Why is neocon Tom Nichols’s Twitter feed so controversial?

There’s a big difference between not liking a particular food and criticizing an entire culture with a racist intention. “Indian Food Is Terrible” Tom Nichols, an U.S. Scholar tweeted in 2019 following a trend and  got into a racist polemic, but was Nichols being racist? It’s important to start being more critical with the punishments we put into people when they aren’t politically correct. 

But is it possible to be twenty-for-seven politically correct? Obviously not, but in this mediatic post truth world it’s hard to even recognize the correct & incorrect of a particular ideology. Tom Nichols’ comment was certainly rude, and deterministic by saying it is terrible, when numerous people actually like Indian food. Yet, it was a trend by Jon Becker where several foods were trashed. 

Not Nichol’s tweet, but the general reactions certainly let us think. When older people call the younger generations “the crystal generation”, it is hard to make them understand why it is necessary to disobey  past traditions. Breaking the system will certainly come with disorder, however, overreacting with a tweet and making it political is the kind of thing that makes this generation so objectionable. 

The controversial Tweet 

“Please tweet this with your most controversial food opinion, I love controversial food opinions.” This was the original Tweet by Jon Becker that made all these controversies happen.  “Indian food is terrible and we pretend it isn’t” was the phrase Tom Nichols cited the tweet with. Suddenly, numerous chefs, twitter users and public figures entered the conversation, generating a discussion. 

Even Preet Bharara, who is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, offered to take Tom Nichols out for Indian food in order to change his mind. Several laughed, others got really mad and Nichols was called white and racist, which we’re not saying he isn’t. However, the tweet was just a casual comment that according to Nichols has to do with the fact that he can’t stand spicy food. 

“Do you not have taste buds?” was asked by celebrity chef Padma Lakshmi.Another comment said “Dude. Really. Dude. Where in India have you eaten? A BILLION fans can’t be wrong.” To this, Nichols responded to never having eaten Indian food in India, only in the U.K. and U.S. Nonetheless, there are other tweets of Nichols regarding veganism that are way more polemic. 

Was Nichols racist? 

It’s impressive how small situations end up generating such big emotions & reactions that honestly should be focused elsewhere. A tweet can awaken thousands of emotions and gain millions of votes, Donald Trump knows about that. Is called post-truth, the fact of being taken away by emotions rather than objective facts.  There is an academic thesis on Trump winning 2017 thanks to his tweets.

Tom Nichols, who is an international affairs professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, awakened controversy back in 2019. Although the man has written articles related to his academic topics, if you google his name the first thing that will pop up is his hate for Indian food. 

The man certainly showed rude behavior with certain comments, that’s not in doubt. Nichols  established that everyone that loves Indian food is faking, involving generalizing a personal taste. Other twitter users criticized him for invalidating a vast & varied cuisine, and even called his response racist, which we think it wasn’t. 

The tweet was definitely rude, but apparently there wasn’t a real intention to dismiss the general culture.