Opinions | Anthony Scaramucci: I was wrong about Trump. Here’s why.
The negatives of Trump’s demagoguery now clearly outweigh the positives of his leadership.
© SIPA, via Associated Press Animal rights activists demonstrate during the Official Animal Rights March in Berlin, Germany, August 25, 2019. Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.
When Popeyes’ new fried chicken sandwich went viral for its deliciousness last week, I did not pause, not even for a second, to consider the vast toll of suffering and environmental destruction inherent in its rise. I am guessing you didn’t either; indeed, I can already feel your eyes rolling deep into your head at the mere suggestion that there’s anything to feel guilty about regarding the sold-out sandwich. So before we go on, let me warn you: The rest of this column is going to give your eye-rolling muscles a very good workout.
In Denmark, Bewilderment and Anger Over Trump’s Canceled Visit
ODENSE, Denmark — The astonishment in Denmark over President Trump’s apparent desire to buy Greenland turned to bewilderment and anger on Wednesday after the American leader abruptly scrapped a state visit because the Danes have no desire to sell.
© Getty You want to shake me: Shut up, killjoy! Haven’t I heard how unspeakably delicious the sandwich is? As The New Yorker proclaimed, “The Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is Here to Save America.” So why spoil this one last true thing by mentioning the squalid, overcrowded, constantly-lit, 40-day life span of the typical factory-farmed, fast-food chicken?
Or, for that matter, the irony of the sandwich going viral at the same time as heartbreaking pictures of the Amazon rainforest on fire.
Related: The Amazon is ablaze (Photos)
In the Amazon region, fires are rare for much of the year because wet weather prevents them from starting and spreading. However, in July and August, activity typically increases due to the arrival of the dry season. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency monitoring deforestation and wildfires, said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year.
'Dehumanising remarks' - Irish psychologists challenge Trump's claim that mental illness sole factor in gun violence
'Dehumanising remarks' - Irish psychologists challenge Trump's claim that mental illness sole factor in gun violence
(Pictured) A lush forest sits next to a field of charred trees on Aug. 27 in Vila Nova Samuel, Brazil. Lingering smoke in the Amazon caused concern Tuesday among Brazilians who say that respiratory problems, particularly among children and the elderly, have increased as fires in the region rage.
Firefighters work to put out a fire in the Chiquitania Forest in Bolivia, on Aug. 28.
Smokes rises from forest fires in Altamira, Brazil, on Aug. 27.
A fireman works to extinguish a fire at a forest near Porto Velho, Brazil, on Aug. 28.
Volunteers and firefighters walk through land scorched by fires in the Chiquitania Forest, Bolivia, on Aug. 28.
A volunteer carries bottles of water for putting out fires in the Chiquitania Forest, Bolivia, on Aug. 28.
Members of the Kayapo indigenous group attend a meeting to discuss Amazon fire concerns in Bau village in Brazil’s Amazon, on Aug. 27.
A fire burns a tract of Amazon jungle as it is cleared by loggers and farmers on Aug. 27.
An area affected by forest fires is seen on Aug. 27 in Otuquis National Park, in the Pantanal ecoregion of southeastern Bolivia.
The sun sets behind burnt trees of the Amazon rainforest, on Aug. 27.
Demonstration for "SOS AMAZONIA" to urge the world governments, and the Brazilian one, to intervene urgently to stop the fires that are devastating the world's great forest heritage on Aug. 27 in the Amazon, Congo, Angola and Siberia, in front of the Brazilian embassy in Rome, Italy.
A man looks at a fire burning a tract of Amazon jungle as it is cleared by loggers and farmers on Aug. 27.
Fire consumes the Amazon rainforest on Aug. 27.
Residents are pictured while a fire burns a tract of Amazon jungle as it is cleared by loggers and farmers on Aug. 27.
Greenpeace activists protest against Amazon deforestation and the climate change in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral on Aug. 26 in Vienna, Austria.
