First...I am not sure it is fair to generalize the vegan lifestyle and
assume they are all like the goof pot on the show...
I cannot say that I have known more than a handful of vegans...but none of
them were as...interesting...as the lady on wife swap.
Our conversation during the show?....Where the hell do they find all these
people? Nearly everyone on these shows has some serious quirk or
another...I guess living my " average joe american" life in my hard working
neighborhood on a blue collar street...I have lost touch with just how many
off kilter folks there are around me!
There is a part of me that feels sorry for people like her. There is
something sorely lacking in their lives. Some part of themselves that is
empty and out of balance....anyone with so strict a mind set or activist
personality, and I mean those people who have become so engrossed that they
have lost the ability/willingness to understand and/or associate with people
outside their idealology, has something missing in themselves. People look
at activists and see dedication and strength of conviction...I see weakness.
I deal with activists and "want to be" activists everyday and you cannot
talk to even one of them. If offered a descenting opinion they react with
emotional outcry...why?...because they nothing else to offer. They are the
perpetual victims. People who, if they do not have some cause or issue to
rally around and cry about, have very little else about themselves to make
them feel alive or valued.




"usual suspect" > wrote in message
...
> For benefit of those who missed this show (or who turned it off early
> because she felt picked on again), here's a brief summary. This show would
> benefit anyone who's never had the misfortune of encountering a vegan. It
> showed what vegans are like, what they think and believe, and how they
> interact with normal people.
>
> The vegan wife, Jackie, forces her entire household (including the cat) to
> consume a raw vegan diet. Her actions extend beyond herself and her
> household: she protests meat and hands out leaflets to strangers on the
> street in an attempt to get them to live according to her peculiar
> "principles." Part of those principles at home included getting rid of
> their stove and many of their possessions; her home became increasingly
> spartan as she sank deeper into her kooky vegan abyss.
>
> The best way to explain her average day is that she focuses on the things
> most out of her control and avoids dealing with the things most within her
> control. Her husband Harold WANTS to eat meat but fears doing so for the
> consequences he'd face from Jackie (note: he expressed no fear of
> consequences to his health from it). Harold also overworks to avoid coming
> home because Jackie is too busy navel-gazing, sun-gazing, bitching,
> domineering, and protesting to clean house or do other mundane things;
> he's adopted the role of housemaid by default. The whole family were kind
> of drifting apart and becoming more dysfunctional, with Harold and the
> daughter afraid to speak up about any of the changes (dietary,
> anti-"decorating," etc.).
>
> Jackie ends up trading places with a wife from a family who hunt out of
> necessity. With her vegan psyche already very weak and fragile, Jackie
> assesses her new situation by going through the fridge (filled with meat)
> and the home (filled with taxidermy). As most vegans are, she's
> condescending in sizing up her new family. To her credit, though, I didn't
> think she was nearly as condescending as the vegan witch Barbara from
> Fox's _Trading Spouses_ last year.
>
> During one memorable segment, Jackie became emotional -- nearly
> hysterical -- trying to explain how difficult it was for her to go to an
> all raw diet. She offered some psychobabble comparing the whole experience
> to alcoholism. To that bizarre melodrama, the other husband (Ricky)
> apologized and said he didn't realize it would be so traumatic for her.
>
> As in the _Trading Spouses_ episodes on Fox in this vein last year, the
> vegan wife felt compelled to show her new family some videos from animal
> rights groups even after preaching to them about veganism for an entire
> week. Jackie became an emotional wreck while watching them, even though
> she said she's seen them many times before. Though the kids were briefly
> stunned by such portrayals of farming (which are atypical), they didn't
> exactly embrace the idea of eating nuts and fruits.
>
> Ultimately, her attempts to convert the family in Kentucky failed. Since
> the swap, they've added more vegetables to their meals but haven't given
> up hunting or eating meat. Meanwhile, Jackie's kept the stove Bobbi (the
> normal wife who ended up having to deal with milquetoast Harold) had
> brought in and has even resumed eating some cooked foods. She admitted
> maybe she was taking things too far. I'm sure her husband agrees she *had*
> taken things too far, even if he lacks the courage to tell her how ****ed
> up he really thinks she is.
>
> The moral of the story is that vegans DO take things too far. They try to
> proselytize others, and they're usually very emotional and aggressive
> about it. They think they're doing something virtuous and informative by
> telling others not to eat meat, but vegans always end up coming across as
> emotive, uninformed jackasses.
>
> I also think vegans should go on more shows like this. First, it's very
> entertaining. Second, it's illuminating for the wider population --
> especially those in areas without or with very few vegans. Finally, it's
> therapeutic in the sense that vegans on these shows seem to benefit from
> interacting with *normal* people. For example, Jackie is again eating
> cooked food. The vegan mother in the Fox show (Barbara) even ate meat with
> the Cajun family.