As you’ve probably heard by now, Lierre Keith, author of the fabulous book The Vegetarian Myth, was attacked by three vegan nut-jobs on Saturday while giving a speech. They threw a pie laced with cayenne pepper in her face. If that doesn’t sound like much of an attack, keep in mind that it’s nearly the equivalent of being attacked with pepper spray. And frankly, I’d be outraged even if the pie was made of whipped cream. (No wait … that would be a dairy product; the vegans would never stoop to such cruelty just to assault a human being.)
Fortunately, Keith is recovering. Jimmy Moore wrote to inquire about her condition, and she replied:
My eyes are still puffy and blurry, but the pain is definitely better. I think the worst part was hearing people cheer my assailants while I was being assaulted. I don’t want to live in a world where people cheer while someone has cayenne rubbed into their eyes.
Yes, people were cheering — while three men in masks attacked a 45-year-old woman who already has a damaged spine. My, what courage.
I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. The animal-rights wackos have a long and proud history of attacking soft targets. As my comedian friend Tim Slagle once pointed out, they’ll happily throw blood on women wearing fur — but strangely, they never feel inspired to attempt a similar protest on men wearing leather.
Nearly as disturbing as the attack was the ability of some vegans to justify it in their fatty-acid-depleted brains. Here are few quotes from a “news” site, with my comments:
Some will undoubtedly argue that the pieing was an attack on free speech, but Keith has been afforded more speech than most people on the planet will ever be, courtesy of PM Press.
Well, gosh yes, once someone has been afforded more than his or her share of free speech, it’s perfectly okay to use violence to correct the imbalance. I’m sure that’s what James Earl Ray had in mind, too. Although if you really think about it — and I’d suggest consuming an egg or two before tackling this one — you and Lierre Keith have been afforded exactly the same amount of free speech. The only difference is that more people have elected to listen to her.
In fact, she is profiting from the soap box she has been given to pretend she is a radical environmentalist who just happens to jet around the country to and from her home in rural Massachusetts.
Making a profit and flying on a jet? Truly unforgivable. Since Al Gore has set himself up to make millions in the carbon-credit business while flying all over creation in a private jet and living in a mansion that uses 20 times the national average for electricity, can we expect you to toss a pepper-pie in his face anytime soon? Or will you remain true to form and attack Tipper instead?
In a world where vegans and vegetarians are a definite minority, face constant bombardment with pro-meat messages our American cattle culture, and frequently have to deal with direct attacks from government, law enforcement, and multinational corporations that profit from the sale of factory-farmed meat and dairy, Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press, himself a long-time vegan, strangely chose to pile on with yet another attack on vegans, this time being especially traumatic in that it comes from the inside of the supposed radical environmental movement.
Those direct attacks from the government on the oppressed vegan minority are an outrage, all right. Just last week, storm troopers dragged a dozen vegans out of our local Whole Foods and shot them in the street. It’s a shame you don’t live in a country where you’re free to just ignore those traumatizing pro-meat messages and continue living as a vegan.
Through the Bound Together collective, of which Ramsey Kanaan is a member, Lierre Keith has been asked to speak in the Bay Area repeatedly. The mean-spirited book and these speaking engagements are largely one-way conversations with Keith dominating the dialogue.
Wait … you mean she’s been asked to speak repeatedly?! Wow, that usually only happens to people who have something interesting to say and can therefore draw a crowd. But I see your point about the one-way conversations. It’s got to stop. In fact, nearly every time I attend a speech, the speaker just stands up there speaking and speaking and speaking, without ever asking me what I believe. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself, “Damn! If only I had a pepper-laced pie, I could bring some balance into this dialog.”
But today, anonymous masked peoples stood up and refused to allow PM Press and Bound Together to yet again try to cram Lierre Keith down our throats. They stood up for many who have suffered silently, without a voice, since the publication of her book.
I hear you, bro. I remember the glory days when people were allowed to choose which speeches they’d attend. Now, of course, the meat industry kidnaps vegans at gunpoint and crams Lierre Keith’s speeches down their throats. Those were some true freedom fighters who attacked her. More bravery like this, and perhaps someday vegans will be allowed to publish their own books, give their own speeches in public, or — dare I say it? — express their opinions on their very own blogs, instead of being forced to suffer in silence.
The article was bad enough. Here are a few bits of wisdom from vegans commenting on the article:
Lierre Keith was appropriately treated when she was physically stopped from continuing to advocate for and incite the murder of innocent non-human beings.
