The same goes for wearing a suit. I don’t imply that anyone else should wear a suit, and the people around me don’t imply that I shouldn’t wear a suit. Telling other people what to do isn’t socially expensive because it costs “weirdness points”. It is socially expensive because people don’t like it when you tell them to do things they don’t want to do.
By that reasoning you could refuse to ever say “please” and “thank you”. After all, you’re not telling anyone else not to say “please” and “thank you”.
There are two things going on in the vegan example that you haven’t noticed. First, it’s possible for something to be bad for more than one reason. Something can be pushy, and weird even ignoring the pushiness, at the same time. Second, being vegan by itself doesn’t cost you that many weirdness points, because being vegan is a thing that people are familiar with as part of our society, not just as something that one strange guy does.
Wearing a suit when people don’t expect a suit is more like refusing to eat round foods, or taking all your meals on green plates, than it is like veganism. If you just made up the weird action (not the thing you’re basing it on—suits already exist, but round foods already exist too), it’s going to be seen as a lot weirder than something seen occasionally in society.
By that reasoning you could refuse to ever say “please” and “thank you”. After all, you’re not telling anyone else not to say “please” and “thank you”.
There are two things going on in the vegan example that you haven’t noticed. First, it’s possible for something to be bad for more than one reason. Something can be pushy, and weird even ignoring the pushiness, at the same time. Second, being vegan by itself doesn’t cost you that many weirdness points, because being vegan is a thing that people are familiar with as part of our society, not just as something that one strange guy does.
Wearing a suit when people don’t expect a suit is more like refusing to eat round foods, or taking all your meals on green plates, than it is like veganism. If you just made up the weird action (not the thing you’re basing it on—suits already exist, but round foods already exist too), it’s going to be seen as a lot weirder than something seen occasionally in society.