(Pictured) Aerial view of damage caused by wildfires in Otuquis National Park, in the Pantanal ecoregion of Bolivia, on Aug. 26.
New lawsuit alleges inhumane treatment of children at US border
Children detained at the border are being treated as less than human.
Brazilian farmer Helio Lombardo Do Santos and a dog walk through a burnt area of the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, on Aug. 26.
Smokes rises from forest fires in Otuquis National Park, in the Pantanal ecoregion of Bolivia, on Aug. 26.
Bolivian soldiers combat forest fires in Otuquis National Park, on Aug. 26.
Amid smoke from forest fires, cattle graze on a farm along the road to Jacunda National Forest, near the city of Porto Velho in the Vila Nova Samuel region, on Aug. 26.
Activists hold placards as they take part in a demonstration demanding protection for the Amazon rainforest outside the embassy of Brazil in Kathmandu, Nepal on Aug. 26.
In the image released on Aug. 26, the Hercules C-130 aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force waiting to collect filled bags of water to fight fires in the Amazon rainforest, on Aug. 24.
An activist demonstrates during a protest called by intellectuals and artists against the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, at Ipanema Beach, on Aug. 25.
In the image released on Aug. 25, firefighters trying to extinguish a fire in the Amazon rainforest, on Aug. 24.
Anthony Scaramucci Wants You to Believe Him This Time
The newest member of the anti-Trump crowd is promising to mobilize against the president: “I may have sucked as a communications director, but I’m a pretty organized entrepreneur.”
In this aerial image, a fire burns in a section of the Amazon rain forest on Aug. 25, in Porto Velho, Brazil.
A volunteer tries to put out a fire in the surroundings of Robore in eastern Bolivia, on Aug. 25.
A supertanker, an aerial firefighting airtanker, throws water in the fight against forest fires in the surroundings of Robore in eastern Bolivia, on Aug. 25.
Soldiers, firemen and volunteers combat forest fires in the surroundings of Robore in eastern Bolivia, on Aug. 25.
In this aerial image, smoke covers a section of the Amazon rain forest affected by wildfires on Aug. 25, in Porto Velho, Brazil.
Aerial view of burnt areas of the Amazon rainforest, near Abuna, Rondonia state, on Aug. 24.
A snake is seen while a tract of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by loggers and farmers in Porto Velho, on Aug. 24.
A truck loaded with logs cut from an area of the Amazon rainforest is seen in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, on Aug. 24.
A tract of Amazon jungle is seen after a fire on Aug. 24 in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil.
The sun, dimmed by the pall of smoke that cover the city, rises in the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Aug. 24.
This photo released by Mato Grosso Firefighters, shows the Chapada dos Guimaraes wild fires, on Aug. 23 in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said he might send the military to fight massive fires in the Amazon as an international outcry over his handling of the environmental crisis grows.
Sir John Major Joins Legal Bid To Stop Boris Johnson’s Suspension Of Parliament
Former prime minister Sir John Major has announced he intends to join a legal bid to stop Boris Johnson from suspending parliament to get a no-deal Brexit.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro looks on during a Soldier's Day ceremony, on Aug. 23 in Brasilia, Brazil.
Demonstrators protest in front of the Brazilian Embassy calling on Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon rainforest, in Lima, Peru on Aug. 23.
A man sets fire to a map of South America during a demonstration to demand for more protection for the Amazon rainforest, on Aug. 23 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The words at rear read: "I fight for the Amazon."
Aerial picture showing a deforested piece of land in the Amazon rainforest near an area affected by fires, about 65 km from Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia, in northern Brazil, on Aug. 23.
Members of an indigenous tribe from the Amazon sing in protest organised by Extinction Rebellion at the Brazilian Embassy against the fires and tree burning in the Amazon rainforest on Aug. 23 in London, United Kingdom.
