I often wonder where these veracious vegans are. I've yet to meet a vegan who has been evangelical, yet have met many omnivores who speak poorly of vegans. Is this a region specific problem?
The punk/hardcore scene is filled with them. Earth Crisis, Vegan Reich, Hardline, vegan straight-edge, etc.
Although, outside of that scene, I haven't often ran into them, so my guess is that most people are referring to the internet zealots, who tend to be an issue for any political, social, or cultural group, no matter how radical or mainstream.
None of those bands have been relavent in hardcore (other than on the fringe) in 20+ years. I've been involved in the punk/hardcore scene since the mid-nineties (and vegan since 2002) and while the scene is a little more veg friendly then most, a majority of the punk/hardcore kids i've grown up with and know are meat eaters.
as for the internet - it's full of opinionated zealots no matter what the cause.
None of those bands have been relavent in hardcore (other than on the fringe) in 20+ years.
The fringe is specifically what I'm referencing. I'm not saying punk in general is vegan, or hardline, etc. But the proportion of people within punk who are, compared to the general populace, is obviously much higher.
And I disagree that the scene is only a little more veg friendly than most, I'd say it's much more, except maybe scenes like conscious hip hop or hippy festivals.
Of course, I was specifically involved in very politicized punk scenes, so YMMV.
I wish someday that the next vegans I meet are the same bunch you've met. Almost every single vegan I've met has been the loud, obnoxious, moralizing, more righteousnesses than thou, I don't care if I'm being difficult and selfish and forcing everybody around me to adopt to my personal life choices and I won't bother to accommodate anything other people need and I make sure to make people go out of their way to make sure there's at least one vegan-certified pizza at the corporate pizza party at the cost of 4 of the other pizzas (and then I won't eat more than half a slice) type.
I have to give special notice to two of my vegan friends who are not like that, but they are a very rare exception to the rule.
I used to share a flat with one when I was at University - he used to do things like hand out leaflets in the morning with pictures of partly butchered animals as we prepared breakfast.
Apart from those idiosyncrasies he was quite a pleasant chap - I had to respect him when he received some extremely painful medical treatment and he refused an anesthetic because it might have been tested on animals.
Although, outside of that scene, I haven't often ran into them, so my guess is that most people are referring to the internet zealots, who tend to be an issue for any political, social, or cultural group, no matter how radical or mainstream.