For a change from people asking who is your favorite vegan celebrity or person you didn’t expect to be vegan or whatnot, I thought it would be interesting to see who is our least favorite vegan.

I know, vegans are usually good people (even outside of their veganism, that is), though not all of course, and we need to be able to admit that not all vegans are perfect, and be resistant against the association fallacy, which this is a test for. What is that?

In this context, association fallacy is assuming that because someone (or a sub-group within a group) shares something in common with a group of people, that group of people must automatically be similar to that person (or sub-group) in other ways. For example, Aileen Wuornos was a feminist, and a serial killer. Does that mean feminists are violent? Of course not.

The typical example of this fallacy is actually relevant but based on misinformation, which is that vegans are evil because Hitler was a vegetarian (not even vegan). This type of Hitler argument has become so common that it’s known as its own class of association fallacy called ad Hitlerum. Well, apparently he wasn’t actually even vegetarian, and it was a PR tactic deployed by Goebbels to make him appear peaceful, but even if he was, that’s not evidence that vegans inherently share any qualities with Hitler.

A common relevant example that vegans come up against is, some vegans are X, or Y or Z (don’t want to inflame people but I’m referring to different controversial political views that some vegans hold, even though they’re in the minority of vegans), and therefore all vegans are X/Y/Z. I hope we can see how this is illogical.

By the way, answering this question with “all of them” is acceptable (though it misses the point) but completely expected, which makes it less funny. I’m interested to know of a particular well-known person who is vegan but who you also don’t rate for one reason or another. And being “preachy” abour veganism I’m not counting as a reason because being outspoken about animal rights or the environment isn’t a negative quality, and shouldn’t be viewed as one. That said, name your target.

  • Rose@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Celebrity? Most of them, as they claim to be vegan but are not. Even Phoenix rode horses for Napoleon. Eilish claims to be vegan but bashes activists for being outspoken, like you said.

      • Rose@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s not a matter of “many” but literally the definition of the organization that coined the term. It’s the first thing that will pop up if you search for “veganism definition” with personalized results turned off. That said, most celebs who claim to be vegan aren’t vegan even by the “dietary” definition. Ariana Grande was eating non-vegan donuts while claiming to be vegan, Jared Leto eventually called himself a “cheagan”, and so forth.

        • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Fair enough. I don’t keep up with celebrities but I see people gatekeeping the definition frequently so I wanted to mention it. People who aren’t vegans definitely shouldn’t say otherwise regardless.

      • Rose@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Everything, per the definition: “Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals […]”