Can’t argue with that. Next time I see some vegan farmer tilling the soil and killing thousands of non-humans in the process, I’m going to mace him in the face. (No wait, I keep forgetting about vegan logic: it’s okay to kill creatures in the quest for food as long as you aren’t killing on purpose.)
She was pied, get over it. Big deal, even IF it was a spicy pie. Somebody call the waaaambulance for this loser. This action was both hilarious & totally appropriate.
Yeah, a little spice in the eyes is hilarious. Nothing to fuss about. Any chance we could meet in person so I can share a few laughs with you? I do this bit with Tabasco sauce that’s just side-splitting.
Lierre obviously comes from a privileged perspective if the very first thing she said was “someone call the cops” as only the privileged automatically think of police as their friends and defenders. Lower classes and darker skinned people do not immediately look to police for help. They’ll take the help if it’s there, but they don’t assume police generally exist to serve them.
That’s why I enjoy watching “Cops” on TV: it just cracks me up seeing all those people who come from a privileged perspective calling the police on each other. Last week I saw a repeat of the episode where the guy in the smoking jacket answers the door and says, “Yes, officer, my wife Muffy is such a pill, I’m afraid she let loose with the pepper-spray in the middle of a heated discussion about the relevance of Kantian ethics in modern society. Could you be a dear and slap some cuffs on her? And I won’t object if you make them uncomfortably tight.”
But if you’re suggesting Lierre Keith should deal with being physically attacked in a manner more befitting the “lower classes and darker skinned people,” I’m pretty sure we can round up plenty of volunteers to administer the appropriate justice.
Has anyone considered that it wasn’t Vegans who pied who but an agent provocateur trying to create division?
Damn, you caught us. See, that’s the thing about us meat-eaters: we take ourselves and our identities as meat-eaters so seriously, we sit around and try to think of ways to split up the vegan movement.
Message to Keith and others who promote oppression, repression and murder of the innocent, and destruction of the planet, however misinformedly well-intentioned – “No more free ride!”
By all means, please start physically assaulting anyone who believes eating meat is beneficial. I’d suggest you start with Fred Hahn. That will give you a chance to field-test your theory that avoiding meat actually makes people stronger. (Although I predict the theory will turn out to be misinformedly wrong.)
As a vegan I’m both mad at and ashamed of the people who did this. They are bullies.
You sound eerily sane. How long have you been a vegan? (To be fair, more than a few vegans were disgusted by the attack. Good for them.)
Some commenters suggested the attackers were suffering from the “vegan rage” Keith describes in her book. That was my first thought as well. But since then, I’ve decided we may be confusing a correlation with a cause. Yes, they could be prone to rage because a vegan diet has depleted their brains. But I think it’s just as likely they’re militant vegans because they fit the personality type described so brilliantly by Eric Hoffer in his book The True Believer. I plan to write a post on that topic later in the week. It seems more appropriate for my other blog, so it’ll probably end up there. I’ll let you know.
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Why don’t you read what commenters actually write before posting? You seem to assume and then attack your false interpretation. It’s called a ‘Strawman arguement’. Maybe you’re just rushing through a load of posts and don’t have time. But it does make you look dishonest, insincere, unprofessional, overly-emotional and untrustworthy.
Maybe you don’t care.
I did read what you wrote. I’ve responded to exactly what you wrote.
Why don’t you read what commenters actually write before posting? You seem to assume and then attack your false interpretation. It’s called a ‘Strawman arguement’. Maybe you’re just rushing through a load of posts and don’t have time. But it does make you look dishonest, insincere, unprofessional, overly-emotional and untrustworthy.
Maybe you don’t care.
I did read what you wrote. I’ve responded to exactly what you wrote.
“My eyes are still puffy and blurry, but the pain is definitely better. I think the worst part was hearing people cheer my assailants while I was being assaulted. I don’t want to live in a world where people cheer while someone has cayenne rubbed into their eyes.”
I doubt the audience knew that there was pepper in the pie. I’m also skeptical that there was. I wonder if any of this is in the police report that LK filed.
Well, as long as the audience didn’t know there was pepper in the pie, cheering at the sight of thugs physically assaulting a woman who has a degenerated spine is fine and upstanding behavior. I’m so impressed with the vegan commitment to nonviolence.
Look, you stupid fucking c**t. Prove that anyone who laughed was vegan. Do you think meat-eaters have never laughed at a pie in the face?
