Yesterday, someone told me that we should criticise the system and not consumer behaviour when talking about being vegan/eating plant-based.

First things first: I'm very left-leaning. I'm vegan myself, I don't fly, I recycle bottles, etc. I'm far from perfect when it comes to sustainability, but I think it's fair to say that I'm genuinely trying to be good to the world and its inhabitants. I also hate “the system”. I hate what capitalism does to us. I see many many many things going wrong and honestly, I don't really believe that there's a way out.

That said, I got lucky in the birth lothery. Even though I can't afford to go holidays (and yes, even if I could, I still wouldn't fly), even though I can never go to a store and just buy whatever I want, even though my salary is pretty bad for my country – I'm still free to choose. Being vegan here is cheap, probably cheaper than any other diet you could follow.

So my question is: How can you say that the system is solely responsible? How can you take away responsibility from the individuals and just blame everything on capitalism?

I mean sure, not everyone can eat plant-based – I'm aware of that. But my point is that I think we are all responsible. We are all responsible for how we treat our enviroment. We are all responsible for what we put into our bodies. We are all responsible for the consequences our consumer behaviour has. Each and every one of us.

Sometimes those leftist statements about capitalism being at fault for literally anything piss me the fuck off. Even within capitalism, you can be a decent person. And also...aren't we all part of the system?

#rant