Editor quits food magazine after joking about killing vegans

The people I know in the foodie profession have all told me they think vegans are sanctimonious hypocrites. However, I know someone who was obese and lost 100 pounds on a vegan diet and is now much happier.

An overreaction to a a stupid joke in a private email. But I do wonder why vegans/vegetarians seem to make others so angry. It's a fact that it's better for the planet and it isn't hurting anyone, so what's the problem?

A stupid comment that shouldn't have seen the light of day.

I do like the occasional vegetarian meal or dish, myself, but I'm afraid I like my flesh too much to go full-on.

It was an inappropriate response to an individual not associated with the person to whom the joke was made. A reprimand is deserved, but firing him? That's just stupid. Over-reaction at its worst.

The people I know in the foodie profession have all told me they think vegans are sanctimonious hypocrites. However, I know someone who was obese and lost 100 pounds on a vegan diet and is now much happier.

Some vegans are super sanctimonious. But I know a few who are vegan that I only know because we go out to eat together sometimes. Otherwise, they never talk about it.

Q:

I do wonder why vegans/vegetarians seem to make others so angry.

A:

It's a fact that it's better for the planet and it isn't hurting anyone

The obsessive meat-eaters take umbrage at the idea that people can go about their daily lives not impacting the earth negatively in the way the they themselves do. They find it physically and emotionally impossible to question their own actions (which, to be fair, most have been brought up to believe is the normal and natural way to do things - cuddle and pamper your pet puppy, but turn your eyes away from the dull-eyed bovine in the feed lot and the swathes of rain forest burned and cleared to grow feed-crop soy, not to mention the acceleration of climate change brought on by bovine methane emissions) so by default they reckon it must be the vegan who's the one at fault. Their inability to deal logically with their own emotions leads them to interpret the mere existence of a vegan as a personal attack.

(I'm not vegan. I don't eat meat or fish, but I can't find it in me to give up dairy. I admire those with a stronger will/moral backbone than I have.)

As for this Sitwell person and his pathetic 'joke': he was obviously in the wrong job if he found a suggestion for a series of articles covering vegan recipes in a food magazine to be so far beyond the pale that his only reaction was this stupid 'joke' followed, according to the writer who pitched the idea for the articles, with a refusal to engage in conversation. He'll be better off and happier finding a job in a field more suited to his talents.

Like speech-writer for the White House?

I think, sadly, we live in quite a censorious age and people are rather easily offended," he said. "I think irony doesn't translate well on email or social media. I think it's why William Sitwell has lost his job.

There is some truth in that but this article wasn’t exactly Swiftian.

Some vegans are super sanctimonious. But I know a few who are vegan that I only know because we go out to eat together sometimes. Otherwise, they never talk about it.

That’s exactly my experience too. Most vegetarians and the few vegans I know are quite happy to accept differences of opinion, but I have come across a few who were completely insufferable.

One of my vegetarian friends from university is okay to cook and serve meat to guests at her home and has been on the receiving end of some pretty nasty abuse from fellow vegetarians for doing so. I think it’s okay to tell guests that she won’t serve meat, but she sees it as being hospitable.

The joke was in bad taste, but I personally can’t stand when a vegan gets in my face and try to preach to me as if I’m doing something wrong. I respect vegans and I ask for the same respect in return, you eat what makes you happy and I will as well.

In the States works perfectly fine.

I personally can’t stand when a vegan gets in my face and try to preach to me as if I’m doing something wrong. 

I know quite a few vegans but none of them has ever got in my face and tried to preach to me. Are you sure this has happened to you or simply something that you would not like to happen if it did?

Never had any of my vegetarian or vegan family and friends get in my face about their diet.

Did meet one guy who boasted about tricking his religious pal into eating pork, though. Fair play to the fella who was tricked - he took it in his stride.

I know quite a few vegans but none of them has ever got in my face and tried to preach to me.

I’ve never had a vegan do it but I’ve had a few vegetarians getting all sanctimonious and preachy. A pleasure to ignore.

There are quite a few on this site who really can’t stand vegetarians.

Never had any of my vegetarian or vegan family and friends get in my face about their diet.

Lucky, I had people from PETA get into my face and tried to start something.

bass4funk: "The joke was in bad taste, but I personally can’t stand when a vegan gets in my face and try to preach to me as if I’m doing something wrong."

The only people who are suddenly going to "get in your face" as you suggest are family or close friends who have to eat with you while you consume what they don't like, or vice versa, or else if you've gotten into someone else's face first and they are responding.

"Lucky, I had people from PETA get into my face and tried to start something."

Ah, so now you're qualifying, and not very well. Your initial comment paints vegans as villains, but in your follow-up after people subtly called you out you are talking primarily about PETA, who happen to be vegans, not vegans for the sake of being vegan, and certainly not about vegans in general. It'd be like you painting all of Islam with the same brush because a very small number of extremists "got in your face" for having different (or no) beliefs.

Oh wait...

The only people who are suddenly going to "get in your face" as you suggest are family or close friends who have to eat with you while you consume what they don't like,

Too bad.

or vice versa, or else if you've gotten into someone else's face first and they are responding. 

Not my style.

Ah, so now you're qualifying, and not very well. Your initial comment paints vegans as villains,

Actually, it’s quite the opposite. I live my life the way I want and I don’t want any meat hating person lecture me about the pros and cons of being a vegan.

but in your follow-up after people subtly called you out you are talking primarily about PETA, who happen to be vegans, not vegans for the sake of being vegan, and certainly not about vegans in general.

Doesn’t matter, most vegans hate meat with a passion

An ill-advised bad joke in a private email becomes public because the recipient, a writer who was looking for an opportunity to get published decided for herself that it was offensive. I sincerely hope she doesn't get published by that magazine. Indeed, as one of the quotes in the article states, we're becoming far too 'censorious'.

I have been approached, several times, by those (P)eople (E)ating (T)asty (A)nimals, animal-rights activists. Sometimes they resort to personal attacks. Besides being ineffective, the attacks make them look stupid, and petty.

Vegans have pushed their life-style choices on me on several occasions. A freelance journalist was trying to sell some vegan cookbooks, and an editor responded with talk about a series on killing vegans. Someone objected to the comment(s), and the editor eventually resigned.

Vegans have pushed their life-style choices on me on several occasions.

How?

Vegans have pushed their life-style choices on me on several occasions.

Yes, how exactly?

Tied you up in a basement and force-fed you quinoa and almond milk?

Followed you round and slapped you up the back side of the head every time you tried to eat a burger?

Or (more probably, I imagine) simply declined to join you in your meat-munching?

It was their incessant babbling about how my delicious meal of meat was bad for my liver, intestines, kidneys, bowels, heart, etc.. I usually tell them that if they would pay for my meal, I'll consider listening to their annoying chatter. Otherwise, they should keep their unwanted opinions to themselves, and return to their own table/meal.

Your friends telling you that your meal is unhealthy isn’t “vegans forcing their lifestyle on [you]”.

What did you say to your pals?

Read my post again. These weren't my "pals". They were annoying strangers who chose to push their lifestyle on anyone within hearing distance. I told them to return to their own table.

The 2nd type of annoying vegan behavior are those who chose to champion violence against human beings in order to promote animal rights.