VEGAN ACTIVIST vs EX VEGAN - 'Being fundamentalist is not helpful'

*Please be kind to each other and about the people in my videos as many of them come to my channel to watch the videos. 🙏🏼

This lady was once vegan but has 'given up' due to various perceived difficulties and social dynamics. We discuss these in this conversation and get down to the nitty gritty in the last few minutes. I think I've given her a new perspective and hopefully that will help her find her way back to living in alignment with the compassionate values that she already holds.

If you would like to support my work I've taken the decision to start a Patreon. My reasons for doing so are on the link below...

Ultimately I'm trying to make people stop for a moment and think - and to reconnect with the compassion for animals that already lies inside most of us.

If we take the time to inform people properly, together, one step at a time, one change at a time, – when it all adds up, it will be one enormous result for the animals.

Ethical veganism means making everyday choices driven by the desire to avoid causing cruelty and suffering to animals at all practical costs. It is a way of life that reaches far beyond a plant based diet.

Put simply - We oppose the exploitation and use of other animals.

There is no doubt that breeding, caging and use of animals for food, clothing, experimentation and entertainment causes an immense amount of suffering... all of it completely unnecessary.

Following a vegan lifestyle is easy and on this channel I will be navigating many of the challenges and socially ingrained ideas that animals are here for us to use.

I also hope to talk about 'activism'... and helping other vegans to communicate effectively and share the message of living without causing unnecessary harm to other beings.

I want to make change happen... for our health, for the planet and most importantly, for the animals.

I hope you will join me on our journey to change the world.

Clif

The Game Changers (Netflix)
Forks Over Knives (Netflix)

[timid]

I’ll rarely listen to a full video like this. I did today, you were absolutely superb. I’m with you 100% and have been for 8 years! ✌️💯

[Mag_]

I see this in people a lot - they don't like being confrontational, they don't want to inconvenience anyone, so if a friend or family member serves them a product of cruelty on a plate, they might as well eat it... Setting up boundaries is not just important for staying vegan, it's an essential life skill. Be assertive!

[EmpathyAnimals]

Apathy and evil: the two work hand in hand. They are the same, really... Evil wills it; Apathy allows it. Evil hates the innocent and the defenseless most of all. Apathy doesn't care as long as it's not personally inconvenienced.
- Jake Thoene

[jonjonwp]

She backtracked half way through and turned veganism into a diet. She thinks vegans are eating different foods to all the world !! We just leave out the animal parts. Very happy you stuck to the truth.

[DJLirnl]

I doubt it very much that she was really vegan, her words said it all . Well done Clif for having the patience and time for talking to her. ✌🌱

Nice to see you stood firm in the end there Clif! Those excuses have to be dispelled clearly otherwise the animals will remain forgotten. It was confrontational but necessary. No excuse for animal abuse ✊💚

[EmpathyAnimals]

You certainly did your best here, Clif, but the animals were in just too much competition. More important was human rights and plastic trash in the environment, and not offending friends at dinner parties. Growing up on a farm and not being bothered too much by animal suffering didn’t help, but there was also finding it too much of a drag to be different and stand up for animals in a world where not everyone is vegan, along with the task of figuring out how to stay full on lentils, beans, peas, rice, pasta, potatoes, bananas, etc.
Blessings to you for being one of those darn fundamentalists!

[luciemunson]

Literally an ex-vegan and ex-friend of mine (she didn't want to be friends with me after a debate about veganism). Unbelievable. Being a vegan fundamentalist makes you all the more likely to take responsiblity for all of your choices in life. This was all about deflection and beside the point (vegans can be hypocritical and so that justifies me continuing to pay for abuse). You were amazing Cliff ❤

[veganliving]

Your point at the end was great and I'm impressed how you managed to reman so respectful.

[MrTrevisco]

Yep, she is definitely not vegan, nor ever was from her excuses during the second half of this video, she might only have tried plant-based at best.

[liawilbourn]

The main reason people don’t want to go vegan is they don’t want to be outcasts or ostracized or questioned or make anyone uncomfortable. The type of person who values fitting in above most anything else.

[TuftyVFTA]

The thing most people who try plant based diets don't realise, is that veganism is not about plants and not about diets.
I feel for this woman, having eating disorders can be an incredibly difficult thing to live with. But as Clif says, veganism is not to do with plants or eating them, it's 100% about the reduction of animal cruelty.
No one - who for moral reasons doesn't beat up their partner each night -, gives up on those morals and openly admits to it saying things like "oh I was anti partner violence for 5 years, but it was too difficult, and other people beat their partners, so I started again and join in"
It's no different.
The major problem here is the word vegan has been hijacked and distorted and is more often misused than it is used properly.
I'm starting to use the word sentientist instead.

[veryveganmom]

Excellent outreach. Well done standing your ground to the end and not backing down with that last bit about eating lasagne at a mates house. Your being assertive really paid off 👏

[bazza]

you did well not to dive into every single point she raised, my problem is i tend to systematically address every point, and then the other person gets bored, or just switches off.. it's hard to keep it on topic of the animals when stuff like local produced foods, environment, health issues are raised often without any acknowledgement just switch and bait you know... total respect.

[mcc]

thanks for speaking up against animal cruelty . love this channel . keep moving foward

[PBandJames]

This is a great conversation.
I was "freegan" for a while, I didn't pay for animal products but I accepted them when offered to me, telling myself that I was preventing waste while not contributing to the industry.
I was lying to myself. Once I truly went vegan, I could see how I had actually been normalizing the continued subjugation of animals by taking part in even the smallest amount.
If I was trapped in a cage with no voice, I'd want the most severe "fundamentalist" working on my behalf.

[anja]

That was a really interesting conversation! Thank you for your work!

[robsengahay]

I am fascinated by the cognitive dissonance that means so many people understand fully how unspeakably cruel the animal agriculture business is yet won’t make the connection with their choices or use ridiculous justifications. I say this because that was me too and, honestly, for the life of me I don’t now know how I did that for so long.

I know you reference the red pill, blue pill moment in The Matrix Clif elsewhere but it is worse than that because Neo and everyone else really had no reason to doubt their world view. I had the knowledge but still went along with the illusion as indeed is this young woman.

[TheyearoldVegan]

There is no effort it’s simply not participating. Hopefully she’ll revisit her value set and align herself.

[jjradV]

Clif your steadfastness is impressive as always.
True ethical vegans would never eat animals to please their friends.
Eating disorder ?
I would be very curious about that, as it is often used by people who don't want to change their ways.
Eating Animal corpses or Animal secretions is usually what causes eating disorders.
I wonder if she would kill the Animals herself if she couldn't pay someone to do it for her, would she need to eat Animals because of her "eating disorder", I think, probably not.