An ongoing list of TV I’m watching/I watched in 2021. Only the shows I’ve finished.
WandaVision* – Damn. The feels. But I could have written a better ending/twist, tbh.
Rutherford Falls* – So good. Every time you think you know where it’s going it subverts expectations. I know they were setting up for season 2 but I wished they were able to imagine redemption and forgiveness and a path forward for the ed Helms character.
Shadow and Bone – kind of felt like Carnival Row in some aspects + FMA on others. It was average TV but the book might be better? The magic didn’t make sense to me and the twists also didn’t. I liked the side characters a bit better, honestly.
How-to with John Wilson* – I may have actually watched this in 2020. I’m not sure. It messed me up and is one of the best and weirdest shows I’ve ever seen.
Jupiter’s Legacy – this was average and kinda meh. It reminded me of the first episode of Invincible which I didn’t finish.
Made for Love* – dystopian without feeling like a dystopian. Funny and weird.
Behind Her Eyes* – While I feel like the twist was a bit contrived but it still messed with me and I didn’t see it coming. I am not the same.
Solar Opposites – season 2 was too short. I wanted more episodes. I’m here for the people in the wall.
A Discovery of Witches – season 2. What the hell happened. I hate this show now it is terrible turn back time to the future pls thanks.
TV that shaped my 2020 (that I can remember). I’m going to make an ongoing list for 2021 so I can keep track of them and I don’t want these two pandemic years to run together.
The Capture – never watched a more morally ambiguous show!
Archer – finally he wakes up!
Dollface – below average start but a good finish. I liked the Women’s March episode.
His Dark Materials – better than the book in some ways?
Upright – made me feel-good cry. Also THE SOUNDTRACK. [Australian]
The Amber Ruffin Show – helped me get through 2020. I love her.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt interactive episode – there need not be any other interactivity on shows now. Please.
Normal People – don’t @ me.
What We Do in the Shadows – * looks a camera * duh
Dead to Me – I like soap operas that aren’t?
Lovecraft Country – except the ending. WTF.
The Good Lord Bird – could have leaned into the comedy more since they fudged other stuff but eh, I liked it.
Dickinson – I didn’t watch it until 2020 and it changed my life.
Star Trek: Lower Decks – fine, try to be like Rick and Morty. Doesn’t bother me. I’ll watch the second season.
Dave – Hi, I’m ashamed.
Search Party – Vote for Dory.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay – Josh Thomas is my aesthetic [Australian]
Mythic Quest – what if Mac were smart but still an asshole?
Out of Her Mind – I loved this woman-child
Schitt’s Creek – I started watching this in 2020 and I think I finished it early 2021. I still don’t get the hype and don’t understand how something so mediocre went on for so long. But part of me does get it. It was groundbreaking in its representation of a world without hate and showing family love. It offended no one with morals. It annoys me that that = groundbreaking, maybe.
Killing Eve – Um? More like kill me, please. Love this show.
Rick and Morty – the train episode. THE TRAIN EPISODE.
Bojack – the ending didn’t leave me with much hope for redemption and forgiveness, tbh.
The Duchess – I love that this show pisses Bryan off and her headbands are perf.
Colbert Late Show – I loved getting to know this side of Colbert and seeing his family.
Umbrella Academy – still better than the comic. I like the direction they’re going with things.
Tiger King – I didn’t say it was good TV.
Honorable mention: Late Show with James Corden. He plays after Colbert and I have found the pandemic has made him grow on me maybe because there’s no more karaoke stuff. I like the show when it seems more informal.
A story about an abusive high school relationship and the importance of being a friend first. I liked it and wish I had access to this when I was younger. I also liked the chimera stuffed animals she would make and how they contributed to conversations.
The kids don’t stand a chance. // Seems hyper focused on plastic over acknowledging the cost on land and water and human health that animal ag has caused. We need to work on both.
You can tell where Ellis was wanting to go with this, but that she bent to her publisher for the sake of reaching the masses. It was, as a result, super entertaining (and where we keep getting the comments of “it’s sci-fi for those who don’t like sci-fi”), but I wonder what it could have been if she had self-published or kept control of her vision. I loved the book but couldn’t help thinking that the first half that grabbed me wasn’t worth the payoff. I’m not talking about the abrupt ending either. Rather, the way big reveals left me feeling. I get more kicks out of nonfiction about aliens/The Other than I did this, so it was all very “introductory” — very young adult. Which is probably good for reaching younger audiences but if you’re not new here…heyhowareyou? However, I am absolutely going to read the sequel. Intermediate alien agendas pls! Just need my textbook.
