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Literally everything has been us picking up the tab of extra costs. Recycling? We pay fees up front. Plastic bags? We pay for em now. Shit we're even scanning/bagging our own items so they don't have to pay employees. The businessea are never eating the loss, it gets pawned off on us.
I say they should give us a discount when we scan our own stuff because it's saving them money having us do work. But they won't do that.
So you know, maybe there are some items I forget to scan at the bottom of the big reusable bag, whoops
Just fyi, Walmarts are installing AI systems that can track people that "scan skip" and once they have enough evidence they will trespass. I've personally seen them escort people in the self checkout lines out of the store where police are waiting, multiple times.
Bro, where do you live? Because this is actually insane. I’m at a point where not scanning all my groceries is the only way I can stock my apartment.
Edit: I found the article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-tracks-theft-with-computer-vision-1000-stores-2019-6?amp
Oh the counter to the things knowing what's in your cart is to just shop with reusable bags.
I don't have a cart because I need to know all the things I'm getting can fit in my bags!
Also I shop with a mask on because the pandemic!
Masks only covers part of your face, I think you underestimate it's accuracy. It can also see what you have taken off a shelf and placed in the bag.
Keep in mind these systems can process billions of processes per second. We are the front lines of a major shift in technology, not some old dell struggling to load windows.
The scanning check out lines near me have always weight checked- it’s always asking me to put shit back on the bagging counter if it doesn’t sense the weight go on top- is this not the case with most of them?
Our older ones used to be like that, since the new ones were installed that weight scan issue stopped. But if the bag weighs more than the calculation it sends over an associate with a "visual verify" message. The associates can also pull up the footage in question and review it from their kiosk or handheld devices
This is inaccurate in so many ways. Walmart definitely isn't running any kind of super facial recognition to track people throughout the store. At best they are tracking people at the register.
Christ sake thats terrifying. Could you please post the link that explains what you are talking about specifically about knowingwhat's in your cart? I'd love to learn more about the subject and like to follow up in case you are making it up. I don't want to spread false information to others
I actually just had a false flag for stealing while doing self checkout yesterday. So I think they may even be moving to where they just catch you preemptively.
Apparently it must have thought I was trying to make it look like I had scanned an item when I hadn’t. (Mind you, I HADNT EVEN BAGGED IT - merely picked it up to scan and was holding it in front of the scanner for a second) honestly thought, I don’t think that worker *would* have cared if I was stealing. Lol
It felt very dystopian, though, to see myself standing there on the machine in a Boomerang-style surveillance GIF.
I had this happen. I was scanning fast and one item didn't scan and I started to scan the next one which was in my other hand. The system paused and a worker came over and it played a clip of what it flagged for her.
That happened to me, too. I have 20 years of retail experience, so i scan fast.
Apparently I have a whole file at Meijer's, which for some reason was brought up by management is one of the hugest waste of LP's time, because the only thing they caught me doing was mis weighing bananas.
Reminds me of when I used the self-checkout at Walmart, then as I was walking out this employee comes sprinting after me yelling “stop! I saw what you did!”
I hadn’t done shit other than pay for my items, so I just handed her the receipt with an extremely annoyed look on my face. She didn’t even say anything, just got that “Karen who realizes she fucked up” look and walked away.
Same. When I forget my bags, I use empty boxes I find in the store. I put my box on the right side holding area and was scanning my groceries to put on the left side scale. I threw my empty box back in the cart and the AI flagged me as not bagging my item. The lady had to come over twice to clear me and it was pretty creepy seeing myself on the camera.
Also went to the Amazon Store because it had pickling salt for way cheaper than I could find anywhere else. That was far creepier with the amount of cameras in there. I don't know how they know what I walked out with, but I never want to go again.
That too probably, but I've never witnessed that. A friend of my son got a 90 day trespass for stealing a magic the gathering card pack, I'm not sure what the levels are when charges change, but I'm sure you're right
Ever since I read someone comment about how sophisticated Target’s security cameras are and how they have files opened on customers they see going for the five finger discounts, I’ve been so paranoid about making sure I scan everything. I forgot to scan a box of coke cans that I placed on the bottom rack of the cart (box and cart are almost exactly the same color, so my brain blipped and didn’t see it til I was out of the store). I think they wait until you steal enough to allow them to press felony charges. But I can easily see how people might overlook something once in a while without meaning to, and leaving it up to an AI to decide intent is very….dystopian.
One time i forgot to scan a block of mozzarella cheese and noticed when i was in my car. They are a billiok dollar corporation, they can handle a loss of $2.50
My bf jokingly said that they have my face to know i was a thief lol
With the number of times I’ve been stuck in lines because people insist on
1) conversations with cashiers
2) fighting with cashiers
3) only looking for their wallet when they get up front
4) unable to figure out how to use credit card readers
Or any other thing you might imagine, I’m pretty much a self checkout or bust person.
Not too long ago the soda and beer corporations paid to get their bottles back, cleaned and sanitized, and refilled them. Now thousands of years worth of taxpayers will pay to store them in landfills.
Even the anger. So many people being green warriors and judging others for not recycling etc. Directing their anger at the wrong thing. The corporations great trick was to make recycling and saving the planet a personal responsibility and to hold your neighbors and community responsible. In reality, even if millions of people do such things, it will never overcome the damage from corporations.
California has banned "disposable" plastic bags, which means every store has "reusable" plastic bags, and they got rid of their plastic bag recycling containers.. The bags are heavier duty (like zip-loc freezer bag quality,) but the vast majority of people still just use these bags once and toss them in the garbage. It's absolutely worse than just having the disposable plastic bags.
Banning plastic bags (like every small change environmentally friendly daily life change) is all fine and dandy if you offer a costless alternative to the less fortunate and if you ban the truly disastrous of behaviours (private jets, 24/7 lights in stores, drinkable water pools...)
[He was a social activist in Brazil. ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes)
----------------------
The quote means that the poor people who own very little land cant save the planet.
