I learned about this DxE pledge on the great channel ModVegan, and commented:
Margaret, this is the first time I hear about this Liberation Pledge (thank you), and I am completely against it.
Positive pear-pressure? They are calling for acts of public disrespect to the participants' closest people! The first result will be alienation of these people from their loved ones, colleagues, and clients, and in deep personal problems.
Your alternative is much better, but every vegan would act this way in most situations anyway. I am a long-term vegan, BTW.
Margaret, the author of the ModVegan (Modern Vegan Living), responded to my comment:
Yeah, I'm rather inclined to agree. I know some people are quite sensitive to seeing animals on plates (to be honest, my oldest daughter has a hard time with it), so I can see asking close friends and family not to eat meat around you. I'm lucky that this happened naturally in our house. I remember a prof in University that asked his vegetarian wife to cook meat - and I felt bad for her, even though I ate meat at the time. But I agree, we definitely don't want to be alienating those closest to us! I think most vegans just figure out ways to make things work.
This is the pledge:
- Publicly refuse to eat animals - live vegan.
- Publicly refuse to sit where people are eating animals.
- Encourage others to take the pledge.
To me, this demands are outrageous and unethical. What do you think?
On the site of the Pledge, the authors are not listed. After a short internet research, I found that it was Direct Action Everywhere who started it in November 2015. I have no respect for the actions of this organization, because they either don't understand human psychology, or choose to ignore the high probability of negative consequences of their actions for some most likely self-serving reasons.
Vegan people have plenty of problems with acceptance by their friends and family members, as well as with public image of veganism. The latter is largely the result of the actions of people and organizations with a mind set as DAE's leaders and members.
