this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Well, it's like that Occam's Razor, right? It's simpler to believe: "I don't like it because of (excuse)" instead of "Some of my fundamental beliefs are completely wrong and I need to re-examine them." Such a person may feel that this is not quite the full story, but are all our thoughts completely examined? It's not necessarily malicious to say: I've figured this out 'well enough' for now, and I can move on to something else.
This is an important distinction because then to tell such a person that they're "bad" or that they "hate" is completely meaningless to them. They don't consciously hate, they just adopt oppressive philosophies and they've never needed to examine them.
The Oatmeal did a comic worth reading about this: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
Some people are really loathe to do any self reflection or assessment. I gather their sense of self and worth is very fragile, and looking too hard might make it collapse.
Like, some people you could say "Eating meat is bad for these reasons" and they'll just lash out. Not enough emotional HP to tank the hit.