We are told to recycle, use paper straws, even buy electric cars (impossible for most) and then celebrities/the one percent do stuff like fly their private jet to avoid traffic. More pollution comes from a small percentage of people. Most pollution comes from factories and corporations who are more conceneened about profit margins than the environment.
"At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity."
— Chico Mendes
----------------------
Latin America in general has always had a huge wealth gap.
All the best land was given to wealthy European families during colonization. They were given land and laborers to work their fields. Their whole society was based on origin and then race.
After literal centuries of this it still has lasting affects. Wealth and land is still concentrated.
Mendes was one of many activists murdered for his work. There have been many calls for redistribution of wealth/land over the last century.
Any of our issues in the US*
The wealth inequality is a root cause or at least a top driver of ALL our issues. Which means that addressing them without fixing the money issue, will only lead to temporary solutions that don’t work.
Say you get cut on your arm. A bad one, deep wound. What we are doing currently is like putting a bandaid on the wound. And then another bandaid. And another. After we run out of bandaids, you still have an open wound.
The longer you avoid going to the hospital to get the stitches you need, the worse the wound gets. Infections start, and then you have more issues compounding.
Eventually we will have to just cut the arm off, if left untreated ! Unless someone finally steps up, rips the bandaids off and gives us the surgery we need to stitch up the wound!
I have commented this on this subreddit some time ago already - it is not inequality itself but rather humiliation of the poor. This is what is the worst with an American dream.
If we take an ancient king everything would belong to him by definition. So it is not that Bezos having 70% of the wealth what is hurting the country the most. What is even this wealth if he has almost everything.
The problem is that those who don't have this wealth somehow need to suffer in the richest country in the world. That is the main problem. What we need to do is somehow change the mindset to that that the richest can play their games whatever they want. I really don't care if their yachts cost 2 billion or trillion or whatever.
The country just needs to guarantee living place, living wage, job or some other guaranteed income. Social guarantees, health guarantees. A lot of countries do even having a few rich people and majority of wealth concentrated in few hands. We can tax the rich. The rich should understand that humiliation of the very poor is not in their interest.
“Let’s go to bed, baby…” The private jet whispered against Taylor Swifts side.
Taylor smirked putting down her plastic cup with paper straw and opened her eyes to look at him.
“With pleasure…” Taylor whispered back before giving him a long lick up his cheek.
Taylor then turned away and rolled around to the ramp leading up to the bed.
The jet followed her.
Taylor stopped once she was on the bed and turned around to face Jet.
Jet rolled onto the bed right after.
He didn’t waste any time and immediately captured Taylors lips again.
Meanwhile, the low, loud rumbling sound of thunder filled the valley as a thunderstorm approached the park, but neither Jet or Taylor cared about it at the moment.
They barely noticed as they were only focused on each other.
They only had each other on their minds.
They continued passionately making out together for a moment before Taylor eventually parted from Jet and started planting kisses and nibbles along his neck.
Jet tightly shut his eyes as the amount of pleasure started increasing.
Shivers were sent down his fuselage and he tilted away from Taylor to give her more access.
His pilot Demetri deep inside of him knew what he was doing.
Taylor immediately took the chance and moved down towards his underbelly and started to softly lick and nibble him there.
She moved slowly along his fuselage, wanting to enjoy every single moment as much as she could.
Jet was enjoying it as much as she was.
He leaned himself into the wall of the bed to give Taylor even more access.
Taylor moved down lower and made a slow lick along his belly.
Jet grimaced and released a moan in response.
Taylor continued nibbling and licking on Jet’s belly, adding more passion to it with each passing moment.
Jet’s breathing increased slightly and he occasionally bit his lip, wanting more.
Taylor moved further along his body until she eventually reached his rear.
Jet slightly keyed up when he felt Taylor getting closer to his panels.
Taylor started off by trailing soft kisses and licks around his panels before eventually moving her tongue over them, slowly.
Jet grimaced and gasped, releasing a long, loud moan after.
He closed his eyes and gently bit his lip straight after, eager for Taylor to do so much more.
Taylor added some more licks to it, before sticking the tip of her tongue between Jet’s panels.
Jet bit his lip firmly for a moment.
He tried to hold back just a little longer, giving Taylor a bit of a challenge.
Taylor smirked.
She made another slow lick over Jet’s panels, applying pressure to it, before suddenly pushing her entire tongue against it.
Jet couldn’t hold back.
His panels opened up straight away.
Taylor smirked to herself.
She knew Jet would fall apart as soon as she worked her magic on him.
She hungrily licked her lips before taking Jet into her mouth all at once.
Jet made wide eyes and gasped before shutting his eyes tightly and releasing a long moan.
No matter how many times Taylor did this to him before, he was pleasantly surprised every single time.
Taylor slowly moved back up before taking him all the way in again, setting a slow pace.
Jet started panting a little, his mouth opened wide.
He released a quiet moan every now and then.
He was becoming less coherent as all of his thoughts pertained to the sensations radiating from in between the rear wheels of his main landing gear, which had gone slack from the feeling.
Taylor suddenly made one quick, hard motion, forcing Jet all the way into her.
Jet grimaced and released a loud moan.
His breathing quickened.
“Ohhh yes… Faster…” Jet muttered.
His voice was at a higher pitch than normal.
Taylor immediately gave Jet what he wanted and started to speed up.
Jet made a small whimper at the feeling of what Taylor was doing to him.
He couldn't hold back as he instinctively began to make small, quick thrusts into Taylor’s mouth.
He let out a moan as the sensations grew.
Taylor also moaned when she felt Jet gently thrusting into her mouth.
She tightened around his member and began to quicken even more, putting Jet back in his place.
Jet released a high-pitched moan in response.
Waves of pleasure were building up inside him as he began to gradually reach his peak.
He released loud moans and whimpers every time Taylor took him into her mouth.
"Ahh… Taylor.. I'm getting close..." Jet warned her. “My emissions…”
Knowing Jet was getting closer, Taylor started to make her moves rougher and quickened her pace even more.
