Are you woke?

Don’t they have eggs in doughnuts? Never made any so don’t know but if they have eggs or milk the are not vegan.

The Woke debate was stirred up recently on Question Time when the panel was made up of Journalist from the DT, a ScotsNat MP a young Conservative female Minister for Culture, Baroness Chakrabati and actor Laurence Fox. As it was from my home city of Liverpool I expected a lively debate.
Lauence Fox is not “woke” and reacted to a audience member ( a plant as later reported) who told Mr Fox that he could not possibly understand racial prejudice as he was a white, privileged male. He was not amused and made a solid argument that he had no say in how he was born but he was against accusing people of racism, sexism etc. purely to close down argument. The audience gave him a great reception and the look on Baroness Chakrabati’s face was worth watching!

I am sure we are all aware of 5he dangers of racism, sexism and other social ills, but I hate being lectured on such matters by this group of women people who see offence where none is intended.

If you are vegan, then you (generic) will want to know if products are suitable for you to use/eat/buy. If you are not, then why worry?

It is five letters on a label - I honestly can't see why people get so worked up about it.

I always buy these products because they work and are so cheap, didn't know they were vegan!!

The word Vegan is very much overused,

Vegan this and vegan that.
I’m fed up hearing and reading how just about everything is Vegan!.
Agree with Chewbacca.

I saw a mention of ‘woke’ through the ages. Before we were woke, we were politically correct and before we were politically correct we were polite.

I think we were probably all 'woke' at one time - when we were young, thought we knew it all, thought we were the first to think of doing things this way or that. Then we grew up and realised there is nothing new under the sun.
I was definitely very 'unwoke' in modern terms when I went with my daughter to a vegan cafe. I didn't know it was vegan and ordered a latte. I was asked which kind of milk I wanted, oat or almond and asked if they didn't have any of the 'normal' stuff. I got out alive.

How do you know a person is a vegan ? ........ they tell you.

I don't mind 'woke'; shorthand for raised consciousness on issues such as sexism racism and animal rights. Vegan has long been used for products that could have been made from ingredients derived from animals. eg shoes etc - look like leather are not. I'm an aspiring vegan - still occasionally eat cheese and egg...I've moved to non-dairy for milk and yogurt..and am working on the cheese which I eat very little of. (I cant see that I will deny myself homemade cake on the couple of times a year I eat it because of the eggs.) So well done them. And #metoo has done a vast amount of good for women's rights. so we're getting there. Even Barbie is woke nowadays - you get her in all professions often in glasses and there is even a wheelchair barbie. And she has a female friend and a dog to go camping with. Ken has changed a lot too. It's good. It's a quick and easy word. Lets all wake up.

Yes, I think I am pretty woke. It’s worth noting that Vegan doesn’t only refer to no animal ingredients, but also will usually mean that no ingredients have been tested on animals, nor contains ingredients that lead to the death of animals (e.g. Palm Oil).

Apparently I’m not woke, I’m not too sure how far off I am though as the quiz I took just said that I was a Traditionalist. I have to confess though that I had to Google the term to see what it meant.

But I am a Pescatarian, I’m probably a potential terrorist as I support the Extinction Rebellion along with my DD and GCs and I’m pretty well informed, maybe being Woke isn’t all there is to life.

To me, the term ‘Woke’ and the rather smug way it is often used implies that many of us stubbornly remain ‘unwoke’.

I think it suggests a certain naivety as though early adopters assume that they are the first humans to see the world in this way!

What they call Woke, others, in times gone by would have called ‘raised consciousness’. I belonged to several consciousness raising groups in the early seventies and we were probably a bit ‘woke’ ourselves....in our own special way!

I can't ever see me using the word 'woke'. It wouldn't come naturally to me and I would think people would wonder why this old lady is trying to be trendy.

My first thought was "Yes, I am. The alarm went off at 7pm this morning and I'm out of bed, dressed and typing...."
then I read the thread.

No I don't think I am, and I think Im quite happy not to be so labelled. Seems a bit pretentious to me.

On the other hand, I'm almost vegetarian and care very much about animal welfare and their habitats.

I think, no I know, I'm not 'woke' as I'm pretty far along the scale towards the right!

1.16 per cent.

Vegans, according to the Vegetarian Society website, number 1.16 of the population. Considering the noise they make in the public sphere that's a very small hair on a tail trying to wag a very large dog.

I believe that this product range being described as vegan refers not only to its ingredients, but also that none are tested on animals.

I answered a Facebook post for cups and saucers for somebody who was starting catering. I offered a bone china set and was politely refused because vegans won’t use ‘bone’ china.

Although there is undoubtedly a fair bit of jumping on the vegan bandwagon going on at the moment, it is surely an advantage to have products clearly labelled so that those of us who wish to avoid animal derivatives in our cosmetics, cleaning products or whatever, are able to see it clearly labelled instead of having to peer at the mass of ingredients? I do think it is funny though when a product is labelled 'cruelty free'....does this mean that the rest of the range comes with 'added cruelty'? Surely we should be able to assume this anyway? Or am I being too 'woke'?

Yes...'woke' goes hand in hand with 'virtue signalling'.

Credit where it is due though. I have bought Astonish products for more than a decade and they have never been tested on animals and have always been vegan from when the company was set up.

This was way back before companies added 'vegan' and 'cruelty free' to their labels as a marketing ploy

Thank you so much, Tillybelle. That was very kind of you, and it means a lot.

Doodledog You sound hurt and I'm very sad if you feel hurt. I have been helped a lot by your posts, especially in understanding the meaning of this new use of "woke". I do hope it will remain non judgemental, sadly I have heard it on TV used to show how virtuous a person thought herself and by imputation how wrong were the rest of us! But that is about that individual not the newly expressed idea.
I think the person saying she knew you would be trouble was joking! That is how i took it because there is a laughing emoji next to the comment. If I say to a friend that I knew they would be trouble it is an endearment, meant to imply how well I know them and that they would be very well informed and likely to point out where I was wrong - but in a friendly way.
Anyway, please do not feel upset - if you were - I for one, find your comments really interesting. ?

Calendargirl You are right - meatballs as a name is wrong. Here in Italy they are called polpettine "(small balls", but generic). However, I don't think you can call them that in English!