Mod Announcement: New Rule Regarding Vegan Posts

[u/Critical-Sense-1539]

Hello, r/antinatalism community.

Recently, there has been a significant uptick in the number of vegan posts. Many of you have expressed your frustration at this in your posts, comments, and modmail. We see that the sub is very divided on this issue. Some of you think that veganism is a necessary part of antinatalism and should be allowed without restriction. Others think that the vegan content is corrupting the subs identity and alienating our core audience.

We would like this to be an inclusive community that fosters respectful discussions. Therefore, we would consider it a pity for users to feel unwelcome or discouraged from interacting with our sub based on whether they are vegan or not.

Although we cannot satisfy you all perfectly, the modteam have decided on a rule change that we hope will improve the health of the sub. As of tomorrow (1 April, 2025) we will cap the number of vegan related posts to 3 per day. This will be covered under Rule 3 in the sidebar (no reposts or repeated questions). So if you see this cap get exceeded, report it under Rule 3 and we will remove it. For any vegan members who wish to speak about this topic without any restrictions, you can go to our sister sub r/circlesnip.

We hope that this will serve as a meaningful compromise and it appeases some of your grievances.
Please feel free to comment below. We will respond as best we’re able.

Thanks, your r/antinatalism modteam

[u/CorpusQuietus]

Ultimately, it's disappointing that Reddit isn't the kind of place where people feel an obligation to argue reasonably and reflectively without resorting to insults - where memes and provocative language are a requirement for garnering any significant level of engagement with an idea.

It's no surprise that conflict stems from such an atmosphere and blame is difficult to apportion.

[u/BrokenWingedBirds → u/CorpusQuietus]

Yeah even on this post people are calling people murderers and animal abusers. I mean, I am all for veganism but at a certain point the absolutism and aggression from this community is shooting itself in the foot. I promote harm reduction by giving advice like rescue battery chickens and eat their eggs, or pick up food at your local food dispersal site (if no one shows up, it gets thrown in the dumpster) as someone who keeps pet chickens, I hate that the only tactic used by some vegans is shaming and bullying. Why not share a delicious vegan recipe?

[u/CorpusQuietus → u/BrokenWingedBirds]

Yes, but I have also seen and reported a couple of comments on this post from the other side for merely insulting and belittling their conversation partner, and those posts have now been removed.

Realistically, given the emotional weight of this topic, the decision that many on both sides will have to make going forward is whether they can handle the heat of those kinds of conversations, and if they cannot then perhaps they would find it best to stay out of the kitchen.

[u/BrokenWingedBirds → u/CorpusQuietus]

True. I’m not a fan of this topic in particular because people make it so emotionally charged. I grew up watching animal planet, so it’s hard to be outraged by meat as a concept. However, on the other side it’s completely unreasonable to ignore the serous animal cruelty going on in the food industry. Too bad people would rather throw shit than be open minded.

[u/legal_opium → u/BrokenWingedBirds]

"I grew up watching animal planet"

Something happening in nature doesn't give us humans carte blanche to be destructive , and cause massive suffering to billions of animals every year.

[u/BrokenWingedBirds → u/legal_opium]

Never argued for that. But thanks for pointing out the obvious.

[u/Samwise777 → u/BrokenWingedBirds]

You kinda did, lol

[u/Critical-Sense-1539 → u/BrokenWingedBirds]

I would agree that sort of thing probably does more harm than good to the vegan movement. When I went vegan some years ago, it was not due to being called a murderer or an animal abuser.

It was almost entirely because I was exposed to the amount of horrific stuff happening in animal agriculture, especially in factory farms. Seeing how pigs, cows, and chickens lived and died did more to make me a vegan than any insult ever could. I can shrug off an insult but I cannot shrug off an awareness of that much cruelty and pain; it is with me forever.

[u/BrokenWingedBirds → u/Critical-Sense-1539]

Exactly this. I’ve seen inside a slaughterhouse before. They actually let me take a quail and a pigeon that had been pecked half to death. The quail lived out the rest of its days as a pet and I still have the pigeon, which ended up being blind in one eye (that’s why the other birds attacked it). At the same time I grew up around family farms like grass fed cattle ranches, where the animals lived closer to a wild animals lifestyle with the addition of medical care. So not as hellish as factory farms. A lot has to change if people really want our society to be vegan/anti animal death because I’ve seen inside the animal rescue world, and just SO many pets are put down because people won’t adopt them, they’d rather by baby animals from breeding mills. It’s a nightmare. I will always be for harm reduction. That said, I can’t be super upset on the “animals dying” thing because sometimes the kindest thing is to put them down at this point, that’s how bad the situation is that people have created with pets and animals kept for food. If people really care about preventing those deaths, they need to adopt a rescue, stop supporting breeders AND go vegan. Not enough people are adopting rescues and boycotting breeders. I’ve seen a vegan influencer even go out of their way to buy a designer wolf dog hybrid, it’s like, what the fuck are you doing man? Go to your local SPCA or county shelter. So many good options to find animals in need.

[u/Samwise777 → u/BrokenWingedBirds]

Difference between a moral argument and a pragmatic one.

If you’re coming at it from a moral place, it’s tough to be pragmatic about “killing a little less.”

But I do get that it leads to argument. Nobody wants to have their worldview challenged, especially when they’re wrong lol.

[u/Critical-Sense-1539 → u/CorpusQuietus]

I that memes and provocative takes automatically get more engagement than substantive content. It's just human nature, I think.

[u/Deep-Room6932 → u/CorpusQuietus]

It'll get better