It's funny to me because it reads like a satire of non-vegans, but this is literally how most of them are.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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I would expect that of this community, but what I'm wondering is if this is common outside of marxist spaces
It depends who you talk to. The original definition was coined by people who were originally classified as vegetarian but opposed drinking milk and had conflict within their organizations because of it. Thats how The Vegan Society came about and who the definition of the term was expanded by.
Veganism as a philosophy has always been against all animal use where practicable (commonly conflated with practical), meaning it recognizes that it may not be possible for every object you own to be fully absent of animal exploitation under the present societal conditions.
Many people who call themselves vegan erroneously apply this solely to diet though and especially non-vegans will do this since their common perception is of veganism as a dietary restriction rather than an ethical philosophy.
In every day, I would assume someone I am talking to who says they are vegan will also not own leather items, etc. In practice, people will use all sorts of reasoning to bend these rules, such as keeping objects they owned before they were vegan, arguing it was bought second hand, etc. So outside of places like this and vegancirclejerk, you'll find a lot of variety.
Yes, generally speaking, veganism is specifically a boycott of the animal agricultural industry. That means, no leather, no wool, no silk, etc.
If you're talking about the diet, technically that's called "true vegetarianism" ("traditional" vegetarians are called ovo-lacto vegetarians).
Basically all vegans are true vegetarians, but not all true vegetarians are vegans.
That'll vary quite a bit person to person. A lot of people who are fegsn are also just woo new age hippie weirdos who do it for health reasons and don't give a fuck about animals. I've met many 'vegans' who eat honey cause bees aren't directly harmed in it's making but like...if you buy eggs from.someone who's nice to their chickens that's kinda the case except chickens blast off a lot of nutrients into their eggs and tend to eat their unfertilized ones to get it back, think of how full you are off an egg vs what a chicken generally eats, that egg is tsking a lot out of the chicken and if you eat it they can't get it back. Similar with honey, they didn't make it for us, it's not ours to take.
presumably the chicken in this scenario (i.e. someone who's nice to their chickens) is being fed more than enough food for this not to be a problem? do chickens care if you take their eggs? if they dont im not actually 100% sure what the problem is in this extremely rare situation lol
There is something to be said about the commodification aspect of it, i.e., taking the eggs and using them still reinforces the mentality that animals exist for us to use them. The problem with the relationship between humans and animals is that humans view animals as resources to use for their own benefit. Veganism is not welfarist—it is abolitionist, and it recognizes that these things that belong to other animals are not ours to take. These chickens should not exist in the first place, but if they're on a sanctuary, they shouldn't be viewed as a means to a human's end. The guardian should take care of them the same way they'd take care of a child, expecting nothing in return. Having the thought to use the egg in the first place is the problem. If a non-vegan came across some tarantula eggs, there's a reason why they most likely wouldn't think to make use of them. Similar things could be said about consuming roadkill—some people would argue that vegans should approve of it because of a consequentialist outlook, but the thing is that veganism, as a principle, rejects the commodity status of animals, period, and with roadkill, we notice that it's typically brought into question only concerning certain kinds of dead bodies such as deer corpses specifically. Why? Why wouldn't someone think to consume a human corpse or a dog corpse they find lying around? Mindset, the mindset that oppresses non-human animals.
do you know another term you could use beside commodification? im not entirely sure what you mean, humans have been using animal agriculture since before class society even arose, let alone capitalism ofc which is where my mind wants to take me when you use "commodification".
generally though, i will say i think this whole argument is not very strong. in this example (which is admittedly very small/irrelevant in that this is essentially intellectually masturbating lol, but anyways the vast, vast majority of animal agriculture is under the pressure of market forces and you have to be pretty well off to have backyard chickens anyways) the chicken is not on a sancutary and is like someone's backyard pet chicken or something like that. non-vegans dont think anything about tarantula eggs probably because they're not tasty and/or nutritious.