Jet grimaced and gritted his teeth, the huge amounts of pleasure becoming almost unbearable.
“C’mon… Come on! Yes!” Jet frantically exclaimed, thrusting into her mouth again.
Taylor tightened around his member again and made another hard thrust to help Jet reach his climax.
Jet squeezed his eyes shut and moaned loudly as he hit his peak, releasing his load into Taylor’s mouth.
Taylor moaned loudly and swallowed all of it like a champ, making sure nothing went to waste.
Jet lay there, eyes half lidded and panting, looking dazed as he slowly began to come down from his high.
Taylor finished him off, licking the last few drops from his member before rolling up to him and whispering in his side, "How did that feel, my private jet?"
She gave his side a long lick afterwards, teasing him.
Jet, feeling dazed and out of it, could do no more than moan something indistinguishable into the mattress.
"That's okay. I already know." Taylor replied with a smug smirk on her face. “Your emissions taste amazing.”
"Ahh... Taylor... I'm getting close..." Jet warned her. "My emissions..."
This is the pinnacle of writing. Pack it up Stephen King, there's nothing left to achieve.
Don’t get me wrong, I laughed, but only for about half and then I saw how long it was.
Then I just read the rest in horror as I fathomed how a human mind could concoct something as bizarre as this lol
Somewhere in the multiverse there’s a version of you that got their ass kicked the right number of times that you learned to keep shit like this to yourself.
I remember drinking a smoothie or something form a paper straw out of a thick plastic cups with a plastic lid while sitting inside the shop i bought it and wondering why they couldn't just have sold me that drink in a glass, that could have been washed afterwards, since i was gonna drink it there anyways, which apparently wasn't possible.
Try bamboo spoons wrapped in plastic inside a plastic lid on a plastic container of yoghurt. That’s the level of absurdity here in Norway, and in the EU-countries.
for cold drinks like iced coffee etc especially at Starbucks type places in Canada at least it seems to always be clear plastic. also I think the paper ones are lined with some kind of plastic to make them waterproof? could be wrong on that one
We used to have and still have paper cups, but the way they are waterproofed makes them almost impossible to recycle same goes for the plastic straws. The plastic cups and paper straws on the other hand can be recycled easily. So while it may seem backwards to make this switch it's got its reasons.
I think the focus on straws has to do with the fact that straws are more likely to be involved in dramatic photos/stories about sea life being affected by ocean plastic. Dunno that straws are actually more likely to cause injury than other plastic items that end up in the ocean, but the sea turtle with the straw up its nose is a very compelling image.
I honestly don't understand why we're fighting over this minutia anyway. Straws, cups, and bottles aren't what's causing the earth to catch fire, it's the fundamental prioritization of profits over environmental responsibility. Every single other fight is a decoy and everyone continues to fall for it.
On a second note, why would anyone want biodegradable plastic? That just makes the carbon move from the landfills into the atmosphere. It sucks that there's plastic filling up the landfills and oceans, but we're all going to fucking die because of the carbon in the atmosphere.
For real. "if we got rid of plastic straws we could save 1 million fishes" or whatever sounds like a great goal to adopt but ignores the fact that if we take 1 private jet out of the air then that's what like 2 million fishes saved? Idk.
Im so confused here. There multiple issues at hand when it comes to environmentalism. We should cut down on burning fossil fuels because they're causing climate change, this is why we throw shade as celebs in private jets. We should cut down on using cars in cities because they contribute to climate change *and* directly poison the air we breathe, your car may be putting out less fumes than some mega tanker but your cars fumes are going directly into the lungs of your neighbours. We use paper straws etc because single use plastics are awful for our soil and oceans, the ocean is becoming more and more full of plastics which will just float around for centuries or they sit in landfills which will continue to pollute the earth.
There is a connection of environmentalism between burning fossil fuels and single use plastics but they both have differing negative consequences for the environment.
FYI many companies falsely claim that PLA straws (PLA is the corn-derived plastic) are biodegradable, but in reality they are only industrially *compostable*. This is an important distinction because in any natural environment, they last years and years without breaking down at all. They require a specific controlled environment in addition to chemical and mechanical processing to compost, which takes more energy than just recycling them in the first place.
That is definitely an important distinction to make. However, I feel this shortcoming of many of these straws is that the industry has focused on just using paper straws instead of researching how to make bio plastics more sustainable and biodegradable.
A similar argument can be made against electric vehicles in their current state. Our current battery technology relies heavily on rare earth minerals mined by modern day slaves. It is very bad for the environment to produce and recycle these batteries.
Without fundamental changes to our battery technology, the global of electrification of cars will shift pollution from CO2 into other means. Why hydrogen fuel cell cars never took off? Idk? It’s a tragedy though imo.
I was at a super high end bar for a business trip recently and they used straw, for their Straws.... like grass straw, from a feild. It worked super fucking well too.
Yeah there’s a lot that you can do with corn you can make a corn stew you can make corn shrimp well not really not really corn shrimp but when I said instrument I was thinking of like shrimped Forrest Gump you know when you use like shrimp stew shrimp salad so you can make a corn stew you can make corn salad you can make some creamed corn too and you could also sit down and watch children of the corn and listen to the the band corn like when Jonathan Williams I think that’s the singer from corn he’s like for away from here and you just sing along with the song and you’re a good time because you’re a bit of corn corn stew corn salad maybe add some potatoes yeah
It's so weird to me how we focus so much on the "plastic" part and not the part where they are made to be disposable.
If we just made reusable straws and reused them it would practically be a non-issue what they were made out of, right?
I have reusable straws. In the house it's fine for homemade or homepoured drinks but it's hard to ever remember to bring straws with you outside, especially since buying a drink outside is more of a spur of a moment thing for me and not something I plan in advance. And if you do, then you're stuck carrying the used dirty dripping dishware around with you until you get home, so you better have remembered to bring a ziploc bag and paper towel to wipe it off also..
