I think it was more having the arguments put forth to me by people I thought of as more rational (my sister tends towards the dramatic in general*, I think that made it easier to avoid her arguments). But yeah having numbers and data definitely helped, and adding in the climate change POV rather than solely focussing on the more confronting animal welfare aspects. Its like, that got me over the cognitive dissonce and then once on the other side all the animal welfare arguments could suddenly sink in. 

*not to be too harsh to my sister, we were also just teenagers and sisters are annoying haha, but once we were older, for actually implementing the diet in my life, she was very very helpful :)

As someone who ignored the pleas of my vegan sister for many many years, I have been on the gaslighting side I guess (and now feel awful about it). Then I discovered EA and became vegan, so I think there is something here about how different arguments work for different people. But, I do still really find it confusing the most people don't care about animal suffering - I am now so totally 110% convinced, and I don't even like animals very much, so how do animals lovers still eat meat??? 

This was so nice to read.  I just reached 10y anniversary for my GWWC pledge (Eeeeee!) and have also been thinking a bit about whether it feels different now or anything. I didn't have anything so nice as an email thread to go back to, so its very easy to say "oh yeah this is totally where I would have expected to be" but I honestly do not actually recall what 2014 Jo expected of herself haha. 

Exciting!!! Wish I could come back and join you guys :)

"oh these young EA whippersnappers, expecting so much!" is exactly how I feel sometimes! Thank you so much for writing this post, its brilliant (Read also as 'you' are brilliant) :)

I was thinking along these same lines but for skin-microbiota... we are lagging behind understanding this compared to gut-microbiota but it seems like the diversity is pretty important to our overall health? Its probably only a risk worth considering for the "install it in all the offices" rather than against using far-UVC in pandemic situations, but I guess research would be needed to assess the risks for skin disorders, or whatever else these microbiota might be important for? 

Thanks for writing this Marius :), I am feeling a little bit motivated to see how these things would apply to having conversations with academics about biorisks. I suspect that many of your points will hold true - not being alarmist, focusing on technical aspects, higher-ups are more dismissive, and that I will learn lots of new things or at least get better at talking about this :)

Thank you so much for writing and sharing this Michelle. It is super nice to have it highlighted that EA is super freaking hard sometimes, even for people right in the thick of it surrounded by like-minds! 
Personally, I kinda struggle with the fact that I don't always agree all the way on some of the long-termism stuffs, and sometimes I feel just so darn confused that everyone else just seems to be on board and do it so easily. But these techniques, and the reminder that there is a whole community of people to reach out to, all with such a spectrum of beliefs and values and difficulties, is exactly what I needed to read today!

I second the 'not feeling smart enough to contribute' - I am also 6yrs old and still get overwhelmed by the incredibly thinkers, the jargon, and the philosophical arguments that become so abstract my head hurts. I was pretty happy being a 'generally knowledgeable cheerleader', but now I am without a local group, so I guess I'll let your leap inspire me and try grow a bit myself.