A lesson on the absolute:
I was recently involved in debate about the real nature of an Oreo. More specifically questioning the fact that they are vegan as of late or for 10 or 15 years. My view is that recently they have become vegan, and the opposing view held the idea that they have been vegan for the longer period of time. I shall disclose the truth later in my article.
His opinion was based off of several websites that he -vaguely- remember visiting 10 to 15 years ago. His brief statements lead to the persuasion that these websites were not Nabisco or Kraft Foods (the makers of Oreo) but were vegan forums.
Now, let me poke this statement full of holes (simply because of his spite-like reaction when I discovered the happy median answer). Vegan-ism was not nearly as large in 1997 (the more recent side of his time span) as it is today (Reaching it's first worthwhile mention in 2002 with 4% of Americans claiming to "avoid animal products when possible" according to poll by Time/CNN and that .2% of American adults are Vegan. That was 2002, much later than 1997) But I will give him the benefit of the doubt... let me rephrase that-- I trust that he isn't lying. Now, the forum craze struck in recent years also, however Google does have it's oldest archives of a forum in existence in 1981, so I will trust him that these forums he claims to have read the fact that Oreos are vegan were in existence.
So. Those are the numbers... and they are against him.
Now, my information was much less researched: I was talking to a girl that I know. She has been a vegetarian for a few years and tried vegan-ism briefly, but still states on top of the vegan news and such. It was she how informed me that Oreos are recently vegan. That was it. I did no research. I trusted her.
I am a reasonable person, and I understand that he was just as mistaken as I was. But he was the one who decided to accuse me of being foolish for believing a one person I know rather than a whole forum of people he didn't know.
SO, This guy and I were talking recently about jello and he mentioned that it was made of horses (oh, um, by the way, it is cows and pigs. But I am sure that there are plenty of forums that will say horses if you look hard enough.) And I mentioned about the girl telling me about the fact that Oreos are now vegan and he launches (this word was considered multiple times and I decided to use it after careful thought) into an accusation that i am foolish for believing this girl. I of course get defensive because this IS an attack on myself and my friend. After a medium length conversation I was very unhappy with him. I decided to do some research.
I discovered that whether Oreos are vegan or not is dependant on where they are made.
Miami has had vegan Oreos for more than 8 years, while some places still use whey (an animal product: Dairy). So I told him my findings. And smiled while doing so. Rather than being at all glad that we are both right (or at least both within the realm of possibility) he immediately tries to defeat my source.
So. There it is. The moral of the stroy is that niether of us were absolutely correct. The difference; I allowed for the idea that he could be right. He thought I was wrong till the end.
*Oh, and a side note; Alcohol was involved in this event... but I am the one that is typing this and he is the one one -passed out (sleeping more than deeply)- on the bed after falling asleep on the couch a few times. And now he is snoring; something that he is too stubborn to believe he does, but I video taped it. I am sick of him not believing me. Maybe I will just start writing down everything that he doesn't believe and checking it. I already told him last time that i was wrong (Mash up vs. Match up). I expect it is asking too much for him to tell me that I was right once.
[Note: The name in this post has been removed to protect the arrogant-- err, I mean innocent.]
