Facebook was awash with horror this week after a Christchurch bar put up a sign calling vegans "pansies". RadioLIVE host Ryan Bridge takes a satirical look back and asks what the point of all the moral outrage was.
OPINION: It was a Tuesday morning like any other. I'd just folded my Manduka Eco yoga mat under my arm after a spiritual morning of downward dog at New Brighton beach.
There I was, minding my own business, mincing my way back to Betsie (my 1950s recycled bicycle - she's technically classed as vintage on eBay).
And that's when I saw it.
The menu board outside Pierside Cafe and Bar read: "Vegan buffet. Just kidding, now get away from our sign - you pansy."
I stopped mid-mince. Manduka fell to the ground; so did my stomach. I reached for my (ironically vegan-unfriendly) iPhone 6 to dial 111. But then I remembered all that stuff about police brutality in the US and thought better of it. So I took a photo and posted to Facebook: "It's 2017... this is disgusting... soooo offensive to so many vegans, pescatarians, homosexuals, Maori/Pacifica and lactose intolerant youth battling stereotypes and oppression in this #%^*ed up patriarchal society #standtogether."
I continued deep-breathing (thank god I'd just finished yoga!) and was pretty zen again by the time I reached Betsie.
Before I knew it, the story was all over the media. My story!
A real movement had been started, by me!
Not long afterwards, the owner of the pub was forced to apologise. Serves him right.
The sign was meant as a joke, he said, all in good humour and certainly not intended to offend anybody.
But that's not the point: as a pansexual, pescatarian transsexual who's allergic to full-fat milk... I was disgusted.
People can't make jokes about anything that might come close to offending somebody's beliefs or lifestyles. It's 2017 for &@$$sake.
Online, the comments section was becoming heated. I had to take time off my part-time job because of the stress.
Somebody was tagging me in posts about moral outrage.
"Moral outrage is the expression of one's feelings of injustice in order to alter or maintain a moral code."
The guy tagging me was saying how moral outrage is more and more prevalent because of social media and also said that it has little to do with society and more to do with me.
Psychologists say that people who are unreasonably outraged online are not really seeking to rectify injustice, rather they are communicating their political and social allegiances to their peers.
Basically, this guy was saying that I wasn't really that offended by the sign, I probably knew it was a joke, and the owner of the bar was probably not an anti-vegan homophobe.
The real reason I posted my outrage online, he said, was to get attention and feel part of a social group by reinforcing adherence to some arbitrary moral code.
I didn't really understand what he was talking about.
So I blocked him and tweeted about #trollattacks by the patriarchy.
A sign of the times, I reckon... we're always under attack.
It felt good to do something for society, like I'd made a real difference.
And then Betsie and I set off for the community gardens to pick lunch.
Ryan Bridge is the host of Your Sunday on RadioLIVE.
