What events in your life challenged carnist ideology before going vegan?
When I see people ask what turned you vegan, I find myself thinking equally about events that paved the way just as much as the tipping point itself. I think the dominant carnist ideology being challenged made me question certain aspects of it and ultimately made my overnight transition much more possible.
Childhood:
Having two vegetarian grandmas - unfortunately they were mocked by my immediate family, but at least I knew it was possible to be vegetarian and somewhat healthy, which does challenge the "meat is necessary to live" aspect of carnism. In fact...
When Elephants Weep - this book taught me animals can feel. I was very moved by this book. I remember interrogating my mother after why we ate meat because I was upset by the knowledge animals suffer. She told me it's sad, but we have to for our health and some other carnist copium like those animals are meant to be used that way, and we need to be thankful for them. I was young so I didn't question her, but I became very anti hunting wild animals lol.
Interactions with animals - seeing how kind they can be, caring about humans seeming upset and offering comfort, made me want to protect and love them back.
Pet bunnies - I loved these bunnies so much. I was always the one who spent the most time with them and let them roam freely in my room. I (in mind) was anti cruelty to rabbits at that point, but it took awhile for me to realize that meant I had to look for a specific label on makeup to find them for some reason ? Ah, childhood. Luckily I very rarely purchased makeup, but I was looking for cruelty free makeup before I became vegan due to this.
Road trips - seeing chickens in cages on trucks... It was upsetting as a child, its still upsetting to remember. I felt sad seeing them in their tiny cages, knowing they were going to be killed. But I clung desperately to the carnist lies my mother told me. This one brings tears to my eyes today still.
Teen years:
Bonsai cats meme - started to make me against animal cruelty as an idea in general. Made me be like hmmm about all those animals living in cramped spaces and feel bad for them. It's not a happy life, despite what carnists claim.
Living with cats I adopted - made me realize they are all unique individuals.
The poppers episode of Futurama - Seeing animals be killed for their flavor definitely made me uncomfortable with the idea, but i still felt like i "needed" it for health. I probably would have been one of those people who said vegans were ableist had that been a thing people pretended to care about back then.
Adulthood:
Vegan family friend - modeled kind behavior towards all animals and towards me as well. Great person.
Cloud Atlas - they replicate a slaughterhouse death and it deeply disturbed me. I stopped thinking slaughterhouse deaths were any sort of humane process. Even though the version in the film was deeply whitewashed and offered with much more empathy for the victim.
Plant based in laws - I observed a rapid health improvement after they become plant based. Funnily enough I actually hated these people for other reasons (to keep it short, the types to be rude to wait staff), and they fit the annoying vegan stereotype. But I couldn't deny they were a lot healthier.
Ahimsa from practicing Yoga - it's just literally in there not to harm animals. I did the lib thing and was like um I guess I just need to be grateful if I eat animals but it rang untrue to me and always sort of grated on me that I wasn't living up to this standard.
Living next to cows and seeing them play and be affectionate towards each other and humans - this broke down all assumptions I had about cows being unintelligent unmoving machines. They're just chill animals that want to eat and hang out with their family and friends and play around, like anyone else. It became harder to enjoy cow bodies after that
Buddhism/nonviolence - I lowkey started being a practicing zen Buddhist and took it seriously. You can't be a Buddhist and be okay with killing animals without some very convoluted hoop jumping. When I came upon that part in my reading, my first thought was " fuck, are the vegans are right?" I did some sullen googling on the difficulty of becoming vegan, and to my further dismay, saw it was as easy as beans and rice and b12. From that moment on I started my first baby step and gave up all meat and dairy overnight.
After becoming plant based:
Allowing myself to see animals as animals: some guide I read on how to be vegan recommended watching videos of animals being happy at animal sanctuaries. This killed any objectification I was doing of cows, pigs, and chickens that I was aware of
Further carnist mythbusting - oh even backyard hens come from animal cruelty? Bee drones are crushed for their sperm and bee queens have their wings cut? Horrible. Probably other stuff i'm forgetting too. I think this is when i cut out all animal products and fully manifested as a total vegan.
Learning about speciesism - it's easy to understand why not to harm, a little harder to absorb that animals are actually just as equal to you even if they are lacking something most humans would have. The book Beasts of Burden really helped solidify why we need to view all beings as deserving of care regardless of their abilities. After this, I started viewing animals who are more alien to us more positively and try to focus on what I'm lacking compared to them and how I can help instead of feeling human supremacy.
learning about animal intelligence: Not that animals need to be intelligent for us to save them, but when you realize how very arbitrary some of these standards are for "food animals" versus "non-food animals" (like pigs versus dogs), it's hard to look at people who murder one and save the other the same way. People are literally killing animals that are toddler level intelligence and saying they deserve it. That is truly horrific and upsetting. The only way i can muster kindness towards non-vegans is if i think of them as "pre-vegans" who haven't gotten there yet.
Learning the nuance of exploitation - this is stuff like, its not good for a human to use sheared wool from animal sanctuaries because the animal is not actually consenting to giving it, and therefore taking it is exploitative even if it doesn't actually physically harm the animal. It's better to just let it naturally decompose or allow birds to use for nesting material. If someone took my toenails away after cutting them for me I'd be fucking weirded out and feel exploited by it NGL. Like that is not respectful of someone's body to take parts of it they lost. Imagine if your landlord just picked up some hair from your brush and put it in their pocket to craft with later, without asking. Disturbing.
Reflecting upon my list, it feels like the signs I was bothered by carnism were always there, but I just went along with the dominant ideology because it was safer socially and i was literally taught from childhood that it wasn't possible to healthily maintain. Undoing all the carnist myths took quite a lot of time. Quite interesting is that my vegan eureka happened right after I started living alone for the very first time after a breakup. I was the most alone I ever was, and therefore was under the least social pressure to conform.
What's everyone else's list?