Demonstrators march holding a banner with a message that reads in Portuguese: "The Amazon belongs to the people", during a protest demanding action from Brazil's government combating the fires in the Amazon on Aug. 23 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Medical student and environmentalist Sofia Guzman, 22, wears a mask she made to represent a toucan skull, during a protest to call for action to protect the Amazon rainforest, outside Brazil's embassy in Mexico City, on Aug. 23.
A group of indigenous people attend a protest outside the Brazilian embassy due to the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, on Aug. 23 in Bogota, Colombia.
Aerial picture showing smoke from a two-kilometre-long stretch of fire billowing from the Amazon rainforest about 65 km from Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia, on Aug. 23.
A Trump-inspired history lesson: Here’s what the Nazis did to Poland 80 years ago
Eighty years ago, Nazis flattened a Polish city in one day, signaling the start of World War II. On Sept. 1 this year, Trump congratulated Poland for it.
Neri dos Santos Silva, center, watches an encroaching fire threat after digging trenches to keep the flames from spreading to the farm he works on, in the Nova Santa Helena municipality, in the state of Mato Grosso, on Aug. 23.
Trucks drive alongside scorched fields on the BR 163 highway in the Nova Santa Helena municipality, in the state of Mato Grosso, on Aug. 23.
Virgin jungle stands next to an area that was burnt recently near Porto Velho, on Aug. 23.
Aerial picture showing a fire raging in the Amazon rain forest about 65 km from Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia, in northern Brazil, on Aug. 23.
A handout picture provided by Porto Velho's Firefighters shows a fire at the Brazilian Amazonia, in Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, Brazil, on Aug. 18.
Bolivian soldiers work during a forest wildfire near Robore, Santa Cruz region, eastern Bolivia on Aug. 22.
Many of us, myself included, engage in painless, performative environmentalism. We’ll give up plastic straws and tweet passionately that someone should do something about the Amazon, yet few of us make space in our worldview to acknowledge the carcass in the room: the irrefutable evidence that our addiction to meat is killing the planet right before our eyes. After all, it takes only a few minutes of investigation to learn that there is one overwhelming reason the Amazon is burning — to clear ground for cattle ranching and for the cultivation of soy, the vast majority of which goes not into tofu but into animal feed, including for fast-food chicken.
© John Amis/Associated Press Atlanta consumers flocked to a local KFC for a one day test to sample Beyond Fried Chicken, KFC’s new plant-based chicken. As I say, I did not consider any of this, because I don’t regularly come into contact with a lot of preachy vegans. Indeed, preachy vegans are something of a myth. There’s an old joke — “How do you know you’re talking to a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you” — that is as untrue as it is revealing about the teller. Although vegans can marshal stronger evidence to support their claims than adherents of many other belief systems — whether of other diets or major religions — they get little respect, and their ideas rarely receive mass media acknowledgment other than mockery.
Labour's 'Stop Boris' deal with the Scots: 'Hypocrite' Corbyn holds talks with SNP to push General Election back to NOVEMBER to guarantee No Deal Brexit is dead
Jeremy Corbyn met Ian Blackford, the Scottish nationalists' Westminster leader, yesterday to agree an election should only be held after Britain has secured another Brexit delay from the EU. Mr Corbyn believes he can snare the Prime Minister by refusing Mr Johnson's preferred October 15 election date, forcing him to seek another delay to Brexit.
Related: Celebrities who are vegan (Photos)
Liam Hemsworth
In an interview with Men’s Health the star credited his "Hunger Games" co-star Woody Harrelson, who helped him open his mind. He said, “Woody Harrelson was actually one of the original reasons I became vegan, because he’s been vegan for, I don’t know, 30 years or something. After all the information I gathered about the mistreatment of animals, I couldn’t continue to eat meat.” The Australian actor has been a vegan for almost a year now and was crowned one of PETA's Sexiest Vegans for 2016.
Ariana Grande
The singer has been following a strict vegan diet since 2013. In an interview with the Mirror, the singer explained, "I love animals more than I love most people, not kidding. But I am a firm believer in eating a full plant-based, whole food diet that can expand your life length and make you an all-around happier person."