Well, here’s thing, you stupid @#$%ing c**t. We don’t have to prove that anyone laughing was a vegan, because vegans keep showing up here to justify or minimize an assault on someone for giving a speech — thus proving that you’re the intellectual equivalents of Islamofascists who believe anyone who doesn’t respect the one true faith should be attacked. Now go get the therapy you so obviously need.
Why do you play on the “degenerative spine”? Would it be acceptable to you if she had a very strong spine? I’m so impressed with the wankers commitment to nonviolence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPayTWlAQ0k
Couldn’t they find a chair for her? After all, she’s terribly, terribly ill.
It’s a fucking foam pie. People have been laughing at that for nearly a century.
Yes, keep dismissing the assault as no big deal. The more you vegan zealots show up to justify or minimize what happened, the more you look like hypocrites and utter morons. You’re just too @#$%ing stupid to realize that.
Yes, it’s funny when the Three Stooges do it as part of an act. If you watch the video you linked, you’ll see that the first asshole slammed the pie onto her head. That’s an assault, even if you’re too much of a vegan zealot to bring yourself to admit it. The assholes should have been run down and arrested. Too bad there weren’t any actual men in the audience, as opposed to little pissant “anarchist” wannabees.
Tell you what, though: how about if the next time Dr. Neal Bernard appears on TV to promote a vegan diet, I go slam a couple of cream pies on his head to interrupt his speech and end the event? I’m sure you and all your vegan-zealot pals would just laugh yourself silly at the wild humor of it all.
I’m not excusing the act but you’re making it sound as though all vegans are aggressive and all meat-eaters are angels.
You absolutely must have the last word. Go on. Treat yourself.
Never implied anything of the sort. But since vegans insist they’re all about nonviolence, assaulting a woman is about as hypocritical as it gets.
But I’ve not assaulted anyone.
You’re just desperate for any excuse to knock people who disagree.
Nice try, but attempting to justify or minimize an assault on someone because she dared to diss your One True Faith makes you a major asshole, a total hypocrite, and an intellectual kin (to abuse the world “intellectual”) to Islamofacists and other True Believer types, even if you didn’t participate. You’re just too @#$%ing stupid to recognize that.
When I see some True Believer vegan assholes dare to try mashing a cream pie into, say, Robb Wolf’s head, or Mark Sisson’s, or Fred Hahn’s, or any other strapping male who promotes a paleo diet, then I’ll at least respect them for not being cowards. But no, the True Believer vegan assholes of course went for the diminutive woman. And you zealot dipshits can’t even bring yourselves to admit it was an assault. (Gosh no, it was just HUMOR, ya see!)
Go get the therapy you badly need.
It was an assault. I wish it hadn’t happened.
A Labour MP had an egg thrown at him by a member of the public. That guy wasn’t vegan.
I’m sorry to burst your bubble but there are all sorts of people that do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNbSVpOc2tI
You are using this incident to soil all people who are vegan.
Once again, Miss Mental Midget, I have never, ever suggested that only vegans throw things at people giving speeches. Nor have I ever suggested that all vegans act this way. In the original post, I even praised the vegans who were outraged by the assault and said so. Have you considered a remedial course in reading and comprehension?
The post was about the vegan assholes who mashed a pie into Lierre Keith’s head and the other vegan assholes who cheered and said she deserved it. This is especially hypocritical coming from vegans who claim to be all about non-violence.
Lierre Keith was physically assaulted. Three thugs attacked a small woman. Then mental midgets like you show up to essentially say 1) Keith staged the whole thing, or 2) bitch had it coming for daring to diss our One True Faith, or 3) gosh, the attack was no big deal, really.
Number 3 was your point, wasn’t it? Big joke, ya see. Wacky humor, that’s all. People have been laughing at pies in the face forever, doncha know.
Only after I point out what hypocritical assholes you all are will you finally, grudgingly, say “oh, and uh, yeah, I wish it hadn’t happened.” Nice try, but after dismissing the assault as a wacky and funny joke, you don’t get to come back and tell us how sorry you are that it happened — not without looking like an insincere moron, that is.
Think what you want.
People have a tendency to interpret things based on their previous thoughts, feelings and beliefs, don’t you?
PS I’m male.
Correct, zealots interpret everything according to their own beliefs. They are also impervious to logic and contrary evidence. Rational people are capable of questioning their beliefs and changing their minds, as I’ve done. See my 2014 posts on safe starches for clear examples of that.
So you’re a male who attempted to dismiss an attack by three thugs on a woman as a big wacky joke. You’re a fine example of masculinity.
The egging scene in the video was an attack on the Labour MP taking the position that Scotland should remain part of the UK.
