One reason I am not an enormous fan of Piers Morgan, to be polite, is for his willingness to berate people for trying. He has got into countless spats with footballing legend Gary Lineker over minuscule career “failings” and has also stated that he taught his kids that they either “win or lose” – in other words, that to come 2nd is to be the first loser. You may wonder what this has to do with veganism, and the further down this intro I get the more I am beginning to also, but I think my point is that in my opinion, knocking people for trying creates a society of people who would rather sit on their arse and passive aggressively tweet retired athletes than go out and try to make a difference.
Maybe this opinion has something to do with not possessing a competitive bone in my body, or perhaps it is because I was vegan for six months, and this was enough time to recognise that the majority of people who are vegan are so because they are trying to do some good within a fairly sinister world. A lot of the time, a soon to be vegan will become vegan because they have watched a documentary in which animals are tortured in order to be a part of our KFC boneless banquet, or because they’ve read that the best thing you can do for the environment can be to go vegan. And while I somewhat dispute this last point, for reasons I wrote about in a previous post, I am willing to applaud anyone who is trying to make positive change. It is for this reason that I can understand why jokes made by former Waitrose Food magazine editor, William Sitwell, about killing vegans were deemed offensive.
If you missed the news, this is what William emailed vegan writer Selene Nelson, in respond to a pitch on a regular series about plant-based diets:
“Hi Selene. Thanks for this. How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat? Make them eat steak and drink red wine?”
While restaurant critic Giles Coren tweeted sympathy for William, saying that “vegans are not a race or a gender or a sexual orientation or a differently abled group. They just choose to eat plants. You should be able to take the piss and not lose your job”, I am of the opinion that vegans are human, and you should not suggest killing them, even as a joke, especially in a professional email.
William has since expressed his regret for this email, as he announced he would be stepping down from his position as Waitrose mag editor, with the statement: “Firstly, to reiterate my apology to any food- and life-loving vegan who was genuinely offended by remarks written by me as an ill-judged joke in a private email and now widely reported.”
While I disagree with living in a “tear-down” culture, where we are all so quick to ruin people when they make a mistake, I do think that William’s actions were grossly inappropriate, obnoxious and frankly a little intimidating.
Aside from risking your career and reputation, being a dick to vegans makes you just that: a dick. I’m all for indulging in humour, but I also think that, a) you should judge your audience first, and b) think, will this person be really hurt by my comments? c) is it worth it? Unless you are Jimmy Carr and could make a financial killing from it…perhaps not.
So here are a few tips for how to be a nice person to people who eat differently to you:
1. Don’t email a vegan and suggest killing other vegans or force-feeding them meat
Not even in a jokey way…
2. Don’t secretly feed them animal products
Alex Lambert is one example of someone who was fired from his job as head chef at the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby, when it was discovered he had claimed it was a “personal favourite” thing to feed meat products to vegans.
If someone doesn’t want to eat something – despite whether you disagree with their reasoning – it is not your choice to force-feed them that food. It is wrong on so many levels.
3. Eat their vegan offerings, even if they taste like total shit
If a vegan brings a vegan chocolate cake to your dinner party, try the cake, even if you think it tastes awful. The reality is that vegan baking products are more difficult to source and are potentially more expensive to come by than regular baking products, so it is frankly a little rude if you don’t at least try something they have taken the time to make for you.
4. Ask them why they are vegan, but don’t tell them they are wrong
Every vegan has a different reason for being vegan, and if someone has become so (for example) because they have an eating problem and are trying to lose weight, embarrassing them isn’t going to help anyone. Be there for them if they want to talk to you about why they feel the need to restrict, and offer opinions if they are asked for, but don’t corner anyone and make them feel low about their decision. This could even make them restrict more.
5. Do not lay into them for accidentally not being vegan
When I first became vegan, it was difficult to practise reading food labels to ensure I wasn’t accidentally consuming vegan products. There is milk powder in basically everything, just FYI. A week went by into my veganism before I realised that it probably wasn’t cool for me to continue wearing leather shoes.
If you spot that someone has accidentally eaten something that isn’t vegan, don’t show them up in front of an audience. You will probably make them feel anxious and sick. Quietly point it out to them in private.
6. Don’t be a dick
If you are a dick to all vegans, in a population where more and more people are becoming vegan everyday, you might end up running out of friends pretty soon.
They also don’t get to eat cheese. Be sympathetic.