Ellen DeGeneres
Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is a vegan and calls herself "an animal lover." She even promotes veganism through her blog "Going Vegan With Ellen."
Pamela Anderson
Nature loving PETA activist and a staunch vegan, Pamela Anderson, expressed her feeling about non-vegetarians on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2011. She said, "I don't think I'd be a very good juror. You know, if you're not vegetarian – guilty!"
Portia de Rossi
The actress is a vegan just like her partner Ellen DeGeneres. She turned vegetarian after experiencing an endearing animal moment at a farm in California. From being a meat eater, she converted into a vegan and said during an interview, “I love animals and I can't eat them. And I don't feel okay with confining them into small crates and reducing them to things that produce food for humans.”
Miley Cyrus
After realizing that she was lactose intolerant, Miley Cyrus stopped eating dairy products in 2012. The singer turned vegan almost a year ago after the death of her beloved dog, Floyd. PETA named her the Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2015.
Woody Harrelson
“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” actor is also a vegan and recalled how a girl made him realize that he was lactose intolerant during a bus ride and that he should quit dairy for an acne free face and overall better health while he was just 24. The advice worked for him and in 2012 he was named PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity.
Kate Mara
The “House of Cards” star stopped eating meat after visiting a chicken farm with her family and witnessing the disturbing sight of birds living in cages.
Jessica Chastain
The Hollywood actress follows a strict vegan diet. "I used to think about dieting," she said in an interview "but I'm vegan now, so it's not really a problem." She was named PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2012 alongside Woody Harrelson.
Tobey Maguire
The "Spider-Man" actor has been a vegan since 2009 and if certain reports are to be believed he insists no leather in his house and also asks guests to remove leather before entering home. Maguire was voted PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity in 2002.
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix has been a vegan since the age of three after realizing that animals had to be killed to produce meat. "I was three years old. To this day it is a vivid memory," Phoenix told the New York Daily News.
Al Gore
The former vice-president of United States decided to take his stance on safe environment one step further by turning vegan in 2013.
Bryan Adams
The singer-songwriter has been off meat for more than 25 years and claims that loving his dogs as children led him to switch to a plant based diet.
Ellen Page
Like many others in Hollywood, Page is also committed to a vegan lifestyle. Known for her views against factory farming, she was voted the sexiest vegetarian celebrity of the year 2014 by PETA.
Ellie Goulding
A vegan since 2013, the singer revealed that the healthy diet helped her get into a great shape and boosted her confidence.
Jenna Dewan Tatum
After giving birth to her daughter Everly with husband Channing Tutum, the former dancer, producer, and “Witches of East End” star regained her enviable shape by relying on a vegan diet. She gave up meat at the age of 11 after watching a TV show on slaughterhouses.
Aamir Khan
The Indian actor used to love meat but turned vegan after his wife showed him a video about how 15 most common diseases can be prevented by following a healthy plant-based diet.
Alicia Silverstone
On the PETA website, the Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2004 wrote, “I've been vegan for 10 years, and it's the single-most important and helpful decision I have ever made. I am doing everything I can to reduce animal suffering with simple lifestyle choices like being vegan, never wearing any products made from animals (like wool and leather), and buying only from companies that NEVER test their products or ingredients on animals.”
Casey Affleck
For a PETA campaign, he said, “When people ask me why I don't eat meat or any other animal products, I say, 'Because they are unhealthy and they are the product of a violent and inhumane industry.'" Casey Affleck has been a vegan for over 15 years.
I am not a vegan. I am barely, failingly, a vegetarian/pescatarian — I make an effort to avoid meat, but for reasons of convenience and shameless hedonism still end up eating it several times a month, especially fish. My purpose here is not to change how you eat, dress or think about the ethics of consuming something like the Popeyes’ sandwich. Instead, as a fellow omnivore and a person concerned about the planet’s future, I want to ask you to do something much more simple: to alter how you think about vegans.
