Let’s talk about pork. Sorry, not porn this time, pork. Yes, of all the potential topics you might have for a blog post, in a world with armed conflicts, climate change and artificial intelligence, I want to talk about pork which, in case you don’t know, is the meat of pigs. Why do I want to talk about pork? Because I like to eat it. Please keep that in mind. This post is going to touch on other topics and you can believe me that I’m just as annoyed as you are that those topics are entangled with it, but my main motivation to write this post really is that I like to eat pork. Subjectively, it is one of the most delicious meats there is and replacements are never as good. Producing it is certainly not good for the climate, but it’s still better than beef at least.
Some people don’t want to eat meat at all, which is absolutely fine. I cannot stress enough how I think that everyone should be allowed to eat what they want. There may be people who think that I shouldn’t be eating meat and who might hold it against me that I do. As strange as it might sound, I fully acknowledge their arguments. They are not wrong, they just have different priorities. But if you take away only one thing from my blog, it should be that there is no correct set of moral values. That’s the mistake that everyone makes when they argue passionately against someone who doesn’t share their priorities: they make good arguments towards their own priorities, rather than trying to understand the priorities of the person they are talking to. And I value hedonistic pleasure higher than most people apparently do. And pork gives me a lot of that hedonistic pleasure. I’m sure it’s the same for many other people who just won’t admit it so openly.
But the people who don’t want me to eat meat are not my problem and not the reason why I’m writing this. The reason I’m writing this is that eating pork has become more difficult. The reason for this is manifold. First and foremost, it’s because I work too much and am tired most of the time. This means I don’t get to cook my own meals most of the time and have to rely on takeout. If I had the time to cook for myself, I could eat all the pork I want. Here in Germany, pork isn’t exactly hard to come by. But, unfortunately, I’m kind of addicted to my job. So time and energy is a lot more valuable to me than money which means I order a lot of takeout. And this is where my problem arises, since so many restaurants in my city are run by muslims who, as you might know, don’t eat pork which, as I can’t stress enough, is totally fine.
This also isn’t about how many kebab or shawarma shops there are, even though there is a surprisingly large number of them, but that’s fine if there is that much demand. I love shawarma and I would not want a shawarma shop to have pork dishes. I’m all for authenticity when it comes to food. But that’s also kind of the point: there’s also so many restaurants that offer cuisines from non-muslim countries that still don’t offer pork, often to the detriment of authenticity and quality. When ordering takeout, it is genuinely difficult to get an actual hotdog. It is even becoming difficult to have a burger with actual bacon. There’s “Chinese” or “Thai” restaurants that just don’t offer pork dishes. And while I am incredibly lucky that there are some actual authentic Chinese restaurants in my town, as well as some authentic Greek and Balkanese restaurants, there is a worrying trend that is preventing me from eating pork.
This is the moment where I need to remind you that this is entirely about me, no matter how much you have been conditioned to interpret some different motifs into my words. I think it is awesome that muslims have all these options to experience these cuisines without the fear of violating the religious laws they believe in. I love them just as much as I love everybody. Neither do I think that a muslim restaurant owner should have to serve pork if it is in conflict with those religious laws. But when most of the restaurants I have access to get replaced by ones that don’t offer pork, don’t you agree that this forces me into eating less pork against my will? And don’t you think I have the right to be pissed about that?
Yes, you are completely right, this is almost a dictionary-definition-level first world problem. But it is something that bothers me. And I’m afraid this is the point where this post has to stop being about pork. Instead, it now becomes a window into a different reality where I’m not me but a bit more … average. And what I’d do in that reality is complain about it, not on my private blog that only weirdos like myself read, but to other people who also like pork. It might be in real life, it might be on the internet, but I could be sure to find other people who really reinforce those negative feelings. We’re in Germany after all, Germans like to eat pork. So once I notice that there are so many other people bothered by the same thing, it suddenly feels a lot more relevant to me, causing me to be even more pissed about it.
But that still wouldn’t be a problem, if it weren’t for the spiral that follows. It can’t be my fault that I don’t get to eat as much pork as I want, so who else is to blame but those muslims. Now I might have some other things that make me unhappy and my newly acquired pork friends will be very helpful in finding ways to blame those on the muslims as well and just like that, I have become a racist. There’s little friction to that process, because there are people who pay a lot of money to facilitate it. But that’s too complicated for me to understand so I don’t blame those people for all my problems, I blame the muslims.
Ok, back to this reality now, where I understand that none of this is the muslims’ fault. Instead, I hope I have illustrated how these mild irritations that come with multi-cultural societies can push people into spirals that lead them into the hands of alt-right parties. I hope that most of you reading this will agree that those spirals need to be broken, the problem is that I disagree with most approaches that I’m seeing. Raising awareness about how bad these parties are and how close they are to the Nazis and marching through the streets protesting them is not going to convince these people. It’s the same mistake mentioned at the beginning of this post, where you argue towards your own priorities. The voters of these parties are not inherently racist, they are unhappy, partly because they just want to eat more pork. The best way to stop these parties is to make these people less unhappy. But for that you would need to understand what makes them unhappy. Unfortunately, I never see anyone doing that.
But maybe you hate these people. Maybe you have bought into a fear mongering campaign designed to drive our society apart and think those people do not deserve to be heard. Maybe you make them responsible for all the reasons you are unhappy and just want them to leave. In that case, take a good look at yourself and realize how much you are like them. How much the polarization campaigns have deteriorated your ability to love. Please know that I love you, just as much as I love everyone. I just wish you would stop hating.
So if you really want to stop the alt-right, why don’t you open a burger restaurant that lets people select between real bacon and a halal alternative. I swear I’m suggesting this because of … politics … and not because I want to eat bacon. … Or am I? … Well, you can be the judge on that.