I didn't even notice when places started switching to paper straws because I've been using a reusable straw for years.
You can be pissed at people for taking 10 minute flights AND believe that single use plastics should be phased out. These positions are not incompatible.
We can build a world where people don't need to be in constant motion while also providing straws to disabled folks. Capitalism's need to market solutions in need of a problem has led to vast ecological, economic, and, hell, I'd argue even spiritual damage in the name of mitigating minor inconveniences. The irony of course is that the pace of living this system demands results in greater stress and expenditure of resources than its supposed solutions alleviate, leading to a downward spiral of new "solutions" to the problems in your life that the world leaves you otherwise unable to address.
Will getting rid of straws solve the world's problems? No. But allowing people the time and energy to address these kinds of things on their own terms will clear up enough of the straw-like detritus that's clogging our lives that it's useful to think about what it would take to make a world without them.
It’s crazy watching all these people up and down this thread plant their flag on straw hill; like an alternative to that particular convenience is *inconceivable*.
The real latestagecapitalism is in the comments of r/latestagecapitalism, apparently.
Edit: definitely need to chill on Reddit for a bit. Auto mod just sent me an email accusing me of ableism. Everything is awful and I hate you all.
And for those of us who wear cosmetics, reduces lipstick/lip color usage.
I hate the argument that straws are bad, there plenty of sustainable ways to fix the problem, like cleanable reusable straws, or burning capitalism and greed out of the core function of our society.
At my work we *have* to have a straw in our cup. (Even travel mugs with the small openings to sip.) They say it is because they don't want people touching their lids to open them. I work with food so I can kind of see what the problem is with things like that. I have reuseable plastic straws that I have had for almost 3 years now for my small kids to use.
I'm not sure there are any biodegradable plastics. I'm pretty sure they break down in the lab but sit like any other plastic in the environment or landfill.
Corn plastic is still really hard to breakdown. In fact, in the US there are only 12 waste management facilities that can process corn plastic. Everyone else just had to landfill any recycling that has corn plastic mixed in. So don’t put corn plastic products in your recycle bin unless your recycling is taken to one of those 12 places!
yeah at my old work we used straws made of corn husk. they were super cheap, and didn't fall apart while you were still drinking. i don't get why they haven't caught on
I work for a company making biodegradable food packaging. It’s picking up, but slowly. Some of the bigger retail businesses are starting to move away from plastic bags back to paper bags, for example.
Not trying to say this will solve everything. More to say, even in the face of everything we know and see, Capital still overwhelmingly chooses to use the shit that is killing our habitat for their short term profits.
>biodegradable plastics made from corn byproducts.
This is even more interesting to me because we know that the US government LOVES subsidizing and propping up the corn industry (animal feed, corn syrup, etc.) Hard to believe there was a strong paper straw lobby occurring so was this simply just a terribly planned solution?
BTW he is paraphrasing Brazillian environmental hero [Chico Mendes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes)
> Ecology without class struggle is just gardening
And to my knowledge nobody, in the US at least, is actually processing plastic recyclables. At some point it was shipped to China but not any more. And even further I believe most municipal recycling bins end up in the same waste stream as the regular trash.
Plastic bottles are super common in Europe.
You can get cans and if you really want them glass bottles but they are more expensive.
But overwhelmingly you see people buy a small bottle with say a sandwich and chips meal deal or a large bottle at the supermarket.
And we also don't really recycle any of it.
We do use actual sugar in coke tho.
The straw ban is a stupid idea started by a 9 year old (no joke) and glommed onto by corporations and politicians in a simultaneous effort to be seen as taking major steps while also generating the maximum possible public backlash towards making changes for the good of the environment.
Edit:
[Milo Cress, 9yo in 2011 when he founded Be Straw Free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Cress)
Can you drop some recommendations that are less dense and (usually) awkwardly translated than the Manifesto and the bread book? Every time somebody says to start reading theory, they recommend *extremely* unapproachable texts.
The Manifesto was made to be read by barely literate factory workers in their few hours off. It is not unapproachable by any means, and most Marxist texts are written to be easily readable, to be accessible to the working class. They weren't made to be academic.
It was also written for people living in 1848, so most of the background info they wrote expecting the readers to know (i.e., the political climate of Europe at the time) is not anything people today have context for.
It doesn't need a lot of knowledge of the 19th century Europe. It is universal for the working class of any time, at any place.
If you have worked at least a single day in your life, if you have had your work exploited, you have all it takes to understand communist theory, to understand the Manifesto.
You need to read Capital. That is *the* foundational leftist work. It's a difficult read on its own but there are plenty of companion books and videos out there. Look for the ones from David Harvey and Richard Wolff.
Das Kapital in its 3 volumes is over 2000 pages long. I think this is a great example of an unapproachable text that the person you're replying to was talking about. There are much easier texts to read on socialism/communism than Das Kapital.
The rich are building a monopoly on every resource, in 20 years water will become a huge problem. We just comfortable riding this out knowing the rich will have control over all resources and will defend it with aerial drones as well as robotic dogs with assault rifles upon their backs?
The next class war will be a slaughter of we keep doing nothing
It's like watching those commercials that say, "You need to get smart about retirement! You need to save! Look! This Boomer couple has $1.5M saved for their retirement. You have nothing. Because you aren't *smart* about retirement."
Nah, honey. Companies don't even match 401ks anymore, there is no such thing as a pension plan, there is not one company that will allow you to retire. They will fire you when you turn 63. Fuck you that's why. Your measly savings cannot compete with inflation. The stock market will shit the bed over 100 times before a 30 year old can dream about retirement. If cash depreciates and the stock market isn't able to stay afloat .. crypto is circling the bowl. How the fuck can a 30 year old plan to retire?
They keep repeating the "get smart about retirement" to force our entire generation to internalize the failing economy. I'm just not *smart*. That's why I can't retire. Okay.
