Nitpicking

I received an email this morning from a self-described vegetarian reader who told me that I'm getting it all wrong. She said that when she visits my blog, she would rather find tips on how to become vegan (e.g. information on whether certain ingredients or behaviours are vegan). She also suggested that I should be posting more recipes (with "nice photographs") of things that I make to eat. She said that she found it unhelpful that most of my posts are about the failure of animal welfare or about misuses of the term 'vegan' and that if I used a different approach, that I could convince more people like her to go vegan.

I do appreciate feedback, of course. I often do feel that I should be leaning more toward 'vegan education' blogging of a more basic sort and I try to remind myself of that from time to time and to post accordingly. The thing is, though, that there are tons of resources available online, from innumerable lists of animal ingredients to sites focusing on vegan nutrition. As for My Face Is on Fire not focusing on recipes much, well, the truth is that this isn't a food blog. I do spotlight other vegans' food blogs once or twice a month and periodically post about my own experiments or post links to recipes found on newspaper websites, but there are so many other things to write about concerning veganism without my feeling any need to focus on recipes.

Right now, where the abolition of the exploitation of animals and of their treatment as property are concerned, I think that it's crucial to focus on where animal advocacy does or doesn't work. With veganism as the moral baseline for the abolitionist movement, I also think it's crucial to ensure that the meaning of 'veganism' remains clear to all; there seems to be as much confusion concerning it among those who profess to espouse it as there is among those who choose to dismiss, mock or vilify it. So, my writing about these things may seem like nitpicking and may seem inconsequential to some, but I think that they fit somehow. At least I'd like to think so.