Today I heard a man telling a group of people how his mother abhors and shuns all bloody, violent television. It makes her ill and she refuses to watch such shows. However, she makes an exception for Dexter, which, she assures her son, is not really all that violent and is very enjoyable.
If you’ve never seen Dexter, you may be surprised at her description of “not really all that violent.” The show is about a serial killer and features all sorts of slaughter of human beings.
He astutely observed that his mother is rationalizing her love of the show by downplaying the violence in it. He then stated in very clear words, “I guess if some people gain some amount of pleasure from an activity, they can rationalize whatever suffering it might be inflicting.”
How right he is! He also eats meat.