That was kinda dickish

Of course there is no certification process or objective vetting authority to declare one’s authenticity as a vegan. One must self-identify as such and that’s usually good enough for anyone to understand.

Though its been my observation that there is an under current of competition that has washed over “vegans” frequenting popular co-ops and the infamous Whole Foods that leads to in-aisle arguments and disputes about the quality of a product or its status as “organic”. For example two women were recently banned from the local coop because of loitering and harassing other customers because of their “poor nutritional choices” and failure to “adhere to a vegan diet”. They even had a go at each other about who had been “devoted to veganism” longer. Are these self appointed officers of vegan enforcement representative of the larger group ? Probably not. I sincerely hope not.

However, I frequently ( at least a couple of times per week) see patrons chewing out employees for being sold out of some essential “vegan product” or not patronizing a particular organic farm, or incorrectly stocking food, or not having a certain brand of spirulina, etc. When I asked the employees about these exchanges they just shrug and say it happens often enough that they don’t even think about it. Such people will complain incessantly regardless of what they do.

Now, don’t shoot the messenger, but the employees also indicate that most of the complaints and impolite behavior comes from self-declared vegans. As in “I’m a vegan and I KNOW that this brand isn’t prepared in accordance with the standards for the lifestyle…blah, blah”. Are they really vegan or just attempting to invoke some air of authority by claiming so ?

As in any social community there are those

There’s nothing wrong with Starbucks. Im a vegan, I drink Starbucks and nobody say im some kind of a …whatsoever.

I think you have a passion that could be better used elsewhere. You’re wasting it on an argument about how much ice is in a cup of coffee. If you think that blasting people for using the word “institutionalized” or calling someone crazy is conducive to defending veganism in a positive way, I’m afraid you might not get the response you are looking for.

I respect you because of your voice and your activism but I think ranting openly about such a trivial issue does a disservice to the vegan message. I use twitter personally for updates on veganism and articles that I find interesting or helpful. I certainly don’t use it to search for peoples’ gripes and complaining. I think it would be in the best interest of your site to keep it more focused on veganism or you might find yourself narrowing the scope of people who are interested in reading what you have to say.

This is all constructive criticism, which I know you can handle, but I hope what I’m saying makes sense to you. As far as a representative of veganism, I’d prefer someone level-headed and rational, as well as passionate. There’s got to be some kind of balance or you’ll just come off as a heretical, stubborn person and no one wants to listen to someone like that. We should promote veganism through our words and actions so that people are interested in it, not afraid or turned off by it.

Thanks for posting this. I thought the same thing, but I don’t have a blog to vent about it. As someone who is clinically depressed and thisclose to going on meds, I take HUGE offense to it. Also, it’s COFFEE, not nasty milk. It’s vegan, so I don’t understand the need to even talk about it, to be honest. Thanks again.

i agree whole-heartedly. thank you.