So tired of concern-trollers saying shit like "oh the uncreative recipes are why people hate vegans" "people hate vegans because they're white single-issue activists" "people hate vegans because they're annoying" "people hate vegans because the food is bad" like 1. literally none of those things are even true and 2. even if they were it's not why people hate vegans.
also somewhat unrelated but i'm going to soapbox about substitutions: complaining about vegan substitutions is almost always anti-vegan unless it's a person having specific qualms with a specific thing. but there are people who will shit on substitutions as a whole concept and pretend they're so original and have the highest opinions of food ever created. like I'm sick and tired of non-vegans (and vegans too) complaining about tofu being used as a substitute in a lot of vegan dishes. just let people enjoy their goddamn food in peace.
My response usually goes 1 of 2 ways.
1 way general curiosity. How long have you been vegan? What are some of your favorite dishes? What's your challenges? How did you overcome them? All I respond to earnest and explain as best I can.
Like I told people a few weeks back and then they wanted to get down to how aktshually eating honey does not harm bees. And I'm like I really do not care to debate you.