I just replied this to a very insightful and open posting by Unparalleld Suffering on being alone as an ethical vegan:
Please read this beautiful entry here > Unparalleled Suffering’s Opinions; I Thought Veganism Would Be Great For My Health. On the reality of being a lonely vegan > https://substack.com/home/post/p-166449082
My comment to the author > https://substack.com/profile/37443902-pal/note/c-128031303 [21.06.25]
It’s really helpful that you highlight the problems that arise in a speciesist world from being an ethical vegan. There are so many things that come to my mind that I’d like to add from an angle of close but slightly different experiences. Like: even among people who also live vegan I found too many reasons why I could personally not get along with many “likemindeds”. Again, something else: to pay the price and be with ignorant people – I don’t have the slightest desire to just be with people who are ignorant towards animal issues – many people throw their values overboard or make sure in the first place to not have too high standards, in order to be compatible. I know lots of people who are speciesists and who suffer from being alone, just adding to speciesist practices, be it jokes, be it feeling “part of everything”.
Anyhow the main thing I’d like to say is that it’s really important that we as Animal Rights activists keep this in close sight: We are isolated often there where we are – this seems to be part of the price, but this “being alone” due to holding an antispeciesist worldview has a huge and an important reason. To me what is most important when I get to know people and with the people I engage with is how they exactly think in regards to the wholeness of the problems where speciesism is to my view the most extreme one … I find that many people are heading into the same direction and I chose to accompany them in the path that contains veganism, even if they are not “there” yet.
If we put the entire bits and pieces together with the priorisations due to extremeness of the grade of injustice, we can find more people than we might assume.
There are people out there who are happy to learn from a vegan antispeciesist friend how to live animal rights inclusive values better, and who even got their contributions to make – themselves – for Animal Rights.
Moral values, I think, are tightly entwined, hence I chose this approach.
The contribution you are making with your activism are huge, thank you for this.
I know from my own activism, and that of some friends, that people often don’t give a feedback.
And: yes we all need company and immediate support, directy exchange, etc..
As global activists we can show through open-minded/hearted words, arts, anything, how dear we hold the things fellow activists do for Animal Rights, the Environment and those who strive to create societal change from within (all the weird societies).