I want to urge you to give vegans a chance — to love and to celebrate them instead of ridiculing them. We need more vegan voices, because on the big issues — the criminal cruelty of industrial farming; the sentience and emotional depth of food animals; the environmental toll of meat and the unsustainability of its global rise — vegans are irrefutably on the right side of history. They are the vanguard. Climate scholars say that if we are ever to survive a warming planet, people will have to consume far fewer animals than we do now. We will all have to become a little more vegan — and if we are to succeed in that, we will have to start by saluting vegans, not mocking them.
Related: Places around the world already affected by climate change (Photos)
Cape Town - South Africa
The coastal city that is a big tourist draw has been declared a disaster area after facing recurrent and severe drought over the past years. Increased water stress in the city, along with intense wildfires that further stress the reservoirs, have made the government impose strict water rationing. Day Zero—when most taps will run dry—is likely to happen in the year 2018, according to the mayor's office.
The Alps – Europe
One of the most famous skiing regions in the world, the Alps stretch across eight countries. Due to their low altitude, they have seen significant snowmelt during shorter winter periods over the years. Around 3 percent of Alpine glacial ice is lost per year and experts from the University of Innsbruck in Austria believe that the glaciers could disappear entirely by 2050 if the melting continues.
Dead Sea - Bordering Israel, West Bank and Jordan
The saltwater lake has shrunk by a third over the last 40 years since development in the region started. Sinkholes are appearing where the water has receded while mineral extraction by cosmetic companies has further eroded it. Rainfall in the region has declined and a study of the region conducted by Columbia University's Earth Observatory Lamont-Doherty found that thousands of years ago when temperatures were similarly rising, the entire region suffered a megadrought that was worse than any that has been recorded ever.
Abidjan - Ivory Coast
Situated along the Atlantic Coast, the city’s coastline and specifically the harbor areas are experiencing high erosion rates, says a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Ebrie lagoon has also become increasingly polluted and led to the loss of fisheries. Heavy and untimely rains are also threatening the cocoa growers in the region.
Amazon Rainforest – South America
The world’s largest tropical rainforest, that roughly covers 40 percent of the continent, has not only experienced rising deforestation but also extreme drought that has left the forest susceptible to fires says a report published by the United Nations Environment Program. Entire species of vegetation are on the brink of extinction.
Venice – Italy
Locals have slowly come to accept the flooding of Piazza San Marco (pictured) and other low-lying areas of the city, but with ocean levels rising, Venice is inundating further. The city of canals is sinking fast enough to become uninhabitable by the end of this century, warned the scientists at the Venice in Peril Fund.
Great Barrier Reef – Australia
The largest coral reef in the world, covering more than 132,973.5 square miles (344,400 square km), has started showing signs of damage due to rising ocean temperatures. Vast regions have experienced coral bleaching—a condition where the coral turns white and is prone to mass death. A report by the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies found that around 93 percent of the reef has experienced bleaching to some degree.
Rhone Valley – France
The winemaking region has sprawling vineyards that are slowly getting affected by increasing temperatures. In a profession where even a small degree change can cause differences in the produce or even completely ruin it, a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences forecasted an 85 percent decrease in wine production in the combined Bordeaux, Rhone and Tuscany region.
Sudan
Erratic rainfall and increasing desertification accompanied by intense droughts have pushed temperatures so high in the north African country that harvests are getting ruined. Warming temperatures have rendered many farmlands unsuitable and will continue to affect the country’s food security, according to a report published jointly by the World Food Program and the UK Met Office. Gigantic dust storms called haboob (pictured) have become more commonplace.
Lagos – Nigeria
The city consists of a mainland and a series of islands that are all at risk of flooding with increasing sea levels. To prevent that, there are plans to build an artificial megacity on reclaimed land and then build a seawall surrounding it. Several researchers like the environmental writer Martin Lukacs have named this “climate apartheid” as the wall will push storm surges from the more affluent locale to the neighboring areas that are not protected by it.
