You Can't Talk to Those Who Refuse to Hear!

There is something really odd about animal rights conversations. If you have been ‘doing’ it long enough you come to realize one thing – many people feel uncomfortable and can actually become VERY angry even knowing they TALKING with a vegan!

I will always do what I can to help in every way I possibly can, but I can’t change the resolute unwillingness to discuss or even look at the subject matter long enough to have any productive discussion!

I’ve thought a lot about this, where my role is defined in all of this, and how I very much WANT to share information and have real conversation about the matters of the world, and the difficulty of actually accomplishing that.

There are VERY few ‘non-vegan’ people in my life who I’ve been able to discuss being vegan with. Most people just don’t ask and/or make assumptions. Others, even some close relationships, instantly belittle and degrade your ‘extremism’ rather than give thought to any facts or science or harm or cruelty they are participating in.

The bottom line is that it is upon each to take responsibility for oneself. Sadly, I cannot force anyone to care. I cannot force anyone to desire compassion and freedom from tyranny for all beings. I cannot force anyone to stop the massacre for sheer pleasure rather than any kind of NEED. For most it is still easier to ignore.

I did not shy away from the truth when I was finally brutally slapped with it. I think I would have ‘heard’ the message, no matter where or how I got the information, because I was WILLING to hear it.

The first time I was lucky enough to be told I was an animal abuser I got the shock of my life. I say lucky because I needed that insight. I thought I needed these products to live, and thought animals lived happy lives until someone snuck up behind them and killed them. (Now you say “Really?” and I respond “Kinda-sorta, as isn’t that is the vision we are given?”)

I am ashamed to say I hadn’t thought much at that time about circus elephants or captive marine animals, or zoos, or rodeos, etc.

Now I do everything I possibly can to help. I have created endless posts and sites and channels and pages and comments and posters and letters and essays over the past 10 or so years. I share what I can and I have tried every approach under the sun, but it is the people themselves who need to make the effort to understand what is going on, and it is the people themselves who are staunchly determined to NOT think, no matter what I say or post.

It is each individual’s responsibility. All stories I see are different. People have different reasons that something affected them. I can’t even begin to formulate what picture or video or person would be able to make people see the suffering or seek the truth.

So, I will continue to do what I do. Talk to anyone who is willing. Hurt for my animal friends. Sometimes write babbling statements in response to my thoughts or an email, etc. (!!!)

I try and save people from oppressing other beings that they might regret later. I wish I had changed sooner (like from birth).

The KNOWING part is up to the individual. I am responsible for me, and when I die I will know I did everything I could.

"Waking up to the animal holocaust is deeply painful. Not only are you confronted by the sheer size of it all, 10 billion land animals in the US, 58 billion globally each year, but when you share what you have learned with your friends and family members, who you deeply respect and love, they show indifference at best. You feel like you have come upon a genocide that everyone is trying to hide and ignore. And you can no longer participate. And you can no longer keep quiet. And then you are painted as militant, extreme, judgmental, et al. It is deeply painful on so many levels."
- Gary Smith

“The real struggle in being vegan doesn’t involve food. The hardest part about being vegan is coming face-to-face with the darker side of humanity and trying to remain hopeful. It’s trying to understand why otherwise good and caring people continue to participate in needless violence against animals – just for the sake of their own pleasure or convenience.”
– Jo Tyler