Well, the one who seems very frustrated/angry on these comments, is you.
Well, that’s because you can’t see me as I write. I laugh my ass off at your incredibly moronic zealotry and hypocrisy before typing what I think of you.
OMG!! this is horrible and has made me decide to NEVER even think of Vegan as an alternative WOE if this is what it does to your brain. At least as a meat eater I’ve never tried to harm a misguided vegan nut-bar from going about their life….and I certainly would never want to be counted among them, ever! In my opinion what they did was terrorize this poor woman and I hope they find the perpetrators and throw everything they can at them. BS like this has no place in a civilized world…..and clearly just because you don’t want to harm animals doesn’t necessarily make you civil in any way, shape or form – obviously!
Thanx for sharing this Tom, we need to be made aware of the loonies in our midst.
If you need it pointing out:
People like myself, are taking offense at this article, not because you’re blaming 3 people who assaulted Lierre. But people your whole thread is all about ALL VEGANS HAVING THIS MENTALITY.
But trying to actually discuss this with you is impossible because you always resort to insults, ad hominems and strawman arguments.
You say, “It’s pointless trying to talk to you vegan nutjobs.” Well, calling someone a ‘vegan nutjob’ isn’t the best approach.
Now, go ahead. Insult me. The person who blocks communication is you.
Again, I can only suggest you go take a remedial course in reading and comprehension. Nowhere in the original post or in my replies to comments do I say all vegans have this mentality. I praised the vegans who had the common decency to be outraged by the attack. The people I call nut-jobs are the ones who say Keith staged it, or she had it coming to her, or the attack was really no big deal — just a joke, ya see.
You took the “no big deal, just a big joke” line, so yes, you’re a nut-job, a zealot, a hypocrite, a True Believer. Of course I’ll insult you. Hypocrites like you deserve insulting.
I’m guess this means that there must be a bunch of vegans lurking/trolling on the facebook page. The only reason I can here is because of the facebook link, yet all the new posts are from vegans despite these comments being dormant for about 2 or 3 years. I’m not a member of any vegan facebook groups, and I’ve only ever gone to a small number of vegan sites just for educational purposes. Not once did I ever tell them they are full of crap or need to eat meat. It’s such an odd thing, to come to this site where they know their message isn’t going to influence anyone, and then they do their best to insult anyone who disagrees with them. Who gets converts that way?
Nobody gains converts this way. That’s what makes these True Believers so friggin’ amusing. It’s like they can’t help themselves.
It’s arguable that, in general, a pie in the face is a true “assault” as the object used is usually a relatively harmless only-whipped-cream pie (such as the infamous “entartistes” in France have used to embarrass Bill Gates or to repeatedly humilate (righteously) serial gas-bag pseudo-philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy) but the use of an object like hot pepper is indicative of primary intent to harm (no mitigating justification possible), not to humiliate… for that reason it is a crime …
The first nutjob also slammed the pie onto her head. I’d call that an assault, pepper or no pepper.
Violence is wrong in any form. I do not support anyone who thought it would be funny to throw a pie at this woman. That being said, Ms. Keith’s entire existence is attacking anyone who is following the vegan diet (she supports consuming whole foods with grass-fed meats), so is it any wonder that a select few reacted to her negatively? Even the vegans in the community can’t necessarily agree on the best “way” to be vegan. She has said repeatedly that eating a vegan diet is a myth in that it doesn’t deliver the protections of the animals or the planet, plus the diet is “unhealthy” because of what it includes and excludes. And finally, it’s not really a stretch or difficult to convince someone that eating meat is, in her opinion, the “healthiest diet” because the majority of this country already consumes meat and animal products–so that is in her favor, and sometimes you have to go to extreme measures to get your point across (as Ms. Keith already knows since she proudly highlights that she’s been arrested six times as of 2016). Was it the best way to get the point across? I don’t think so. It might be ideal if vegans and Ms. Keith focus on the similarities in their arguments rather than attacking each other’s differences.
Vegans are allowed to stand up and make their case just like anyone else. Anyone who responds to speech he or she doesn’t like with violence is a moron who can’t come up with a decent reply.
In my experience, meat-eaters don’t give a rat’s rear-end if some people choose not to eat meat. I was a vegetarian myself for years, and nobody ever tried to talk me out of it. But lots of vegans are like religious fanatics who consider anyone who doesn’t agree with them to be an enemy who must be shamed and perhaps attacked. Those vegans don’t do their movement any favors, because they make vegans look like nut cases.