Vegan Zinesters

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Comment by James N. Dawson on November 10, 2010 at 4:28pm

I just made an infuriating discovery today. My brother just arrived for a visit from California and asked if he could have a Luna Bar. I said, "sure, help yourself". He read the ingredients and told me they had WHEY in them!

I thought I'd thorougly researched this and on several vegan forums it seemed liked everybody raved about how much they loved them, so I had the impression that they were ALL 100% vegan. I guess you've got to really read the fine print!

These little bars cost me over a dollar each, DISCOUNTED. I ordered 2 boxes on-line. I'm going to finish them, because I hate to waste. (I've admitted often my veganism is "imperfect".)

But I'm going to boycott Cliff and Luna from now on, and I'm going to let them know about it. I really think it's sneaky and inconsiderate to vegans not to warn them of their "occasional exceptions" in their products. They should know the impression they give.

Yeah, this really annoys me.

JND

Comment by ButterSword on April 15, 2010 at 11:33pm

Hi fellow vegan zinesters!
I landed a weekly comic strip at Vegan Mainstream! The second comic just posted today. It could use everyone's support, re-posting on Facebook and re-tweeting on Twitter, etc. It's also free entertainment for just a click! Here's the link: http://www.veganmainstream.com/author/mcmiller

Thanks!!!
MC of ButterSword

Comment by James N. Dawson on April 15, 2010 at 11:04am

Vegan Restaurant Dweeb #2

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/washvegans/message/1210

Comment by CXMNZ on March 30, 2010 at 3:16am

That's a great post Johnny, and I totally get where you're coming from.

I have found that there's a lot of 'scene points' to be earned from veganism when it comes to punk and hardcore scenes - and that is often the motivation behind making this choice. For a while I thought that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, no matter how short lived these kids' veganism is/was it was still a start, and raising awareness of animal rights.

Unfortunately after meeting (and even sharing a house briefly) with a few people like this I get the impression that so often people who become vegan for the 'wrong' reasons very rarely stick with it, and don't put the effort in to avoid all animal products, only the ones that suit them and that they can make a big show of avoiding - so long as they can tell all their straight edge or vegan friends about it for the effect. They won't give up on animal tested cosmetics or the 'must have' leather shoes, and even when it comes to the diet won't bother to think about what's really in their food, so long as it looks suitably vegan and sparks 'conversation'.

As a result, this always seems kind of damaging to the movement. The contradictions and bad attitude displayed by people like this only serve to confuse those on the periphery, and ultimately put them off.

Of course, there are people who will come to veganism from this route and stick with it, and as they learn more about it will come to be valuable members of the community and take action to take the movement forwards - sadly, these people seem to be few and far between, and more often as soon as someone's bored with the scene or the music will move on and forget about it.

As for the placement of a McDonalds' advert alongside Rise Against's lyrics, I wouldn't be surprised if this was deliberate - on McD's part that is. I wouldn't put it past them to bid on keywords relating to animal rights as a means to influence people away from it by showing them a picture of one of their products in a good light as a distraction to the potential vegan.

Comment by Johnny Misfit! on March 29, 2010 at 4:53pm

James, as an older vegan myself, I understand your malaise. There always will be a younger generation that is joining up at sporadic times for various reasons. Maybe Rise Against got some kids to be vegan. Maybe that lame tv show on Sea Shepard (Whale Wars) did. Then you have to think about those people. Some might be nice mild mannered, the kind who do phone campaigns. Other might be 'hands-on', the kind who do direct action. But what it all comes down to is the longevity of people's convictions. If one kid wants to be vegan today, will he tomorrow? Seeing ads for McDonalds above a Rise Against song do not help. Our culture is inundated with ads infinite times a day.
This all seems like a digression, but I hear your concerns. You are validated in them. Don't forget too, that everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

Comment by James N. Dawson on March 15, 2010 at 2:20pm

Here are some responses to my comment below, my counter-response, and responses to that. Nobody "gets" me.

http://www.veganfitness.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20793&p=34...

Comment by James N. Dawson on March 14, 2010 at 5:27pm

I've heard a song on the radio a few times I sort of liked and decided just a moment ago to find out who sang it and what it was all about by doing a Google search of the lyrics that I could make out.

It turned out to be White Flag Warrior by Rise Against. It was on some sort of lyrics page, that I don't remember at the moment. Anyway, at the top was an ad for some sort of McDonalds "super burger". This struck me as bitterly ironic, given it's juxtaposition, maybe even "top billing" over the idealistic song lyrics---Rise Against is a hardcore vegan/vegetarian band with strong animal-rights beliefs. It seemed almost like an arrogant and sinister "victory statement" of social conformity and crass consumerism over idealism. I wonder, does Rise Against know about it? And if so, what do they think? I'm not crying "SELL OUT!", but I just sometimes wonder, as an old, square, boring, burned-out vegan myself, how much all this "hip, strident, hardcore" veganism is a huge pose, a charade with little substance? As a word and rallying cry, veganism has grown by leaps and bounds, but as a practice, statistics have shown it's no bigger than it was 20
or 30 years ago.

Maybe I'm just in another of my cynical, pessimistic, aging-crank moods.

Any thoughts?

James N. Dawson

Comment by ButterSword on January 16, 2010 at 4:53pm

Hey guys! We are vegans who make a daily webcomic called, ButterSword.
We also make zines and will soon be collaborating with Laura-Marie on a vegan cooking zine.
Talk to you later!
Jen and MC

Comment by Heather Wreckage on December 26, 2009 at 6:20pm

Hey everyone! Don't know how I missed this one! Uh, so I'm vegan and really stoked this is a group.

Comment by James N. Dawson on December 6, 2009 at 9:04am

Hello Vegans!

I call myself a 99% vegan. Who knows, maybe I'm 99 POINT NINE, and that's close enough to just call myself vegan without any guilt or reservation (which I still tend to have in calling myself vegan, right, wrong, crazy or not).

I'm working on a zine called The Turtle Budget Vegan. I'm also toying with the idea of trying to start a vegan APA (Google: Amateur Press Association), but Heath Row's recently been trying to revive APA's and doesn't seem to have had a lot of success. Apparently it's hard to gather and maintain a "committed membership core".

Hope we can get something going here, and it'd be really nice to see it in the Papernet as well, if not primarily.

JND

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