A photo surfaced appearing to show the Biebs on a bench chowing down on a burrito... right down the middle. As if he were biting into corn on the cob. The razzing online was swift and appropriately vicious: “Does....justin bieber not know how... burritos work ?” one person tweeted.
“Justin bieber thinks burritos are harmonicas,” another person said. He was labeled a straight-up burrito defiler.
There’s some legitimate concern as to whether that is in fact Bieber in the picture. But it sure looks like him, and Vanity Fair talked to the Reddit user who posted the photo and insists he shot it after seeing the celebrity in the wilds of West Hollywood, hanging out with his friends and ruining a beloved food.
Now, people should generally be left to enjoy their food the way they want. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t deserve nearly so much backlash for keeping his suit clean by eating pizza with a fork. And if for some inexplicable reason you want to, say, put peas in your guacamole, then do your thing. But some dining travesties are so offensive that they need to be called out. Cynthia Nixon topping a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox and capers is an insult to cured fish, and just gross.
Bieber’s burrito maneuver is similarly indefensible. Among other things, eating a burrito from the middle will cause all of your precious ingredients to spill out. There is one correct way to eat a burrito: with your hands, starting from one end and moving to the other. Nearly all of civilized society has figured this out. But Bieber, a 24-year-old adult male, still has some learning to do.