our school is haunted

I've long accepted that I just need to interact with other people if I am going to live in a society, as we do, but I also think there are a lot of problems with me doing that which have no easy answers.

I was meant to be the person sitting quietly in the corner, passively observing other people interacting. But since the world is such a dumpster fire, I guess I have to do stuff or whatever.

It occurs to me that I haven't been as active seeking out communities on Dreamwidth as I have on Pillowfort. That's something I should maybe look into.

This is not to say that I haven't joined or participated in any comms here, because I certainly have, or even that I haven't made my own, because I have also done that. Just that I feel like I haven't done that as extensively here as I have on Pillowfort.

The only reason it's ever more difficult to eat vegan is due to the selective way that that food is stocked in grocery stores and what is presented in restaurants.

Most of it is relatively easy to veganize, certainly nothing that would be beyond the current abilities of stores and restaurants. And this would certainly not be preserving the 'just pay more for stuff with cheaper ingredients' nonsense or 'just put up with an extremely abbreviated range of choices' nonsense or the 'just remove the meat leaving a sad shell of a meal' nonsense or the 'serve something completely different and unrelated to the regular theme of the restaurant' nonsense that is so often employed for vegan food replacements.

Like the primary reason processed vegan food is often so comparatively expensive is that it doesn't have access to the economies of scale that nonvegan food does. If it did we'd be able to get huge blocks of vegan cheese for less than it costs to make dairy cheese. Likewise, there's no inherent reasons that there needs to be fewer types of vegan options available. In my vegan utopia, there will be as many options of vegan cheese as there is dairy cheese in our current meat dystopia. More options, even! Vegan green cheese with vegan green ham! Vegan bleu cheese and Star Wars style vegan blue cheese! And more!

Also, why is it so common to think that the vegan version of a dish is just the meat version with the meat removed? If I want a replacement for spaghetti and meatballs, I want a vegan substitute for the meatballs. You can't just say, "Oh, I veganized spaghetti and meatballs" and then just give me a plain spaghetti with marinara, no parmesan! Unacceptable! Vegan meatballs are cheap and no more difficult to produce than murder meatballs. Even making vegan parmesan at home is just a few ingredients, a food processor, and a few minutes of time away. Am I to believe restaurants cannot possibly handle this?

Also, if the theme of the restaurant is barbecue, why is the vegan dish a hummus platter? Am I to believe that barbecue soy curls or seitan or jackfruit or tofu are all somehow too hard for a restaurant?

Like the only reason any of this is ever comparatively harder for customers is because of an active, concerted effort by suppliers to suck up to the meat and animal products industries.