mrmoulin:

I hate vegan enforcers. I never say shit about their bean salad, so don’t day shit about my bacon sandwich.

Immortal Technique’s lowest moment*.

Annotated lyrics:

look, let me make something
abundantly clear for people
that are so bereft of activities
they feel like they gotta comment on mine.

Not ‘bereft’ of activities. Rather: focusing on different activities. Incidentally, to bring about similar change spoken about in other Immortal Technique tracks…

first of all being a vegetarian should
never be associated with being
a revolutionary or being open-minded.
that’s a dietary choice.

Going against practices that are so far ingrained into society that even Immortal Technique is won over by them is not revolutionary? Revolution does not equal AK47s, and guerilla warfare. Each individual votes for how they want society to be everyday, with every product that they buy. Every individual that does not buy into the systems they do not agree with is mutinying against that system in order to bring about a revolution.

But, if that is the more ‘glamorous’ shit you want, then there are plenty of people who engage what could be classified as ‘guerilla warfare’.

You don’t have to be open-minded to recognize how the animal agriculture industries are fucking up the world, keeping the world’s poorest hungry and fucking up your body. You don’t have to be open-minded to appreciate that non-human animals are treated by humans now how any number of oppressed peoples has been treated throughout human history, and that the oppressors of today are using the same unfounded arguments to justify that oppression as the oppressors of the past.

if someone wants to proliferate the 
type of ignorance we’re supposed to
be fighting by thinking that,
you’re just fucking yourself.

Or not, since the more people that become vegan the better it is for the planet, the world’s poorest and each individual’s body. This ‘type’ of ignorance is the same ‘type’ of ignorance that Immortal Technique so often talks about, it is only the victim that is different. Ignorance is ignorance.

i don’t go around promoting
beef and pultry shoving it in
people’s faces.

You probably don’t, no. But, when was the last time you turned on a TV? Or took a stroll in an urban area? Or browsed the Internet? Or opened a magazine? Or even held a conversation with someone? Animal products are constantly being thrust in everyone’s faces.

i don’t castigate people for not
eating steak sandwiches;
and i would never diss someone
for being a fucking broccoli-head,
or living off of radishes,
or eating grass or tofu.

Except that calling someone a ‘fucking broccoli-head’ is ‘dissing’ them and insinuating that people who don’t eat meat or dairy live off grass, tofu and radishes is ‘dissing’ them. 

You don’t castigate people who don’t eat steak sandwiches because both parties acknowledge that them not eating that sandwich is a personal choice, one you have no say in. Conversely, the eating of a steak sandwich is not a personal choice; another life was affected (inasmuch as it was ended, processed and put between two pieces of bread). When something you do affects another, it is no longer your choice alone to make. Our society openly castigates those who seek to infringe on other’s rights. By not calling out injustices where you see them, Mr. Technique; your discography would look pretty bleak.

i like a lot of vegan cuisine.
but the illogicality of expecting
everyone to adopt their particular
idea of what being healthy is
is just preposterous.

It’s not just our ideas. It is generally accepted (and has been for a long time) that not eating meat and dairy (or at least cutting down) can prevent a whole host of diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis and others.

Veganism is not about personal health, though. It is often argued from a personal health perspective because we understand how selfish people are, and how they will only listen if there is something in it for them.

i’ve seen some of you herbivores;
and if you want to argue health,
y’all need to eat some kind of supplement
because some of y’all are so skinny
that it’s disgusting; looking like the
only hip-hop motherfuckers on schindler’s list.

Funny that Immortal Technique of all people only sees what he wants to see to make his point. Guaranteed: I know more vegans than Immortal Technique ever will and very few are overly skinny (even the ones that are is because of other factors, which veganism usually helps them with). 

Since I cannot possibly prove this to you, have a look at these people: Mac Danzig, Robert Cheeke, Pat Reeves, Georges Laraque. What about ‘regular folk’ (not athletes)? Saul Williams, “Weird Al” Yankovich, Emily Deschanel. I could go on. You may as well just look here.

Everyone’s body is different.

How does everyone feel about the use of a Holocaust comparison here? We all comfortable with that? Is it OK because it is being used from a side to argue against veganism?

being a malnutrition-ass got nothing to do
with being revolutionary or being on-point.

No, but being against oppression and injustice in every case - not just ones that suit you - has everything to do with being ‘on-point’ when you deal so much in fighting injustice and oppression.

i’ll be damned if i let somebody else push
their agenda on me. you know i don’t eat pork,
not because i’m a muslim, i just don’t
really like it, but i really will
fuck a bird up. and fish is good
when that shit is fresh. it’s like my nigga
Vast Aire from Can Ox said. if you don’t like
the smell of burning meat, well then get
the fuck off the planet.

Almost all of Immortal Techniques tracks could bee seen as him ‘agenda pushing’.

Immortal Technique doesn’t like a whole host of shit that is prevelant and permeates our entire society. I suggest he either stops talking about it or gets the ‘fuck off the planet’, too…

Everyone needs to keep on fighting the oppressions that they see/encounter, but you cannot do this whilst telling others to ‘GTFO’ when they are talking about legitimate issues, just because you don’t agree with them.

you know i don’t
criticize people for eating moss,
then don’t open your fucking mouth
about my food, man. i like beef
and broccoli motherfucker. mind
your god-damn business.

Pretty sure I don’t know any vegans that eat moss. It’s not just food though, is it? It is the systematic oppression of others (human and non-human) for an end product that is, essentially, a first-world luxury. The way the animal agriculture businesses operate: what you eat is entirely my business. When those businesses stop killing non-humans, when they stop polluting my planet, when they stop subjugating those we cannot see unless we look; then it will be your business and your business only. Until you stop paying them to do this in your name, then it will be my business.

matter of fact…
you know what? i’m out. i feel like some
arroz con pollo, a banana daiquiri, and
a motherfucking bistec aponado.

Ah, the classic childish act of telling vegans just how much you love a certain animal product as a closer. Classy….

*I enjoy a fair bit of Immortal Technique. I think a lot of the things he says are ‘on-point’ and think that he is an important voice. This song, however, just calls into question his integrity as he neglects to see the oppressions involved in using animals on an individual level and how completely destructive animal agriculture is.