Nassim Taleb calls this phenomenon the Dictatorship of the Small Minority

Before that it was the vegetarian ordering the team's pizzas.

I get what you're trying to say, but would you rather make them sit there and watch everyone else eat? There's a big difference between being easily offended and having a very literal gut reaction.

Setting aside that out of the 25 acquaintances that claimed gluten intolerance, 1 had diagnoses ceiliac, 1 had self diagnosed ceiliac, and 3 had an alternative medicine diagnosis.

So while literal gut reaction is serious and exists, people claiming gluten intolerance are much more likely to be confusing something else.

But no, I don’t expect them to sit there and watch. Most restaurants have some gluten-free items so there is something to eat.

But I would expect there to be some fair rotation where every once in a while we go to a special gluten restaurant, and also the bbq guy’s favorite, etc etc

What happened was the veto power of allowing a single person who thinks they are gluten intolerant to have an undue power in selecting the restaurant.

It seems similar here as it’s really someone’s feeling but the response is not proportional. The response to some people feeling gluten intolerant shouldn’t be to never eat at pizza restaurants. Similar to some people feeling sad from reading a Dr Seuss book shouldn’t result in banning Dr Seuss books from ever being bought or sold.

The argument is “well it’s not that bad to avoid gluten” and that’s true. Skipping gluten isn’t the end of the world. It’s not a major problem. Just like missing out on a few Dr Seuss books doesn’t directly ruin ones life.

But it lessons it a little bit and the act of accommodating all these little changes puts culture in a downward spiral where very small groups limit experiences.

The challenge I have is that there are serious social justice needs that must be fought and worked on to make society better. Systemic racism, bias against the poor, systemic poverty, etc.

These kinds of things are thematically similar to this Dr Seuss stuff, but while Dr Seuss isn’t important, systemic injustice is important.

It’s like how health inspections for restaurants are important, but unrelated to gluten in the restaurant. I can be for restaurant hygiene but against banning gluten.

Gluten intolerance is a medical condition. Maybe not the best example to use here, nobody decides to be gluten intolerant.

Before that it was the peanut allergy and the widespread banning of PB&J in schools everywhere.