I Used to Be Part of an Angry Vegan Mob
I learned my lesson. I switched to consistently complimentary, compassionate communication.
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One day when I was scrolling through Facebook, my mouth hung open. Someone I admired was quoting me! That sounds like a good thing, but it wasn’t. These were not-so-nice words. Words I didn’t think people would ever see. Now, my verbal insults were top and center of a prominent influencer’s page. People who knew me could be hurt by what they read…
Looks like the gig is up, you rotten vegan ringleaders. I am petitioning to finally terminate your cult of shameless fruit and vegetable lovers forever! I, Mr. Varian Poplar, have already gotten almost 50 people to sign! Here are their names.
Michael N. Hertz
Eaton Palio
Seymour Odeos
Anita Life
(…46 more.)
This is an excerpt of an email I sent Christmas 2012. It was for the leaders of a group I followed during my earlier days of being vegan. The group promoted both animal liberation and a particular style of plant-based diet.
My satirical email was meant to be a humorous means of complimenting the people who I looked up to. I was trying to boost them up by putting other people down. My pun names made fun of people’s social struggles (“very unpopular”) and health issues (“my colon hurts”), despite having plenty of such challenges myself.
I was dissing anyone who practiced a paleo diet, attended rodeos, or “needed a life” (which might have been me). Several of the puns I didn’t excerpt were fatphobic, which makes me cringe now.
This is not the way I believe in. You never know when a lapse in judgment could go public. From the embarrassment, I learned my lesson. It was time for me to practice consistently complimentary, compassionate communication only.
The people I looked up to were inconsistent in their communication
Let’s just call the group I mingled with the Produce Power People, for the sake of everyone’s privacy. Charismatic and controversial leaders are common enough on the internet and throughout human history. Many of us have gotten swept up with someone we thought was an infallible visionary of the world’s most urgently needed revolution — only to later realize they are only human like you and me, or, in this case, that their hurtful communication tactics were very toxic.
I loved what the Produce Power People expressed in their videos. I started following them because of their caring, courage, charisma, and creativity. Lots of good C’s so far. Later on, the bad C’s would become apparent.
The Produce Power People encouraged us to eat more fruits and vegetables. They gave health advice that was simple and fun to follow, which personally improved my vitality. They appealed to those who were tired of societal conventions. They especially appealed to people like me who hated animal cruelty.
Before finding these new role models, I had felt infertile in my desire to help animals. I barely knew any other vegans. I was frustrated by the way most people viewed animals and by how vast the animal slaughter was. I wanted to give speeches or do something. But I was so shy about having disagreements or seeming “radical,” I was practically a closet vegan.
When I found the Produce Power People, finally I was seeing people who took both animal rights and human health issues seriously, and spoke very passionately about both of them. Their fervent speeches for the animals made me feel excited.
I was attracted to their heaps of CONFIDENCE, where I had almost none.
The problem was, the Produce Power People’s communication was not consistently complimentary or compassionate. I started noticing how they interacted with those they disagreed with.
When someone held a different point of view from them, they could be critical, contemptuous, and even cruel. (Welcome to the not-so-sweet C’s.)
At first, this didn’t seem a big deal. They were such inspirational, kind leaders. I didn’t know the people whom they were knocking. The criticism must be justified, right?
Over time, the list of people they talked badly about kept growing. When even a fellow vegan expressed slight differences from their dietary philosophy, they might make a post about the person. Calling the person names. Pointing out everything that was supposedly so wrong about them.
The division and polarization was intense. The Produce Power People were described as cult leaders. When they “pounded the gavel” on someone, hundreds of their following would “mob” their target of the week with unpleasant comments. Cyberwar had been waged.
The Produce Power People explained that they did this because drama gets more views. It was a needed sacrifice for the billions of animals being constantly abused and murdered. Animals needed their advocates’ voices to be heard over the online noise, at the cost of a few hurt feelings.
