I’m not convinced that there’s even a soft rule; I think it’s just a case of the one or the other way of doing it nebulously sticking, like how sometimes you form a noun with -ness and sometimes you do it with -hood. Which now I think about it is more or less what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s done consciously at any rate.

You know the expression “big if”? I’m not sure you’re following me either!

I believe “the gays” used to be offensive, and I did notice that myself but it doesn’t make sense to met that that would be the distinction!

adjectives as nouns are rarely a good sign in general

I don’t think that’s true unless you mean within the context of referring to people or something, e.g. the blacks, the poors. But then stuff like “the rich” and “the unemployed” I don’t really take issue with.

I think it unironically would be androids.

I think you’re going on a bit of a tangent I’m not interested in, sorry, but otherwise I’m not really following, and if you say things like “veganazis” it just reminds me of when people used to write “feminazis”.

The difference being that nazis actually should be overwhelmed by the majority.

But then you’re willingly admitting that you don’t speak to enough vegans to have an informed idea of their ethos, which is something I wouldn’t readily admit even if I did it. Not sure what your first point has to do with the matter at hand though.

So is religion, theoretically at least.

There are certainly vegan diets.

Yes, and there are Muslim diets I’m sure, but Islam isn’t a diet either, for example. Just stick “veganism” into your search engine of choice and the credible sources won’t call it a diet.

And I don’t think being part of a small community of a certain life choice isn’t really making you a minority in the political sense

I’m arguing that they may not have meant that. The criticism should be “that’s clumsy wording because it sounds like you mean minority in a political sense” or “surely you don’t mean…” rather than “you’re comparing yourself to (minorities in the political sense) and therefore vegans are bad”.

Also, …

Honestly, I suspect your willingness to assume the worst of what a vegan’s said, and that you bring up a minority view even amongst vegans out of context, betrays a prejudgment that plays as much, if not more, of a role as how aggressively some vegans argue in how you’re approaching the whole thing.

Again, veganism isn’t a diet (this is painfully easy to find out if you just quickly look it up!) and if you interpret minority in a literal sense, it’s true and relevant because it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the majority if you’re in the minority, which is what the person posting seems to be worried about.

No, English is my first language, and all I’m saying is that you could’ve interpreted it the other way, which is plausible at the end of the day, and it’d be true, which is what it means to read something charitably/in good faith.

Most people aren’t vegan, so vegans are a minority. That’s not difficult to understand, so we have to assume you’re reading in bad faith. Stop it please.

Edit: veganism isn’t a diet either. Quite easy to find this out if you even stick the word into a search engine.

Does it make a difference that it’s under the section “Prescribed Prayers”? Because the New Testament has a similar rule written in it that women have to cover their heads while praying.

I did that a lot as a kid, as well as having to scratch e.g. my left arm if I’d just scratched my right arm. I had to put my first step on a new surface with my left foot and the last with my right, and I had a system of sort of aping something I’d just heard by grinding my teeth, which I still sort of do sometimes but only in my head because my teeth have grown in such a way that I can’t really do it any more.

I remember I used to eat a bag of crisps by holding the bag in my right hand and picking with my left, until one day I decided that was stupid, and rather than just giving up dictating which hand did what, I switched hands.

Have you tried explaining in your native language that you don’t speak that language? They love it.

Or put a bit more elegantly: joy shared is joy doubled; sorrow shared is sorrow halved.

I went to secondary school at the turn of the millennium and I remember having to go to admin to get my dinner tickets on a Monday, which were worth £1.30, but there was never any shame in it because I don’t think too many kids knew the significance of it; in fact, my mate Danny would always want to buy them off me for £1.50 apiece. This other lad called Liam would sometimes lord it over me because his mum gave him £2 a day for his dinner, but by year 11 he was roundly known as a bit of a prick if I recall correctly, so I was even vindicated in the end.

Cherry picking to sound smart.

It was my point to begin with so I’m bringing it back within context!

If you’ve already read a lot of books, you should give If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller a go.