TheVeganAtheist wrote:I really think you are taking this way too seriously.
I think you're taking it too lightly. The philosophy of not being able to "stand" certain foods for no particular reason is largely why so many people won't consider quitting eating meat. They have the notion that they just don't like vegan food, or that they can't get to like vegan food as much as they ever liked animal products, and that they would face a life of suffering and deprivation because of it.
I don't think we should be trying to reinforce this belief, or condone the notion that disliking certain things for no reason is an important part of a person's character that we should celebrate- rather than a character flaw or personal failing (as it is) that is to be overcome.
Like an addiction or a phobia, an irrational
aversion is something to be conquered.
TheVeganAtheist wrote:We all have our own preferences in food. Do you honestly expect everyone to like everything just because its vegan, healthy and ethical?
I don't
expect anything like that, and I don't expect the world to ever go vegan either, or expect that we will ever really be free of religious dogma.
It is, however, something to strive for- if not liking everything, at least overcoming the notion that it's OK or rational to distinctly
dislike something for no reason.
I should hope at least all rational people can understand that tastes are inherently mutable, and just because they don't like something doesn't mean that they can't like it, or that they shouldn't work at liking it if there's any reason at all to do so.
TheVeganAtheist wrote:We aren't all machines and I wouldn't want to be in a world where we tried to be.
This has nothing to do with being machines, it has to do with ethics, and the messages we send to the world around us.
You'd really rather die than continue to live in a world where everybody liked all healthy vegan food?
Because that sounds great to me- we'd be rid of the irrational grip upon meat and other animal products that society holds, since there would be no hedonistic motivation for people to resist more ethical choices of food (liking them all the same).
TheVeganAtheist wrote:If someone doesn't like something, I won't fault them on it.
How about if a carnist just doesn't like any and all vegan food? How about if they only like meat and dairy?
Then they should never under any circumstances consider going vegan, right? Because it's an important part of their personality that they don't like vegan food, and they're perfect just the way they are?
That may seem like an exaggeration, but it's an understandable extension of the argument you're making.
It's something of a cousin to the appeal to nature fallacy- an appeal to
personal nature fallacy. That because this is how somebody is, this is how somebody
should be (because everybody is a snowflake, and perfect in whatever arbitrary and irrational preferences they have).
I take the opposite stance.
If there's any moral reason at all that you should have different preferences, then you should work at that, because your arbitrary tastes do not define who you are as a person deep down inside- your ethics do. And if you're unwilling to change for the better and improve yourself, that's an insidious character flaw, just waiting to manifest itself in some more severe way.
I'm not saying there's a moral prerogative to equally like every healthy vegan food, but there is a moral prerogative to at least tolerate or be indifferent to (at worst) all healthy vegan food that you might reasonably come into contact with. By no means is it morally justified to maintain the attitude that it's OK to randomly and for no good reason "not stand" some kind of otherwise healthy and ethical food, and doing so undermines veganism by making it seem like just another form of food obsession or superficial pickiness.