I never communicated quite like these leaders did. But their macro-aggressions became my micro-aggressions. I printed anti-dairy stickers to sneak onto cartons of milk at the grocery store. I occasionally plucked up the courage to comment on someone’s “I’m no longer vegan” post or scrambled egg cooking video, expressing my heartfelt disappointment.
Many of their followers were like this. We were conflict-avoidant, sensitive, and more subtle in our expressions of Produce Power passion. Yet, we supported people who were merciless in their online insults. We participated in emotional injury happening in the vegan and healthy living communities — which are supposed to be about healing and kindness.
For this, I am very sorry.
I finally put myself in other people’s shoes
Just this week, I reflected on these events from my past. I tried to place myself in the position of the Produce Power People’s targets. I imagined waking up to an unexpected deluge of angry comments. Finding I was suddenly deleted from the online support community that had been my second home, that I had invested my heart and soul in.
I imagined being blocked by various Facebook friends, who had turned against me. How had they forgotten their bond with me so abruptly? Because the Produce Power People said I was no good anymore. I imagined a mocking video made about me that said:
Goober Phoenix Huber. Here are all the bad things I’ve heard about her. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Here’s a screenshot of the email she sent me asking for advice on her embarrassing personal issue.
With tons of comments on the video, agreeing with how wrong I am. And then, people commenting hate on my own videos and posts. A downpour of over-the-top, personally-attacking negativity that lasts for weeks.
I imagined knowing that if people googled me now, they would find the “Goober Phoenix Huber” video in the first 10 search results. This was the wasteland of shattered trust and relationships that people endured when they dared to defy the Produce Power People.
I wish I had done that sooner
When the Produce Power People’s brutality became impossible to ignore, I gradually lost touch with them.
I knew how to give things up when I needed to. Had I not given up eating meat, dairy, and eggs after I’d put myself in animals’ positions? Now, putting myself in the positions of online harassment targets, I had to give up following the Produce Power People.
It didn’t matter what positives I saw in my former idols. The negativity was far too great. I couldn’t look back. I had to completely avoid exposure, so I could graduate from their harsh influence.
Sadly, I think many who knew the Produce Power People ended up wishing to completely forget them as well. We needed to move on with our lives. However, even years later, I hadn’t fully moved on. Because I had never fully unblocked myself from empathizing with the people who were targeted. I had procrastinated owning up to my guilt.
Too many of the Produce Power People’s beliefs had calcified in my mind as well. A part of me still wanted to make those other people “wrong” for having a different worldview. To this day, I feel frustrated that people choose to eat animals. This weakens my sympathy for people who have been attacked for this choice. But that’s not how I want to be at all.
I believe in eating a plant-based diet as much as possible, out of kindness for all animals. I also believe in communicating with the utmost kindness towards all humans. I feel compassion towards both animals who are hurt for food, and humans who are hurt by words (yes, words can be violent too). I believe I could always turn out to be mistaken. I want to remain humble and honor other people’s points of view as much as I do my own.
Writing this today, I can paint myself and everyone involved in a hopefully flattering enough light that it preserves our dignities. I can admit that I was wrong in the peaceful solitude of writing — a baby step that then makes it easier to hit submit and share this confession with the world. This is why writing is so healing for me.
I can only imagine what it was like for those who spoke out and were personally targeted. Again, I am so sorry. I wish I had emailed my words of support to YOU. And expressed my solidarity with you publicly.
My commitment to better communication would soon be tested
A few years after I had distanced myself from the Produce Power People, I fell into online mob behavior for the second time. How did this happen? Hadn’t I learned enough from my last experience to never let this happen again?
There were reasons I got trapped all over again.
This new group was different. They had a clean, professional image. They were award-winning. They were also hiring.
Let’s call them… the Animal Altruism Alliance. Yes, me and my alliterative made-up names! But really, I have to give this group a different name too. I owe them so much. They contributed to my professional development. The beautiful people I met were a big part of my life that I definitely wouldn’t change.
