“My favorite chapter in Losing is also The End of Veganism”
Excerpts from a review at Amazon:“The first time I felt Matt Ball's influence was in a warehouse in Seattle in roughly 2003. An animal advocate said to us: 'The approach Matt Ball is suggesting really resonates with me.'
“It was a new concept, this idea of not being in a vegan 'club' or making it about your own personal purity. This concept helped me--especially as a new vegan at the time--in the way I approached both my own advocacy and myself. I no longer feared minute ingredients or felt the need to check A-Z ingredient lists, nor did I need to worry about suggesting anyone exploring plant-based foods do the same. Bottom line: Make it easy not to eat animals, and don't make it about me.
“And this is where Losing shined for me -- the flipping of conventional narratives. The most powerful example in the book, and my personal favorite is 'The End of Veganism.'
“Provocative title? Indeed. But Mr. Ball isn't here to hold your hand! He's here to slap your hand from your eyes and/or ears. To provide post-slap glasses to experience an alternate vision to the one where we are vegan, full stop we're done, end of suffering. To shift the focus from what IS vegan to creating a world with less suffering, vegan label begone.
“For me, beyond shifting from vegan-as-identity, this means we approach others with the same compassion we're asking them to consider.
“As noted in this chapter, one of the biggest barriers to people trying vegan is other vegans. I have experienced this directly when people tell me a version of 'You're the most normal vegan I know.' Another said to a friend: 'I usually don't like vegans, but she's cool.'