Then I am confused as to how you got from what I wrote to what you wrote, as they have nothing to do with one another.
Because the existence (or even the concept) of vegan sugar (or beer) does not make it a categorical imperative that you only ever use vegan sugar or run the risk of mythical expulsion. Is it preferable? Yes.
"Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals.
The co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, Annie Potts, said she coined the term after doing research on the lives of "cruelty-free consumers". "
The researcher coined the term. Nowhere in the article does it say that any vegans are running around calling themselves "vegansexual". This is not some new movement, or group of people calling themselves "vegansexuals". In fact, the vegan couple pictured alongside the article say that they would NOT call themselves "vegansexual". It's no differant then someone not sleeping with someone else because of their beliefs, whether it be religion, drugs, alcohol, cigerettes, or whatever that person puts value on in their life.
Then I am confused as to how you got from what I wrote to what you wrote, as they have nothing to do with one another.
Because the existence (or even the concept) of vegan sugar (or beer) does not make it a categorical imperative that you only ever use vegan sugar or run the risk of mythical expulsion. Is it preferable? Yes.
Then it doesn't sound like that person is much of a vegan. If it's against your (generic "your") definition of veganism to not eat whatever and you do, then you are no more a vegan than some guy who eats a cheeseburger.
apesamongus said:
Yes, veganism is a fuzzy set just like any other -ism. Yes, some vegans won't eat honey and another one might. But we're not talking about those people. We're talking about people who decided to be vegansexuals. These aren't your moderate, leavened bread eating and isinglass beer drinking vegans vegans; theese guys are from the extreme side of veganism. You can tell, because they've gone another step further than even those already extreme ones.
My head is spinning. Here's what I hear from you:
You: This is even extremer than the already extreme veganism.
Me: I don't think veganism is extreme.
Starbelliedboy: Such and such a reason.
Me: Rebuttal.
You: Veganism is extreme. Look at this obtuse example.
Me: Yr analogy doesn't hold up.
You: Yr right. Vegans aren't necessarily extreme despite what I said before. These guys are, though, because they're extremer than extreme vegans.
Look, I'm just trying to avoid borderline cases. I'd say that even loose vegans are sort of extreme, but that would require more discussion as it is borderline. But since I don't need to say that to make my point, I tried to avoid it.
Even if sorta-kinda, I-still-eat-honey vegans aren't extreme (an idea I don't agree with, but I will concede for the sake of this argument), their vegan sugar eating brethren are. They're extreme for exactly the reason mentioned above - the whole "food under a microscope" thing.
apesamongus said:
Then it doesn't sound like that person is much of a vegan. If it's against your (generic "your") definition of veganism to not eat whatever and you do, then you are no more a vegan than some guy who eats a cheeseburger.
This is beyond ridiculous. I know you want it to make sense that a person who breaks down and consumes one of the 99.9% of products that contain non-vegan sugar rather than starve or go thirsty is no different than you eating a cheeseburger, but it does not. The day that the world revolves around a vegan diet (Or an all around vegan lifestyle beyond just diet) you may at least have a sliver of a point, but as it is pure veganism is an impossibility. Some times you will fail, whether by personal choice or circumstance. Vegans acknowledge this. Internet absolutists attempting to create some semantic maze to equate the inequitable, not so much.
Westley
Vatican City
April 2004
AUG 07, 2007 06:46 PM