Shades of Veg*nism (and Beyond). A Socio-Cognitive Discourse Analysis of Dietary Hate Speech in YouTube Comments

With growing awareness of health, environmental, and ethical concerns, the rise of veganism has become increasingly prominent on multiple fronts. However, the flourishing of this phenomenon should be understood not only in numerical and commercial terms,but also in terms of its impact on the identity of those who adopt these lifestyles. Within a group characterised by strong internal identification, at the same time, individuals’ subjective interpretation and modulation of information can potentially lead to issues of discrimination and othering. By adopting a socio-cognitive discourse studies approach, the paper presents the results of an analysis of a corpus comprising 1,932 comments in response to the YouTube video entitled “Ending the Battle Between Vegans, Vegetarians, and Everyone Else | Brian Kateman | TEDxCUNY” to assess instantiations of hate speech targeting the VEGAN,VEGETARIAN,REDUCETARIAN,andMEAT-EATINGgroups. Results show that hate speech is predominantly addressed to vegans, that negative characteris the most common strategy used, and that issues concerning morality and ethics in killing animals underpin the ideologies onto which hatred is modelled.