I don't know many Vegans and count myself lucky for it. I have nothing against anyone's food choices or lifestyle - except when they constantly throw it in my face. That riles me.

Vegans rile me. Even though I'm smarter, prettier, and richer than most of them, they believe themselves superior because they have eschewed animal products. I know well enough not to argue with a vegan, as I would likely commit homicide to get them to stop talking. 

But next time some vegan starts up about how cruel and evil I am because I crave red meat, I'll shove this down their throats.

But what will the oh-so-sensitive cultural left do when they realize that western veganism was ripped off from the oppressed of the non-western world? This is the question posed by a terrific story out from Quartz, which tees off on this tweet:

This provoked another Tritter blue-checker to vegan-shame Weinhofen in a manner that could easily be taken as parody, but likely is not (though it is nowadays impossible to tell):

Jeff Yang, a journalist, author, and podcaster, launched a well-informed critique of the vegan’s throwaway insult, pointing out that it ignored the context of privilege and abundance that many modern, Western vegans benefit from, and echoed race-based and neocolonial tropes.

Yang (who has written for Quartz) notes that many of the foodstuffs that are central to today’s meat-free lifestyles actually came from the non-Western food cultures that vegans like Weinhofen now critique. As is often the case with appropriation, the originators of such foods have not benefited from the explosion of popularity in the wealthy world (see: quinoa farmers in Bolivia).

Anytime you open your mouth to put food in - any food - it's an act of cultural appropriation. Agriculture is, by itself, an appropriated practice that started in Turkey about 12,000 years ago. 

Is there a time limit on cultural appropriation? Should we apologize to the the Turks for stealing the idea of farming? 

Yang's response to the original tweet by Weinhofen is classic:

Are their advantages to not eating animal products? The jury appears to still be out on that. But it's still great fun to tease a vegan.

On the menu at my house today: A mouth watering prime rib roast. No vegans allowed!