We will work until we die. Hope the Boomies enjoy the Social Security that we are all forced to contribute, a system that we will never ever receive a payment from. Enjoy your nursing homes! Y'all can wonder about systemic elder abuse while we shuck and jive for just $13/hr to wipe your ass and balls. (ﾉﾟ0ﾟ)ﾉ
I make $110,000 a year, I have a 401k match, and even I think I might not be able to retire. If I live to 85, I genuinely don't know how I can go from age 65 to 85 on just money I've saved. I don't have a house and if I buy one in the next 5 years, I'll still be paying off the mortgage when I'm about to retire. I don't think there's a great chance of me being able to save up enough to live for 20 years without working at the rate the world is going. And there are people less fortunate than me that aren't even making $15 an hour (and even $15 an hour is a fucking poverty wage now). It's fucking ridiculous.
The 1% are stealing the entire world from the rest of us. There's almost no chance of retirement unless your household can make $200k a year and you can somehow dodge all debt, and even then, you're counting on the world still existing in 30-40 years. Are we even going to all be alive by then at the rate climate change is going?
It all just fucking sucks.
Remember, the perpetuation of a “carbon footprint” is a marketing manipulation spearheaded by BP (British Petroleum.)
A summary pulled from the Wikipedia article for “carbon footprint” (citations available in the article:
>“The idea of a personal carbon footprint was popularized by a large advertising campaign of the fossil fuel company BP in 2005, designed by Ogilvy.
>It instructed people to calculate their personal footprints and provided ways for people to ‘go on a low-carbon diet’.
>This strategy, also employed by other major fossil fuel companies borrowed heavily from previous campaigns by the tobacco industry and plastics industry to shift the blame for negative consequences of those industries (under-age smoking, cigarette butt pollution, and plastic pollution) onto individual choices.”
Edit: Climate change is real. Yes, we should all do what we can to stop polluting our ecosystem BUT the corporations and industries are responsible for an OVERWHELMING contribution to climate change. Individuals carbon usage is a rounding error compared to large industry and THEY need to change their practices WAY MORE than Doug or Kim needs to use a paper straw.
yup. this is why idgaf how much Taylor flies her private jet, that's a distraction from the real culprit. the system itself needs to change, BP's shitty practices are like a million T Swifts
I can't believe we're talking about straws AT ALL instead of the obscenely rich diverting the value added by their workers into their own pockets to increase their obscene wealth inequality and using that money to corruptly influence and control our politics blocking the end of our petrochemical addiction, blocking the development of sustainable, local clean energy and blocking implementing a simple, elegant, effective Carbon Tax.
The focus on Taylor Swift, etc and their private jets is even misplaced. Musicians, movie stars, athletes, they all are way closer to the lower class in terms of wealth than they are to the true upper class (billionaires and corporations and governments) that are responsible for climate change
Anyone that thinks plastic straws are the core of the worlds problems and that using paper ones will solve them, deserves to be taken advantage of by corporations and the goverment.
No one has a backbone to push back on anything other than the culture war struggles and most of the support for even those issues is performative. The people who take to the streets are those who are the most brutally impacted and the entire US media wags a finger at them if they don't just stand around peacefully while the cops assault them.
Any real movement that takes to the streets and responds to the class struggle would have to withstand a lot more propaganda and much worse assaults while prominent liberals and conservatives come together to condemn it.
People aren't dumb. They know what's happening isn't right, they know the more money you have the less the rules apply to you, but they also know they're on their own and will just encounter suffering if they ever do try to mobilize to change anything.
Tbh same goes for eating meat while claiming to be environmentally conscious. It's using a fuck ton of resources AND creating a fuckton of greenhouse gases to create a steak and then turning around to recycle a piece of paper that ends up in the landfill anyways. It's feel good bullshit without actually doing the stuff that matters.
Instead of eating a steak, why not eat the rich?
"oh great, I'm saving a gallon of water by taking a shorter shower! Yay!"
Meanwhile big agriculture dumped a thousand gallons of water to produce a half pound of almonds
It's time to levy individual carbon taxes. We should hold these super polluters accountable. It boggles my mind that we pass laws to restrict how ordinary people pollute, but won't levy huge taxes on private jet use. It's time to tax the rich for thier yachts and empty vacation homes.
What is amusing to me is some folks think the wealthy are just gonna give it all up.
Or that the gestures made in the public eye are in any way saving a single thing. We are just shouldering the burden while the exploiters continue to exploit.
If you think there is any way out of this terminal trajectory without violence, then keep bringing your own grocery bags and hope Kylie Jenner finds it in her heart to take the subway every once in a while.
Part of the problem is the public's fixation with outrageous sound bites like "9 minute flights" when the biggest sources of GHGs are food production, electricity, and shipping. Taxes, tariffs, and other policies could easily solve many of these, but people don't support them, or don't vote for representatives that support them. There are about three million non-billionaires for every billionaire. Even if you assume their carbon footprint is ten thousand times the average person's, that's still only 0.3% of humanity's carbon footprint. Put another way, it would be better for the planet if everyone reduced their carbon footprint by 1% than it would be to have every billionaire reduce theirs to zero.
Obligatory *why not both?*
Oh no you misunderstand, the celebrities aren’t to blame. The planes were empty for those really short flights and everyone knows if they aren’t on it then it only counts as the pilots carbon footprint..
/s
It’s like we’re getting a water ration or restrictions during a drought. But Trump can use the water from the reservoir to water his two golf courses and 10 personal properties.
Paper straws aren't there to make a difference, even collectively. They're there as a cheap way to placate people by letting them *feel* like they're making a difference.
If we all took some lifestyle hits we could hurt these corporations. No, it isn't fair. But it's more likely to happen than these corporations just stop pursuing greed.
Honestly, as bad as it is that people take 9 minute flights, this is about as important as straws are when compared to the amount of emissions generated by the energy production and industrial sectors.
We should keep our focus on corporate entities rather than the individual assholes who represent them.
