This article examines the disjunction between ethical vegans’ private morals regarding animals and their public presentation of them as an instance of American individualism. Using in-depth interviews and observations of vegan gatherings, I find that most vegans, those who employ what I call “strategic individualism,” think of veganism as a general moral imperative—that humans ought to be vegan as a matter of social justice for animals—yet they frequently individualized their positions when interacting with nonvegans to avoid interpersonal conflict and thereby engage nonvegans. Rather than discuss morals as collective obligations, which they privately believe, vegans who use strategic individualism present morals as individual choices and experiences. The differences in their private morals and their public presentation demonstrate that individualism may be better understood less as a fundamental orientation, which is the dominant approach in cultural sociology, so much as an interactional strategy to achieve particular goals.

中文翻译：

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素食主义：日常生活中的伦理

本文考察了纯素食者关于动物的私人道德与他们作为美国个人主义的一个例子公开展示之间的脱节。通过对纯素集会的深入采访和观察，我发现大多数纯素者，即那些采用我所谓的“战略个人主义”的人，将纯素主义视为一种普遍的道德要求——人类应该成为纯素者作为社会正义的问题动物——然而，他们在与非素食者互动时经常个性化自己的立场，以避免人际冲突，从而吸引非素食者。使用战略个人主义的素食主义者将道德视为个人选择和经历，而不是将道德视为集体义务，他们私下相信这一点。