The Vegan Thread

State protection bit: you've already acknowledged a way in which vegans need state protection: prison food. There really might not be too many others. But the point is that belief systems like veganism and atheism can occasionally form the basis of unfair and unequal treatment and (on this basis) that it might be a good thing that they be protected as well.

I agree, with the caveats mentioned above and below.

Well firstly atheism and veganism are not a belief systems, one is a position on a single issue, the other a dietary choice - now, don't get me wrong, I understand the point that you are making and essentially have nothing against, but I think it's a waste of time and largely unnecessary.

It is correct that atheism is not a belief system in itself, but it will inevitably be bound into a belief system--unless one were to deliberately arrange their beliefs to be inconsistent, which few people do, and then mostly involuntarily. Beliefs don't tend to occur in isolation but will be supported by other beliefs, whether as part of a coherentist or foundationalist approach to beliefs, or a belief-system that has both conherence and a foundation, which is of course preferable to the fairly artificial c-f dichotomy).

Similarly, it is correct that veganism is not a belief system in itself, but to me, for instance, as for many other vegans, if not all, it is pivotal within my ethical belief system. I have more fundamental ethical views, of course, but veganism is certainly far more than a dietary choice.

(A fairly obvious but less important correction to what you're saying is that veganism goes beyond diet, to include abstaining, as far as practicable, from the use of fabrics such as wool, leather or silk, as well as animal products in all other areas in which they might be applied. It is true that owing to the greater use of animal products in diet than in other areas, this is the main aspect, though, and the Vegan Society requires of full members to be 'merely' dietary vegans.)