Unnatural Vegan

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'''Swayze Foster''' {{lived|1988}}, also known as '''Unnatural Vegan''', is an American [[veganism|vegan]] [[YouTube]]r, [[utilitarianism|utilitarian]], and [[skepticism|skeptic]]. Her channel has, as of August 2020, around 266,000 subscribers and 47.6 million views.<ref name=about>[https://www.youtube.com/user/FitOnRaw/about Unnatural Vegan - YouTube]</ref> 

Foster was originally a [[raw foodism|raw foodist]] when she started her channel, which is why her handle is "FitOnRaw"; she now describes herself as a "former crazy raw foodist turned pro-vaccine, pro-normal diet vegan".<ref name=about/> The name "Unnatural Vegan" is apparently intended to contest the [[appeal to nature|appeals to nature]] that crop up in some vegan circles.

==Skepticism==
Foster favors a scientific and pragmatic approach to vegan practice and activism, and thus, frequently calls out [[Vaccine hysteria|anti-vaccine]],<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U71MN8RSePA Why I'm a Pro-Vaccine Vegan (and 12 vaccine myths dispelled)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9BmPSorRrg Kat Von D Is Anti-Vax. And We Aren't Helping.] YouTube.</ref> anti-[[GMO]]<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA4I-WRu_s0 Why I'm a Pro-GMO Vegan (and 9 gmo myths dispelled)]. YouTube.</ref> and anti-[[fluoridation]]<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--bu-LZge4w Fluoridated water is dangerous? Mercola & Fluoride Action Network are wrong.] YouTube.</ref> stances, as well as overly restrictive dieting,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4aWuVtVamk Kristina, your advice is dangerous. Please stop.] YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgCZqNMzGwg No, I Don't Eat Raw Till 4. Here are 8 Reasons Why.]</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKa6Y33rbO8 Shine With Plants Shows You How To Eat An Extremely Restrictive Vegan Diet]. YouTube.</ref> [[appeal to nature|appeals to nature]],<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA85Umvzqt4 Raw Vegan & Vegan Diets are Not Natural]. YouTube.</ref> [[cherry picking]] of studies,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWpEAnnHvjY Cherry Picking is Wrong, Even When Vegans Do It]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paQtMnrV6oM A Vegan Debunks 'What the Health' Documentary]. YouTube.</ref> [[shill gambit]]s<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFcqeJ9vUz0 That Vegan Couple needs to stop (Re: Baby Dies from Vegan Diet! Parents Jailed)]. YouTube.</ref> and bad science in general,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyxGhjcmVpg Seaweed makes cows good for the environment? CHECKMATE VEGANS!] YouTube.</ref> regardless of whether it comes from the pro-vegan or anti-vegan camp. 

She generally provides citations for her statements, and freely admits and corrects her mistakes, however she has not made one of her so-called "I Was Wrong" videos since 2016.<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m7CiOCx7mI I was wrong (2015 edition)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-7KJl_iZ4 I was wrong (2016 edition)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8anHNyEA_s8 I Was Wrong About GMO Labeling]. YouTube.</ref> In 2019 she denounced and heavily criticized the book she had authored seven years earlier, ''The Science of Eating Raw''.<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rObOkDaizjI I Wrote A Diet Book & It’s The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done.] YouTube.</ref>

==The good: Ethics and nuance==
Foster follows a [[utilitarian]] ethic and bases her veganism on the idea of reducing suffering for animals, following the lead of [[Peter Singer]] and [[John Stuart Mill]]. She is, as such, critical of the [[deontology|deontological]] approach of [[Gary Francione]], whom she criticizes for making veganism seem unnecessarily difficult and exclusive, [[Irony|even as he proclaims "Go vegan, it's easy!"]]<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVKLzhQFdGE Gary Francione doesn’t understand veganism or activism (dumpster diving & what it means to be vegan)]. YouTube.</ref> 

