No Meat Today

Response from developer

Some vegans love my app. Please allow me, Arnaud, the one (and only) creator behind it, to explain how your polarized rating is doing precisely the opposite of what you hope. 1️⃣ First, about my approach. I don’t consider that it is my place to tell people what to do, but I want to help them do it. I don’t judge, and I don’t pretend to know better. I don’t assume anything about people’s choices and inner battles. I merely provide a fun and kind tool to people trying to improve, even if it may seem intimidating, unreachable, or overwhelming. I built this tool to support them. This app is a companion and motivator, not a professor or an authority. 2️⃣ About your review Where is the universal compassion you are the herald of when talking to people who are still more on your side than on the complete opposite? It’s just me here. You’re not addressing a faceless corporation but a person. You don’t have to use my app much to find that I am alone and to find one of the many ways to contact me personally. Why didn’t you reach out to me? I usually get 1-star reviews from meat lovers. It seems they can’t stand an app about eating less meat. You consider that this app does no good, and they consider it only bad. Essentially, you agree with them, and your review is helping them by hurting my app, and by dissuading people who are curious but not yet convinced to give this whole plant thing a try, at their own pace. You are fighting their fight. You are not helping your cause. 3️⃣ About becoming vegan Yes, it’s an effort. No, it’s not easy. “If you can reduce, you can abstain.” And if you can run a mile, you can run a marathon? Motivation is key to determining how far you want to go in anything. You can’t “just watch Dominion” and become vegan. That doesn’t work for everyone. Not everyone shocked draws the same conclusions you did, and for them, reducing is the way to go, and veganism is not. Also, please don’t trivialize this change of lifestyle like some restaurants do by simply removing meat from a dish to “make it vegan.” If veganism were an obvious and easy switch, it would be the de facto diet without the need for coaching, supplements, nutrition knowledge, or justifications as to why this is your diet. Billions of people are not waking up every day thinking they will make their lives a little more complicated and have meat for lunch instead of “simply” being vegan. Just because it was obvious and easy for you doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone. Assuming that people are not vegan just because they are ignorant and not smart enough to find help is condescending. For some people, giving up on meat entirely is just too much, and the reasons are varied and personal. And since they don’t have an imperative to do so, people will pick the status quo when faced with an either-or choice. I’m not here to blame them. I don’t care what they do; I’m not their conscience. They have their reasons, and they can find resources outside this app to decide how far they want to go. And if it’s just for one meal, then so be it. I’m here to take whatever little glimpse of goodwill they have and try to magnify, celebrate, and encourage it. I built a compassionate tool, not an opinionated guide. 4️⃣ About your domestic abuse comparison Unlike meat eating, domestic abuse is punished by law and not widely accepted as a traditional and enjoyable practice, repeated multiple times a day, at the center of every celebration, with tips transmitted between generations, coaches advocating to make all your life about it and TV shows on how to enjoy it best. When it comes down to consuming things that are bad for the environment, a better comparison would be sugary food/drinks or plastic. People are okay with it; they generally want more, and overconsumption is not illegal. Helping people “Reduce” doesn’t look as absurd and useless then. It’s the same with meat because it’s about social acceptance, the norm, and what everyone does without challenging it. You can disprove that people find this violence acceptable, but that’s the current state of humanity. So no, because of that, I am not dictating the amount of meat they should have. I let people decide on their own what is acceptable. 5️⃣ About the motivations to eat less meat Only half of the vegans do it for ethical reasons. Does their motivation absolutely need to be ethical reasons, or are you still content if not killing animals is only a by-product of their core motivation? Not everyone using the app does it for ethical reasons. Many are doing it for environmental reasons. Some may never become vegan, and it doesn’t matter, given the environmental urgency. Can they only be encouraged by you if they become vegan, or do you also accept the lives saved because of their choices? I think that there’s no effort that is too small not to matter. I don’t care why people decide to eat less meat, if they succeed or give up, I only care to help them. 6️⃣ About the effects of this review Some people find veganism too extreme for them. This review shames them and dissuades them from even trying. Some users tried and gave up being vegan. This app is an opportunity to try again or a “best effort”. This compassionless review denies their struggle. Some animal lives will be spared because people reduce. This review actively fights this opportunity on account of it being less radical and total than your ideal. This review lacks compassion while asking for it. This review is helping your foes. Please look at the big picture. I hope you will come to see that this app is part of the solution and not something you should actively try to destroy. I kindly invite you to think again about what exactly you are trying to achieve with this review and, maybe, edit or delete it. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Arnaud