A US academician was buried under an avalanche of angry tweets after posting his opinion that Indian food was terrible and Americans who said otherwise were doing so out of conformity. He also doesn’t care for Led Zeppelin.

Full disclosure, the post by Tom Nichols, a professor at the US Naval War College, didn’t come out of the blue. He simply, like many others, took part in a jokey game which encouraged people to post their most controversial opinions about food. His however received huge feedback, in contrast to most others.

Indian food is terrible and we pretend it isn’t. https://t.co/NGOUtRUCUN — Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 23, 2019

Many fans rushed to defend Indian cuisine, saying Nichols’ dislike of it must be due to lack of a proper introduction.

You maybe a professor in your stuff but you are a grade 1 student in Indian food. Look at the veggie varieties of Indian. This isn't all. There is more in the store. pic.twitter.com/YD1iVTU4La — 🇮🇳RK Reddy Ph.D (Sci.)🇨🇦 (@RRKKingston) November 24, 2019

Twitter being Twitter, others rushed to dismiss the opinion with various degrees of humor and/or resentment.

One commenter suggested disliking Indian food was worse than supporting Donald Trump. Nichols, a self-described never-Trumper, politely disagreed.

Some felt it was a case of ‘arrogant Americans’ not understanding other cultures.

In the face of all the criticism, Nichols stood his culinary ground hours later.

But 24 hours of outrage about whether it's racist to tease Americans about whether they *really* like Indian food from one comment in response to a call for controversial food takes is about as crazy as Twitter gets. Also, Led Zeppelin still sucks./3x — Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 24, 2019

Which is actually quite refreshing. All too often an online mob is enough to force retraction of innocent statements. Though maybe there is something sinister about Nichols’ love for Russian food…

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