“Let’s taboo the V-word” by lincolnq

“How long have you been v*g*n?”

This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It's a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.

But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we don’t always notice: someone new comes into the space, has a few conversations, realizes they’re surrounded by v**ns, and they have one of two experiences:

a) if they are v**n, they feel like they’ve found their people; or
b) otherwise they immediately feel out of place—maybe they’re stressing: “uh-oh, I’m realizing everyone else here is v**n, I probably need to be very cautious about what I reveal about myself, do I need to hide?”[1] This makes it hard to interact normally and they’re probably on track to silently not returning.

Compare this to a slightly different world where the word never comes up—where you just get what you expected, namely participation in an animal-protection movement which you opted into.

A dogmatic culture

The V-word [...]

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Outline:

(01:25) A dogmatic culture

(02:18) Diet restrictions have costs, sometimes very high

(03:43) Minimizing and gaslighting

(05:45) There are lots of pro-animal people who eat meat

(08:38) Language can change culture

(09:56) Really? Stop saying the V-word entirely?

(11:23) What to do instead

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
July 12th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fWyFHfZiFKg3GGzNf/let-s-taboo-the-v-word

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.