Was interesting but ended on a weird note of contacting ancestors which I didn’t feel was as important in the book as the author made it seem? The line between medicine and magic was blended for me further after reading this.
It was weird starting this right after Lindsay Ellis was being called out for a tweet and past content she has since grown away from. I really read this because I think a lot about the boundary between accountability and forgiveness, but it’s not really about that. It physically depresses me when you can see a person is no longer who they once were or something was taken out of context but the accountability and backlash is so fierce you wonder if there’s ever redemption for anyone really. We are the sum of our mistakes. I can’t say that this book had all the answers, but we have to start somewhere.
I’m still left wondering about the balance between privacy and the duty to archive authenticity. But what is authenticity even on the internet? This book felt a lot like the Woody Allen essay in I Like to Watchbut for tech & social media, where we feel entangled with the creations (art/platform) but there’s no “best” way to uncouple our lives. (Can I REALLY delete fb if so much of me is there? The photos of dead pets. The high school status updates. The memes I’ve saved. None of it I look at regularly without some deep hurt and loss but to delete it is to lose that history forever and that would be worse.) Other parts reminded me of Trick Mirrorand How to do Nothing. But what it was nothing like is how it ties in community and online culture and libraries into how we think about social media. The @internetarchive hosted a talk with the author you should really check out if you are into imagining futures. One of the best books I’ve read this year!
I’ve done posts like this before, but as my views on veganism change, so do my answers. I represent just one viewpoint on veganism. I can’t see all sides or all my blind spots. I am hoping this format will make things easier to update as I’m sure I will change in the future. I’m also hoping that these answers will help both non-vegans and vegans alike understand where some vegans are coming from, to maybe not feel as alone? I’ve been vegan a while and am still learning things myself.
How long have you been vegan? Hark! The origin story! Since some time in 2015. I don’t have an exact date because I was vegetarian before then (from some time in 2010) and the transition was gradual. I just stopped buying milk and things with eggs for myself. I used up the products that had animal-derived ingredients in them and replaced them with vegan versions as I went along. The transition to vegan and cruelty free makeup was the hardest part for me. Not the food, honestly.
What do you eat every day? To be honest, I hate cooking and I do not have time for it. I work full-time and have a lot on my plate, so anything that can make my life easier is what I choose. Time is my most valuable thing. Thus, I have a frozen dinner meal at least once a day. It’s usually an Amy’s, Gardein, or Sweet Earth, or Trader Joe’s vegan tikka masala (soooo good). For lunch, I do something light like vegan ramen, vegan chick’n nuggets, a bagel with vegan cream cheese, or some sort of vegan sandwich (PB&Js are vegan!). For dinner, anything goes. I might eat a whole jar of salsa with chips. I might make vegan grilled cheese and heat up tomato soup. It depends on how tired I am. You can see what kind of foods I recommend in my saved stories called “Vegan foods” on my Instagram.
Where do you eat out at? Sometimes you are on the go and can’t make something at home. I get it. When that happens to me, some of my favorite big chain places and what I order at them are:
Olive garden, spaghetti. Hold the salad (they put cheese on it and the croutons are not vegan). The breadsticks are vegan, though! See more info.
Taco Bell. I get the black bean crunch wrap with no cheese, no sour cream and add guac. It’s so good! See more info.
Red Robin’s in-house vegan burger in the lettuce wrap is really really good but it feels more like a breakfast wrap or salad. I do not like the impossible burger they offer. It’s really basic and bland.
Pizza Hut. Thin crust veggie with no cheese. If you do the limited toppings then I pick tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. My friends have tried this and they couldn’t tell there wasn’t cheese on it.
Isn’t eating out bad for the environment? Doesn’t it support capitalism? Doesn’t this just help the chains make more money to kill more animals? If I’m going to eat out then I’m going to eat vegan food. I believe that my choices are an act of resistance. They are an expression of my ethics. Carol Adams, in her work The Sexual Politics of Meat, states that the very fact you do not eat meat is an act of feminism. Making an outward choice is a performance. It is praxis that goes against the norm and brings attention to an issue. It might not change the world or be the most I could do in that moment, but it is doing something. It reminds me of religious choices as well — how outward displays and acts are signals to the world of your religious principles. Like a nun wearing a habit, a Sikh wearing a turban, or a Muslim refusing to eat pork (pig), they are outward embodiments of what group you belong to and how you understand the world.
