Is Not Knowing the Taste of Meat Hypocritical?

[courtrigrad]

Let's say you have been a vegetarian for your whole life. You do not know the taste of meat. One day, someone slips a piece of meat in your sandwich without your knowledge. You eat the sandwich, and greatly enjoy it. When somebody tells you that you have just consumed a piece of meat, you immediately throw up, saying how horrible the food was. Is this hypocritical?

 

[James R]

I know vegetarians who love the taste of meat, but never eat it. They are vegetarians on ethical grounds. If this happened to them, they would not say the food was horrible - they would say the person who slipped them the meat was horrible.

 

[mattmns]

Whoever did that to use is quite the jackass imo. I think James is probably right here, most people have had meat, but decided, due to their beliefs, that they should not eat meat.

 

[Evo]

If you are opposed to eating flesh and find out you have been tricked into doing so, depending on your beliefs, vomiting would be a very appropriate response.

If I thought I was eating chicken and then someone told me it was my dog, I'd probably do more than just throw up. Same thing.

 

[Smurf]

No, while the actual taste within any food product does not change, our perception of it can quite easily change.

Another analogy, and personal example. I decided to eat snails when I was in France. They were good. I enjoyed the first two or three I ate because I wasn't really thinking about what I was eating. Then, I started to think about it, and I realized I was eating slugs. I immediately felt queasy and didn't want to eat another one. The food hadn't changed, but my perception of it had.Same thing.

 

[Evo]

No, while the actual taste within any food product does not change, our perception of it can quite easily change.

Another analogy, and personal example. I decided to eat snails when I was in France. They were good. I enjoyed the first two or three I ate because I wasn't really thinking about what I was eating. Then, I started to think about it, and I realized I was eating slugs. I immediately felt queasy and didn't want to eat another one. The food hadn't changed, but my perception of it had.


Same thing.

Yep, like the time I was eating fish and then saw the tiny worms...

 

[zoobyshoe]

Let's say you have been a vegetarian for your whole life. You do not know the taste of meat. One day, someone slips a piece of meat in your sandwich without your knowledge. You eat the sandwich, and greatly enjoy it. When somebody tells you that you have just consumed a piece of meat, you immediately throw up, saying how horrible the food was. Is this hypocritical?

Is this a homework problem? First make sure you have a firm understanding of the word hypocrisy, then look at the situation that has been described in light of that definition.

 

[Astronuc]

Let's say you have been a vegetarian for your whole life. You do not know the taste of meat. One day, someone slips a piece of meat in your sandwich without your knowledge. You eat the sandwich, and greatly enjoy it. When somebody tells you that you have just consumed a piece of meat, you immediately throw up, saying how horrible the food was. Is this hypocritical?

Rather than hypocritical, I'd say it was psychological.

If you enjoyed the taste and then said how horrible it was, then that seems a bit contradictory.

Certainly for a vegetarian being given a piece of meat without foreknowledge and then finding out the he or she has just consumed meat is perhaps an abhorent thought. One's reaction would then be understandable.

The person who slipped the meat in acted very unkindly.

 

[franznietzsche]

Let's say you have been a vegetarian for your whole life. You do not know the taste of meat. One day, someone slips a piece of meat in your sandwich without your knowledge. You eat the sandwich, and greatly enjoy it. When somebody tells you that you have just consumed a piece of meat, you immediately throw up, saying how horrible the food was. Is this hypocritical?

As others have pointed out, the reaction of disgust and vomiting is to be expected. But everyone seems to be ignoring the part about the person changing their statements about how it tasted. While not hypocritical, its certainly dishonest, though probably not intentionally.

 

[Danger]

So would it be doubly hypocritical if the culprit then says "Just kidding; it's a soy burger" and you go back to saying it was great?

 

[franznietzsche]

So would it be doubly hypocritical if the culprit then says "Just kidding; it's a soy burger" and you go back to saying it was great?

No, its not hypocrisy at all. Hypocrisy is best personified by the "Jesus Hates"(tm) crowd.

Dishonest yes, hypocritical no. But dishonest is not necessarily the same as lying, the psychological reaction to the idea of eating meat could be so strong that a person really suddenly believes what they're saying, even though its not what they originally experienced. So its dishonest, but not necessarily intentionally so.

 

[Danger]

Yeah, I got that franz. I should have put a after that last post. It was a half-serious question.

 

[franznietzsche]

Yeah, I got that franz. I should have put a after that last post. It was a half-serious question.

Well then why put the confused smiley? When you put that I assume you're serious and confused.

Of course with you, I should never ever even think of the word serious in the same sentence.

 

[Danger]

Of course with you, I should never ever even think of the word serious in the same sentence.

I kinda figured everybody thinks that way (in GD); that's why I elected to use the confused one. It started out purely as a joke, and then I got to really wondering about it.

 

[franznietzsche]

I kinda figured everybody thinks that way (in GD); that's why I elected to use the confused one. It started out purely as a joke, and then I got to really wondering about it.

Think? I don't think. I drink.

 

[Danger]

Well then, we're on the same page.