Why do vegetarians need the euphemisms 'vegan' and 'plant based?'

When a group of people constantly need new names for themselves and have to keep adding new terminology and coining new terms, it's a sign there is a problem.

In the case of vegetarians who are now 'vegans,' a term not in my smaller dictionary, one of the reasons may be intolerance.

Historically, there have been many kinds of vegetarians. Some were strict vegetarians. Others ate eggs, milk or both. Lacto-ovo vegetarianism is a term for those who ate  both eggs and milk. There were even vegetarians who ate fish! I think one reason for the militant 'vegans' of today is that they didn't want to accept those who couldn't go to their extreme as fellow vegetarians.

There is also a history of vegetarians insulting those who ate meat. 'Dr' Linda Hazzard (1868-1938), the 'fasting specialist,' had nothing nice to say about meat eaters. It was like she felt they were somehow dirty inside, not pure like her. At first adopting the term 'vegan' may have gotten away from that history, but since there are 'vegans' bullying meat-eaters on Twitter and telling them to die, I think they may need a new term soon.

Enter 'plant-based.' People talk about a 'plant-based' diet. There is even a commercial for fake butter that brags that it is 'from plants.' Promoters of vegetarianism tell people to go on a 'plant-based' diet because some people are relieved not to hear the words 'vegetarian' or 'vegan' which sound somewhat cult-like.

It is possible to do a keto, low-carb diet as a vegetarian or 'vegan,' but it ain't cheap. Vegetarians mostly eat a lot of soy-based processed foods like soy 'milk' or soy based meats or cheeses, or tofu. This not only costs money, but is hard on the planet. Soy and grain growing takes a lot out of the soil, and grazing land used to produce sheep and cattle cannot be plowed up and used to plant more soybeans. If everyone on the planet woke up tomorrow and decided to go 'vegan,' vast numbers would die because there won't be enough vegetarian food to go around. And the quest to grow more soybeans and grains would lead to marginal lands being farmed and crop rotations being ignored. Do we really want another ecological disaster like the Dust Bowl?

Until vegetarians open their minds and realize that meat eaters are not the enemy and that there are sound reasons for many to eat meat, they will probably need to go on creating euphemisms.

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To learn more about 'fasting specialist' Linda Hazzard, read the true-crime book 'Starvation Heights' by Gregg Olson. 
To learn more about the keto vegetarian diet, read 'Ketotarian' by Dr. Will Cole, who does a podcast with Jimmy Moore.