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Cheezburger page for this ridiculous situation

Genius and/or mad man Paul Stenson, owner of The White Moose Cafe in Dublin, just started a fight with Vegans on Facebook. And he's winning.

Stenson posted an obvious joke about vegans with their picky dietary requirements on his restaurant's Facebook page.

Vegans pushed back. But he pushed back HARD.

Here's how it all went down. Prepare for butthurt in 3..2..1…

So first of all Cheez feigns neutrality before coming down firmly on the side of the cafe. But that's the least of it.

Reviewer who's never actually been to cafe in question appears to confuse "idiosyncratic" and "idiotic" and furthers own persecution bias by assuming that this is a personal attack. Responds toxically by implying mob revenge with the statement: "You have no idea what you've started here."

Owner responds with fair points about being on the receiving end of undeserved attacks, but makes the key blunder of going "seemingly every vegan who exists" and then accuses them of "over-entitlement that every vegan seems to have". Massive generalisation causes further rage amongst the vegan crowd, stirring up the shitstorm to yet greater heights.

Owner bans all vegans, which he later claims to be in jest, but seems a bit of a stretch as that would imply he thought that continuing down this path made any kind of business sense.

He alleges to have received death threats, a claim which I'm prepared to believe at this point, judging by the harshness of his critics. He is then backed up by loads of supporters, which I applaud. However, many of them promptly lump the vegans in with the whole so-called "social justice" crowd and continue to demonise a lifestyle in entirety as consisting solely of nutters.

The cafe's ratings actually went up as a result and more power to the guy for telling the consumer what they should expect from the service. However I cannot entirely approve of the means or method. At what point will people learn to back away from the keyboard and take a deep breath? At what point will people go "should I really post this? Does it help anyone or does it only deepen the hate?"

Ultimately this just became two opposed circlejerks. I feel that although the guy got his cafe's rep up and managed to earn the respect of people who like that he straight said what he was thinking, he's potentially lost some clientele as well and even as a non-vegan, I don't feel I would eat there for fears of inconveniencing the staff with strange requests that they might take against.

I also appreciate that the snowflakey "why does nothing on this menu allow for my super-specific diet?" is fallacy and a reinforcement of the idea that every service must cater exclusively to the self. I agree that there is a contingent of self-entitlement. But no-one really said anything meaningful or practical during this whole mob war, as far as I can find.

What are everyone's feelings on this; is it right to respond to hate with further vitriol and flaming? Is it a solution or does it only beget more distrust and misunderstanding of ppl with opposing viewpoints?

That wasn't vitriol, that was trolling, and it was downright hilarious. It serves these uptight nutters right for making a big deal about it in the first place.

While I think his comments were a bit harsh, being an oversensitive little snowflake and getting fanny flustered because of a short rant about annoying customers is not the right move.

He's completely right. As a vegan, you need to be aware that not every restaurant will cater to your food choices. You need to research which places will, and if they don't have anything specific about vegan food then you can call them ahead of time and ask. If you think this is too much of a hassle, then cook your own food. With a lot of lifestyles such as veganism, you chose this for yourself. You should not have to inconvenience other people because of your own lifestyle decisions.

Going into a place and asking for something that they do not explicitly state they have is going to have one of 2 reactions. Either they accommodate your request because it's not too much a hassle, or they don't. If they don't accommodate your request, then you can't complain if you didn't research enough into if they did. A simple talk either on the phone or even when you come into the restaurant with the host/hostess will do.

That ain't vitriol, that's pure napalm. Enough to burn all vegans within a range of 10 internet miles.

I see someone downvoted my comment. lel

But I understand where the OP is coming from. If you're in a serious argument, usually the last thing you want to is act angry towards the opposing party. It generally makes things worse. He is also the owner of a restaurant, so something like this could be seen as unprofessional.

However, what the owner did here was not out of anger or spite. It seemed to me like he was having fun with this. I think he was trying to show these vegans how ridiculous they were being. At worst, I'd say he's a bit annoyed, but I don't blame him. People who persistently whine like this are annoying.

Plus there is no rule stating the owner of a business has to be polite. Sure, it might be rude, but so what? And besides, I get really stinkin' tired of seeing people like this who think they can get businesses to cater to their whims by whining and downright bullying. I mean, for goodness' sake, they were leaving negative reviews when they hadn't even been to the café. Not only is that dishonest, but it shows that the people attacking the café don't care about the quality of the service and only care about having their hilariously specific needs met just because they're a special snowflake. Ugh.

…but makes the key blunder of going “seemingly every vegan who exists” and then accuses them of “over-entitlement that every vegan seems to have”.

Key word here is "seemingly." Vegans have a particularly vocal minority, and when you have organizations like PETA who compare Pokémon to slavery, it's really no wonder why people associate veganism with morons like the ones attacking the café owner.

"Weren't me officer I swear!"

I do concede your point mate and I agree he wasn't angry or spiteful. I just felt disappointed that he sank to their level mainly.