this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Probably the most relatable one around here is the way people on reddit used to talk about bacon - in like 2010s reddit it was almost mythologized, which was weird to me even back then when I still ate and enjoyed bacon. There’s a bunch of other small examples like that I’ve run into pretty regularly that are each innocent on their own but taken all together are just… odd. “Cultish” was probably too strong of a word but I couldn’t think of a better alternative (then or now) for the way some people treat meat so differently than any other type of food, including ones you might expect to be more exciting like deserts or something.
I’m not one to try to tell people their opinions on subjective stuff are wrong and that’s not what I’m trying to say here, but I just do really think there’s more to the way some people treat meat than just it being a type of food they enjoy. Hopefully that makes some kind of sense lol
I honestly think the bacon thing was an advertising push; one that gained its own momentum. If I remember something interesting, it's that the original bacon advertising campaign over a hundred years ago was one of the most successful advertising campaigns in its long term effects on the 'culture' of american breakfast. Then there was another push with it to become a 'premium' addon in culinary circles in the 90s-00s.
There is definitely something odd about meat in people's minds, though, you're right. I've never heard of anyone, even italian chefs, caring about whether a pasta must be cooked al dente to be done right, but every idiot and their cousin will tell you they know exactly how a steak must be cooked, and everyone else is wrong, and not only wrong but a terrible savage for thinking differently.
I was born in the late 80s, grew up in the 90s and 2000s, and it's both fascinating and terrifying to me how much of what I thought was just "standard" stuff was influenced by marketing 50-100 years before I was even born. Santa Clause as a jolly old man with rosy cheeks and a snow white beard wasn't a big thing until Coca-Cola made it part of their advertising in the 30s. The bacon with breakfast thing was the result of a food packaging company in the 1920s hiring a man named Edward Bernays to help them sell more bacon. Bernays was allegedly so good at marketing/manipulation that people like Hitler and Goebbels kept copies of his books. Orange juice became a thing because orange producers in Florida in the early 1900s made too many oranges for the market (in an attempt to beat out California as the country's orange production state), and juicing them was considered a better alternative to reducing production.
Someone to add to my time travel hit list
I try not to think about it too much if it's something that isn't something that I need to interact with, like orange juice or bacon, both of which I avoid, because, yeah, it is terrifying. Advertisements are real life attempts to shape the behavior of the world.
You commenting with interesting bacon trivia is nominative determinism at its finest lmao
Steak is a really good example of what I’m talking about, thanks for adding this
Lol, I picked the name because of its effect on my life. I had a family member who would only eat their bacon if it was nearly burned, and so I have very strong memories of the horrible nature of bacon as a kid.
My sister used to only eat a steak if it was charred black and covered in ground black pepper. Not sure if that's "better" or worse than burnt bacon.
Ohh, I see. That weird thing where people make one really specific, otherwise small thing an absurdly huge part of their personality.
I've seen it with tea, coffee, chocolate, meat (specifically bacon and steak), and a million other things food-related and otherwise. I follow what you're talking about now, and yeah it's weird. I enjoy meat quite a lot, and I do have some kinds of meat I do like cooked a (general) particular way. I'm not going to go around preaching to God and everyone about it, though, and I wouldn't consider "meat' a part of my personality, lol. When people take one small, specific thing and make it their entire personalities it does get... Strange.