Any publicity's good publicity, except for vegans

I can't imagine a way vegans could've harmed their cause any worse aside from burning pubs down to the ground on cheap steak night.

REALLY? Animal rights protesters block the intersections of Flinders and Swanston Street during early morning traffic in Melbourne, Monday, April 8, 2019. Picture: DAVID CROSLING

OPINION:

I COULDN'T imagine a way vegans could've harmed their cause any worse aside from burning pubs down to the ground on cheap steak night.

I actually thought veganism was making a fair bit of headway in recent years.

I've lost count of the amount of transition stories I've seen, from lifelong meat eaters to born again vegans who were suddenly happier, healthier and enjoying clear consciences.

A number of friends have switched over to vegan lifestyles and don't seem to have looked back.

I've even got a few mates who claim to be vegan or vegetarian, but are prone to the odd slip up at McDonald's in the wee hours of the morning after a night on the amber fluids.

Good luck to them.

I personally couldn't care less what someone's diet is.

It's their choice.

I'm not alone in hating people ramming their beliefs down my throat.

Lively debate is fantastic, but the moment you start forcing your way of life onto others, is the moment you need to step back and reconsider what you're doing.

Those vegan protests in Melbourne were ridiculous.

Everyone has the right to peacefully protest. Absolutely.

But to actually shut down a city centre seems like a pretty stupid way of getting a message across.

Yeah, everyone's talking about you.

But most of that chat is anger, bordering on hatred.

I would've thought their cause was much more successful due to the results on a smaller scale.

People seeing their friends make these changes and become healthier and happier would be far more influential in swaying them to make the switch, I'd have thought, than watching a bunch of crazed vegans who somehow think their diet defines them, shutting down a city centre.

I reckon these protests may have set back the vegan cause years.

I'm all for peaceful protests against major injustices, inequality, inept government, or crimes going unpunished.

Think schoolchildren protesting climate change inaction, the fight for marriage equality, or even the fight against Adani, fuelled by fears of environmental damage and water table destruction which are so far yet to be quelled.

But I just don't see how someone choosing to put something in their mouth which you wouldn't warrants such action.

Storming farms, harassing businesses. Nup. Not for this.

I love a steak.

But I'm not about to start storming the streets, tattooing the word steak on my body, and waging war on the first person I see eating a tofu salad.

If a diet is your most defining feature, and the thing you feel most passionately about, I seriously suggest you spend more time doing whatever it is you're not doing now.

I understand the animal cruelty argument, sure. But people also survived just fine eating meat long before the rise of quinoa.

To each their own.

Originally published as Any publicity's good publicity, except for vegans