🌀 Sowing Chaos to Sell Order: Veganism, Populism, and the Illusion of Hierarchal Safety + a Meaty Vegan Recipe
Lately, I’ve been watching a disturbing narrative take shape in certain corners of the internet—one that links veganism with elitism, hierarchy, and even anti-populism. It’s baffling. And, if I’m honest, it’s heartbreaking. Because I believe the opposite is true.
Let’s start with the obvious: veganism at its core is not about superiority. It’s about refusing to place oneself above others—ANY OTHERS. It’s about stepping away from the pecking order entirely. That’s why so many vegans also believe in feminist values, abolitionist values, and community care. It’s not because we think we’re better than anyone else—it’s because we don’t believe in “better” and “worse” as a moral framework. We believe in minimizing harm and maximizing compassion.
(BTW, I decided to give you a bonus recipe with this post if you scroll down to the end)
And yet here we are, in a moment where doing anything good is mocked as self-righteous. “Virtue signaling” gets lobbed like a grenade anytime someone dares to act with conscience. The effect? A culture allergic to visible ethics—and maybe to ethics altogether. People are shamed into silence, told to keep their heads down, blend in, and never suggest that another way is possible.
It’s a brutal inversion of everything we’re supposed to value: integrity, service, stewardship. A calculated effort to drain people of purpose—and to pit the teachings of the real Jesus against the machinery of capitalism and the State. Because you can’t exactly “love thy neighbor” if the system runs on exploiting them. So instead, they make compassion look cringe. Mock it. Meme it. Slap a “compassionate Karen” label on anyone who dares to care too loudly. Anything to keep people from remembering they have a soul.
And the machine loves it. The algorithms reward it. So does the executive branch—as long as your compassion is state-approved. Cry for the unborn, and you’re a patriot. Cry for the bombed, the starved, the displaced—and suddenly you’re radical, suspect, or anti-American. Abortion is murder; genocide is policy. The cruelty isn’t the point—it’s the infrastructure. I don’t know how to make more clear.
But the real twist is how this moral fatigue is being exploited. The right, especially the alt-right, is sowing chaos—then offering hierarchy as a solution. And it’s working. It’s fucking working.
People are overwhelmed, overworked, and craving order. Enter: traditional masculinity, rigid gender roles, and the nostalgia of “simpler times” when everyone supposedly knew their place. It’s a trap. But it feels like home to some because the chaos of late-stage capitalism is so disorienting.
They’re even attacking plant-based living on populist grounds: “It’s too expensive!” “It’s elitist!” “Who has time to cook?” And yet, paradoxically, they’re out here glorifying homesteading, canning, and backyard chicken farming. Which is it? Either we’re lazy elites or we’re wholesome rural homemakers. It’s not about food. It’s about control.
The goal is to keep people disoriented—mocking empathy, blurring values, replacing community with a shallow aesthetic of strength and simplicity. It’s not about what nourishes us. It’s about what distracts us.
The truth? Plant-based cooking can be the least expensive and most practical way to eat. What’s cheaper and easier than a one-pot meal of beans, grains, and greens—enough to stretch across four days, reinvented into soups, bowls, tacos, and more? You don’t need status or gadgets to do that. You just need intention.
But while they’re shouting about the price of tofu, the Trump administration just handed the meat industry $10 billion in new subsidies. Meanwhile, the USDA has rolled back slaughterhouse safety regulations, letting producers speed up processing lines and avoid stricter salmonella rules. Think about what that means—for animals, yes, but also for the humans working these lines under already brutal, exploitative conditions. It’s a race to the bottom. And it’s being sold as freedom.
And let’s talk about masculinity.
The version being peddled in this chaos economy isn’t grounded or generative.
It’s reactive. Insecure. Violent.
Think bar fights and shootouts—not care, not protection, not strength of character. And certainly not wisdom.
Just scroll the comments section. This mindset is on full display.
Don’t get me wrong—I love the kind of masculinity that serves and protects a community.
But what’s on offer right now isn’t that.
It’s masculinity fused with radical individualism: greedy, brittle, and dangerous. It does not serve anything.
We’re not heading toward order
🗡️We’re being lured into the illusion of order while the ground erodes beneath us.
🗡️This isn’t a return to structure. It’s a plunge into the Wild West, rebranded.
And guess what?
John Wayne isn’t a fully actualized human.
He’s an action figure with one attribute: niched down masculinity
What they’re selling as “traditional” isn’t stability—it’s dominance.
And domination is not the same thing as strength.
We. Are. At. War.
And every war is fought with the tech of its time.
This one is being waged through algorithms, language, legislation, subsidies, and shame.
The battleground isn’t just policy—it’s perception.
It’s what you eat.
How you live.
How loudly you dare to care.
So what do we do?
🤍 We stay soft in the right places, and sharp in the right places.
🤍 We keep making choices rooted in compassion, not coercion.
🤍 We name the manipulation—and then we model something better. Not because it makes us superior. But because it makes us whole. Because, frankly, it’s soul survival.
Be your own Private Superhero, not someone else’s villain
Be kind, but stand your ground.
Don’t add to the chaos. Learn to parse emotion from fact in a storm designed to overwhelm.
Be curious, don’t try to win arguments — there is literally nothing to gain.
Meditate. Pray. Center yourself in something deeper than headlines or hashtags.
Don’t speak on something until you’ve done the deep, honest, objective work. Get beyond your confirmation bias.
Get involved in something constructive not destructive, hating on the internet or in church is not it.
This is not the time to be ego-driven. Your ego will likely not get to celebrate a victory, this is a long game.
Leave identity politics at the door. Identity = Ego
Put your faith in something higher than fear—because fear is a fucker. It will drive you straight into the arms of authoritarianism while promising safety.
Journal & document what’s happening on paper - You never know what future historians might discover.
Support small local Farms because they are not subsidized and they are in danger of being un-alived.
🤍 Hold the line.
🤍 Feed your neighbors.
🤍 Keep telling the truth.
And if they call it virtue signaling—ignore them
Because if you’re avoiding the right thing just to avoid judgment, that’s not humility.
That’s ego in disguise.
And ego has never saved a damned soul.
✨ If you’d like a little warmth in this wild world…
Come join me over on my YouTube series, Savoring Her Story—where food meets feminist history, and where plant-based cooking becomes a form of care, culture, and resistance.
This isn’t about moral posturing. It’s about creating a more humane narrative of service & love —and how we nourish each others’ souls along the way.
Avocado Toast with pan-friend Lion’s Mane
Bonus Recipe: Homemade seed bread with avocado & Lion’s Mane
The seed bread recipe aka Life-Changing Loaf of bread was created by Sarah Britton in 2013 and it is truly life-changing if you are vegan, on a gluten-free diet, and try to stay healthy. Because gluten-free products tend to be highly processed and not all that healthy or even satisfying. This bread is satisfying. It has chew, and doesn’t just break down into powder in your mouth. It is also high in good fats, calorie dense, high in fiber and will keep you full for hours. And while you do have to take the time to soak the seeds for a bit, it is an easy and forgiving recipe, unlike sourdough bread.
I am so happy I discovered this recipe.
Avocado Mash
I simply mash up an avocado without the seed and skin, add a teaspoon of garlic powder, a squeeze of lemon, and then salt and pepper.
Pan-fried Lion’s Mane Mushroom
I just slice and sometimes rip the mushroom, and brown it in a dry cast iron pan to reduce the water content, when it starts browning, I had a teaspoon or so of oil, a minced garlic clove, a dash of smoked paprika, and salt and pepper. You can even add a smidgen of maple syrup to get a bacon-ey flavor. It has an extremely meaty texture.