as far as roadkill, putting aside that this is again mostly intellectual masturbation and that the vast majoirty of people arent going to eat roadkill if for the sole reason that the meat will probably have started rotting by the time you get to it, i think that is probably very regional as far as only being deer. where i live i have heard more than deer being used as roadkill in the rare cases where people actually eat it. i dont particuarly want to open up the dog/cat/human/etc. meat can of worms rn
i guess i'll end off with this kind of argumentation seems especially weak to the "nature" argument, and while i think that argument is easy to brush off usually (i.e. wild animals do SA do you think humans should? no? then why are you bringing "nature" up?), in this case (that again is intellectual masturbation lol) a savy person will bring up symbiosis. many species do symbiosis, and it's often even unbalanced because one side is getting more than the other/putting in way less effort etc. like, for this chicken example it seems like the problem to me is more so that we are probably getting way more out of it than the chicken is and maybe causing it undue stress (making this comment before i clarify with galaxybrain). an example that i think is way better would be a guard dog. even today, i think a work dog like a guard dog is probably receiving so many benefits compared to what it is giving that it would be better to consider that a "symbiotic" relationship
cw: cannibalism
im vegan but i still have a curiosity to try out ethical human meat (i.e. friend gets body part amputated and we cook and eat it), does this make me insane or?"Commodification" here refers to viewing animals as property, resources, or objects for human benefit—not just in a capitalist sense, but as a fundamental mindset that reduces sentient beings to objects or things to be used.
Framing this as a non-sanctuary scenario makes it worse, not better. Where do these backyard chickens come from? Almost certainly a breeder or farm that exploits them as egg-laying machines, meaning their very existence is rooted in commodification. The act of keeping them for eggs (even "kindly") reinforces the idea that animals exist to serve humans.
On tarantula eggs: The point isn’t about taste or nutrition—it’s about mindset. Nobody considers exploiting tarantulas for their eggs because they’re not culturally conditioned to see them as commodities (at least for that purpose). Veganism seeks to extend that baseline respect to all animals, rejecting the idea that chickens (or their eggs) are exceptions.
Regarding roadkill: You’re dodging the core analogy. The question isn’t "Why don't most people eat roadkill?"—it’s "Why do some people consider deer roadkill 'acceptable' but recoil at the idea of eating a dog or human corpse under the same conditions?" The answer is objectification. Society assigns arbitrary value to animals based on human utility, not inherent worth. Veganism rejects human supremacy outright.
This isn’t symbiosis—it’s domestication under oppression. These chickens are the result of centuries of selective breeding to turn them into egg-producing machines. Jungle fowl (their wild ancestors) don’t lay nearly as many eggs. The truth is that humans manipulated their biology for selfish gain. Calling this "mutual benefit" is like arguing slavery was "symbiotic" because slave owners provided food and shelter. Oppressors don’t get to define the terms of the relationship.
Guard dogs? Same issue. Domestication is human supremacy in action—breeding animals into servitude and pretending it’s "for their own good." Veganism isn’t about tweaking exploitation to be kinder—it’s about dismantling the very mindset and system that treats animals as tools to begin with.
They do. As I wrote, they gotta blast out an egg worth of nutrients and thst came from somewhere. A lot of chicken energy went into it so they eat their own eggs to get it back. The stuff chickens eat is fairly low nutrition but they eat a lot of it so to replace an egg worth of lost nutrients isn't really practical with the corn and grain and occasional worm they eat cause chickens also blast out eggs constantly. Their tummies get full and it takes time to process all that grain, if they're not chomping their own eggs back down they're gonna be malnourished
just to 100% clarify i moreso meant if it upsets the hen with my original statement.
ah i thought they just ate that stuff because that's all people normally give them (i.e. shit low nutrition food). so i had been thinking if you fed them higher nutrious stuff it would be fine lol. i also thought the chickens that blast out eggs like that were factory farm ones, i was unaware normal chickens are like that too.
There has never been a 'normal chicken'. Chickens as they are have never been wild animals.
i suppose i should say im comparing it in my head to those monstrosity ones like they make for chicken meat that grow up super early and super fast and just suffer their entire short lives because of how fat they get in such a short time. i had figured they did something similar with egg focused chickens.
i didnt know chickens were so domesticated tho, what were they domesticated from?
to add to this point, taking the chickens eggs interrupts their laying cycle, causing them to produce more eggs introducing potential health problems and iirc shortening their lifespan
from reading like this seems like even the fantasy of having a backyard chicken isnt really ethical either!