IWasYoungOnceToo

I went to /r/vegan because I'm toying with the idea of at least partially switching, but I gotta say there are some pretty unwelcoming people there :\ I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable asking any newbie questions.

Edit: Getting a lot of replies from people surprised/disappointed at my comment. I saw that this AMA was cross-posted to /r/vegan, so I'm guessing some are coming here from that. Anyway, wanted to offer an example of what puts me off the sub. Below are comments that I've cherry-picked from some of the top submissions over the last month. There are also LOTS of friendly/happy/helpful/etc comments, but these types of comments leave a deeper impression on me. Believe what you want, say what you want, eat what you want; but if you want to convert more people, aggression probably isn't the best method. That said, I imagine it can be extremely frustrating to see people doing something you find irrefutably unethical and this may just be a safe place for vegans to vent.

Also, I'm still toying with the idea of veganism, just not super stoked to participate in this reddit sub.

170pts:

I posted [on the parenting subreddit] that if you're not comfortable showing your kids a video of a slaughterhouse don't give them meat. I was of course downvoted to hell.

40pts:

The main reason why I went vegan is shit like this. This isn't about who is higher on the food chain. It's widespread, corporate, commercialised genocide. The systematic enslavement goes beyond game hunting or anything like that; how somebody can support this without being part-sociopath is beyond me... /rant

15pt reply to the above:

We are all essentially living in a Nazi Germany. These animals are living in what are essentially concentration camps. They reside in poor living conditions, and are abused and mutilated until their eventual execution. I make the comparison to Nazi Germany because most humans are ignorant; willfully ignorant of what is going on with these animals and what it is doing to the planet.

0pt question:

Is it concidered better if you raise and butcher your own meat?

32pt reply:

In the same way that it's considered better if you didn't torture a person before you killed them, I suppose.

There have been a lot of monthly box services that have sprung up over the last couple of years. Many of them have failed due to an inability to keep up with demand and/or an inability to consistently source affordable and well-varied goods. Have these been issues thus far? And how do you plan to avoid them in the future?

cutting back and watching where your products come from will do wonders to make the industry better for the animals.

This is my dream. Occasional meat/dairy, but only from verifiably humane* sources. Unfortunately it's just not in my budget at the moment, which is part of why I'm leaning toward veganism.

*I understand some believe any farming is inhumane, but I hope everyone can understand what I'm referring to.

aren't directed at individuals looking for support.

Totally fair point. It's just that when I first checked out the sub, I was looking through posts to get a feel for the tone, participation level, tips/advice, etc. It left me with a bad first impression. But as I see more and more comments similar to yours, I'm considering taking another swing at it.