I’m sure we’re all fairly familiar with the above info graph, we’ve all seen it once or twice. Carnists desperate attempt to make themselves feel better about their deliberate choice to hurt animals by showcasing our sometimes unintentional and/or unavoidable use of animal products.
There are two main reasons why this argument holds no water.
Point #1
Most of this stuff does have vegan alternatives.
The image has been corrected before:
But I feel like I can go even deeper in depth, having more room and all.
Skin
Gelatin- Pectin, agar-agar, some kosher gelatin, carrageen.
Flavorings- Natural fruit and vegetable flavors, liquid smoke, spices, ect.
Emeryboards- Vegan Cuts
Sheetrock- There’s vegan drywall, but this isn’t even commercial. No gypsum in my wooden cabin, sorry!
Wallpaper- It’s not that hard to just not get wallpaper made out of animal skin.
Adhesives- Wellbond vegan all purpose glue.
Medicines- I don’t take medicine for many reasons more than just the fact that they have animal products and are animal tested. If you have to take medicine, that’s fine. You can’t really help any animals if you’re dead. If you’re feeling really bad about it, though. You can research your medicines, some of them are vegan. You can also look into holistic methods.
Candies and confectionery- Plenty of candies are vegan including skittles, now & laters, twizzlers, ect. There are also specifically vegan candies and chocolates!
Bones
Refined sugar- Raw sugar, coconut sugar, agave nectar, stevia, ect.
Charcoal- Charcoal as in what? Activated charcoal tablets? Nature’s answer. For grilling? That contributes to smog I’d avoid it anyway.
Fertilizer- Compost!
Glass- Like there isn’t vegan glass lol
Brain
Anti-aging cream- Alba Botanica’s Aloe & Green Tea Oil-Free & Sea Moss Moisturizer. The Body Shops Vitamin E Moisture Cream. I’m sure Lush has some too!
Medicines
Blood
Pasta- Most pasta is vegan I don’t know where you’re getting blood pasta. In fact, spaghetti noodles are nearly ALWAYS vegan.
Imitation egg- Egg alternatives? We’ve got ya! ( here )
Cake mixes- Some Duncan Hines came mixes are vegan. You can also, you know, make cake from scratch or buy vegan cake mix. That’s an option as well.
Dyes and ink- Soy ink! Vegan dyes!
Adhesives
Minerals- iHerb, Veglife, ect.
Medicines
Labrotory research materials- lol what?
Hair
Air filters
Brushes- Synthetic brushes.
Felt- Well that’s a given. You might as well have put leather on this list, just don’t use felt.
Insulation- Paper insulation.
Plaster- Calcium sulfate plaster.
Textiles- Man-made textiles instead of non vegan ones
Fat
Chewing gum- Wrigley’s, Big league, Vegan Essentials has some in stock too. At vegfest we tried a gum made out of like, rainforest rubber or something I dunno.
Candles- Soy candles
Detergents- Elephant Rooms ultimate vegan laundry room masterpost
Fabric softener- ^^
Deodorant- Tom’s, Burt’s Bees (apparently), Desert essence, Jason, Kiss my face, natures gate, almost every deodorant at sprouts, ect.
Shaving cream- Dr. Bonners, Earth Science, Herban cowboy
Perfume- Lush has a lot, try this list of top ten vegan perfumes
Petfood- Well we’re not really talking about dogs being vegan now are we? In any case, V-Dog and Evolution Diet Cat Food are vegan as well as many others
Cosmetics- E.L.F, Wet & Wild, Kat Von D, Lush, Lavanilla and many other companies offer vegan cosmetics
Creams and lotions- ^^
Crayons- Here are art ingredients to avoid and some alternatives. Try colours of nature & Ecos!
Paint- ^^
Oils and lubricants- Like for what… Cooking? Sex?
Biodiesel- Get an electric car or a bike?
Plastics- That’s easy, stop using plastic.
Waterproofing agents- Coconut oil
Cements- There’s vegan cement but this isn’t commercial either
Ceramic- It’s actually really not that hard to find vegan ceramics, try etsy or Jeanette Zeis like the above pic says!
Chalk- Wee Can Too Veggie Sidewalk Chalk
Explosives- I don’t understand why you need explosives
Fireworks- Fireworks are awful you shouldn’t use them even if you are vegan
Matches- It’s called flint and putting your vegan incense over the flame on your stove
Fertilizer
Antifreeze- Get a tesla
Insulation
Linoleum- Cellulose insulation (sometimes)
Rubber- Call the manufacturer to ask how it’s made
Textiles
Medicines
Hooves/Horns
Adhesives
Plastics
Pet food
Plant food- Compost (again)
Photo film- Get a digital camera
Shampoo & conditioner- Paul Mitchell, Carols Daughter, ect. There are hundreds of vegan shapoos and conditioners.
Emeryboards
Lamination- Plastic can be synthesized, apparently
Wallpaper
Plywood- There are vegan plywoods too
Internal organs
Instrument strings- Synthetic (I’m getting a synthetic violin bow)
Tennis racquet strings- Synthetic
Hormones, enzymes, and other medical materials- Ali Terrain Medical Supplies, iHerb, Veglife, ect.
Milk
Adhesives
Plastics
Cosmetics
Medicines
Manure
Fertilizer
Nitrogen- This is an element lol
Phosphorus- ^^
Point #2
This entire mentality is ridiculous, I don’t even know where to start. I have all kinds of people telling me on Twitter that what I’m saying is irrelevant because the device which I’m speaking to them from has animal parts in it, they can’t even name what part of my phone is nonvegan! This whole idea of “Yeah I hurt animals for no reason all the time on purpose for my own gain, but there are ways that YOU hurt animals that are miniscule and out of your control, so you’re no better than I am!” is imbecilic.
Veganism is about doing your very best to avoid any kind of animal suffering, but in order to make the largest difference- you must still live in civilization. Sure, I could become the ultimate vegan; live in the words, have a house made of mud rock and wood, none of the above materials foods or otherwise would be a problem for me. I would no longer be subjected to societies mass itemization of animal suffering, but I also couldn’t spread the word.
The point is capitalism has made it so we depend on the suffering of animals to survive, vegans are the only people who are actively avoiding this- but we still live here. We’re bound to make mistakes and sometimes we’re bound to have no choice but to use something with almost untraceable amounts of slaughter by product- that’s life, but we’re all fighting to change it. Non vegans cannot say the same. If you think that me advocating for veganism on a cellphone that I need to have that uses liquid crystals based on a miniscule source of animal cholesterol is somehow the same as you purposefully paying people to torture and slaughter animals for your own greed- you’re not just ignorant, you’re dead wrong and you’re the problem.
Marvelous
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