Maybe I'm misreading but I don't see how what you said relates to the bit you quoted at all. How does saying "animal liberation is intertwined with leftism" mean you're not left wing unless you're vegan?

I agree that this idea that "leftist" is like some identity that you either are or are you aren't is so toxic honestly but there's a difference between focusing on other areas of leftism because you're not as passionate about animal liberation and straight up rejecting the idea that it should be a goal at all.

I don't think it's controversial to say that a core part of leftism is opposing exploitation and suffering. The rhetoric used by vegans in the past few days has been inflammatory, occasionally racist and honestly useless but it has drawn out a lot of the tired old arguments against animal liberation that I didn't expect to see in a supposedly leftist space and it's been really disappointing on all sides.

Everyone talks past each other on this site it's fucking exhausting.