I haven’t managed to “convert” anyone to veganism, but I have at least helped to dispell stereotypes and spread awareness. Most people’s experience with vegans is just the extremely vocal and perhaps extremist ones you find online, calling everyone rapists and murderers. And look, I understand that there is some logic behind that, but if your goal is to try to bring more people towards veganism, you won’t do it by insulting people.

I’ve managed to convince most people that vegan food isn’t gross. I offer people little bits of vegan food that I make or eat and they’re often impressed.

I’ve dispelled myths about imitation meat being really unhealthy (not arguing it’s healthy, but some people act like it’s the worst thing you can eat). You’d be surprised how many people think it’s some lab made nasty chemical.

I’ve dispelled a lot of myths (always respectfully, of course) about vegan nutrition. Most people aren’t trying to be harmful, but they’ve heard a line or two online about how vegans can’t build protein, can’t get certain vitamins, etc.

Mostly, I think by just being a respectful and amicable human being, I’ve shown people that you can be vegan and not make your whole life about it. Most people don’t even know I’m vegan until we eat together and I have to explain it. I don’t want veganism to be some kind of religion or cult you have to join, I want it to just be a normal thing that people choose to do for the animals.

That being said, I do hope that I can eventually convince at least one person to become vegan, but I think trying too hard will just have the opposite effect. I’ll continue to live by example and hoping people follow.

Prenote

Congrats on trying out veganism!

First off, based on your message, I think you might have a couple misunderstandings about veganism. Understand that veganism isn’t a diet nor is it inherently healthy. You can be vegan and eat processed food and imitation products all day long. Veganism is primarily an ethical stance - choosing not to partake in the industrial scale abuse and torture of our animal friends.

I hate to say something that goes against my own beliefs, but I don’t think it really makes sense to go fully vegan just for health reasons. Yes, virtually all nutritionists would say that people need to cut down and significantly reduce the amount of meat and animal products people eat, but for purely health reasons there aren’t many reasons to go down to absolutely 0. Plus, although there are plenty of benefits to outweigh the negatives, it is important to recognize that vegans can have a slightly harder time getting some nutrients, like vitamin D, iron, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids (most people struggle with these nutrients anyway, it’s just that vegans struggle a little more). And uniquely, there is virtually no vegan source of B12, so you need to take a supplement, or eat fortified foods.

I’m saying this because people who go vegan only for health reasons almost always quit eventually. Do it for the animals, but also enjoy the health benefits that come along naturally.

Don’t make these mistakes

Going vegan, especially suddenly, can take a toll on your body, just as making any sudden dietary change can.

• Make sure you are eating enough. A lot of vegan food isn’t as dense as animal products, usually because it contains a lot more water. The actual “volume” of food that you eat should increase quite a bit. Although I’m normally against it, I actually recommend calorie counting for a bit when you first go vegan (but do understand the dangers of calorie counting long term).
• Understands symptoms of suddenly eating a lot of fiber: One of the healthiest aspects of veganism is the high intake of fiber, which is fantastic for your digestive system. However, most people eat way too little fiber, and the sudden change from little fiber to lots of fiber can actually be a bit uncomfortable: bloating, stomach pain, diarrhea. Long term healthy, but maybe short term take it slow.
• Eat satiating foods: Vegetables and fruits are great for your health, but you have to eat foods that provide long term energy and make you feel full. If you are feeling hungry all the time, that’s not good. The overarching categories here are grains (preferably whole), legumes (beans, lentils, tofu, fake meat), nuts, seeds.
• Get your vitamins checked 3-6 months after going vegan: I just think this is too important after any dietary change.

Onto your actual question

The main breakfasts I eat are:

• Granola or cereal and plant milk
• Tofu scramble (can meal prep this easily) and toast, sometimes impossible breakfast sausage. To make good tofu scramble you need some unconventional ingredients you might not find at a grocery store, like black salt (kala namak)
• Beans and toast
• Leftovers from last night’s dinner
• Skip breakfast (or just eat a small fruit) and instead have a big lunch

I will occasionally have toast with peanut butter and banana on it, but that’s so calorie dense, I only eat it on days I know I’ll be doing a lot of physical activities.

