Most non-vegans think veganism is about not eating animal based products. In reality being vegan stands for more. If a person doesn't eat animal based products, but still buys non-vegan clothing or else this person is on a plant-based diet but not a vegan. In this article I will show you a really good example about a non-vegan who calls himself vegan and who is (sadly) pretty known in Germany.
The case of the so called "vegan" anti-vegan Atilla Hildmann
Atilla Hildmann is a man from Germany. He wrote a few books about veganism and was a vegan cook in the past. So far so good. However, in the last few months he gains publicity in Germany, trough his Telegram-Channel and a few other platforms he uses. On his channel he began with spreading misinformation about various topics like conspiracy myths about Covid-19 and similar stuff. Over the past few months, he has gradually become so radicalized that he has now denied the Holocaust and publicly pronounced death threats and exposed bounties to public figures. This behavior is of course very dangerous, which is why the German "Staatsschutz" (translated: State protection) is now investigating against him. [S1]
This could have happened faster in my opinion btw.
Atilla Hildmann on a protest in Germany.
Now, here is the reason why he isn't vegan and why he is bad for the vegan community
He simplified is just a extreme-right racist, who makes death threats and announces bounties in the pubic, who calls himself a vegan. A vegan however can't be a racist, otherwise he isn't a vegan. As a vegan the most important goal is to don't harm any living being like an animal. Humans however are animals. Therefore, a person like him who does all these bad and racist things is only a bad person on a plant based diet, who doesn't know the meaning of veganism. He still calls himself vegan, which is why the media calls him vegan, too. This associates veganism with racism and other bad things this man does, while no real vegan would ever call him a vegan. I personally hope these investigations on him will lead to something which will stop him from being in the public and especially from being racist in the public. Also, many shops banned his products here in Germany, which is very good. But anyway, the most dangerous part on him is not even he himself, but the group dynamic he is building, which could lead to new extreme-right terror attacks or else in Germany. Produced by a "vegan cook".
I'd love to give you some visual examples of the messages he spreads in his name and partly under the "vegan" movement, but most of you sadly wouldn't understand his messages, because they are in German. I still hope this small article gave you a good example about why people who are only on a plant based diet, while still buying other animal based products are not vegan and why racists can't be vegan, too.
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