#HorseLasagna and Cognitive Dissonance

this is just gonna be a quick (not proofread) word dump cause idk where else to talk about this rn and i miss being active on spacehey 

in 2013 (i was 13) there was a scandal in the uk and sweden where horse meat had been found in some store brand meats, mostly burgers and lasagna. the hashtag #hästlasagne, or #horselasagna, started trending. for a week, the students did not eat meat in the cafeteria of my school (and probably many other schools) because of the risk of eating horse. the vegetarian protein options would run out, because nobody was eating the meat, leaving me and the other vegetarians without proper meals for a week. (there was not an equal amount of veggie option to meat option; you were in general not allowed to take the veggie option unless you were written up on a list of vegetarians, that made it easier to for the kitchen to know how much veggie food they were going to make). 

i remember sitting in the cafeteria, eating the salad buffet leftovers, wondering what the f the difference is between horse meat and cows meat. why was everyone so upset over the possibility of eating a horse but unfazed eating a cow, pig, or chicken every single day? 

cognitive dissonance is the idea that you can hold two contradicting beliefs to be true at the same time, and experience stress or anxiety because of it. a common example would be: 

belief 1. i eat meat 

belief 2. i am against animal cruelty 

these two beliefs are common but contradict each other, since the meat industry is inherently cruel no matter how much they advertise being humane. cognitive dissonance makes it possible to hold both beliefs at the same time, and justifies it by using some mental loopholes to justify a behaviour that is against your own morals. another example would be smoking cigarettes even though you know its unhealthy. 

it was definitely in play in the horse situation too, after all what makes the meat of a horse, dog, cat any different than the animals that meat eaters regularly eat? the fact that it's taboo? there is no genuine reason that they're any different other than social factors. eating a horse is gross and wrong.

i think eating any living being is gross and wrong, but that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- Minna