As long as human supremacy exists, veganism will engender backlash. Veganism puts pressure on the system of human supremacy, and backlash represents speciesist resistance to loss of privilege and human supremacy.
I'm sure most of us vegans experience some form of backlash on a regular basis. And backlash can take any number of forms – from labels, stereotypes, and mockery to outright verbal and physical abuse.
For instance, an intensely aggressive form of backlash involves forcing vegan children or vegans of all ages under institutional control to consume and use products from the exploitation of nonhuman animals.
The purpose of backlash is to eliminate opposition to oppression and reaffirm the status quo. Backlash directed at vegans represents specific expressions of speciesism that aim to marginalize, neutralize, co-opt, silence, and control veganism.
But this backlash doesn't just come from non-vegans. The backlash can come from other vegans and from within ourselves. This type of backlash comes out of our own internalized dominance, which occurs when as humans we accept human superiority as normal and deserved, and when we deny the oppression experienced by nonhuman animals.
This sort of backlash is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Often coded in terms of being "pragmatic," "practical," and "effective," this backlash seeks to silence, marginalize, and discredit vegans who persist in challenging human supremacy. In this case, backlash represents the deliberate misrepresentation of veganism based on the logic that ends justified the means.
A number of self-identified "vegan" activists and organizations routinely engage in backlash tactics against vegans and veganism. These tactics are often justified with talk of making veganism "mainstream." The subtext being the assimilation of veganism into the existing social order – the very thing veganism is supposed to challenge. For those using the backlash tactics, the so-called "mainstream" represents the promise of "real" power, but it's a power rooted in speciesism and internalized dominance.
