There’s no freedom in having to do something but you’re also not free to choose your wants.

Maybe it’s better to just live and let life happen instead of thinking about what could’ve been. What ever happened is the only thing that could’ve happened.

        • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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          2 months ago

          Feeling you can and actually being able to do so are different thing.

          I’m not saying your tastes can’t change; I didn’t use to like the taste of coffee but now I do. I however didn’t choose to start liking it. My taste simply evolved over time. Now I couldn’t choose to not like it.

          What do you feel like you have the ability to change your preference about then?

          • Ezergill@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            I mean, you chose to taste it again when you knew you didn’t like the taste. That’s how acquired tastes work, you start liking something after repeated exposure.

            • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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              2 months ago

              Yeah, I wanted to be the kind of person that drinks coffee like everyone else around me back then. I didn’t choose that want. That desire was imposed on me from the outside.

              • Ezergill@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                It still was your choice, people regularly go against the societal norms and desires imposed from the outside. Like, I never started smoking, although both of my parents and a lot of my peers did.

                • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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                  2 months ago

                  No, I disagree. I didn’t choose not to start smoking. I simply never developed the desire to start. It’s not something I decided against my natural preferences.

                  It’s besides the point anyway. Even if I could choose to do or not do something it would still be about what I want which aligns with the title of the post.

                  You can’t do something you don’t want unless someone makes you do it. Even if you do something like go to the gym despite not wanting there’s a greater want behind it that’s pushing you to do it. In this case getting healthy and fit. This means you do want to go to the gym, you just don’t like it.

                  • Ezergill@lemm.ee
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                    2 months ago

                    The point was to illustrate a counter-example to your coffee example and that you can control (at least some) of your wants (which you previously said that one can’t do). I would be curious to hear your definition of want (and have to, for that matter). You seem to be using it as an umbrella term that covers everything from physical urges to something a person thinks would subjectively benefit them.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I decided not to like gummy bears anymore because I was eating too much of them, and since then they always taste flat. I’ve got Debby Downer powers like Britta.

            • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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              2 months ago

              So you realized it’s not good for you and you wanted to change the habit. That perfectly aligns with the title of the post.

              • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I knew it wasn’t good for me to start, I just used to enjoy them through the guilt until I made the conscious decision not to like them.

                • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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                  2 months ago

                  You didn’t just choose to not like them, though. That’s not how human psychology works.

                  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    I don’t know what to tell you. I decided one day that I didn’t want to like them anymore, and then I didn’t enjoy them enough to eat them from then on.