I know america is in a really bad spot, and has been for a long time really. In my personal experience as a vegetarian in the uk, as long as you stick with vegetable alternatives rather than fake meats, you can keep meals pretty fairly priced. I can't comment on how it is over there however, other than recognising that you lot are going through hell right now.

Probably could've been more civil with you beginning there, I'm just so used to seeing other veggie/vegan people get a lot of shit for a loud minority, ive also had my share of shit from people around me, and I get defensive when I see it now.

In my experience, veggie food can be tasty as all hell and cheap if youre careful. Nutritional deficiencies havent been a noticeable problem for me other than being told to make sure I have enough protein to build muscle but that was for medical issue unrelated. Could be that I'm just unaware of it though.

I think saying vegans lack empathy is very reductive; I'm sure there is probably vegans who are like that, ive met some lovely vegetarians/vegans Ive also met some vegans that I thought were behaving disgustingly. Just because someone is vegan, doesnt mean they are a dickhead, but the same goes for people who eat meat, I have nothing against people eating meat, my initial reasons for going vegetarian actually had nothing to do with the meat industry.

Culture wars like this just serve to distract from the class war, and that should be what we're fighting, if someone is being shitty, call them out for being shitty, and accept that they are shitty, dont then ascribe that shittyness to random people. Just the act of being vegan/vegetarian shouldn't be a problem.