I agree with much of what you say, but I think the goodness of being vegan can be in how you can influence others to go vegan, choose vegan options, or eat less meat. So in this way, our influence is not necessarily neutral, even if our actions are. As far as being proud of being vegan, as someone raising two vegan kids in a non-vegan world, I will continue to encourage them to be proud of standing up for their beliefs and doing what they think is right, even if they are in the (very small) minority — or all alone. Yet even they are aware that how they eat is not making things better, just not causing them to be worse. Until that is, they see how their actions influence others to follow suit… A similar comparison can be made in choosing not to use straws. It is not helping sea life or the oceans, only not making it worse. But then if you share why you don’t want to use straws with a restaurant owner and they then decide to no longer use straws in their restaurant your choice does lead to improving the situation… This happened with my kids and they were (rightly) delighted.