The cringiest complaint I ever wrote.

Have many of us have got one of those?

Once, in another life, I was in some vegan groups. Not surprising, really, considering I’m a vegan – primarily a dietary vegan. I did try being a perfect vegan, but trying to be perfect is a fool’s errand, as I discovered. Since ditching that effort, I don’t claim to have transformed into someone “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”, thrilling as it sounds, but I have given up trying to be perfect - in every way - and I’m a lot happier for it.

The vegan groups and I parted ways when I wouldn’t kowtow to gender ideology. I still don’t know why anyone would think it’s important for vegans to embrace gender ideology, especially when the experimentation on animals, in pursuit of what is mainly a lifestyle choice, is ugly. Basically, I ended up self-excommunicating from the groups before I was kicked out. Special thanks goes to two blokes in particular, who helped set me free and become a committed women’s rights bigot.¹

I know that there are many who have a visceral reaction of antipathy towards vegans, and that’s okay, it no longer bothers me greatly – age, wisdom, and retrospection will do that. You might still enjoy this story, though. In my other life, however, that antipathy used to bother me, much of which was brought on by groupthink and group angst. That’s what you get in groups, and it has both its good and bad aspects.

One day, six years ago, a NZ broadcaster by the name of Ryan Bridge took a swipe at vegans. I can’t remember why, but he took the p*ss, which I and other vegans decided wasn’t very funny. It’s not like it was something we weren’t used to, but on this occasion we decided he crossed a line, and I, in a mighty fine head of steam, wrote a complaint about him to the now defunct Newshub, for whom he was working at the time. Newshub rejected my complaint, so I progressed it to the Media Council

I’ve covertly cringed about that for a few years.

Finally, I decided to confront my cringe, and use it to show that I’m familiar with how one’s mind can get completely caught up in a belief, to the extent you think others who don’t follow it have a rottenness in them. Yeah, sorry about that. There were lots of good things about being a part of the vegan community, but there was also that. To be clear, I’m only speaking for myself here. So, I dug up that complaint to re-read and expose my firebrand vegan past to the world, to show how we can change. I knew it was all in a good cause, so I girded my ovaries and went for it.

And it seemed a little tame, to be honest, and not much like the memory I’d built up around it.

I had to read it a couple of times, just to be sure I wasn’t missing anything. It doesn’t even mention ‘genocide’ once, although I did get ‘hate’ in there. To be sure, I say some other dickhead things, especially the bit about stochastic terrorism – groan. And I can’t even use the excuse I was young.

Upon thinking on it, I realised that the discourse from the TQ+ and their evangelists has become so vitriolic over the last few years, that what I then considered an explosive complaint is pretty moderate compared to much of what is served up today. But maybe I’m just trying to put some salve on my cringe, judge for yourself -

“Formal Complaint. Not for Publication.

I wish to make a formal complaint about the opinion piece by Ryan Bridge, “Kiwi vegan loonies are treasonous”, which was published by Newshub on 29^th October 2019 (https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2019/10/ryan-bridge-kiwi-vegan-loonies-are-treasonous.html).

The headline of this piece contained the words ‘vegan’ and ‘treasonous’ in the same sentence, thereby encouraging the reader to associate these two things in conjunction with each other.

Further down in the piece, Ryan Bridge also referred to Vegans as “traitors”.

This is a deliberate hate-inciting piece against Vegans, and I would go so far as to say it is bordering on stochastic terrorism (via media) - ‘the public demonisation of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted’ (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/stochastic-terrorism). Stochastic terrorism is a popular online tool used by known hate and terrorist groups. If Vegans had a fixed gathering or meeting place, they could well be in danger of violence from those who were incited by pieces like this.

Ryan Bridge avoids using the word ‘terrorists’ in association with Vegans in his opinion piece, perhaps because of what happened in Christchurch on 15^th March this year. Otherwise, I’m sure he would have irresponsibly thrown that word in there, too.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and can express that opinion strongly if they choose, but not in a way that incites hate and/or violence. Vegans are not the only social justice group in the world that upsets some people, however, they are just about the last group left whereby public vilification, often incited by irresponsible media publications about them, remains unfettered and uncontrolled. Whatever a person may think of Vegans, publicly inciting hatred is not acceptable.

Although this opinion piece is rubbish in many other ways, too, spouting rubbish is not a crime. However, inciting hate and stochastic terrorism are.

I would like a public apology from Newshub and Ryan bridge for allowing the words ‘treasonous’ and ‘traitors’ to be associated with Vegans, and a commitment to not directly incite hate against Vegans in this way again.

Thank you.

Katrina Biggs.”

How about that for something which deserves to be framed? I guess we’ve all got cringe memories tucked away in our memory banks, because we’re human. Sometimes we might reveal them, sometimes not, but a life with no cringe is a life lived too carefully – which I just made up now 😊 As for Ryan Bridge, I daresay my complaint was barely a blip on his radar, and consigned to the memory dustbowl five minutes after reading it. Maybe it even gave him a laugh.

¹How two vegan men peaked me into being a committed women’s rights ‘bigot’.

Header image by FamilienbildungWedel from Pixabay