COLUMN: Jona Weinhofen (IKTPQ)

Killyourstereo.com presents another entry in our column series where we give musicians freedom to offer a unique, personal and individual voice.

Today, I Killed the Prom Queen guitarist Jona Weinhofen delivers the June entry in his monthly column.

The musician shares insights and offers an impassioned piece on the topic of veganism and how it has impacted his lifestyle.

I want to give you an analogy.

Imagine you’re in a country, which condones and allows violence against women and children (and yes, there are some). It is normal to hit and abuse your wife if she does something wrong, hell, even if she does nothing wrong. You own that person and it is completely normal to treat them like a slave – Now what if a select minority thought that this was completely vile and disgusting and were totally against that behaviour such as this was allowed to occur, and chose to speak out against it despite being put under fire, even though history says its ok, the law says its ok, the majority of the people say it’s ok, and it is normal and common practice within this place.

Now imagine that the ‘violence against women’ is eating meat and animal products, and that the ‘slavery of women and children’ is the slavery of animals. Imagine that the people fighting out against the violence against women, despite it being completely historically and socially acceptable and legal, were vegans. That they were speaking out against unnecessary cruelty, violence, torture and death of animals. Yes vegans get mouthy, annoying, upset, self-righteous…can you not understand why? Just because history, the law, and the majority of humanity thinks that this slavery, abuse and killing is totally fine, we as vegans do not believe that it is ok.

Humans can live a long, healthy and happy life without eating steak, without wearing leather, without using perfume tested on animals, so why don’t we? Because we’re too lazy, ignorant, careless, set in our ways, because it’s socially acceptable?

To anyone reading this, I personally don’t care if you tell me ‘but bacon…’, I don’t care if you call me preachy, I don’t care if you liken me to an annoying religious person, because all I am doing is promoting a lifestyle which has given me nothing but positivity for 14+ years, and I want to share it with the world.

Not a single day has gone by in 14 years where I have missed meat, or chocolate, or anything I used to eat or wear, because I can still get all of that stuff as a vegan (or products close enough), and because my choice to change the way I lived has made me happy and fulfilled.

You live in a world where the things vegans think are bad, are totally fine because history, society, law, your parents say it is fine. Does that really make it fine?

To quote Thomas Paine:


The aforementioned analogy, along with this entire post is rhetorical. It is simply an insight to the way we ‘annoying preachy vegans’ think, in an attempt to help you understand where we’re coming from.

Do you agree, disagree or have thoughts on Jona’s column? Let us know below.

7 Responses to “COLUMN: Jona Weinhofen (IKTPQ)”

  1. SteveC SteveC

    That’s a good quote. If you ask people about why they eat meat, a lot of them can’t give any kind of reasoned, thought out answer. Most people profess to love animals but if they really thoroughly educated themselves about what their dinner went through to get to their plate, they might not want to eat it anymore.

  2. DAVID666

    Human beings ARE just animals. We are no better or more important than any other animal. And ALL all living creatures (all animals) are, simply put, organic machinery; blindly following our genetic and learned programs of behavior. This is what defines our consciousness, and it defines everything we do and are; from our behaviors (like eating animals) and inclinations (veganism vs. carnivorousness) to our moods and personalities.

    Our uniqueness is the sum of incalculable variables that have shaped our consciousness from birth and even before (learned and genetic programming). And whilst your programming says meat is cruel, mine says it’s nature. It’s not about right and wrong.

    Why? Because there is no right or wrong IN ANYTHING, AT ANYTIME, ANYWHERE! Things just happen or they just are. Hard to explain but I hope you understand. Things aren’t right or wrong until we add our own perception to them (perception defining our sense of morality). And perception being the first point of contact to our individual consciousness.

    You’re not being kind by not eating animals. Because kindness isn’t real either! Harsh concept but again it’s still all just perception. You can perceive kindness (given or received), but it’s only a perception. And individual perception is part of your OWN reality. NOT anyone else’s.

    You’re just following your individual programming which defines your consciousness, your perception and your sense of morality which has led you to believe that eating meat is wrong. Fair enough. It’s the evolution of your consciousness. Just don’t kid yourself into believing that you’re some kind of a saint because you don’t eat meat. You’re an organic machine, following your programming, just like all the rest of us are doing.

    You don’t have to condone but don’t condemn someones else for a difference in perception or opinion. And that goes both ways; meat-eaters and vegans.

  3. DAVID666

    @DAVID666 (3): Ignore above… not thinking straight right now. Not high or drunk just fucked up and projecting my own nihilistic rhetoric bullshit.

  4. Matt.S

    I eat meat becasue it’s delicious and I enjoy it. I was vegan for a year and the amount of pills and stuff I had to take and the other crappy, tasteless processed shit that was needed to get a helahty diet was shit. I’m happy eating meat but I am careful which I choose.My butcher is great and labels where the meat has come from in terms of abattoirs and I always check the way they operate. There are plenty of very humane abattoirs, you just have to know.

    But fuck me, it’s my life and it’s yours. If someone tells me not to meat and I say I’m alright, they should just stop. They made a case and it didn’t work. Same for the other way. If it’s not getting through, respect the choice.

Leave a Reply