Key West – Florida, US
Floods during the Atlantic hurricane season have caused increasing damage in the archipelago. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the sea levels will rise by up to 15 inches (38 cm) over the next 30 years, submerging many portions of the city.
Dar es Salaam – Tanzania
The coastal city is growing so quickly that it has been unable to consider the harm it’s causing to the ecosystem. With increased rainfall, it’s become increasingly prone to floods with downpours causing $47.3 million worth of damages in just the area surrounding the Msimbazi river, according to the World Bank.
Maldives
As the lowest-lying country on Earth, almost 80 percent of the atolls are less than 3.2 feet (1 meter) above sea level. Locals are already getting displaced due to climbing tides and according to an IPCC report, 75 percent of the Maldives could sink by 2100.
Yamal Peninsula – Russia
In Russia’s far north, the permafrost is melting as the weather has become increasingly unpredictable. Giant craters (pictured) are forming as the frozen ground started thawing. The winter season has shortened in length, and the unusually warm temperatures caused an outbreak of anthrax in 2016, said Alexei Kokorin, head of WWF Russia’s climate and energy program.
Arctic
The Arctic is warming at almost twice the global average with sea ice disappearing from the ecosystem. While this has made the waters more navigable through the Northwest Passage that connects Europe to Asia, it is also contributing to a rise in the global sea level. In the future, this could make Arctic fisheries disappear and harm the coastline, according to the WWF.
Alaska – US
Over the last 150 years, snowfall in south-central Alaska has increased dramatically by 117 percent due to climate change, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Another report, by the Alaska Division of Public Health, says additional diseases, lower air quality from more wildfires, melting permafrost and disturbances to local food sources are the outcomes of climate change.
Antarctica
The only continent with permanent ice coverage has lost 20,800 square miles (53,872 sq km) of ice on an average, each year, since the late 1970s. The west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the planet. This has affected the distribution of penguin colonies along the coast as sea ice conditions have changed, reports the IPCC. Melting snow has seen increased plant coverage. Many glaciers have retreated, and ice shelves have collapsed too.
Northern Italy
A mild 2007 winter in the region allowed Asian tiger mosquitoes to breed and when a tourist returned from India with chikungunya, the mosquitoes became the carriers of the new disease. According to the WHO, this was the first European outbreak of a tropical disease. The localised epidemic was repeated in 2017.
Mumbai – India
The changing monsoon season that has caused intense flooding in the economic capital, over the past decades, has been attributed to climate change in a report published by the WHO. The torrential rains are traditional but their occurrence in spurts over a few days isn’t. The August 2017 “extreme rain event” deposited 15 percent of the city’s annual rainfall in a single day.
Osaka – Japan
The 5.2 million people of the city have been battered by unseasonably late typhoons and torrential rains that are causing extensive floods. If temperatures continue to rise, the entire commercial region of Osaka will go under water by the 2070s, predicts the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Patagonia ice fields – Chile and Argentina
As one of the largest ice fields in the world, they are receding at a shockingly fast speed. A Nature Geoscience paper has found that the accelerated melting ice fields account for nearly 10 percent of the global sea-level change from mountain glaciers. In the last few years, dozens of glacier lakes have virtually disappeared.
Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu
All these Pacific island nations are slowly getting submerged and by 2100 many of the lower islands would become uninhabitable reports the IPCC. The Pacific Climate Change Science Program study found that Tuvalu (pictured) will not only see a rise in sea level but also more extreme rainfall and intense cyclones. Five reef islands in the Solomon Islands have already been lost, while another six are eroding quickly.
Glacier National Park – Montana, US
Once home to over 150 glaciers, Montana’s majestic park now has fewer than 25. Scientists, including from the U.S. Geological Survey, believe that rapid climate change could see that number shrink to zero between 2030 and 2080, which would not only leave the park without a glacier but also severely disrupt its ecosystem.