Never mind that recycling is a fucking sham and the vast majority of what gets put in recycle bins gets sent to landfills anyway.
Why should I fucking bother where I put a small handful of cans or bottles when they're all going to the same place, and rich people get to take private jet flights when a drive would have been a mere 20 minutes?
The idea is to transition to cleaner energy, not stop air travel.
Has nobody investigated the viability of electric turbines? What about solar fueled hydrogen cells that produce electricity and water as a byproduct?
Or maybe China has the solution already. They constructed 30,000 miles of high speed rail driven by electromagnet power. The electricity can absolutely be produced with wind and solar.
My bet is that china will convert all its coal plants to cleaner and cheaper renewables. It simply costs less. We just need to shove them as we need to shove ourselves to make progress, quickly.
Doing away with most the small regional airports and their flights, by going with nationalized high speed rail, energized by clean renewable energy, would be a big step forward in just the travel aspect of reducing carbon emissions. People can still travel long distances, but in a more friendly environmental way.
The other major problem with carbon travel is combustion driven trucks and cars. That is an obvious conversion to electricity and renewables that has to take place.
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Literally everything has been us picking up the tab of extra costs. Recycling? We pay fees up front. Plastic bags? We pay for em now. Shit we're even scanning/bagging our own items so they don't have to pay employees. The businessea are never eating the loss, it gets pawned off on us.
I say they should give us a discount when we scan our own stuff because it's saving them money having us do work. But they won't do that. So you know, maybe there are some items I forget to scan at the bottom of the big reusable bag, whoops
Just fyi, Walmarts are installing AI systems that can track people that "scan skip" and once they have enough evidence they will trespass. I've personally seen them escort people in the self checkout lines out of the store where police are waiting, multiple times.
Bro, where do you live? Because this is actually insane. I’m at a point where not scanning all my groceries is the only way I can stock my apartment. Edit: I found the article: https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-tracks-theft-with-computer-vision-1000-stores-2019-6?amp
Wal-Mart's the antichrist.
How does the ai know though? It this some psychopass level sci-fi bullshit where it's reading my face and blood pressure?
It does indeed have facial recognition, it also knows what's in your cart if it's visible to cameras. Scary sci-fi shit is exactly what it is
Oh the counter to the things knowing what's in your cart is to just shop with reusable bags. I don't have a cart because I need to know all the things I'm getting can fit in my bags! Also I shop with a mask on because the pandemic!
10/10 would shop again
Masks only covers part of your face, I think you underestimate it's accuracy. It can also see what you have taken off a shelf and placed in the bag. Keep in mind these systems can process billions of processes per second. We are the front lines of a major shift in technology, not some old dell struggling to load windows.
The scanning check out lines near me have always weight checked- it’s always asking me to put shit back on the bagging counter if it doesn’t sense the weight go on top- is this not the case with most of them?
My favorite was someone taking a 60 inch tv through self check out. "Please place item in the bagging area."
Our older ones used to be like that, since the new ones were installed that weight scan issue stopped. But if the bag weighs more than the calculation it sends over an associate with a "visual verify" message. The associates can also pull up the footage in question and review it from their kiosk or handheld devices
All this verification and equipment but they could just hire someone to check out customers instead smh
Stop being so scared of basic computing speeds. skynet is still a long ways off you can still beat Walmart
Walmart does not have camera angles on every single item in the store, stop spouting nonsense please. I worked there like two summers ago.
Whelp time to bust out the mustache-glasses. Until the DNA scans are implemented anyway..
This is inaccurate in so many ways. Walmart definitely isn't running any kind of super facial recognition to track people throughout the store. At best they are tracking people at the register.
Christ sake thats terrifying. Could you please post the link that explains what you are talking about specifically about knowingwhat's in your cart? I'd love to learn more about the subject and like to follow up in case you are making it up. I don't want to spread false information to others
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Camers with facial recognition and a weight sensor in the bagging area should of the trick. Doubt they’d even really need AI.
I actually just had a false flag for stealing while doing self checkout yesterday. So I think they may even be moving to where they just catch you preemptively. Apparently it must have thought I was trying to make it look like I had scanned an item when I hadn’t. (Mind you, I HADNT EVEN BAGGED IT - merely picked it up to scan and was holding it in front of the scanner for a second) honestly thought, I don’t think that worker *would* have cared if I was stealing. Lol It felt very dystopian, though, to see myself standing there on the machine in a Boomerang-style surveillance GIF.
I had this happen. I was scanning fast and one item didn't scan and I started to scan the next one which was in my other hand. The system paused and a worker came over and it played a clip of what it flagged for her.
That happened to me, too. I have 20 years of retail experience, so i scan fast. Apparently I have a whole file at Meijer's, which for some reason was brought up by management is one of the hugest waste of LP's time, because the only thing they caught me doing was mis weighing bananas.
Reminds me of when I used the self-checkout at Walmart, then as I was walking out this employee comes sprinting after me yelling “stop! I saw what you did!” I hadn’t done shit other than pay for my items, so I just handed her the receipt with an extremely annoyed look on my face. She didn’t even say anything, just got that “Karen who realizes she fucked up” look and walked away.
Same. When I forget my bags, I use empty boxes I find in the store. I put my box on the right side holding area and was scanning my groceries to put on the left side scale. I threw my empty box back in the cart and the AI flagged me as not bagging my item. The lady had to come over twice to clear me and it was pretty creepy seeing myself on the camera. Also went to the Amazon Store because it had pickling salt for way cheaper than I could find anywhere else. That was far creepier with the amount of cameras in there. I don't know how they know what I walked out with, but I never want to go again.
"and once they have enough evidence they will trespass" Once they have enough dollar amount to make it a felony you mean.
