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VeganDrew

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About VeganDrew

  • Birthday 01/14/1986

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  1. Same here, bro. I think it's fairly normal to get a few grays at 24 though. A white head of hair doesn't happen overnight.
  2. Thanks for the feedback, Eceglad! The age requirement puzzles me as well, but my distributor requires it in order to do business. I'll haggle them about it to get details, because I'm as confused as you are! As an anarchist (completely decentralized) organization, donating to Food Not Bombs would be rather difficult. Do you think donating the money to a specific chapter would be helpful? My understanding with FNB (having worked with one here in Norfolk) is that the focus is on obtaining food without paying for it. Do you have any other non-profits you'd like to donate to?
  3. Thank you so much, Robert. That means a lot to me! Where can I get a copy of your book, btw?
  4. Hey everyone! After a long break from this forum (and bodybuiling in general) I've returned to the gym upon setting up The Vegan Sex Shop, where you can find massage oils, condoms, lubricants, and even BDSM gear. 6 percent of all profits are donated to a charity of your choice, including PETA, Vegan Outreach, Code Pink, and Human Rights Campaign. It's a small business and I need your support, so please spread the word! http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7687/blackhorz.jpg (Please follow VSS on Facebook and Twitter!)
  5. Do you even know what fascism means? a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism. I'm going to write this off as you being 15 and angry. I agree. What's your point? I don't understand what you're trying to say here. No, you don't have to, but you engaged the discussion and are now becoming defensive and angry that you've been presented with an exhaustive list of facts and have nothing to say about them except that you admit you're ignorant of them. When people are having a discussion, and one person makes a point, the appropriate response is to agree with the point or challenge it. Yes, you can say you don't have to respond, but that's just a childish admittance that you're unable to counter it. It's being stubborn, and it defeats the purpose of logic, facts, and conversation entirely. I offered you the respect of addressing your points with my own and in great detail. I even offered specific documents for you to see where I get my ideas. You then dismissed all of that, very disrespectfully, by saying that anything "anti American" (whatever that means) is not worth discussing, when you began discussing it in the first place. You are actively discouraging dissent in any form and encouraging people who do not agree with the status quo to leave. Would you tell that to Martin Luther King Jr? To Frederick Douglass? To the womens' suffrage movement? To the anti-war movement? If so then you are a fascist and you in fact do not believe in freedom of speech, in people running their own country, in changing anything at all. There is a world of joy beyond ultranationalist willed ignorance. I invite you to join us.
  6. Criticism is not allowed. If you don't like things the way they are you must leave. That is fascism. "whatever it is that some anti american prick like you has say in regards to justifying his own double standards, I just plain don't give a shit at this point." That is willed ignorance. Real patriots stand up for values rather than burying their head in nationalist rhetoric. You are a disgrace to the values of this country.
  7. This is a cop-out and you know it. I don't understand the rest of your post. (If you're trying to compare us as critics of US foreign policy to Hitler killing his own people, well then go take a seat next to Vegan Joe on the "do not address" bench.)
  8. OK VE, time for us to sort out whether this will help or hurt the movement. ...GO!
  9. We need a sign that says "Please do not feed the trolls."
  10. I'd love it if you all would check it out and offer your opinions! http://www.vegansoapbox.com/actions-over-words/ I'm going to try and write every week.
  11. What does it matter that they're public forums? Isn't that the place where people are free to visit and say what they like? That's what public means. Secondly, when is something one's "own" agenda, and what other kind is there? That sounds like a veiled way of saying "people with agendas that are not mine." Third, define "anti-americanism." The only sense in which I know this term is as a malicious, meaningless propaganda word. Do you mean criticism of American policies? If that's the case, you sir are a fascist. How do we know what "true American ideals" are? If we look in history we find that the people in power have used all of the above horrors as a matter of general policy. Genocide? Look at East Timor, the Phillipines, or even US corporate support for Nazism (IBM, among others, is guilty for supplying machines that counted Jews in concentration camps). Hitler's eugenics ideas were in part inspired by eugenics in America, where thousands of people were forcibly sterilized. (For more info read War Against The Weak) Murder? Imperialism? Too many examples to count. I'll just rattle off some countries. Google them along with "United States" and see what comes up: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Native Americans, labor unions, civil rights, Colombia, Cuba. I can go on. Rape? Harder to quantify. It definitely plays a role. For example, it is a key aspect of terror tactics, and many US-supported regimes practice rape as a terror tactic and are trained in terror tactics (not sure if rape is one of them) at the School of the Americas. Things are not as they seem. This is too big an issue to address in this thread, but if you read and watch what I've suggested, this will be answered prodigiously. It's great that you understand this distinction, but then why do you think people critiquing the US feel any differently? It seems like that should come naturally. Ever heard of the Kent State massacre? That's just one example, but it really depends on how far back you want to go, and how blatant the killings were.
  12. I agree that persecution happens to all of us, and I also agree with propaghandi's notion. All I was saying was (good-heartedly) that, regardless of the fact that your point rings true relative to people with different ideas about government, it's funny to hear a white male from North America sort of say "Let me tell you about persecution!" I get your point, that was just my visceral reaction.
