The point of it wasn't to say that people like meat. The point was that people have or expect akrasia from not eating meat enough that they search Google and ask people on question sites for help.

I used to believe like you that if you believe something is morally good then you would do it. That axiom used to be a corner stone in my model of morality. There was actually a stage in my life where my moral superiority provided most of my self esteem and disobeying it was unthinkable. When I encountered belief in belief I couldn't make sense of it at all. I was further confused that they didn't admit it when I explained how they were being inconsistent.

But besides that I don't think humans evolved to have that kind of consistency . I believe that humans act mostly according to reinforcement. Morality does provide a form of reinforcement in the sense that you feel good when you act morally and worse otherwise, however if there was a sufficient external motivator such as extreme torture then you would eventually give in, perhaps rationalizing the decision.

I would suggest the people who have commented here read this post if they haven't yet because there have been two arguments over definitions here already (first with consistency and then the definition of "genuine belief") and there is a reason that is frowned upon. You should also see Belief in belief for better understanding how people can act contrary to their stated morals and behave in contradictory ways. (It typically comes up a lot with religious people, who don't try to be as moral as they can be despite viewing it as good)

Here are a few related but different questions.

1. "What do I feel most inclined to do right now?"

2. "What do I, on reflection, think it would be best to do right now?"

3. "What do I, on reflection, think it would be best to do right now *if I tried to suppress my natural tendencies to be more concerned for myself than others, more concerned for those close to me than those further away, etc.?"

If you define "X thinks s/he should do Y" in terms of X's answer to question 1 (or some slight variant worded to ensure that it always matches what X is actually doing) then, indeed, no one ever does anything they think they "shouldn't". But I see no reason at all to think that this sense of "should" has anything much to do with what's usually called ethics, or indeed with anything else of much interest to anyone other than maybe X's psychiatrist. Our actions are driven not only by our stable long-term values but also by any number of temporary whims, some of them frankly crazy.

If you define "X thinks s/he should do Y" in terms of X's answer to question 2 or 3, then you can make a case that "should" is now something to do with ethics (especially for question 3, but maybe also for question 2) -- but now it's not at all true that a person's actions always match what they "think they should do". I frequently do things that, on the whole, I think I shouldn't do. Often while actually thinking, in so many words, "I really shouldn't be doing this."

And all this is true whether X is thinking about what-it-would-be-best-to-do explicitly in terms of "best in such-and-such a system of values", or taking "best" as having an "absolute" meaning somehow.

Really. To unpack that statement, "unethical" = "what one shouldn't do". If you're choosing to do something, you think you should do it, so you obviously can't be thinking that you shouldn't do it.

Yes, we seem to be having terminology problems.

For the record, let me briefly define the words I'm using.

Morality (=morals) is a system of values along with the importance (=weight) that people attach to them. In most real-life situations any course of action will conflict with some values so decision-making is an exercise in balancing values and deciding on acceptable trade-offs.

Ethics is a collection of action guidelines driven by the morals. Because most decisions are trade-offs, it's common for actions to match some ethical guidelines and not match other ones.

Generally speaking, our conscious mind does the balancing act and comes up with a "what should I do" decision, but the unconscious mind does its own calculation and may come with a another decision. If the decisions are different you have the usual problems under the umbrella of hypocrisy, guilty conscience, etc.

People usually speak of morals and ethics meaning the calculations done by the conscious mind. So it's perfectly possible for one to think "I should not eat that pint of ice cream" while gobbling it up. The mind is not a single agent.

You are right that tastes are a deciding factor, but you're taking it too far. According to you it impossible to act unethically, and/or your personal ethics must be consistently determined by your actions. I can essentially behave entirely arbitrarily and to you I will be obeying my own true code of ethics.

A big part of what this site addresses is how humans are inconsistent, irrational, and self-deceiving and short-termist. Can we at least agree that there are moments when people take actions that are more inconsistent, irrational and self-deceiving and moments when their actions are better-harmonized with their stated/aspirational goals and beliefs?

And can we agree that if I believe, as most reasonable people to, that irrational anger is bad, yet I flip someone off in a bout of road rage, it's possible I'm failing to live up to a consistent set of beliefs which I legitimately care about, rather than my stated beliefs being a veneer over my true, sometimes-road-raging beliefs?

And if you've ever been on a diet or known people on a diet, you know that circumstance and external factors (say, trainer or family support, distance to the nearest grocery store vs. nearest fast food place) make a huge difference on adherence, even when there's no clear tie between those things and how correct the person believes the diet to be?