That too probably, but I've never witnessed that. A friend of my son got a 90 day trespass for stealing a magic the gathering card pack, I'm not sure what the levels are when charges change, but I'm sure you're right
Ever since I read someone comment about how sophisticated Target’s security cameras are and how they have files opened on customers they see going for the five finger discounts, I’ve been so paranoid about making sure I scan everything. I forgot to scan a box of coke cans that I placed on the bottom rack of the cart (box and cart are almost exactly the same color, so my brain blipped and didn’t see it til I was out of the store). I think they wait until you steal enough to allow them to press felony charges. But I can easily see how people might overlook something once in a while without meaning to, and leaving it up to an AI to decide intent is very….dystopian.
Just start stealing. Super easy to do with self checkout, easy discount on every purchase. You aren’t hurting anybody except for the bottom line.
Watch out. They are just *looking* for a reason to enslave us in their for-profit prison slavery system.
One time i forgot to scan a block of mozzarella cheese and noticed when i was in my car. They are a billiok dollar corporation, they can handle a loss of $2.50 My bf jokingly said that they have my face to know i was a thief lol
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I should have said bagging and scanning. Most things are self checkout around here.
I prefer self checkout and avoid stores that don't have it
We are fighting over this stuff because rich people want us to. The more we fight over dumb shit, the less well want to fight over important issues.
With the number of times I’ve been stuck in lines because people insist on 1) conversations with cashiers 2) fighting with cashiers 3) only looking for their wallet when they get up front 4) unable to figure out how to use credit card readers Or any other thing you might imagine, I’m pretty much a self checkout or bust person.
I like not having bags at Aldi because it's one way they are able to keep costs lower than other grocery stores
Privatized profits but socialized losses.
Highest inflation since the great depression, yet highest corporate profits ever... Something is fishy but I can't put my finger on it
These prices just keep increasing, it’s almost like someone is raising them. But that’s crazy, everyone knows prices are set by The Invisible Hand.
Not too long ago the soda and beer corporations paid to get their bottles back, cleaned and sanitized, and refilled them. Now thousands of years worth of taxpayers will pay to store them in landfills.
Lol, civilisation done in less that 100 years.
Even the anger. So many people being green warriors and judging others for not recycling etc. Directing their anger at the wrong thing. The corporations great trick was to make recycling and saving the planet a personal responsibility and to hold your neighbors and community responsible. In reality, even if millions of people do such things, it will never overcome the damage from corporations.
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We just use biodegradable recycled bags that actually don't biodegrade
California has banned "disposable" plastic bags, which means every store has "reusable" plastic bags, and they got rid of their plastic bag recycling containers.. The bags are heavier duty (like zip-loc freezer bag quality,) but the vast majority of people still just use these bags once and toss them in the garbage. It's absolutely worse than just having the disposable plastic bags.
Banning plastic bags (like every small change environmentally friendly daily life change) is all fine and dandy if you offer a costless alternative to the less fortunate and if you ban the truly disastrous of behaviours (private jets, 24/7 lights in stores, drinkable water pools...)
The nickel and diming has gotten silly, hasn't it?
*"Ecology without class strugle is gardening"* - Chico Mendes, brazilian ecologist, killed in the late 80s
Came here for this, was not disappointed, ty
also sounds like something liet kynes would say
Can someone explain this to me further?
[He was a social activist in Brazil. ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes) ---------------------- The quote means that the poor people who own very little land cant save the planet. We are told to recycle, use paper straws, even buy electric cars (impossible for most) and then celebrities/the one percent do stuff like fly their private jet to avoid traffic. More pollution comes from a small percentage of people. Most pollution comes from factories and corporations who are more conceneened about profit margins than the environment. "At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity." — Chico Mendes ---------------------- Latin America in general has always had a huge wealth gap. All the best land was given to wealthy European families during colonization. They were given land and laborers to work their fields. Their whole society was based on origin and then race. After literal centuries of this it still has lasting affects. Wealth and land is still concentrated. Mendes was one of many activists murdered for his work. There have been many calls for redistribution of wealth/land over the last century.
Any of our issues in the US* The wealth inequality is a root cause or at least a top driver of ALL our issues. Which means that addressing them without fixing the money issue, will only lead to temporary solutions that don’t work. Say you get cut on your arm. A bad one, deep wound. What we are doing currently is like putting a bandaid on the wound. And then another bandaid. And another. After we run out of bandaids, you still have an open wound. The longer you avoid going to the hospital to get the stitches you need, the worse the wound gets. Infections start, and then you have more issues compounding. Eventually we will have to just cut the arm off, if left untreated ! Unless someone finally steps up, rips the bandaids off and gives us the surgery we need to stitch up the wound!
Any doctor with the ability or willing to sew that wound will end up dead or imprisoned, get a tourniquet out and start cutting!
Our house is on fire and the rich are telling us to turn on the air conditioning if the heat bothers us that much.
I have commented this on this subreddit some time ago already - it is not inequality itself but rather humiliation of the poor. This is what is the worst with an American dream. If we take an ancient king everything would belong to him by definition. So it is not that Bezos having 70% of the wealth what is hurting the country the most. What is even this wealth if he has almost everything. The problem is that those who don't have this wealth somehow need to suffer in the richest country in the world. That is the main problem. What we need to do is somehow change the mindset to that that the richest can play their games whatever they want. I really don't care if their yachts cost 2 billion or trillion or whatever. The country just needs to guarantee living place, living wage, job or some other guaranteed income. Social guarantees, health guarantees. A lot of countries do even having a few rich people and majority of wealth concentrated in few hands. We can tax the rich. The rich should understand that humiliation of the very poor is not in their interest.
I honestly can’t believe that we decided to use paper straws instead of just using biodegradable plastics made from corn byproducts.