The work of Vegan BatGirl is what I draw on most readily when talking about the government bailouts for animal ag. She’s actually been (from?) to my hometown and done her activism here. Because of her work and others, I have started to question the “you vote with your money” concept. My purchases do not affect supply and demand as much as I thought, because capitalism doesn’t work and the government will still prop up animal ag even though it is failing.
I think buying any food supports capitalism right now, however. Many vegans refuse to go to restaurants if they aren’t vegan restaurants. I get it. And I think supporting vegan-owned things is important. But they probably also shop at grocery stores at times that sell meat and eggs and dairy. Would they just not buy from that grocery store? Walmart sells vegan brands too. I think making veganism accessible to all is also an important step. Just because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism doesn’t excuse you from the choices you do make.
Have you ever accidentally slipped up and eaten animal-derived ingredients or purchased something with them? Mistakes happen! That doesn’t mean you aren’t vegan. It means you made a mistake. One time I was at work and saw there was granola at the buffet for the breakfast gathering we were attending. After eating it, I realized it tasted too sweet and there was probably honey in it! I was very sad and upset with myself, because others probably noticed me eating it who knew I was vegan. But I did finish it as not to waste it. Sometimes I buy something new and miss something in the ingredients list, only to double check when I get home because I’ve become paranoid of such things. I typically give it away if I haven’t opened it yet. As you are still learning how to navigate being vegan, you will slip up or not realize something. That’s OK! You’ll pick up what to check for and get a routine down.
It’s for this reason that I might suggest that if you’re just starting out, you might not announce it. So that, if you do make a mistake, you won’t feel as judged.
Why do vegans want their food to look and taste like meat? Um, does your meat actually look like meat? Who put the meat in to funny shapes in the first place? If you like meat so much then why do you cook it? Add seasoning to it? It really seems more like people want their meat to not look or taste like meat!
Do you eat honey? No. Honey bees aren’t native to where I live, actually, and I think we should stop farming them. They are struggling to thrive here anyways, and they are competition for native pollinators.
Is veganism cruelty free? Living on the planet isn’t cruelty free, first of all. Even walking on grass as the potential to hurt a plant or insect. It’s about being less cruel. It’s about doing the least amount of damage you can. Not the max.
But don’t plants feel pain? Why do vegans care about one lifeform’s pain but not the other? This is the wrong question and framework. Plants may feel pain, but do they care about it? There is a difference between feeling something and understanding what that means. However, I also believe questions like this lead into “Peter Singer territory,” which is risky to enter into. You have to be careful about intention and show care. In the past I have brought up the fact that many humans with little to no brain activity on life support still react to stimuli but might not react based on want or need. Am I comparing them to plants, then? This could be seen as setting up a framework of those who are more “killable.” It should not be about what/who is killable and what/who is not, but about what/who is suffering from the choices we make. I recommend this video for more context and Sunaura Taylor’s work:
The talk of “vegetative states” also makes me consider this question: “If meat-eaters* think they are being fair by eating indiscriminately, then why don’t they also eat humans?” Since they so clearly think that vegans are hypocritical for eating only one type of thing that “feels,” I think it is more hypocritical that they eat everything except one thing. That “thing” being humans. And pets, maybe. A lot of the taboo of eating humans is actually very colonial/Western. Many indigenous cultures still do consume humans as part of traditional practices. I find this a more interesting way to point out their own biases and hypocrisies in food.
Instead of the “stranded on a desert island” scenario that is often referenced/brought up to put a vegan in a situation where they have to make a choice against veganism, I like to bring up what I call “the Donner Party scenario” and give my stance. I myself would not feel any qualms in eating a human if I had to to survive and there was nothing else to eat (notice I did not say kill a human). But that is not the scenario we are in. That is not what we are living. For those of us who do not have to choose meat (human or animal), why would we?
*here I mean a capitalist consumer type of meat-eater, not those practicing indigenous traditions
Are your pets vegan? No. I only have cats who are picky eaters. I would like to be able to buy them lab-grown meat though in the future, though!
Would you eat lab-grown meat? Maybe? Depends on if it tastes better than the plant-based meat. How affordable it was.
