Finding hope in a hopeless situation

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Kahlill Smith
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Is anyone else feeling the hopelessness that I am? How is everyone making a change and coping with the current cruelty happening?
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Pablo
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It helps a lot to find a vegan support circle where you can retract yourself in a bubble of safety and become blissfully ignorant about the world for a good moment. Sometimes it's hard to ignore the cries of all the innocents around us, but the truth is that the world is not going to change overnight. So the best thing you can do is take good care of your mental health, take a step back from the gigantic scale at which cruelty is happening and be content with the difference you're making as an individual. At the end of the day, you're only a single person and you should reflect on your accomplishments accordingly. Don't put them in perspective with everything that's going on, that's neither going to help you nor the animals when you burn yourself out.
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Valerie Shepard
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I second the recommendation to find a vegan circle of friends. It changed my life. And in my opinion, the best way to do it is to look for your local activism groups. I highly recommend joining vigils with the Animal Save movement (https://thesavemovement.org/list-of-save-groups/). It is heartbreaking to see those poor souls on their way to their deaths, but there's a bond that forms with the other people there.

For an easier introduction, I also recommend looking into your local Anonymous for the Voiceless chapter (https://www.anonymousforthevoiceless.org/join). All you need is a device that can play a video, and you can stand in the Cube of Truth, masked, fully anonymous.

What I like the most about this approach is that you solve a lot of the "loneliness" feeling that can come with being a vegan in a carnist world: you find like-minded people, you find support to withstand the pain of knowing the truth, you most likely end up making new friends and acquaintances, and on top of that, you are taking actual, concrete action to change the horrific reality we still live in.
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Kana
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In 2022, I spent approximately 2 months near a dairy farm. At first I was just thinking, that these cows are so cute. It was my first time being fairly close to cows, seeing them out in the pasture daily etc. We became friends, they even became friends with my old darling dog. He was on his last month there, the cows would get so excited to see us, and they would groom his fur.
I visited them daily, once or twice. The farmers got used to me, they even invited me in, to see the calves etc. I was...confused. They also find them cute, but then we all know what happens...This was a hereditary cow farm, they didn't even understand why I go there to bond with the cows. And I didn't understand them in return. But I kept up the civil relation, so I can still go there.
I became really close with one particular cow, and fairly close to another one. Other recurring cows would also greet me. I got their names, and memorized their number. The truck from a very popular dairy brand would come every second day-ish, to pick up their milk. At this time I gave up meat and dairy. I wasn't really a fan of meat before either, but still ate it because it was in almost everything. Milk too. But the change wasn't hard. I went cold turkey, found alternatives. It was easy to do so, because I couldn't eat "them" and I was frankly ashamed I did so until then. My family was supporting, and it was also easier to cook that way, so we all weaned off of dairy and meat.
My "best cow friend" Gertrude always paved her way to me when she was out there with the others and not in some kind of confinement. I hugged her, she put her head in my hands and even let me to gently pet her pregnant belly. The other one didn't have a name, and she was a bit wild, with horns and a weird gait. We also bonded in our own way, and she ended up trusting me sometimes with the belly petting and ear scratching. I moved, but still visited them weekly-ish.
One day on my visit, I round the bend to the cow enclosure, and there is a dirty plastic barrel, on top... a cow head. It was my friend with the horns. I also heard some other cow crying from a confined room without pause. That cow was probably crying for a different reason, but seeing that lovely horned friend, who was full of character, being slaughtered, her head out there on top of a barrel full of her intestines...plus the crying of another one. I freeze.
Even though, this makes me fear for the others, fearing something inevitable will happen... I still think it's worth to befriend them and make their lives more interesting. To give them some love. For a while, I was racking my brain, how could I save them, or at least Gertrude. But I couldn't come up with anything. I don't have the resources, and this is not an overnight job, not for one person.
So, being kind to the animals; showing a good vegeterian/vegan example; being here - learning more; advocating, and pushing the right buttons whenever the chance presents itself is how I cope. When I see something cruel like above, I feel awfully small. But this site kind of helps. Knowing, that my family could change so much in a short time gives me hope for more change too. It fuels me to look incredibly good, so people would ask me why, and I could tell them about my lifestyle because in most places, vegetarian is synonimous with a dull, weak body. In my community, when someone coinsiders becoming a vegetarian, eating less meat or going dairy-free, they would ask me because they see that I still eat almost the same things as they crave, but with modification. That also helps to cope, those baby steps.
Sorry for the long one, I felt this is relevant :)
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NathanTus
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