Welcome to Small Bytes, Sound Bytes, a midweek segment of food for thought podcast where I share short, succinct, thoughtful responses to typical questions, myths, and misconceptions related to plant-based eating, veganism, and animal protection.

You can get written transcripts of this podcast by going to joyfulvegan.com slash donate.

The phrase the term cognitive dissonance is often misused. People talk about it as the phenomenon of not wanting to really face what we're doing to animals when we eat them or when we buy animal products.

In reality, the cognitive dissonance is actually the discomfort we feel knowing that we're causing harm but doing it anyway.

And it's seen in many different areas, not just related to animals. I actually find the fact that people have cognitive dissonance a positive thing because it means they actually care.

But what we do in order to cope to reconcile that dissonance is we become willfully ignorant, willfully blind.

And when we do, when we turn away from the reality of what we do to animals for our gustatory pleasure, we play a game of pretend like a child who covers her eyes and thinks you can't see her.

And yet there she remains. We sense that were we to open our eyes, we would be compelled to change. And it's change we want to avoid.

I don't want to see what takes place on dairy farms. I'd have to stop eating cheese. I don't want to know how pigs are killed. I love bacon too much.

We're wary of the unknown that lies on the other side of awareness. And so we opt for what is familiar and secure, the certainty of denial, the comfort of willful blindness.

As I discuss in my book The Joyful Vegan, willful blindness refers to any situation in which we intentionally turn away from an ethical dilemma, especially one in which we may be complicit.

It's often said that ignorance is bliss, but is it really in order to support something we know to be inherently violent necessitates the numbing of our compassion and the hardening of our hearts.

We have to look away. We have to live in ignorance and defy our own conscience. That's not optimal. That's not ideal.

Living according to the beliefs and values we say we have, that's optimal. That's ideal. Opening our hearts and reflecting our compassion, that's optimal. That's ideal. And may it be so for you.

For the animals, this is Colleen Patrick Adro, you can find me at joyfulvegan.com. Thanks for listening.

Thank you very much.

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