This is actually a great breakfast. I understand your concern about it being calorie dense, but recognize that this is very satiating, and will keep you full and energized for a long time.

Also, don’t be afraid to eat some vegan imitation products. I promise they’re not nearly as bad as people demonize them to be, just don’t eat them all the time. I love impossible brand breakfast sausage, bratwurst, burgers, and chicken nuggets. In modern day, you can be vegan and still indulge in some tasty foods occasionally.

I hate to get so semantical but using the word pedophile incorrectly just desensitizes the word. Pedophilia means being attracted to children, primarily meaning before or in the early stages of puberty, usually younger than 13. In fact, many pedophiles would not be attracted to someone aged 15+ because they are typically exclusively or primarily interested in prepubescent bodies.

That doesn’t mean this guy isn’t a total asshole, but he’s not a pedophile, and I think anyone can understand an adult sexting an older teen, while still absolutely horrid, is quite different from sexting a child.

Once again, absolutely not defending this guy, I don’t even know who he is… but I think it’s important not to desensitize the word.

I know this might sound strange but autistic people are roughly 3x more likely to be LGBT so you could consider going to an LGBT meetup. I’m neurodivergent and LGBT and that certainly matches my experience.

Lots of open job positions is very healthy for the economy, it gives the worker the ability to choose, and it makes companies have to compete. A ton of companies are literally being forced to increase their wages in order to get enough employees.

Firstly, I think it completely aligns with libertarian principles to regulate environmental impact. If a company pollutes the airs and rivers, that physical affects everybody.

Secondly, yeah, it is sad that many consumers will turn a blind eye to poor working conditions and environmental impact … but I do think there is a limit. And honestly, most of the big companies in our nation are making some attempt to improve environmental conditions, probably because they know that some people will stop buying their product if they don’t. It’s not a lot, but I think the fact that it’s happening at all is some proof that companies can certainly be pressured into doing the right thing without legislation.

What I like about the free-ish markets is that it at least gives you a personal choice. If you don’t want to support a business, you don’t have to. It sucks if other people support it, but let’s be honest, if like 50% of the country wants to support a business that you don’t like, then what can you expect?

Respectfully, I think the opposite. I think, for the most part, a free® market naturally benefits humans with good intentions and harms those with bad intentions.

For example, let’s say in a free market, somebody wanted to start a business with horrible working conditions, horrible salary, horrible everything. Now, if the economy is real bad then people might work there, but for the most part, that business is going to fail because people won’t work there, and would choose other jobs instead. So in this case, a free market actually incentivizes “good intentions”. The business owner will have to improve work conditions, salary, etc. so that people will work there instead of elsewhere.

And one of the important aspects of a free market is the ability to start a competing business. If there was a company with overall poor working conditions and salary, it would highly incentivize someone to start a new company with better conditions, because they could pull in all the workers from the other company.

And look, I’m not saying this is fool proof and works 100% of the time, and I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a healthy amount of regulation. But if you compare this to an economic system where businesses are run by the government, you can simply just be stuck with shitty work conditions and shitty salary, and not be able to do anything about it.

I really hate this sentiment because if you actually look into the libertarian party platform and their recent candidates, they are nothing like Republicans. LP has supported LGBTQ+ rights for decades, they support open borders, support social freedom, don’t like religion in govt, etc. I mean, the only real overlap between the LP and Republican party is like, guns. I know many people would argue that they have similar economic policies but they really don’t, all Republicans have done in the last twenty years is spend more money and specifically only remove the regulations that are actually useful.

But at the same time, whenever I meet someone who calls themselves a “libertarian”… yeah 90% of the time they are just edgy Republicans.