Originally written Jan. 5, 2021
At first, the “allergy” treated as a joke, an anomaly that started somewhere in West Texas. “Karma!” was the constant refrain of most veggies and vegans. Laughter at those who took to social media to complain about the suffering they were going through, and the horrible taste of tofu and fake meat. “You poor things… animal slaughter never mattered this much to you, and now you expect us to care when you can’t take a little tofu?” Most people thought it would be a fluke, a temporary thing, and of course, life would go back to normal. The slaughterhouses stayed in business.
But then, the “allergy” stayed longer. Weeks turned into months. And what started out as a fluke soon spread to other parts of the country. The exact cause could not be traced, and so it became difficult to stop. At first, the old stay at home measures were put into place, much to the frustration of the generation that had survived the trauma of that first pandemic long ago. This was not their first rodeo.
And yet the measures did nothing; those who effectively quarantined for weeks still seemed to catch the “allergy”
Vegans and vegetarians were upset that they even had to quarantine in the first place, for a lifestyle choice that was not theirs. They were encouraged to “think about the wellbeing of the social infrastructure.” There were many, many protest parties which then made it into the news, incensing the omnivorous right. The omnivorous left generally sided with the vegans, and eventually started joining in with them.
For the vegans, this was indeed Karma at its finest.
Eventually, it was determined that the quarantine had no effect on the spread, and the right accused the left of a conspirational plot to poison the well-being of “meat-friendly american values.” Meat growers began complaining of wasted stock, animals would be slaughtered, businesses eventually shut down. They at first funded researchers to attempt to locate the cause, hopeful that a cure could be found. Due to the peculiarity of the “allergy” which was neither genetic nor bacterial or viral, they could do nothing but watch. Within a year, it had become clear: Americans could no longer eat meat.
pen paper etc. 