't know any better and I think it's also important to be mindful
of the fact that, I get asked the same questions millions of times like “where do I get my
protein?” things like that and it's really easy for me to be “Oh my God!” but I try
to think of the fact is this might be the two hundred millionth time I've heard this
question this might be the first time this person is finally asking this you know and
it may be coming from a very genuine place like they really want to know and maybe they've
never asked before and they are finally deciding to look into this and I don't want to be the
person that’s just flippant and brushes them off you know so I just try to always
give people the benefit of the doubt.
I hope this video was helpful. I’d love to hear what you thought of my approach and
what approach you use. What seems effective to you? If you’re non-vegan, have you experienced
conversations and communication methods that were effective vs. not with vegans? Let me
know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it around to help open
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the sidebar. Now go live vegan, start the conversation, and I’ll see you soon.
Okay that one I’m kind of proud of.