Older white men are wrong

OK it's Twitter which is not in the slightest bit representative of the real world (as my wife puts it about political twitter - at best it's one in ten, probably less, and not even a representative tenth either) but the manner in which debate is conducted long ceased to have much connection with the actual ideas, arguments or opinions that are presented. It's all about who (or what) you are...

I wrote a slightly polemical piece about veganism in response to the cavalcade of pro-vegan pieces in the media prompted by the barking mad ideas of the EAT-Lancet Commission. As ever, I'm happy with some kick back, with people pointing out flaws in my argument or presenting alternative evidence, research or opinion. But this is what I got:

The most interesting aspect to the vegetarian/vegan debate is the utter outrage by older white men towards a lifestyle that focuses on improving health and trying to reduce the suffering of animals.

The thing with this is that it shifts the argument away from what I wrote (vegan diets are unhealthy, don't really help the planet and animals will still die) and, instead, tells me I'm just an old white man motivated by some sort of spiteful anger at younger cooler folk who don't eat meat. What matters is my identity - older white man - not the content of my argument.

I guess (although I try not to get too tangled up in postmodernism) that this is a sort of "everything is about motive" argument - I would say that, I'm an older white bloke. We see the same with other debates - Diane Abbott suggesting it's racist to tell her she's wrong (albeit on this occasion she probably wasn't) or saying to researchers at free market think tanks that, in effect, they wouldn't write in support of those free markets if shadowy rich people weren't pulling their strings.

The "old white man"statement is most commonly used as a dismissal - 'look at this idiot, typical of gammons' - rather than in any way reflecting the argument. After all old white blokes come in a variety of forms and a multitude of opinions - Jeremy Corbyn is an older white bloke as is Michel Barnier and, of course, the billionaire funding the EAT-Lancet nonsense is another older white man. I'm not going to get into silly stuff about how gammon or "old white man" is racist (it probably is but it doesn't really matter) but the term is used with the aim of excluding a significant chunk of our population from being allowed to have an opinion. Old white man are wrong so we can be rude to them, dismiss them and make fun of them. And in doing so sideline any views of arguments they may hold that you don't like.

.....