Cognitive dissonance.

[EssieTregowan]

How much do you employ in your everyday life?

Off the top of my head, I eat meat and dairy even though I know how cruel the industry is.

I buy the kids' clothes from Primark and H&M despite all the sweatshop issues.

I smoke. HUGE amount of CD at work there.

I buy Nestle. I didn't for years but with three fussy kids it's hard not to.

I stay up late and then wonder why I'm tired in the morning...

There's probably more. I'd love to live more authentically (that makes me sound like a hipster ) but I don't know if anyone can.

How much do you do in life that you have to do mental somersaults to justify, even if it's subconsciously?

Or am I just lazy and most people live by their beliefs?

It's something I've considered recently, I've started living zero waste, or trying to. However it's hard in this country because we don't have more than a few bulk buy places. Everything is plastic.

I have recently become vegetarian, and while researching I found vegan. However I decided not to follow that as it seemed restrictive. No honey, eggs, milk. I couldn't do it. And with a DS who is used to milk it's even harder.

It's hard to change. So people don't. The planet will suffer for it though.

I went "instant" vegetarian a while back and just dropped meat, I lost a ton of weight (too much), so I couldn't become a complete veggie. Although I know how horrific the industry is.

It is really easy to avoid losing weight on a vegetarian diet if you want to - there are plenty of ways to up your calorie intake healthily if you want to, especially if you're eating dairy and eggs.

A friend of mine is having an affair.

I've had an intensive course on the strength of Cognitive Dissonance through that.
How people can rationalise convincingly to explain their actions, and to justify why having an affair is a terrible thing for people to do in general, but not for me because....

*If you aren't aware of the contrast, that's got to be far worse?

Whether you are or aren't aware of the contrast surely it has no effect on whatever it is that you feel uncomfortable about.
I mean the dairy cows still have their calves taken away, and the sweat shop workers still work In sweat shops whether you feel guilty about it or not.

But do people actually think it is bad to experience Cognitive Dissonence?

I think it is inevitable and necessary to be prepared to be resilient enough to hold two conflicting views for as long as it takes to understand the complexity of a situation. In certain situations there may be no 'right' answers.

To avoid Cognitive Dissonance at all costs, IMO, is wrong because it suggests situations are far too simplistic and could involve the person experiencing them to prematurely dismiss valid reasoning

Cognitive Dissonance in dieting:

"I can eat this Cheeseburger now, I'll just knock it off tomorrow's calories"

Cognitive Dissonance after a job rejection:

"It was probably for the best, the Boss had B.O. and it's further to travel every morning...Who cares that it was a 10k pay rise? I'd rather enjoy the extra half hour in bed!"

I think it's a great tool

I got promoted and spent a good 2 weeks non-functional due to the combination of:

Yay! I did it, I'm awesome, I deserve this, I'm SO relieved I don't have to reapply next year

and

ARGH! what the hell is wrong with them, I'm such a lazy idiot, they should have fired me. not promoted me.

Seriously though, Logical, cognitive dissonance in dieting is important. It helps people recognise not many foods, whilst over indulgence of them may lead to weight gain, in themselves are bad. Overly restrictive diets can lead to disordered eating. People need the dissonance in order to find perspective.

Similarly with a job rejection, the dissonance helps keeps things in perspective. Perhaps the interview results indicated you would not actually been happy doing the work or being able to happily fit in with the company culture.

Morphene, again your crisis of confidence, regarding promotion indicates that whilst you felt pleased with your achievement you needed to come to terms with the added responsibility it entailed, which is right, IMO. People need to give themselves time, sometimes, to accept and process their conflicting ideas. The temptation can be to just dismiss one view, which can be worse.

Morphene - that's Imposter Syndrome. An affliction many of us suffer from.

I am the council house buyer and yes, you're right! That is more hypocrisy I guess - it's something I struggle with but also feel able to justify as we intend living here forever anyway and will be able to leave some here for our children to live - not planning to sell to some awful buy to let conglomerate. Sorry, going way off topic here!

Ditto meatbadger

I use plastic cups at the water cooler instead of walking a flight of stairs to get a washable glass. I know it is shit of me.

And I eat meat and watched Okja and felt very bad until my Sunday roast came along.

Loads of things really.

Ellahen Ah but it would only be imposter syndrome if I wasn't really lazy and useless...but I am, you see.....

I think there is a simpler explanation for me. I am good at some parts of my job and shit at others. Sometimes I am hard working and sometimes I am not.

My real problem is believing in black and whites where there are none!

Thatcher's policy of allowing tenants to buy their council house was probably what got her elected in 1979. The reason it was a bad policy was not because letting people buy their house was in principle wrong, but the houses were sold at a huge discount, depriving local authorities of valuable income, and on top of that local authorities weren't allowed to use the money to build new council houses. It was a policy that led directly to an increase in homelessness.

RTB was originally a Labour policy, as I said above. Thatcher did not create it; it was not her policy. It was already on the books, so to speak, and had been put there by the previous Labour government. Indeed, swathes of council housing had been sold off to tenants prior to 1979 with the changes in unitary authorities that occurred in the early 70s. The Conservative government post-79 only promoted and expanded the scheme, largely to cope with the debt and liability circumstances that had led to the country requesting an IMF loan.

The houses were sold off because it was imperative at that time to reduce local council debt, which fed into the PSBR. Getting housing liability off local council books (maintenance costs etc, which were horrific and unfundable in some boroughs) was one way of reducing local council debt at the time, which was also the reason councils were prevented from using the money to build new homes that would then simply replace the housing liability on their books.

I wouldn't blame tenants themselves at all for taking advantage of what was essentially free money handed to them on a plate.

RTB in the 80s was one of the biggest transfers of wealth from the state to the working class in British history. For that reason alone, I will never agree that the phenomenon was wrong. It wasn't "free money" on a plate; it was a transfer of wealth that the British working class fucking deserved after generations of providing the low-wage labour-fodder that allowed Britain to grow rich under industrial capitalism.

Who are these wealthy, metro, left-lib commentators who go round making people feel "shitty" about buying their council house?

Try reading the Guardian political commentary archive for the last twenty years, and get back to me.

Yes, I always remind people that it was originally a labour plan - especially when I am made to feel guilty by sun reading 'furriner' hating ukippers.