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Author: Maklodes

May 29th 2011 at 3:08:28 PM

I think this trope is fine so long as we recognize that it's about stereotypical portrayal of vegans, not most real vegans. Vegans and non-vegans alike can have ill-informed or well-informed views about the natural world, but for what it's worth, I bet if you gave a random sample of 40 of each a quiz on basic, value-neutral facts of biology (e.g.. "Which of the following elements is not widespread in living organisms? A) Nitrogen B) Phosphorus C) Silicon or D) Sulfur," not [[ManyQuestionsFallacy "Is nature gentle and nurturing, or is it red tooth and claw?"]]), I'd put my money on the vegans. Still, there are certainly some vegans who are full of nonsense, in the real world and on TV. Recognize that it's not a full picture of reality any more than DeathBySex is an accurate portrayal of the consequences of being a sexually active young woman, and it's fine.

UPDATE: Re: Bisected8: I guess silicon actually does, albeit rarely, play a biological role. Aluminum would have been a better element as an example of one with no known biological role. There is, of course, no way of knowing the outcome of such a test without actually doing it. I'm just saying what I'd guess the outcome would be.