Sound Off: Is taste purely subjective, or...

[Mr.Mann]

But, as far as Pluid goes, I never cared or put ANY stock into people raving about it or dissing it, what intrigued me was how much thought people put into trying to figure it out. How could you not want to see. The whole, "ooh, look, it's green!" did ZERO for me.

 

[billherbst]

Objective/subjective, collective/personal. Those scales intertwine in connotative meaning. Throw in factors such as bell curves and consensus agreements and shared social assumptions, and the picture can become clear as mud.

When I write "taste is subjective" in a post about eliquid, what I'm attempting to communicate is that the reader's evaluation and judgment (i.e., liking/disliking) of a particular juice's flavor (or blend of flavors) is a matter of personal preference and may not match my reactions to the same juice. In eliquids and vaping hardware, what I like others may not, and vice versa, for a gaggle of different reasons. Sometimes I use the acronmym YMMV (your mileage may vary) to express the same thing.

And yes, I do use those phrases as caveats and/or disclaimers because I don't want the bogus responsibility (whether praise or blame) that sometimes results from people spending their money on a juice just because I liked it, or, conversely, not buying a given juice just because I didn't like it.

 

[Mr.Mann]

I'd guess that it's the 'vegetative' taste in both coconut and celery that's discerned here. People's taste buds are usually more or less intelligent that way.

Both right. Both spoke of what they actually "got." Neither is wrong, yet neither is right. But, seeing it from as many possible angles reveals much more. A quick stroy that I always loved:

Eshu

"Èṣù was walking down a road one day, wearing a hat that was red on one side and black on the other. Sometime after he entered a village which the road went through, the villagers who had seen him began arguing about whether the stranger's hat was black or red. The villagers on one side of the road had only been capable of seeing the black side, and the villagers on the other side had only been capable of seeing the red one. They soon came to blows over the disagreement which caused him to turn back and rebuke them, revealing to them how one's perspective can be as correct as another person's even when they appear to be diametrically opposed to each other. He then left them with a stern warning about how closed-mindedness can cause one to be made a fool. In other versions of this tale, the two halves of the village were not stopped short of extreme violence; they actually annihilated each other, and Èṣù laughed at the result, saying "Bringing strife is my greatest joy."

 

[aubergine]

Slightly OT but what do you do when you read just one or two people saying soapy up against a lot of others who don't? I don't know if I'm odd *shhhhh* or if most people give more weight to a couple of negative reviews than they do to a lot of positive ones but they usually do scare me off. Then I think I might have been suckered in by a troll (disgruntled customer) and get disgusted with myself. I've had soapy juice and its so awful that I'm gun shy I guess.

I'm thinking of Django Unchained.
What do you do if some people say it's amoral and violent and crass and that the over-use of the ...... is gratuitous and offensive, and others say it's brilliant and satisfying and that the use of the ...... is historically accurate and powerful in a good way?

Well, not to be obvious, but you weigh what people say in your mind, along with whatever else goes into decisions, decide if the experience might be worth your hard-earned cash, and you go see it. Then you know who you agree with. Or you don't, and you acknowledge that actually, frustratingly, you dunno, because you haven't.

And BOO on that person who washed out your mouth with soap. OT or not. C'mon over to my house, you can swear really terribly for 100 hours straight and I'll give you an M&M every time, cure you of that phobia you've got going.

 

[Bronze]

Taste is subjective. It's also acquired. Taste buds are connected to the brain. And let's face it...even the most unscrambled brain is still scrambled.

 

[Red_Bird]

I feel taste is subjective when it comes to eliquid or food......now when it comes to women I'd say loosely subjective. I think most men can agree if a woman is particularly hot.

 

[Mr.Mann]

I'm thinking of Django Unchained.
What do you do if some people say it's amoral and violent and crass and that the over-use of the ...... is gratuitous and offensive, and others say it's brilliant and satisfying and that the use of the ...... is historically accurate and powerful in a good way?

Well, not to be obvious, but you weigh what people say in your mind, along with whatever else goes into decisions, decide if the experience might be worth your hard-earned cash, and you go see it. Then you know who you agree with. Or you don't, and you acknowledge that actually, frustratingly, you dunno, because you haven't.

And BOO on that person who washed out your mouth with soap. OT or not. C'mon over to my house, you can swear really terribly for 100 hours straight and I'll give you an M&M every time, cure you of that phobia you've got going.

I refuse to have this thread go down this direction, but I must comment.

I swear to you, this movie has been on my mind throughout the short life of this thread. When that movie first came out, all I heard was fuss! Now, some may know this about me and some may not, but I have, ahem, certain sensitivities to certain "flavors" presented in that movie. That being said, I could not, would not make any determination on it as to whether to see it or not until I read actual reviews about it from people that actually had something real to say. Saying a movie is bad because of certain aspects of dialogue is like saying "I hate black licorice"--I hear that all the time!

 

[TyrannyUnleashed]

And yes, I do use those phrases as caveats and/or disclaimers because I don't want the bogus responsibility (whether praise or blame) that sometimes results from people spending their money on a juice just because I liked it, or, conversely, not buying a given juice just because I didn't like it.

+1 for that statement.


I would have to think taste is subjective. Here's my reasoning.

Is vision Subjective? What about people with 10/20 vision, near sighted people, or people that are far sighted.
In fact when you see people give a description of a bad guy they saw to the police, how many times have you heard them describe totaly different people.

Is hearing subjective? I tell my mother-in-law can't hear squat all the time. My kids tell me that I can't hear squat all the time as well.
Now let's get in a line and you whisper something into my ear and I'll then whisper what I heard you say into the next persons ear. Do you think we will end up with the same thing being said by the last person? I think we've all seen this outcome before.

Now onto taste, I have been a 20 plus year 2PAD menthol smoker, up until three weeks ago. Surely no one can expect me to tell them how chicken or anything else tastes at this point. About the only thing I have been able to taste so far is that horrible plastic on the clearos' I bought. Do you still want to know what I think of when I'm talking about an eLiquid your thinking about getting? Probably not so much now .

my 2 cents anyway

 

[Mr.Mann]

If you have something to say about a liquid that is of value, then say it. If all you can say is "I like it," you'll need more letters than that to make a legitimate post.