As a vegan, do you take medicine? Aren’t all medicines in the US tested on animals? Yes, I take medicine as necessary to help me survive and live a good life. I refer back to my Donner Party scenario. If it comes down to alleviating my suffering, I will take medicine.
How do you feel about plastic? I feel like plastic gets a bad rap. This may be a hot take I later regret, but to me, it has made food accessible in food desserts, including vegan food. It has improved nutrition and sanitation. I feel like cleaning up plastic is an easier feat than reversing deforestation caused by animal ag. I think we need to focus on limiting both, but that there is a bit too much hatred that goes into plastic and not enough on meat/animal ag. I’m still taking references to more sources if you have them. On the scale of suffering, though, I think animal ag is causing more for the world.
How do you feel about hunting? I hate trophy hunting. I disagree that it can help conservation efforts, because most conservation efforts are based in nationalistic, xenophobic, and eugenic principles of ecological purity (reminiscent of racial and ethnic purity, if you will). I believe in the right for a species to die out. I would like to see extinction decolonized. I also disagree that hunting is a means of population control, which is what I hear about in the U.S. a lot. Starving is a natural means of population control too for a species and dead bodies are part of every ecosystem, so I do not think humans are as important as they think they are in that area.
Trading one suffering for another is just you playing God. I think indigenous hunting practices, where the food is eaten and the bodies don’t just become a stuffed head on the wall, are much more ethical. I, too, would hunt if I had to. Or maybe I would just let someone do it for me and still partake. But I do not have to. It seems unethical to take a life I do not need. I am not asking indigenous populations to become vegan. I am asking most specifically for people to be vegan in their other choices.
See this link and this link for more context on my stance on extinction and invasive species.
Do you think everyone should go vegan? If possible, yes. As stated above, indigenous peoples still practice traditions that involve meat and I support that as means of life if there is no alternative. My focus is on those who have the means and ability to make better choices, but choose not to.
However, I do question “tradition” as an excuse from some as why they will not stop eating meat when they clearly can affordably and nutritionally (I certainly question it from people who live in the same area as me when I hear it). I question tradition for the sake of tradition, especially traditions such as child marriage, genital mutilation, bull fighting and other animal fighting, and the “traditional” family unit. So, yeah, food practices are not “off the table” for me (pun intended). I think if we can’t examine our traditions and make changes, then we are harming ourselves and are trapped in an unexamined life. For a small example, it was a tradition in my childhood home to have meat for every dinner, despite my parents both having high cholesterol. Traditions can harm as well as give meaning.
Isn’t leather/aren’t animal products more sustainable? Aren’t vegan clothes just plastic? Not all of them are. This page has a lot of good info:
How do you feel about comparing animals to humans? This is the question of our time, I think. When I was younger, I would do so readily. As a woman who could become impregnated, I was never offended when women were compared to a cow to show the horrors of the dairy industry, how rape is referenced when talking about the artificial insemination of a farmed animal. However, comparison only goes so far. The communal focus is now on “intersection” — where two issues intersect rather than how they are similar. There is no one size fits all model, and if you risk insulting one party with a comparison, then it would work against your goal.
Are you a vegan who compares what happens to animals to the Holocaust? To Slavery? (CW, sensitive subjects of abuse and genocide). I used to when I was first starting out, and for that I am sorry. My comparison was not nuanced for sure. I no longer do so and see how it was wrong. I could not see how it was working against my cause and against the groups I was referencing. To make matters worse, there’s a lot of conflicting signals within veganism about the human/animal comparison (re: the Taylor YouTube video above as well). There’s a whole Wikipedia page on the subject of comparing Animal Rights and the Holocaust, apparently. But, like what I said above, comparison can only go so far and it is better to focus on the systems that affect all groups negatively, no matter how. Otherwise, it can turn into the oppression Olympics, where we are tallying who has it worse off. That distracts from being united in taking down the system that is oppressing. If forced to admit it, I also do not think using the Holocaust comparison against animal farming is affective because the comparison stops when we realize that the Jewish people were being exterminated and farm animals are actively bred (to be eaten). That sure as hell isn’t genocide. That is something else. This most common example when it is brought up in vegan arguments doesn’t even work logically for me. It seems to be used more for shock value.
The book Afro-dog complicated the waters for me on this subject as well. I still don’t know what to make of that book, but I liked it.
