Okay, I troll the hell out of vegans online, because it's easy and always entertaining. So, anyone coming along after this, take that into account.

But, you nailed it. There's a subsection of vegans that treat it like a religion, and anyone else as infidels. That superiority complex, the smugness is a huge detriment to vegan living and principles.

But (and here's why I made the disclaimer), they're a minority overall. I know too many vegans irl that are chill, wonderful people following their beliefs and ideals without being jerks about it. Vegetarians too, though that's tangential.

It's really online that the asshole hats get put on the most, and usually only on sites/services that make it easy to be anonymous. Which is a good thing! Anonymous discourse is not just important, it's vital to part of humans becoming better than what we are. But there will always be people that hide their true selves until they're anonymous and can feel safe, and that includes people that are smug, arrogant assholes down deep. It also includes people that don't feel safe being an outsider or dissenter, and people that are awesome down deep, but have to keep up a front irl.

Anyway my point is that we, the non vegans of the world, have to be careful to not forget the human. Vegans are mostly deeply compassionate, kind souls that want the best for anyone and everyone, including animals. We don't have to agree with them, just remember that the loudest, most obnoxious voices aren't the sum total of the vegan community.