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Comment by tstrimple

1 year ago

Strangely enough I've heard far more people make this "joke" than actual vegans speaking up. Even when living in LA.

The issue with this joke is that it's 100% confirmation bias. You know that all the vegans tell you they're vegan because you don't know about the ones that didn't.

  • There are people that I discovered were vegans when discussing what to eat. And there are people that loudly announced they'd become vegans without any context.

    The later group used to be larger, but I don't remember anybody doing that recently.

  • I think it's also survivorship bias. All the people who tell you they're vegan being vegan does not mean that all the people who are vegan will tell you they're vegan, just like all the people who won the lottery probably having bought lots of tickets does not mean that buying lots of tickets will win you the lottery.

It made more sense 20 years ago when it was more generally true. Veganism seems to have spread beyond the merely self-righteous now. It's a very old joke (possibly from the 90?s).

That's the trick, you invert the logic. If you hear the word vegan, assume the person saying it is not.