I am not "going out of my way to play the persecuted martyr", I opened the Lemmy home page and "post trashing vegans" was post #3. I thought I left this shit behind when I left reddit, but now it's here too.

Not using animal products is not exhausting. I've done it for a decade and it's a remarkably easy change where 99% of the difficulty comes from the wider society being hostile to it.

It is an ethical position based on an actual reality of animal agriculture causing vast suffering that we have chosen to opt out of supporting. It is absolutely reasonable and selfless to advocate for the rights of others at a minor, negligible personal sacrifice. It is not a sign of a need to shame others, a need to be a martyr, or any other personality defect that you're going to project on vegans based on a stereotype despite knowing NOTHING about any of us as individuals. Nobody is trying to make you "feel ashamed", we are pointing out objective facts about how the animal ag industry causes harm to animals, and then people like you, like you're doing in this comment, right here, launch into this whole frigging diatribe about how vegans are shaming you and judging you and have a god complex and should just shut up and go back into their corners, because god forbid anyone should ever suggest that anything you're doing is less than perfectly ethical.

It's bullshit. I don't know what else to tell you. I've been living with this for years and it's absolute bullshit. Your position is wrong, it's not a statement about you as a person, it's a statement you should change your behavior. We are NOT at fault for showing the truth of the matter, that's just a reactionary and ignorant position that people use to try to rationalize what's convenient for them.