What’s the joke? How do you know someone’s a vegan? Just wait two minutes and they’ll tell you.
You have to be pretty woke to be a vegan, but owing to the wonders of “intersectionality,” there are vegans and then there are white Western vegans who have a lot to answer for.
It all started with this tweet, which seemed pretty woke:
Meat eaters be like “vegan food looks and tastes gross”
And then eat something that looks like leftover dishwater pic.twitter.com/QtaEU9zNyl
— Jona Weinhofen Ⓥ (@jonaweinhofen) December 28, 2018
Whoa, buddy, watch what you’re calling “leftover dishwater,” especially when writer Jeff Yang is watching.
This is a Chinese hotpot, you engorged penis
It could be made with nothing but vegan ingredients and it would still be delicious and you’d still be a xenophobic tool https://t.co/TIq3malJTJ
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Dang, he’s a xenophobic tool for saying that Chinese hotpot looks gross? Tough crowd. But seriously, let’s talk about white people.
Can we talk about white veganism for a second? The kind espoused by folks like Jona here, who begins his Twitter bio with the Sanskrit word for “nonviolence” but then craps on Asian cultural expressions in order to advance his neocolonial beliefs?https://t.co/dvaIym3Dhe
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Because veganism as practiced by white Western culture *is* neocolonialist. It harvests and expropriated ingredients and preparation techniques from nonwhite cultures to create expensive foodstuffs that many people in their origin cultures couldn’t hope to afford.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Recommended
Tofu, tempeh and quinoa are fancy Whole Foods goods for white folk but they were subsistence proteins in Asia and Latin America first.
And while poor local farmers initially benefited from white interest in their fare, mass commercialization has subsequently crushed them.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Do you know how white people first fell in love with tofu?
Via the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were “relocated” in WE2, where displaced farmers grew soy and created makeshift tofu production plants to supplement the military-style western fare they were served.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Sorry, we never fell in love with tofu — we gave it a shot, but we just weren’t right for each other — but carry on.
The US government pushed Japanese Americans off their land and put them in a mass racist/xenophobic incarceration. White farmers took over billions of dollars of real estate, while Japanese Americans farmed dry patches in the desert to make cultural sustenance for their families.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
The soldiers assigned to guard Japanese Americans in the camps became familiar with the fare being prepared “on the side”—it was better than the mess hall food—because of the hospitality of captives toward their captors. Tofu was “weird” but they developed a taste for it.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
The rise of the counterculture led to a boom in interest in eastern spirituality and vegetarianism. By the 70s, tofu consumption spread rapidly into white communities. Though initially most tofu was made by small Asian American businesses or imported, US industry jumped onboard.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Though an almost unknown product in 1900, used only as forage for farm animals, by 2000, 70 million plus acres of American soil was planted with soybeans and the US was a net exporter of soy to Asia.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
America is now the world’s soy king, to the point where Trump is making Chinese imports of a plant that originated in China a central part of his trade agenda.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
It’s nice to be soy king, although if the term had been around at the time, the Obamacare douche in his red flannel pajamas would have been what we now call a “soy boy.”
More recently, white vegans and natural food lovers fell in love with the Peruvian grain quinoa, and began importing it by the ton—causing an actual quinoa shortage among poor Peruvians, who saw their staple grain being sent to feed condescending white folk instead of their kids.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Fortunately native farmers were able to step up production and there were only a few seasons of drought. Then industrial commercialization hit them like a storm of anvils. Major US producers began farming quinoa, destroying Peru’s market.https://t.co/S9orhDENF4
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
So when @jonaweinhofen mocks traditional Chinese fare to condescendingly push borrowed beliefs, he should know that he’s part of a vast exploitative program designed to repackage nonwhite staple fare and commercialize it for white bellies, crushing native cultures as it goes.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
Also the delicious huoguo @jonaweinhofen mocks as “dishwater” began as a cold-weather mainstay of poor Chinese seeking to stretch scarce meat into a hot meal made mostly of plant products. If he wants to mock meat as gross, he should turn to his German roots and look at sausages.