What is hard for vegans to see is that, while we do not take being compared to an animal as an insult because we lift all animals up, in some contexts it is still a way of Othering someone to be less-than-human. On the flip side, what some do not understand about vegan reasoning is that if the animal/human binary (hierarchy, rather?) could be dissolved, there would be no way to make someone “less-than-human” because there would just be “beings.”
But bringing all of that to the conversation can’t be surmised in a single comparison. It has to be unpacked over time.
Wasn’t Hitler vegetarian? Why do you want to be like him? I don’t care if he was or wasn’t. I could see why he would propagandize that he was, though, to make himself look like a compassionate, gentle leader. I’ve read arguments where he was trying to look/act like Gandhi, who was popular at the time? What is interesting, however, is that veganism is and isn’t tied to white nationalists depending on what is and isn’t being said. Compare these two articles from VICE:
What’s also hilarious, on the other end of this conversation, is that Israel, with the largest “core Jewish population” is also touted for its veganism. There’s even a Wikipedia page dedicated to Jewish Vegetarianism.* So…you tell me what you are implying by suggesting vegs are like Hitler. I sure as hell don’t know. If I stare long enough, both of these cases do seem to speak to the plant-based lifestyle as some sort of nationalistic ideal, though. I’m not sure what to make of it. I think it’s similar to the issue of conservation, where there’s a lot of racists and eco-fascist ideals there — where talking about invasive species feels like xenophobia, where conservation is a stand in for conservative ideals, where eco-purity comes at the cost of killing and ignoring indigenous needs and rights. For example:
*That said, I want to be clear that not all Jewish people are synonymous with Israelis nor support their political agendas. I recognize it might also be problematic, since we are talking about nationalism, to not address Israel’s own human rights abuses against Palestinians. For more context on criticizing the Israeli government and where I am coming from, I direct you to this recommended video (starts at recommended portion):
Do you support zoos and conservation efforts as a vegan? No and yes. See answers above. I think if we are talking about sanctuaries that is one thing, but the very concept of zoos is a colonial one. Humans used to be put in zoos, to be shows off like some collection of conquest. My belief is that the human/animal binary has a thin line between them and I’d like to take away all potential for suffering for when that line is crossed, like I reference above. I also believe that zoos falsely placate the real need for us to save the environment. My local zoo calls itself a “Living Museum,” which is the saddest thing I can think of, because museums are where you put artifacts that can no longer be a part of the world. That need to be protected from it, not part of it. I hate that line of thinking, that the world is too dangerous for them. The animals, therefore, are viewed as no longer of this time period. We no longer strive to protect them in the outside world, because why would we? They’re “safe” in the zoo.
Why are you vegan? Probably because I want to be able to like myself at the end of the day. IDK. I used to not be. Then I saw how the world could be different.
‘For years, I’ve regretted the spotlight I put on other people’s mistakes, as if one day I wouldn’t make plenty of my own. There can be an unsparing purity to growing into one’s social conscience that is often overbroad.
My brain wasn’t ready for nuance. I was angered by hypocrisy and cruelty; what I did about it was apply a level of scrutiny that left no room for error. I’m not saying that I should be canceled for my teenage blog. (Please don’t!) I just know what we all should know by now: that no one who has lived publicly, online or off, has a spotless record.
For these reasons, I’ve thought about deleting my Tumblr. But doing that would mean erasing my own errors of judgment. I almost feel like I need to leave it up to punish myself for having made it in the first place. That, and I know someone could (and probably would) just pull it up on Wayback Machine. The internet, after all, never forgets.’
Didn’t know what I didn’t know. Read it for work related purposes. Pages have quotes that were eye-opening for me: 
A companion species manifesto.
Was interesting but ended on a weird note of contacting ancestors which I didn’t feel was as important in the book as the author made it seem? The line between medicine and magic was blended for me further after reading this.
It was weird starting this right after Lindsay Ellis was being called out for a tweet and past content she has since grown away from. I really read this because I think a lot about the boundary between accountability and forgiveness, but it’s not really about that. It physically depresses me when you can see a person is no longer who they once were or something was taken out of context but the accountability and backlash is so fierce you wonder if there’s ever redemption for anyone really. We are the sum of our mistakes. I can’t say that this book had all the answers, but we have to start somewhere.
‘For years, I’ve regretted the spotlight I put on other people’s mistakes, as if one day I wouldn’t make plenty of my own. There can be an unsparing purity to growing into one’s social conscience that is often overbroad.