San Blas Islands – Panama
Locals in the Caribbean island have become used to flooding every rainy season. Nearly 80 percent of the reefs around the area have been mined to build up the islands to prevent sinking, reported the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The report also cites that the natives are prepared to relocate if the sea level rises by three feet (91 cm).
We are nowhere close to that now. In the media, in pop culture and even in progressive, enlightened polite society it is still widely acceptable to make fun of vegans. The stereotype of the smug, self-satisfied, annoying vegan has taken deep cultural root. One survey found that vegans are viewed more negatively than atheists and immigrants, and are only slightly more tolerated than drug addicts.
It’s true that America’s food industry has recently begun investing heavily in animal-free milks and meats; supermarkets are brimming with bounties of meat alternatives, Burger King is selling an Impossible Whopper, and KFC just announced fake fried chicken wings and nuggets. This is all great news for the planet, yet no one thanks vegans for creating a market for these alternatives. Not even the meat-alternative start-ups themselves, which call themselves “plant-based” and strictly avoid the V-word, perhaps because food industry surveys find that “vegan” is the least appealing label that can be applied to food — worse than “diet” and “sugar-free.”
Related: 25 secrets the fast food industry doesn't want you to know (LoveFood)
“There are many things that have gotten better in the five years that I’ve been vegan, like the availability of options or the quality of vegan cheese — but the attitude that omnivores have about vegans doesn’t feel like it’s changed that much, if at all,” Summer Anne Burton, the editor of a new vegan-focused magazine called Tenderly, told me. “Even people who are really radical and progressive in lots of areas of their lives still seem really suspicious, frustrated and annoyed by the idea of someone being vegan.”
The annoyance manifests in all kinds of ways. Ms. Burton will post an inoffensive vegan recipe and someone will invariably reply, “That would be better with bacon!” Vegans are constantly tarred with the suggestion that they are unfun — they’re asked whether oral sex is vegan, or accused of ruining weddings and birthday dinners with their outlandish preferences. “Being vegan or talking about your reasons for being vegan is taken to mean you are judgmental and smug — ‘You must be fun at parties!’ is probably the thing that I hear most often,” Ms. Burton said.
The tragedy here is that the mockery intimidates vegans. Rather than being out and proud about their beliefs, vegans find themselves biting their tongues. “A lot of us overcorrect,” Ms. Burton said. “You make a sacrifice because of your beliefs, and when people ask you about it, you’re afraid to sound judgmental or smug, so you brush it off.”
There are many theories for why vegans have it so rough, but the one I lean on is guilt and cognitive dissonance. Many omnivores understand the toll that meat wreaks on the planet, and we can’t help but feel the tension between loving animals in the abstract while eating them with abandon on the plate. All of this creates feelings of defensiveness, so when a vegan comes along, their very presence seems like an affront. To an omnivore, every vegan looks like a preachy vegan.
Well, that’s the point! As a culture, we are far too comfortable with consuming animals. The idea that meat is cost-free is exactly what led us into this trap; delicious as it may be, we should feel embarrassed and uncomfortable that people are going gaga for a mass-manufactured fried chicken sandwich.
For the good of the planet, put down the sandwich. But if you won’t do that, at least refrain from putting down the people who are trying to light a path to a livable future. The vegans are right. The vegans were always right. The least you can do is shower them with respect and our gratitude, because they deserve it.
Explore the issues faced by the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people this summer and discover what you can do to help.
Labour's 'Stop Boris' deal with the Scots: 'Hypocrite' Corbyn holds talks with SNP to push General Election back to NOVEMBER to guarantee No Deal Brexit is dead.
Jeremy Corbyn met Ian Blackford, the Scottish nationalists' Westminster leader, yesterday to agree an election should only be held after Britain has secured another Brexit delay from the EU. Mr Corbyn believes he can snare the Prime Minister by refusing Mr Johnson's preferred October 15 election date, forcing him to seek another delay to Brexit.