Also, the “negativity” that we expressed in this group was very contained and mostly avoided personal attacks. It would be tame compared to some people’s standards, and fewer people would see a problem with it.
In the Animal Altruism Alliance, we practiced almost consistently complimentary, compassionate communication. Everyone I met was ULTRA positive — living embodiments of the Dale Carnegie book How to Win Friends and Influence People.
They were positive towards vegans who took a different approach than they did. They were positive towards non-vegans. They were very conscious about inclusion and social justice.
The only way we weren’t positive in this group was when we strategically badmouthed various businesses. We were trying to convince these big businesses to adopt better animal welfare policies. So while we didn’t call people names, we messed with businesses’ logos, slogans, and mascots to threaten their public image.
Our campaign literature made it seem as if these businesses were uniquely awful towards animals. In reality, the issues we campaigned about were widespread. We just chose one business to target at a time. That’s how the corporate campaign worked.
Corporate campaigns are legal. They stay within certain limits. They’ve been effective historically. But admittedly, our approach was not how I had dreamt of contributing to positive change.
Handing out fliers on the sidewalk in front of a business entrance — that part wasn’t so bad. Peaceful silent protests — I could do that.
The online part hurt more. En masse, we emailed, tweeted, called, and commented. We expressed concern about the animal abuse. We said that we were boycotting. Businesses were inundated and had to shut down their contact forms and phone lines. I looked one day at a comment I had posted on a business’s facebook page. I realized how strange and out of character this would look to any friend of mine, unless they were familiar with how our campaign worked.
I couldn’t help but think about the strain on the employees, the working people who would inevitably field all of our complaints. I wasn’t alone in my mixed feelings. But our group members believed it was worth what we were fighting for.
We sensitive, positive animal lovers would never behave this way normally. Only a tightly coordinated group effort enabled us to ‘mob.’ We all followed what the group’s upper management decided and didn’t question things.
Eventually, I had to face what I felt in my heart.
I didn’t want to be a person who communicated negatively or misleadingly for the greater good. I didn’t want corporate battles or enemies. I only wanted to do win-win, praise-filled communication that is as honest as possible.
This didn’t mean I had to judge my friends’ approach towards a life-saving cause like ending factory farming. Confrontation is necessary for standing up to powers that are getting too tyrannical. I believe in my friends’ work to this day. But it is not for me anymore. I only had to embrace what was true for me.
Consistently complimentary, compassionate communication is the way for me
Not everything I express is complimentary. But when I feel critique is necessary, I like to do so in the gentlest way I can. I don’t hope to engender distress in anyone.
I’m not always compassionate either. I want to be free to become more compassionate. Unhindered by any protocol that would say to close my heart to someone. Or to raise my digital weapons against someone.
I’ve had many wonderful experiences with animal advocacy that use consistently complimentary, compassionate communication. I try to communicate positively when I publish stories from my vegan life. We communicated positively when we handed out leaflets about veganism on college campuses. Friends and I got the awesome leaflets sent to us from Vegan Outreach.
When I saw Jasmine Leyva speak at a conference, I was blown away by her positive attitude and diplomatic relations with people. Her documentary The Invisible Vegan explores dietary patterns in the African-American community. It shows how the veganism of black people and other people of color has been overlooked. Her work offers bridges of understanding between multiple groups — vegans and non-vegans; black, white, and people of all races; humans and nonhuman animals.
My days of angry online vegan mobbing are over. I still carry fondness for the Produce Power People (from a 100% distance). I will try to channel the passion for health and animal rights that they so beautifully embodied and instilled in me, with the addition of open-mindedness and diplomacy. I LOVE my old friends from the Animal Altruism Alliance. I hope to be as professional, dedicated, cooperative, social, and savvy as they all are.
Most personally: No matter what temptations may come my way in the future, I hope to always stick with consistently complimentary, compassionate communication.