She is also quick to denounce and deconstruct {{wpl|misanthropy}} and [[asshole]] behavior from other vegans,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh8t0c35RLA A Terrible Vegan Insults This 32-Year-Old Lady]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU-xuTW-eos Misanthropy is Not Okay (a response to Gary Yourofsky)]. YouTube.</ref> particularly the more virulent specimens such as [[Vegan Gains]]<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDIHCijpdPI Furious Pete's Cancer Won't Quit, But Vegan Gains Should]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqHFWb_lbS8 Vegan Gains Should Get a Vasectomy (and stop promoting veganism?)] YouTube.</ref> and {{wpl|That Vegan Teacher}},<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5xOgQydCEU That Vegan Teacher Thinks I'm a Coward]. YouTube.</ref> and also stands out as showing a compassionate approach toward people who have fallen off the vegan bandwagon. She responded far better to [[Blaire White]] quitting veganism than most of her vegan Internet colleagues did.<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4shDtqE3L_8 Blaire White: Quitting vegan is your choice, but please stop spreading lies]. YouTube.</ref><ref group=note>And for her part, White commented to express her appreciation at how "civil and educational" this response was.</ref> However, she has also called out numerous people for making less-than-valid anti-vegan arguments, such as [[Lauren Chen]]<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Hcd63TKdQ Roaming Millennial needs a safe space from vegans]. YouTube.</ref> and [[Jaclyn Glenn]].<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM5XbPBElKo Re: CRAZY VEGAN IDIOTS (straw man arguments from nihilistic atheists)]. YouTube.</ref> 

Her tolerant approach toward non-vegans,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPYhzehYuNQ To Onision, Vegans, Mostly Vegans, "At-Home Only" Vegans, etc.] YouTube.</ref> her favorable attitude toward {{wpl|reducetarianism}}<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S8n7Gte28s Vegan Gains Doesn't Understand Reducetarianism]. YouTube.</ref> and her rejection of [[pseudoscience]] in the vegan community have prompted other vegans to [[Shill gambit|accuse her of being an infiltrator]] or of [[No True Scotsman|not really being vegan]].<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnx9NB-hpEE Why vegans think I'm not vegan (low fat & low carb biases)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVzYn1b5LBI Why Am I Vegan When I'm So Negative About Veganism?]. YouTube.</ref>

==The bad: Social justice==
She seems to have had a [[Inverse stopped clock|blind spot]] when it came to her 2017 video rejecting [[intersectionality]], which she saw as incompatible with utilitarianism; she [[Straw man|misrepresented]] it as a "belief system" in which victims of oppression are "beyond reproach", rather than simply a means of studying and understanding how different axes of oppression intersect with each other. This stance was criticized by YouTubers such as Marine (A Privileged Vegan)<ref>A Privileged Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0gS2kMAbLI Re: "Why I'm not an intersectional vegan" by Unnatural Vegan]. YouTube.</ref> and Reg Flowers.<ref>Reg Flowers. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEs6OiLCuk Unnatural Vegan Gets an "F" for Social Justice]. YouTube.</ref> Although Foster removed the video in question and showed some surface-level understanding of [[privilege]],<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlm0n48cp94 This Is What Vegan Privilege Looks Like]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMd6EUXAYNg Re: Do All Vegans Think The Same?]. YouTube.</ref> she continued to reject intersectionality in 2020, and used [[whataboutism]] to denigrate the imperative of the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAI3e90sdNM&t=1s Do Vegans Need To Talk About Black Lives Matter?]. YouTube.</ref> while claiming to support it,<ref>Unnatural Vegan. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9axGb1rXIt8 Responding To Comments (This Is Not An Apology, And I Still Support Black Lives Matter)]. YouTube.</ref> drawing criticism from YouTubers such as Niles Gilmore,<ref>
Niles Gilmore. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfCB5M581p0&t=1s Angry Vegans Rant About "Do Vegans Need To Talk About Black Lives Matter?"(Re: Unnatural Vegan)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Niles Gilmore. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjlBPQEZJoA&t=74s My Final Critique of Unnatural Vegan (Re: Responding To Comments)]. YouTube.</ref> Jean Maté,<ref>Jean Maté. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3K_9pK8D4Q&t=453s unnatural vegan thinks vegans shouldn't have to support black lives matter]. YouTube.</ref> Lo Aleen,<ref>Lo Aleen. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ckbaXQe79Q&t=172s vegans NEED to talk about Black Lives Matter (response to unnatural vegan)]. YouTube.</ref><ref>Lo Aleen. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir2J2S59-ZI&t=34s is unnatural vegan CANCELLED??]. YouTube.</ref> and happyblacklegends.<ref>happyblacklegends. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S0Vi5z7YeE&t=555s UNNATURAL VEGAN.... AS A BLACK SUBSCRIBER I'M DISSAPOINTED]. YouTube.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Peter Singer]]
*[[Utilitarianism]]
*[[Vegan Gains]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/user/FitOnRaw Unnatural Vegan] on YouTube
*[https://twitter.com/unnaturalvegan Unnatural Vegan] on Twitter 

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unnatural Vegan}}
[[Category:Animal rights]]
[[Category:Skeptics]]
[[Category:YouTube]]

Categories: Animal rights, Skeptics, YouTube