Holier Than Thou

By John R. “Buck” Surdu

Whether its pretentiousness, virtue signaling, or overdeveloped self-importance, many people manifest a holier-than-thou attitude that has become both endemic and irritating. I read an article some years ago, with a title like “’Tis the Season to Not Make Anyone Happy.” I thought I had saved a copy of that article, but I cannot find it, so I cannot attribute it. The theme was that hosting a holiday party has become difficult because of everyone’s dietary fads and preferences that they expect you to acknowledge and honor. I am not talking about the Leftist hypocrisy of “rules for thee, but not for me,” which is also infuriating. I am talking about people wanting to foist their lifestyle choices on others while simultaneously implying that you are somehow degenerate if you don’t indulge (and adopt) those choices yourself.

When I was growing up, I was taught that when you are invited to someone else’s home, you eat what they serve you. The exception is a real, legitimate allergy. I ate fish heads when I was served them in the Philippines. My son, as a youngster who does not like raw tomatoes, dutifully ate them without show or fuss when served them as part of a meal when we were invited to someone’s house for dinner. I have not gone full-blown Atkins, but I try to avoid starches, yet when invited to someone’s house or when served during some catered event at work, I make an exception. When food is being passed around the table, I take smaller helpings of starchy foods, but I don’t make a show of it or try to attract attention to my choices.

I guess my attitude regarding food preferences is not unlike the Biblical notion to not crow about your sacrifices or your charity contributions. My only exception is that I am very allergic to shellfish. Fortunately, I can be around shellfish; I just cannot ingest it. I politely explain why I am not imbibing in shellfish. There are generally other choices.

Today, however, there are a hundred fad diets. People on those diets insist on trying to “guilt-trip” others, perhaps to make them feel better about their own choices. I had a house guest who arrogantly declared after I spent a lot of time preparing a large breakfast for them (I rarely eat breakfast myself) that they only eat “healthy pancakes.” Really? What can you do to a pancake that isn’t counteracted by a large dollop of maple syrup? But that person felt empowered for having criticized the breakfast I had prepared and signaling that our choices are less virtuous. For a thousand years man ate wheat as a staple, but today many make a show of not eating Gluten – but not for a legitimate health reason. This site lists several fad diets.

The most infuriatingly pretentious are often the vegetarians / vegans who cannot merely abide by their own choices but must make public declarations designed to make you feel bad about not being a vegetarian / vegan – especially those wearing leather shoes!

I read an article recently about a restaurant in England that revised its evening menu and didn’t include vegan choices. They were subsequently savaged on anti-social media for not offering vegan choices. Rather than merely choosing to eat at another restaurant, vegans and their sympathizers chose to instead make a spectacle of their demands that presumable all restaurants have an obligation to cater to vegans.

The restaurant owners never singled out vegans in its post, and they did not attack anyone who raised issues with its lack of vegan options in the comments. The same could not be said for the angry vegans.

In a subsequent post, The Kitchen at London House owners detailed the attacks they had been subject to on social media following the menu release.

“Never thought we would have to post on our business page about social media bullying!” the post said. “On Monday we posted our evening menu for our new restaurant The London House Bistro. Within minutes several people commented about the fact that nothing on the menu was vegan.

“I apologised politely and professionally that sadly we do not cater for vegans. Had that of [sic] been a food intolerance we couldn’t cater for, ordinarily that would have sufficed. However, some nasty people have felt it’s their place and right to criticise this fact. Some comments I may add have subsequently been deleted.”

When did it become a right that every restaurant caters to every dietary whim, fad, or preference?! But vegans, vegetarians, gluten-free fadsters, and others seem to insist all restaurants do that instead of merely choosing other restaurants to patronize.

While the data indicates that electric vehicles are at best pollution neutral – and are probably a net negative when you consider the hazardous waste, strip mining for raw materials, and the fact the fossil fuels are used to produce that car and create the electricity that powers that car. Yet, I have had people who have purchased electric vehicles imply that those of us driving non-electric vehicles or even clean natural gas-powered public transportation are both evil and stupid. (And don’t get me started on the hypocritical climate alarmists who lecture you about your choices while jetting around the globe to climate conferences in private planes or buy expensive beachfront properly while claiming that the seas are going to rise hundreds of feet in the next five years.)

The most infuriating examples lately come from the LGBTQ+ community and particularly the transgender advocates. Here is an excellent article on the transgender fad that I recommend everyone reads. If you are a man, for example, who wants to pretend to be a girl, then do that. If you foolishly think you are “trapped in the wrong body” or that a doctor made a “mistake” while “guessing” your gender at birth, then go ahead and pretend to be whatever of the two genders you want to pretend to be. As a Libertarian at heart, I support your right to pretend. Make that choice and pretend to be a girl. The only reasons to push 42 genders, make others use illogical pronouns, or making a show of being “trans” is pretentiousness and a juvenile desire for attention.

If you legitimately believe that you are the gender not determined by God, then live as the other gender. But go all in. Be a woman or a man. It seems to me the goal would be to manifest your assumed gender in such a way that people you meet who didn’t know you prior to your “transition,” should just think of you as your assumed gender. If you feel you are a girl, then live, present, act, dress, behave like a girl. The only reasons to advertise that you are a “trans” girl is to force others to accept and validate your choices. Sorry, it’s not my responsibility or obligation to validate your choices or provide you special attention based on those choices. Be a girl; don’t virtue signal that you are pretending to be a girl.

My dad used to say that there are three phases of Leftism and wokeism: Toleration, Acceptance, Promotion. Ask an LGBTQ+ advocate, vegan, or other activist what “rights” they are being denied, and they typically cannot provide a tangible answer that justifies their crusade. I honestly don’t care what you do in your own home or many of your own lifestyle choices. I do however object to someone shoving those choices in my face and telling me I am some sort of “ist” if I don’t support those choices. You have the right to make those choices, but I don’t have the right to have an opposing opinion.

Many are not satisfied that we live in a free society that enables them to indulge their whims. We are now in the “promotion” phase in which those who make those food or lifestyle choices must promote those choices through virtue signals and holier-than-thou attitudes. These folks don’t want to be equal. They want to be more equal. They want you to not merely accept but indulge and pander to those choices. I blame the rest of us for tolerating, accepting, and indulging these choices. That merely emboldens the next, more outrageous choices and demands that we cosset them.