Former 20-year vegan Lierre Keith gets assaulted by vegans while giving a talk
Just when you think it can’t get any worse with the radical nature of the vegan diet advocates, along comes something like what I’m about to share with you today that delivers a strong reminder that there is a contingent of people out there who do not want the truth about their way of eating exposed. It’s one thing to disagree and have a healthy debate of ideas about diet and nutrition and their relationship to a healthy lifestyle. But acting criminally and causing harm to another human being in the process is just about as disgusting as it comes.
The crime took place at the 15th Annual San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday while former vegan Lierre Keith was speaking about her book The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice & Sustainability where she responds to the common reasons for becoming a vegetarian or vegan and why they are completely invalid. It’s a controversial subject to say the least and going to an “anarchist” speaking engagement certainly invites trouble. But if you’ve heard Lierre Keith speak or read her book then already you’d know why she’d be willing to put herself out there like that (listen to her various recent podcast interviews here, here, and here, for example). In fact, here is a YouTube video of her speaking at a similar event in June 2009:
So imagine Lierre Keith giving her speech about her book like the one above from 2:00-2:30PM on Saturday, March 13, 2010 when suddenly out of nowhere she gets pelted in the face by three idiots wielding not just a pie, but one that has been laced with cayenne pepper. This is the stuff they put in pepper spray mace for people who are attacked by a would-be criminal. Except this time, the one who got physically assaulted was merely speaking the truth and letting people decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. This took place in the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. And the glee over this barbaric attack that is taking place by pro-vegan web sites is repulsive.
My paleo blogging buddy Richard Nikokey was all over this story right after it happened and I hope the message spreads across the blogosphere about what these vegan idiots have done. This is why I wrote a chapter in my latest book that I called “Whatever you do, don’t rile up the vegetarians and vegans” and this is exactly why. They will stop at nothing to keep on shoving their message down our throats and resorting to sophomoric behavior to prop themselves up. People have been brainwashed into thinking there is some sort of health right bestowed to vegetarians and vegans because they are “kind” towards animals or the planet, but they are the very people who need to hear Lierre Keith speak or read her book.
After learning about this incident, I wrote to Lierre Keith since I interviewed her on my podcast earlier this year to see how she is doing after the attack. Needless to say, she was still physically feeling the impact of the cayenne peppers over 24 hours later.
My eyes are still puffy and blurry, but the pain is definitely better. I think the worst part was hearing people cheer my assailants while I was being assaulted. I don’t want to live in a world where people cheer while someone has cayenne rubbed into their eyes. They are vile, vicious people.
WOW! What do say to something like this? Something tells me Lierre Keith will not back down from her message simply because of this cowardly incident. She will rise above it stronger than ever before because she knows what she is sharing with people is the truth and nothing can ultimately keep that from getting out there. I for one think we all need to support her by picking up multiple copies of her book to show her how much we love and appreciate the work she is doing. Pushing The Vegetarian Myth up the Amazon rankings will tick off the vegans even more and make ‘em wish they’d never started this fight in the first place.
You can share your support for Lierre Keith at The Vegetarian Myth Facebook page or by sending her an e-mail at lierrekeith@yahoo.com. Thank her for all of her contributions to spreading the message and that you support her in her continued efforts. If the vegans want to scorn her for not choosing veganism, then we should praise her for standing up as a proud omnivore.
Comments
This is not a good thing to do. I doubt if many vegans think it is. As a vegan, I certainly don't agree with the writer or the book in question (which I have read). However, I agree with the writer that this is not the way to address the issue. I too would rather see open dialogue.
Please do not assume that all veg*ns would agree with this behaviour, and remember that the veg*ns you hear most about are obviously going to be the loudest and most radical ones.
Brandon, I couldn't agree more. Debate of ideas, not violence. This only makes the people who conduct such criminal acts look like the extremists they are. It's too bad they give all vegans a bad rap.
I'm not above snickering when a person gets pied (hey, I grew up with 80s Nickelodeon), but the addition of the pepper is cruel. Physically harming someone because their beliefs are different than yours? Not cool guys.
Jimmy, you know that this behavior does not exemplify all vegans, so why write, "'Whatever you do, don’t rile up the vegetarians and vegans' and this is exactly why."
I'm vegan, and one time while protesting outside of KFC, a car full of young men started pelting us with pieces of fried chicken. Does this behavior represent you or all omnivores? Of course not. And the pie-throwers do not represent all vegans.
The sooner we can get away from inflammatory statements that demonize the other side, the sooner we can look at facts and have an intelligent discussion. Unfortunately, your blog sets the dialog backward by trying to demonize all vegans based on the actions of a handful of outliers.
And by the way - there are some vegans who eat low-carb. Low-carb and vegan are not mutually exclusive, but you are turning off your potential vegan readers.
Great comments everyone!
Nargal, if it was just a pie, then it might be tasteless, but humorous to some. But lacing it with the same thing they put in mace to cause physical harm to Lierre was uncool. She actually told me that in addition to the great pain in her eyes from this, the goop they used got inside of her ear and she now has an ear infection. So this was a despicable cowardly act to say the least.
Doris, I am not lumping all vegans into the same category. However, if these radicals are not representative of the vegan community then it is incumbent upon the civilized vegans to stand up and speak out against this heinous act. All I'm reading and hearing about from vegans is cheering and snickering. This is disgusting and I'm led to no other conclusion than that most vegans find this acceptable decorum. It very clearly is not. On the subject of vegan and low-carb, I'm sure there are. But they're still not getting enough fat in their diet when the do both.
