why does whiskey taste like lighter fluid?

Because you pallet is still immature - and it will light if you set a match to it.

Why does whiskey taste like lighter fluid?
Because it's cheap whiskey and you have yet to develop a taste for it.
Try an 80 dollar bottle of Cognac if you think whiskey tastes bad. That is definitely an acquired taste.

I think you should be buying better whiskey.

Some whiskeys taste like lighter fluid because the whiskey is produced using inferior and less expensive ingredients so the producer can sell more bottles at a price lower than the whiskeys that taste better such as Jim Beam.

I suspect it doesn't - but then I have never drunk lighter fluid.

Never drunk lighter fluid so I don't have a point of comparison, but if you think it's bad it's because you're a child and have no business drinking it.

It doesn't. Nancy Reagan once said that she didn't like Martinis because they taste like "gasoline". Like CB said, the pallet is the problem, not the spirit.

I know what whiskey tastes like but I haven't drunk lighter fluid.

Have you tasted lighter fluid before? but it's the chemicals.