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The smug, it burns!
I meant to post about this awhile ago, but let's face it—it sucks having to do all of my typing standing up. And all of my checking of e-mail standing up. And all of my reading standing up. I'm way behind on responding to a lot of things because it takes me forever to read a long post or answer an e-mail. Also, my feet hurt.
But anyway, I run into a lot of posts like this particular one and I don't feel I've ranted on it lately, so here we go:
Frugal food: 10 DIY tips to save money while eating better and healthier.
It's another rehash of the classic "LENTILLLLLLLS" flamewar: privileged people with lots of free time telling the rest of the world how to eat. There's a few dissenters in the comment section, but overall it's a circle-jerk of smug.
Now, I am pretty privileged myself, current disability status aside. I do eight out of these ten things already, and plan on doing the other two (visiting the farmer's market and starting a garden) come the spring, assuming that I am back to being able-bodied by then. But it's like the post's author and the commenters are blissfully unaware that very few people do have that sort of privilege. Issues like food deserts, water pollution, disability, and poverty seem to barely enter the conversation. If I, for example, were living in the neighbourhood in which I teach, chances are that there is not a grocery store in walking distance, and not everyone can afford a car. There certainly isn't a nearby farmer's market (and farmer's markets in Toronto tend to be far more expensive than the grocery store or the local fruit stand). Some people can't afford to buy crockpots. Many, many people don't have storage space for bulk purchases. Most people don't have any green space in which to start a garden. A good many people lucky enough to be employed are too busy to cook every night (and I am certainly one of them).
And yet, with one aside about fracking and countries without potable water, these pitfalls never even enter into the discussion. It's assumed that everyone has equal access—in my experience, even an average, middle-class person in the First World doesn't necessarily have the access the post assumes. And like practically every article about food economics and health, there's the assumption that problems are individual and can be mitigated by individual choices, rather than collective, informed by corn and meat subsidies that artificially inflate or deflate prices, poor urban planning, and economic disparity.
But anyway, I run into a lot of posts like this particular one and I don't feel I've ranted on it lately, so here we go:
Frugal food: 10 DIY tips to save money while eating better and healthier.
It's another rehash of the classic "LENTILLLLLLLS" flamewar: privileged people with lots of free time telling the rest of the world how to eat. There's a few dissenters in the comment section, but overall it's a circle-jerk of smug.
Now, I am pretty privileged myself, current disability status aside. I do eight out of these ten things already, and plan on doing the other two (visiting the farmer's market and starting a garden) come the spring, assuming that I am back to being able-bodied by then. But it's like the post's author and the commenters are blissfully unaware that very few people do have that sort of privilege. Issues like food deserts, water pollution, disability, and poverty seem to barely enter the conversation. If I, for example, were living in the neighbourhood in which I teach, chances are that there is not a grocery store in walking distance, and not everyone can afford a car. There certainly isn't a nearby farmer's market (and farmer's markets in Toronto tend to be far more expensive than the grocery store or the local fruit stand). Some people can't afford to buy crockpots. Many, many people don't have storage space for bulk purchases. Most people don't have any green space in which to start a garden. A good many people lucky enough to be employed are too busy to cook every night (and I am certainly one of them).
And yet, with one aside about fracking and countries without potable water, these pitfalls never even enter into the discussion. It's assumed that everyone has equal access—in my experience, even an average, middle-class person in the First World doesn't necessarily have the access the post assumes. And like practically every article about food economics and health, there's the assumption that problems are individual and can be mitigated by individual choices, rather than collective, informed by corn and meat subsidies that artificially inflate or deflate prices, poor urban planning, and economic disparity.
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What bugs me about McDonald's-stigma is that their food tastes good! Their fries are the gold standard, and I hear that their apple pies are pretty good too. Their food can be a little hard to digest, but in moderation, anyway, it's not going to poison you. The evil parts of McDonald's are mostly on the back-end, industrialized agriculture, labor issues, cultural hegemony, and so on. But you'd be hard-pressed to find food at any price point that's not problematic in this way. And one person's individual preference isn't going to make much difference, and the difference it does make is vastly overstated. So to me, sneering at McDonald's eaters always feels like sneering at lower-class or uneducated people for the crime of bad taste.
Or to put it another way, the people who think it's a harmless treat are wrong, but the people who think it's tantamount to child abuse are also wrong. It's a possibly reasonable albeit suboptimal choice among the narrow array of suboptimal choices the market system allows/provides.
Maybe an unwillingness to face this suboptimal narrowness is what motivates the fantasy of consumer-choice liberation among the digerati of the BoingBoing set. Next stop, the Singularity!
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I personally loathe the taste of McDonalds, and did even when I was a child and ate meat. But I have my own low-brow tastes: No matter how much money I make, Zoodles, ramen noodles, and Pizza Pizza will never not taste good. (Same with McCain's ice cream pie, but I have the willpower to avoid that.) So I am not one to judge. Anyway, sneering at poor people for eating at McDonald's is akin to that godawful People of Wal*Mart blog in its blatant classism. It distresses me to see my kids eating at McDonald's every day (especially when the school cafeteria, owing to a well-intentioned but misguided school board policy, stocks exactly zero items that are appetizing), but shaming them and presenting them with less-tasty, more expensive, good-for-you foods is not the way to break them of the habit.
It's a possibly reasonable albeit suboptimal choice among the narrow array of suboptimal choices the market system allows/provides.
Exactly this.
Maybe an unwillingness to face this suboptimal narrowness is what motivates the fantasy of consumer-choice liberation among the digerati of the BoingBoing set. Next stop, the Singularity!
*snerk*
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Poverty is a funny show for people.
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UNLESS I'M ONE OF THEM
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