  13. In all honesty, is this a joke? Are you not aware that the right to protest exists for the very purpose of saying negative things toward the country? Do you not understand the purpose of criticism? It is to make us realize faults and correct them, is it not? The right to protest is, as other people who actually protest have said, extremely limited. Take a look at the G20 protests (any free trade protests really) or many others and you will see the limitations on the right to protest. Friends who leaflet for vegan outreach have been arrested numerous times even though they were on a public sidewalk and as a result were not breaking any laws. Let's be clear- the 'United States' is not a singular entity that can be blamed. When people say 'the US is responsible for X' they are using it as a shorthand for 'The United States government and, to a lesser extent, its citizens.' While 'disrespect' is not at all an accurate description in my view, I do agree that a criticism of our government amounts to a criticism of us as citizens, and this is absolutely appropriate. Even though there are many unfair limitations on our supposed freedoms, we live with more freedom and privilege than perhaps any other citizen of a country in the world. But as a result, we have a responsibility to fight against the many injustices perpetrated by our government and other social institutions, such as corporations. And just because it says I am American according to some legal documents does not mean anything. Identifying as an American (although this is actually irrelevant to the discussion as far as I can tell) is something within each one of us, and legal documentation doesn't mean much. I personally could become a Canadian citizen tomorrow and renounce my US citizenship. What does that mean? Well, in principle, nothing. Spoken like a true fascist. If you want to live in a country where people are shunned for protesting against their government, then I suggest you move to North Korea, because the foundation of this country was built on distrust toward the government and open criticism as a balance of power. That, at least in principle, is the American way. Don't like people criticizing the government? Then take your fascist anti-Americanism to North Korea! You are painting an awfully broad brush here. People protest in China all the time, and while they are subject to oftentimes brutal repression, they do not "kill those who protest against their government period." Look into the 'Free Tibet' movement or the protests against the Olympic games. People were repressed but they were not all killed. And that repression happens in the States, too. I do not have respect or feel obliged to decency for mass murderers. And while we bear a certain amount of responsibility for the things we are against, part of taking responsibility for that is condemning the actions publicly. It's not about "blaming America" which is a very inaccurate way of putting a critical position. We are stating publicly things like: "We oppose using our military to oppress people in other countries, so they are tortured, killed, and practically enslaved so that US-based multinational corporations can make money." When people criticize 'the US' they are not criticizing the Constitution, the rights afforded to people, the love of freedom, or the 1st Amendment. They are criticizing people who violate these great ideas with intense disrespect, and kill millions of innocent people in our name, to benefit a small elite group of other awful people. Protesting is patriotic. I am confident that if you do some research into the history of US foreign policy, labor history, the civil rights movement, womens' suffrage, slavery, etc you will find out what all the fuss is about. Books I suggest: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 9/11 by Noam Chomsky Failed States by Noam Chomsky Documentaries: Why We Fight The Corporation Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism.... Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so we can have the oil under their sand, we should send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children.... In short, we should do good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate us? Who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to hear. -former U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Robert Bowman in the National Catholic Reporter.
  14. To a compassionate, rational, open-minded person the vegan message is, I think, straightforward, simple, and obvious. To the other 97%, it's misplaced emotion or anthropomorphism on the part of touchy-feely hippies. Can't we agree that, PETA or not, most people don't care? I've handed out thousands of leaflets, listened to or given multiple talks, and I feel good if one person at each one has changed their mind. If the strength of an argument on its own were really enough to win people over, we'd live in a much better world. But I would think it's common knowledge that the world doesn't move on good arguments, but on PR, advertising, lobbying, money, greed, and incentive. Personally, I blame capitalism. As both an activist and a journalist I can attest to the fact that your standard animal rights argument won't get much media coverage. You have to bring something new and interesting to the table and then use the 15 minutes to spew your facts/argument real fast. Is that ultimately counter-productive? I don't know, and it's impossible to measure with any precision. If you can show me a model that works, can be replicated, and takes the same target audience, then I'm game. I think Vegan Outreach leaflets are a great way to go, for example, but they have limited demographics and niches. If its proven that showing the gruesome videos in public will ultimately do more good, then maybe we could just shift to that. However, if getting into big press NYTIMES, CNN) is considered good for the cause, which PETA attests that it is and I'm willing to hear counter-arguments, then you gotta be silly. Who, for example? While a lot of celebrities who do shoots aren't vegan, they are doing campaigns like anti-fur which they don't wear. Am I wrong about that? PETA is targeting a mainstream (read: dumb and generally apathetic) audience. The Peter Singers will take care of the people who want logical argument (me!), Carol Adams will reach feminists, other scholars will reach academia, Rory Friedmann or whatever her name is will reach teeny-boppers, and Mike Mahler and the guy who wrote the Engine 2 Diet can reach the 'tough' guys. I don't like PETA's ads and I think they cater to the lowest common denominator sometimes too, but it's because they're trying to make inroads in a culture that also s me. And, as I've said before, I'm really happy to change my mind on this issue. I don't like partnering up with sexist and baiting advertising, but I feel like we're in such a sordid state of affairs that we need to normalize vegetarianism. That means being part of the norm, no matter how gross it is.
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