A lot of leftists are marxist-leninist, anti-sexist, LGBT+ and anti-racist. BUT, they’ll tell you the dumbest right-wing arguments to justify eating animals. I get that people aren’t ideal, but when you are the urban middle class of the West, there’s no excuse to not be vegan. Absolutely, no, excuse, to, murder, animals. Historical materialism lets me ok people from poor/oppressed backgrounds being carnist. I would never denounce a carnist in Gaza, but the Westerners have no any excuses to abuse animals.
I get that some people just have no will, I know people can be addicted. But at least DON’T BE A JERK to vegans. Some “leftists” post propaganda about veganism like YT videos that are literally funded by oil corporations. Some “leftists” are so toxic I’d rather have a conservative as my roommate than them.
The “leftists” lie all the time. Meat, dairy, eggs and honey are luxury products available mosty to those in the imperial core. The poor countries like India, Nigeria, Uganda and North Korea eat diets closest to veganism BECAUSE plant foods are the cheapest foods, not carnist subsidized McFood.
Dealing with leftists, especially online, is draining to me. How can I be productive as a leftist and not go insane? How can I cooperate with carnists to achieve the revolution? I see no easy solution here
As with all reactionary positions among allies or comrades, we must envision how to build a world in which they are abolished through practice and consciousness.
This is not just because we have duties as socialists or whatever, but because it’s the only way we can, as individuals, practically organize without developing misanthropy. You won’t just find carnist socialists out there repeating absurd reactionary talking points and reverting to bullying behavior to punch right on this. It’s also not the only time you’ll find people, including socialists, draping themselves in an identity in order to deflect from a criticism. Socialists, particularly Western leftists, are also pissbabies that fall apart during basic disagreements, though luckily more and more are developing the skill of patience and seeking understanding.
So, to move past it, you have to focus less on the reactionary they are (on a given topic) and instead on their capacity to eventually change or to indirectly help us build by putting more people into the pipeline.
For a non-vegan example, there are many racist socialists out there, having absorbed the base level casual racism of their societies as well as any personal peculiarities. You actually can’t operate as a socialist in the West without contending with this. If you made your org truly antiracist in the sense that you purged everyone holding onto any casually racist views, you’d no longer have organizations at all. There is casual racism in black socialist groups, in indigenous groups, in South Asian groups. Much of it internalized. If we couldn’t handle that racism and try to correct it, we would have no organizations at all.
I would recommend getting vegan comrades so that you can have a safe place to retreat. When you run out of steam fighting with reactionary sentiment, they can be a way to recharge. They will also be how you win people over. One person saying veganism is good is just a person with the right opinion. A small group is an organization that can recruit and influence.