TH
Jimmy loves to turn off people who don't agree with his way of eating. He thinks every scientific study that contradicts low carb is wrong and biased. He thinks vegetarians and vegans are wackos and lives to taunt them.
The photo accompanying this article of someone receiving a thrown pie in the face is NOT a photo of Lierre Keith. No pies were THROWN into her face - if a photo was snapped of her while a pie was in her face, it would have also included someone's hand. I was in the room - pies were pushed onto her head/face momentarily and then released. Also, that doesn't look like the top she was wearing nor the background of the room she was in. And whether or not the pie was laced with cayenne pepper is still a question, not a fact. Where are your fact-checkers at?
As a long-time vegan who disagrees with Keith on many levels, I do not support this pie-ing. I believe it was counterproductive and mean-spirited (mymammouth.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/punishing-dissent/). I also, however, do not appreciate the vitriol being spouted about veg*ns since the incident. Doris put it nicely above. There are jerks in EVERY group and subculture, we're not all the same. Most of us are nice, caring folks.
Doris, thanks for your comments, but you obviously haven't read too many of my columns or books. If you had, then you'd know I'm all for people choosing whatever plan works for them, following it exactly, and then keep doing it for the rest of their lives. If that's vegan, low-fat, low-carb or whatever, just find what works for you. I personally don't care a bit in the world how someone else chooses to eat and I only wish vegans and vegetarians held the same respect for me about the way I eat. My opposition to the negative studies about low-carb that come out is in the sloppy nature of what is passed off as "science" when it is usually anything but. THANK YOU for your feedback!
Oops, I am grateful for your comments, too. The photo included at the top of the column was taken from the IndyStar story about this incident. I spoke directly with Lierre Keith for a 15-minute interview that will air on my podcast on Thursday at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com/ShowNotes. Check it out!
OOPS:
I was there too. And I was with her later when she was washing CAYENNE PEPPER out of her eyes with milk (b/c the fat breaks it down faster or something like that). This is a fact and it's not really in dispute by anyone who saw her right after it happened; except those who wish to shelter the perpetrators. You're absolutely right about the photo. These jerks didn't even have the decency to pie her front and center, but snuck up from behind and from above, on the stage while she was at floor-level), and plunked the pies on her head. All in all a very cowardly and pointless act by vegan-cultists in reaction to a former "member" who has escaped, deprogrammed herself and dared to speak the truth.
Just bought the book on Amazon. I would say round up all the Vegans and ship em off to an island somewhere, but they would end up eating the island with all its delicious soil and leaves and whatnot, so we'd be forced to rescue em...let's not bother.
I agree that we shouldn't judge all on the basis of a few. I did however, go to Amazon and purchased couple of copies of her books for some of my friends who are desperately trying to improve their health through eating healthy and failing miserably. One showed me her lab results and my jaw hit the floor when I saw her hemoglobin and iron levels. No wonder she was exhausted.
I've never come across compelling information that proves low-carb is the single best way of eating for everyone. However, I've been eating low-carb for a year and a half and my doctor is intrigued and amazed. My wife has finally acknowledged that I may be onto something that works for me.
My biggest beef with vegans are with the ones that affect my dietary choices. Opinions are like belly buttons; everybody has one. But when you start to dictate what I can and can't eat, I react rather strongly. As the saying goes "if you want what I have, then do as I do."
Low carb vegan diets? Biggest joke of the century!
How low-carb can vegan low-carb be? I looked at low-carb vegetarianism, and that looked fairly impossible. Am diabetic, so carb-counting/awareness isn't remotely a luxury for me, it's a necessity. Fortunately, I read Lierre Keith's book, and truly understood that vegetarian eating (with what still looks to me like the requisite emphasis on carbs) was not the solution, and may well have been what tipped me into diabetes to begin with.
If you've read the book, then you know that Keith has severe spinal damage from vegan eating for 20 years. The pie-ing really was a matter of at least two much larger and stronger individuals slamming metal pans with goo laced with cayenne down hard onto the top of her head, and to the side of her head. So three people attacked a middle-aged disabled woman from behind, and risk her further spinal injury. I hope they're caught and jailed. Let them continue their cultism there.
So, guess I'm slow, how does throwing a cayenne pepper laced pie further the vegan/vegetarian movement? Respond with words not violence. Besides, ultimately it's just a book. People are free to subscribe to any beliefs they want. I just feel like people have to stop shoving their beliefs down other peoples throats. Do I know all the reasons to be a vegan or a vegetarian? Yup, and I've carefully decided that it's a lifestyle that isn't meant for me. But if you're a vegan or vegetarian, more power to you, congrats. I just don't care to be one and I won't be bullied into it. Not that I'm implying every vegan/vegetarian uses aggressive tactics to get their views across, but a number do and I don't see their behaviors converting anyone yet. Everyone needs to make the choice about how they want to eat on their own and stop attacking people who disagree, and that goes for both sides.
I got splashed with meat juice just because I was sharing about my journey becoming a vegetarian for the Vegetarian Student Association at my school.
By Jimmy Moore's logic, meat-eaters must be rude, aggressive, and have radical behaviours.
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