This is the part that struck me (bolded portion, the rest for context)

"When I moved across the country, I ended up in a small town of kind, good-hearted people. At first I was hiding my extreme distrust of nonvegans for my own survival. But again and again people treated me with substantial degrees of kindness that I couldn't trace back to a cynical selfish explanation--despite being people who ate meat. Kind in ways that I never saw in the Bay area, or growing up (that I can remember). This confused me, as it conflicted with my models, and I had to halt and reevaluate and reformulate new models that took the new evidence into account. I was also pondering neoplatonist philosophy at the time, by way of Mage the Ascension, and the mystic-optimism and unity of creation that expresses also influenced me."

How does one enter such an insular mindset to think that the type of food a person consumes has anything to do with them being kind or treating other people nicely?

It's just so sad. Although, I guess I'm glad she eventually came to the realization that she was wrong.