Duff Goldman Just Shared His Take On Veganism And Diet Preferences

While veganism is becoming ever more mainstream, vegans still labor under the perception of being rather full of themselves. Even Duff Goldman in his nice, clubbable Goldman manner felt compelled to mention this when a tweet asking why non-vegans obsess about vegans came to his attention earlier this morning.

"Personally," he wrote, "I think it's the other way around. I feel like I've met a lot of vegans that will tell you about their veganism unprompted and repetitively. I don't identify as an omnivore. Not a critique, I'm all for it. Just an observation."

He continued by comparing vegans to his keto friend who feels compelled and people who at restaurants throw various dietary restrictions at servers. Goldman ended his tweet thread by saying that dietary restrictions are fine, but they don't need to be explained by your "culinary identity" and emphasizing why you don't eat meat comes across as judging the person you're telling. "I dunno," he concludes. "I just woke up."

The conversation really isn't that new. Back in 2016, The Daily Meal published a piece looking into the validity of the joke, "How can you tell if someone's a vegan? Don't worry, they'll make sure you know." The few vegans they interviewed pushed back against the extreme caricature of the idea, but accepted that the differentness of being vegan may make it seem that way.

In 2020, the BBC investigated the bias against vegans. Making a point similar to that made by Duff Goldman, Hank Rothgerber, a social psychologist at Bellarmine University, explained that while we can normally ignore the "cognitive dissonance" between affection for animals and eating meat, the presence of vegans causes people to notice it. Though, vegetarians may be even more anxious as they agree that they shouldn't eat animal meat but still, in the view of vegans, subject animals to farming practices to drink their milk.

Of course, in some cases, vegans do declare themselves as vegan. As Rebecca Jones explained in a column for The Guardian, "Once you open your eyes and have that lightbulb moment [of animal cruelty], it's hard to watch the rest of the world tucking into their cheese plates and burgers without feeling you should say something."