Vegan Propaganda

[mabirch]

Hello all,

Before I begin, l'd just like to say hello to everyone. I've been lurking around for a while and have finally decided to post. (I apologize in advance if this is a topic that's already been discussed.)

This is something my boyfriend and I were discussing over the weekend and I was curious on how others felt about it.

Do you think there is vegan propaganda? We all see those meat/dairy commericals and such: "The best milk comes from happy cows and happy cows come from California!"

I'd like to think that our point is valid enough without lying or manipulation, but for all I know I might have been brainwashed into veganism. (Must...eat....carrots!!!)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[cobweb]

personally i don't think there is any vegan propaganda - at least i have only come across vegan truths anyway.

[littlewinker]

there is none.

Vegans are generally intelligent enough to have thought it out by themselves :D

[littlewinker]

oooh i just remembered something, ages ago there was this advert on tarrant on tv advertising it and it had a load of other vegan food representing sex. there was this fruit or something that had juice running down the middle bit and looking like a wet fanny (sorry for crudeness...*blushes*) and theres showed a carrot or something with seed bursting out of it to look like an ejaculation and loads of stuff like that

[Korn]

I think twisted info, withheld info and exaggerated enthusiasm can be found anywhere, and I've seen people more or less suggesting that eating vegan can cure all diseases, or that all problems in life more or less can be solved if all people were vegans. That's pretty close to 'propaganda', isn't it?

[Roxy]

For sure, I think there's vegan propaganda. If by propaganda, you mean the deliberate spreading of the vegan idea. There are many individuals and organisations who spread the vegan word by leafletting and doing other forms of vegan outreach. Those people are deliberately promoting the vegan cause.

[Khashoggi]

I would say there's plenty of vegan propaganda! That's what vegan outreach largely is. I think it's a case of fighting fire with fire, though.

[buttons]

I think studies and statistics are manipulated/misused on both sides of the fence!

[emzy1985]

I think you have to look at it objectively. The meat/dairy/egg/pharma companies use propaganda to get you to buy something so therefore they make money. I want you to go vegan because I want to stop animal suffering. I want you to go vegan so you are not ill as often. I want you to go vegan so we have a world to live in. None of those things make money for me or any other vegan. There are vegan companies, however they don't use bullshit phrases like, " our soya beans are so fucking happy it hurts!" They also are not multibillion pound companies.....yet!

[Knottykc]

I have to say I agree with Emzy here.

[hd883scooter]

Somewhere, I read that roughly 1 in 250 or so people are vegan. With such miniscule representation in the general population, it is difficult to imagine that we could get much publicity to say anything let alone have a platform in which to propagandize. The tidal wave of pro-meat/dairy lobbies drowns out any sensible argument to the contrary.
The arguments supporting veganism are something that I had to seek out independently. The scientific evidence was too compelling not to ignore. It has been a life altering decision that I do not regret.

[MarkAnthony]

My understanding of the word 'propaganda' is that it simply means a concerted campaign to make people think or behave in a certain way. It doesn't necessarily have to distort or manipulate the truth, and as such it can be a positive or a negative thing depending on the source and subject of it. On that basis I'd say certainly there's vegan propaganda, but it's positive in nature.

[Tangerine Dream]

It seems that there are different ideas as to what constitutes "propaganda". Propaganda, advertising and raising awareness are different things. The op refers to "lying or manipulation" or being "brainwashed" specifically.

I've never seen or heard anything from the vegan side of the debate that turned out to be lying. Maybe a bit misinformed, but not totally inaccurate.

Passionately believing in a cause isn't necessarily a result of brainwashing - it's occassionally based on the collection of facts, too.

As for manipulation - consider me guilty as charged! I manipulate people every day to become vegan by baking them delicious food and trying to be the best person I can be in the hopes that one day someone will ask me what's my secret :D

[erfoud]

It´s true! I must have been mischievously tricked into veganism! Whenever I go out, I see scores of ads tempting me to forgo meat; on TV almost all programmes preach veganism and lash out at the cruelty involved with meat. Then, at school, all children are instructed to change their habits, and heavily punished if they don´t. All our society is rife with antispecieism and I hadn´t realised!

[Pilaf]

Whenever I see a magazine in a public place with ads for meat, dairy or eggs in it, I pull out my sharpie and write an anti meat/dairy/egg web address over the advert.

That could be considered a form of grassroots activism - and admittedly an action which could result in legal penalty for me. I'm not worried. The good fight of information is worth taking risks for.

[kokopelli]

I remember a few years ago there was a furore here in the UK about game cards that were distributed to schools by PETA (I think?) which had gross pictures of kids with ailments allegedly caused by milk drinking...snotty noses, 'wind', spotty skin etc. Although somewhat amusing, this 'propaganda' seemed to backfire. I don't know whether it converted any schoolkids, but I doubt it.

[sandra]

Those cards sound like a good idea to me but you are right, for some reason vegan 'propaganda' does seem to backfire. People don't like hearing the truth, why else do they get so defensive?
There is plenty of non-vegan propaganda so what's wrong with a little vegan propaganda?...........although it wouldn't be 'propaganda' it would just be telling it like it is. :)

[lovingthegreen]

Somewhere, I read that roughly 1 in 250 or so people are vegan. With such miniscule representation in the general population, it is difficult to imagine that we could get much publicity to say anything let alone have a platform in which to propagandize. The tidal wave of pro-meat/dairy lobbies drowns out any sensible argument to the contrary.
The arguments supporting veganism are something that I had to seek out independently. The scientific evidence was too compelling not to ignore. It has been a life altering decision that I do not regret.

So true. Unfortunately that's how I converted - it's not like there is all this information (or commercials) supporting veganism out there - you do have to go look for it and inform yourself, and the vast majority of people are not going to do that.

[Roxy]

My understanding of the word 'propaganda' is that it simply means a concerted campaign to make people think or behave in a certain way. It doesn't necessarily have to distort or manipulate the truth, and as such it can be a positive or a negative thing depending on the source and subject of it. On that basis I'd say certainly there's vegan propaganda, but it's positive in nature.

My thoughts exactly. :)

[RationalVegan74]

There are clichés, exaggerations, and inaccuracies. I don't think we will have graduated to full-scale propaganda until we have more multi-billion-dollar industries raking in huge profits directly from veganism.