I'm not vegan: if anything, I'm an herbivore

For about ten years now I have been feeding exclusively on the produce of the earth: vegetables, grains, legumes, fruit. No meat, no fish. I also avoid eggs and dairy, even though every now and then I find myself eating them against my better judgment.
So then you're vegan? NO!
How so? And thus comes the usual, pedantic (as well as incorrect) classification, straddling the bureaucratic and the anthropological: if you eat eggs and dairy YOU ARE vegetarian, if you don't eat even those YOU ARE vegan.
As I already said: NO!
First of all, the vegetarian diet should not include eggs or dairy. And thinking about it for a moment you would understand this immediately. Do eggs grow on trees? No. Does milk flow from plants? Neither. They are animal products. The root of the word "vegetarian" is "vegetable", so eggs and milk are NOT included. True vegetarian nutrition is actually what is commonly (and erroneously) called vegan. And what is commonly called vegetarian, in the jargon of nutritionists is defined as ovo-lacto-vegetarian. Therefore NOT vegetarian.
Okay, fine, but let's get back to the point. Why, if you eat like a vegan, can't you be called a vegan? Precisely because of what you said, my friend. Because I EAT LIKE a vegan, but I AM NOT a vegan.
What does that mean? What is the difference? Well, I premise that I am not an expert on the subject, but, for what little I know, veganism is an activist movement that fights in defense of animal rights. Rights that also include that of not being used for food purposes. It is a group that lobbies at the political level, exerts social pressure, practices evangelization, and takes care of its own marketing. It goes without saying that if you fight for the right of animals not to be exploited for food purposes, you cannot eat animal products.
Did you catch the subtlety? The vegan is not vegan because he only eats plants, but rather he only eats plants because he is vegan. If the difference (which is huge) is not clear to you, I advise you to pick up your high school logic textbooks.

Consequences of all this (in parentheses my position on the matter):
- A vegan might make their mouth water when they see a steak, but still forces themselves not to eat it. (I frequently eat sitting at the table with omnivores and their dishes do not make me want them at all. If I felt like eating meat, I would eat meat. I don't choose the menu for matters of principle but of taste.)
- If it seems to you that the vegan is a pain in the ass, it is because they are dedicated by stance to social pressure and evangelization. It is the social role they have assigned themselves. They are a pain in the ass, yes, but they are consistent with their principles. (As already mentioned, I often eat with people who order meat or fish and I don't break anyone's balls, indeed the exact opposite often happens: there are people who bust my chops. Furthermore, I sympathize with animal rights, but I understand that there are ancestral habits that cannot be ignored.)
- The vegetarian diet (the real one, see above) is called vegan because vegans have proven very adept at carrying out marketing actions. And those whom vegans get on the nerves of have fallen for the trap like suckers, ending up giving them publicity. (I didn't fall for it and what I write is proof of that. Furthermore, I try to carry out outreach work, but, believe me, it's like emptying the sea with a small shovel.)
- Veganism is a rather recent movement (mid-twentieth century) and Western (it was founded in the United Kingdom). However, in the East millions of people have been eating only plant products for millennia and have never dreamed of calling themselves vegans. (I have favored plant foods ever since I was a child. It is a personal trait of mine, which even differentiates me from other members of my family. I moved on to completely excluding animal ingredients from my diet as an adult, untethering myself from social conditioning and learning to listen to my body, after spending longer or shorter periods in environments dedicated to vegetarianism, right in the Far East. I have never had anything to do with modern, activist-oriented and Western-style veganism.)

This post was machine-translated from Italian.