The Overton Window

After hearing a lot of positive reviews for the show Dear White People, I decided to give it a shot. I was surprised that the show was more of a ‘show’ than I expected. I anticipated more of a documentary-feel, but DWP delivered an engaging, fun, and profound viewer experience that carried all the enjoyment of watching a television series, but with a deeper message. There was one, particular moment in the show that stuck out to me, however. One of the more ‘aggressive’ activists on the show, Sam, is planning to protest a town hall called by another, more moderate activist, Troy. Troy initially resists the idea; however, he eventually concedes when presented with the fact that “the more radical [Sam] looks, the more logical [Troy] becomes.”

This scene mirrors the historical juxtaposition between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, with the former being seen as the more “logical” or approachable and the latter being seen as the “radical.” Malcom X’s emphasis on black supremacy, rejection of integration, and opposition to the Civil Rights Movement made MLK’s call for equal rights and radical love much more appealing to mainstream opinion and policy. Imagine if Malcom had not existed. Perhaps King’s policies would have been perceived as extreme rather than reasonable. Perhaps we would be in a different situation today.

The concept that I am describing is generally referred to as the Overton Window, which describes the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse. In other words, there exists a spectrum of ideas on a given topic ranging from one extreme to the other. Somewhere in the middle is a smaller range of ideas that are permissible in public discourse. The edges of the window are ideas that are ‘sensible.’ A little closer to the middle is something the majority might even be in favor of implementing, or ‘popular.’ At the absolute center of the window exists actual, current policy.

So what does radicalism and dogmatic Veganism have to do with the Overton Window? Well, the interesting thing about the Overton Window is that it is dynamic, or — in other words — it is constantly moving. Continuing with the Civil Rights example, if we were to look at the Overton Window from 1950, it would look drastically different from the window of today. Remember that 1950 had not even seen desegregation in schools (Brown v. Board of Education occurred in 1954). The ‘policy’ section of the window in this period would include“segregation of public facilities,” which would obviously be much closer to one of the extreme ends of the Overton range in 2018. In fact, the shifting of the window has gained some attention in recent years due to U.S. President Donald Trump whose actions are often so extreme that pundits fear he may be perniciously shifting the window of acceptable public policy to the right. It is the window’s ability to shift that brings us to Dogmatic Veganism.

Dogmatic Veganism is generally regarded as negative and radical in the public discourse, even amongst fellow Vegans. Dogmatic Vegans are often perceived as pushy, preachy, and persistently annoying by Carnists. Moreover, they are often blamed by other Vegans, Vegetarians, Flexitarians, etc. for not being able to recognize a “win” when they see it. One doesn’t have to look hard to find examples. PETA’s opposition to the seemingly animal friendly proposition 12 on California’s 2018 midterm ballot is one example. Hordes of Vegans showing up on Instagram and Facebook threads rejecting the plant-based Impossible Burger (they tested one of the ingredients on animals) is another. I would consider myself to be more of a Pragmatic Vegan — a Vegan that does not make excuses for Carnists but one that can recognize a good policy change when I see one. To put that in context, I appreciate the gains in animal welfare made possible by prop 12 and I recognize the progress of the mainstream acceptance of the Impossible Burger. I often argue with the aforementioned Dogmatists over the these topics and more.

Today, though, I would like to extend a big ‘Thank you’ to the dogmatic Vegans of the world. I would like the thank them for always striving to be better, for pushing those who may have slipped into comfortable complacency, and — most importantly — for being the primary shifters of the Overton Window.

The Overton Window for Veganism might look like the one I’ve created below. I’ve invented the terms “Pragmatic Vegan” and “Dogmatic Vegan” to differentiate between the two.