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
In case you want to read more about soy:
Sourcing for history of soy in the US (and the Japanese American incarceration roots of US taste for tofu): MAGIC BEAN by University of Kansas Press https://t.co/4b78c1ot8a
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) December 29, 2018
That was quite a rant over someone saying that a Chinese hotpot looked like dishwater. We’d say it does look a little like dishwater, but we’re not up for the thrashing.
In case you think you can ever be woke enough to please the Left, here's a thread. ? https://t.co/EWRksgjboN
— Carl Gustav (@CaptYonah) December 29, 2018
What kind do of dude uses "engorged penis" as an insult.
There are so many things that are wrong with this thread.
Also, does Mr yang need to stay in his lane and only eat Chinese food or do the "rules" not apply to him?
— Steve Powell (@Powow22) December 29, 2018
Your premise is fundamentally flawed. Something looking like “leftover dishwater” doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t also be delicious. Some Persian dishes look like vomit and are simultaneously delicious. It’s okay to dislike the presentation. Stop reaching. Sit down. Shut up.
— Roosh (@RooshWilliams) December 29, 2018
You’re reading in bad faith. By using the leftover dishwater simile to undermine meat eaters’ supposedly hypocritical criticism of the look and taste of vegan food, it’s clear that he’s making a similar criticism of Chinese hotpot, i.e. the presentation and the taste.
— Qian Xi = my first name (@mirrors4gorgons) December 29, 2018
If dude doesn’t like the look (or even the taste) of a dish, then that’s completely okay. Even if you strongly disagree with that statement, referring to said person as a “xenophobic tool” is irresponsible, inaccurate, and reckless.
— Roosh (@RooshWilliams) December 29, 2018
You have to admit, it doesn't photograph well.
— Kate (@Kategivesup) December 29, 2018
Careful …
Calm down. Things can look gross and still taste good. I'd try it, sure, but it do look mad unappealing
— Jerps (@JerpsBerps) December 29, 2018
It's a stretch going from saying something looks visually bad to being "xenophobic neo colonial beliefs" just sayin. Some of the best tasting foods I've ever eating look terrible.
— Nick Ray (@Whartooth) December 29, 2018
I'm sure it tastes good, but it looks horrific.
— Tim (@TopHatLucario) December 29, 2018
It…it does look like dishwater tho?
— faceless woman in your house (@At_the_witch) December 29, 2018
It does look pretty yucky though. Gotta admit that.
— Alistair Shannon (@AliJayShannon) December 29, 2018
It does look like dishwater. And even if it was vegan and it looked like that I’d say the same thing. Why are people so enraged over a meal? All take a chill pill and ten deep breaths!??♀️
— Nadine (@burme5e) December 29, 2018
I get where you're coming from but to be fair, that shit looks like boiled corn & chicken skin in vomit ?
— EyeHeytEwe (@EyeHeytEwe) December 29, 2018
BUT IT DOES LOOK LIKE LEFTOVER DISHWATER!!!
— Neanderthal Cave Becky ?? (@BunnyCupcakes31) December 29, 2018
*Breaks beer bottle on bar*
WHO SAID ANYTHING BAD ABOUT HOTPOT— Sgt. Thunderfist, MD (@Ryancantsing) December 29, 2018
I didn’t NEED another reason to hate vegans, but I’m delighted hear that they are neocolonialist, xenophobic tools at heart. Thanks @originalspin!
— Dylan O'Brien (@beardedbarman) December 29, 2018
And don’t forget to hate them for their white privilege:
Thank you for that information, so insightful and THANK YOU for dragging that ass for his white privilege. I live on a tight budget and cannot shop at Whole Foods. Eating fruits and vegetables, etc is very expensive. Following you. pic.twitter.com/9ulDeLv7je
— Ms. Dawn (@Ladybellesfic) December 29, 2018
Related:
'Self-parody': Oberlin College cafeteria accused of serving culturally 'disrespectful' food https://t.co/971OKYikiX
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 19, 2015