Summary of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joyful Vegan

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 We all have stories about how we became vegan or plant-based. They all start the same: we stopped knowing, and we didn’t realize it until we woke up. We willingly choose to know and change, despite the comfort of ignorance.

#2 We turn away from the reality of what we do to animals for our gustatory pleasure, and we play a game of pretend like the child who covers her eyes and thinks you can’t see her. But we remain complicit with the reality through our willful blindness.

#3 We see willful blindness reinforced by our desire to conform to tradition, social norms, family expectations, and cultural mores. We see it in the belief that eating animals is neutral or impartial, and that being vegan is taking a position or having an agenda.

#4 We have to create boundaries to our compassion and place animals in arbitrary categories in order to continue supporting something that is anathema to our ethics or well-being.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822513808

IRB Media

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Insights on Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joyful Vegan

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We all have stories about how we became vegan or plant-based. They all start the same: we stopped knowing, and we didn’t realize it until we woke up. We willingly choose to know and change, despite the comfort of ignorance.

#2

We turn away from the reality of what we do to animals for our gustatory pleasure, and we play a game of pretend like the child who covers her eyes and thinks you can’t see her. But we remain complicit with the reality through our willful blindness.

#3

We see willful blindness reinforced by our desire to conform to tradition, social norms, family expectations, and cultural mores. We see it in the belief that eating animals is neutral or impartial, and that being vegan is taking a position or having an agenda.

#4

We have to create boundaries to our compassion and place animals in arbitrary categories in order to continue supporting something that is anathema to our ethics or well-being.

#5

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we feel when our beliefs about something clash with each other. For example, we may believe that animals feel pain, but we still eat them anyway.

#6

The meat paradox is the idea that we care about animals, but we still eat them. To resolve this conflict, we typically change our behavior to match our beliefs, such as by becoming a vegetarian or vegan.

#7

The fact that it’s socially acceptable to exploit animals for their meat and fluids explains why we’re outraged when dogs and cats are killed for meat in certain countries, while we have no problem with the fact that cows, pigs, goats, chickens, and turkeys are killed for the same right here at home.

#8

We are deluded when it comes to our denial about the detrimental health effects of consuming high amounts of meat, dairy, and eggs and low amounts of whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. We clearly care about our health, but we participate in behaviors that are antithetical to attaining that health.

#9

We should rely on science and trusted professionals to make decisions about our health, but we should also make sure we’re not simply looking for experts who will confirm our bias and gurus