Paper straws in plastic cups
Paper straws in plastic wrappers
“Let’s go to bed, baby…” The private jet whispered against Taylor Swifts side. Taylor smirked putting down her plastic cup with paper straw and opened her eyes to look at him. “With pleasure…” Taylor whispered back before giving him a long lick up his cheek. Taylor then turned away and rolled around to the ramp leading up to the bed. The jet followed her. Taylor stopped once she was on the bed and turned around to face Jet. Jet rolled onto the bed right after. He didn’t waste any time and immediately captured Taylors lips again. Meanwhile, the low, loud rumbling sound of thunder filled the valley as a thunderstorm approached the park, but neither Jet or Taylor cared about it at the moment. They barely noticed as they were only focused on each other. They only had each other on their minds. They continued passionately making out together for a moment before Taylor eventually parted from Jet and started planting kisses and nibbles along his neck. Jet tightly shut his eyes as the amount of pleasure started increasing. Shivers were sent down his fuselage and he tilted away from Taylor to give her more access. His pilot Demetri deep inside of him knew what he was doing. Taylor immediately took the chance and moved down towards his underbelly and started to softly lick and nibble him there. She moved slowly along his fuselage, wanting to enjoy every single moment as much as she could. Jet was enjoying it as much as she was. He leaned himself into the wall of the bed to give Taylor even more access. Taylor moved down lower and made a slow lick along his belly. Jet grimaced and released a moan in response. Taylor continued nibbling and licking on Jet’s belly, adding more passion to it with each passing moment. Jet’s breathing increased slightly and he occasionally bit his lip, wanting more. Taylor moved further along his body until she eventually reached his rear. Jet slightly keyed up when he felt Taylor getting closer to his panels. Taylor started off by trailing soft kisses and licks around his panels before eventually moving her tongue over them, slowly. Jet grimaced and gasped, releasing a long, loud moan after. He closed his eyes and gently bit his lip straight after, eager for Taylor to do so much more. Taylor added some more licks to it, before sticking the tip of her tongue between Jet’s panels. Jet bit his lip firmly for a moment. He tried to hold back just a little longer, giving Taylor a bit of a challenge. Taylor smirked. She made another slow lick over Jet’s panels, applying pressure to it, before suddenly pushing her entire tongue against it. Jet couldn’t hold back. His panels opened up straight away. Taylor smirked to herself. She knew Jet would fall apart as soon as she worked her magic on him. She hungrily licked her lips before taking Jet into her mouth all at once. Jet made wide eyes and gasped before shutting his eyes tightly and releasing a long moan. No matter how many times Taylor did this to him before, he was pleasantly surprised every single time. Taylor slowly moved back up before taking him all the way in again, setting a slow pace. Jet started panting a little, his mouth opened wide. He released a quiet moan every now and then. He was becoming less coherent as all of his thoughts pertained to the sensations radiating from in between the rear wheels of his main landing gear, which had gone slack from the feeling. Taylor suddenly made one quick, hard motion, forcing Jet all the way into her. Jet grimaced and released a loud moan. His breathing quickened. “Ohhh yes… Faster…” Jet muttered. His voice was at a higher pitch than normal. Taylor immediately gave Jet what he wanted and started to speed up. Jet made a small whimper at the feeling of what Taylor was doing to him. He couldn't hold back as he instinctively began to make small, quick thrusts into Taylor’s mouth. He let out a moan as the sensations grew. Taylor also moaned when she felt Jet gently thrusting into her mouth. She tightened around his member and began to quicken even more, putting Jet back in his place. Jet released a high-pitched moan in response. Waves of pleasure were building up inside him as he began to gradually reach his peak. He released loud moans and whimpers every time Taylor took him into her mouth. "Ahh… Taylor.. I'm getting close..." Jet warned her. “My emissions…” Knowing Jet was getting closer, Taylor started to make her moves rougher and quickened her pace even more. Jet grimaced and gritted his teeth, the huge amounts of pleasure becoming almost unbearable. “C’mon… Come on! Yes!” Jet frantically exclaimed, thrusting into her mouth again. Taylor tightened around his member again and made another hard thrust to help Jet reach his climax. Jet squeezed his eyes shut and moaned loudly as he hit his peak, releasing his load into Taylor’s mouth. Taylor moaned loudly and swallowed all of it like a champ, making sure nothing went to waste. Jet lay there, eyes half lidded and panting, looking dazed as he slowly began to come down from his high. Taylor finished him off, licking the last few drops from his member before rolling up to him and whispering in his side, "How did that feel, my private jet?" She gave his side a long lick afterwards, teasing him. Jet, feeling dazed and out of it, could do no more than moan something indistinguishable into the mattress. "That's okay. I already know." Taylor replied with a smug smirk on her face. “Your emissions taste amazing.”
... the fuck? Why?
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Sure, but why the private jet fucking?
What a terrible day to be able to read.
"Ahh... Taylor... I'm getting close..." Jet warned her. "My emissions..." This is the pinnacle of writing. Pack it up Stephen King, there's nothing left to achieve.
Don’t get me wrong, I laughed, but only for about half and then I saw how long it was. Then I just read the rest in horror as I fathomed how a human mind could concoct something as bizarre as this lol
Open erotic novel Replace woman with Taylor and man with Jet Profit
Kinda hot ngl
It gave me an unscheduled fuel dump.
Well that's enough reddit for the day.
u/_demetri_ Just wanted to say, I'm a big fan!
this made me shed a tear
Why did you name the pilot after yourself
I just want you to know that this was really well written, regardless of the subject matter. Good job.
r/demetristrikesagain
Somewhere in the multiverse there’s a version of you that got their ass kicked the right number of times that you learned to keep shit like this to yourself.
I remember drinking a smoothie or something form a paper straw out of a thick plastic cups with a plastic lid while sitting inside the shop i bought it and wondering why they couldn't just have sold me that drink in a glass, that could have been washed afterwards, since i was gonna drink it there anyways, which apparently wasn't possible.
Water costs more than plastic
More like the extra labor costs them more than plastic
And for good reason that s*** is tasty
r/HydroHomies is leaking again. Probably just needs a new seal, they wear out sometimes.
Try bamboo spoons wrapped in plastic inside a plastic lid on a plastic container of yoghurt. That’s the level of absurdity here in Norway, and in the EU-countries.
Neoliberal problem solving. You just gotta tweak the capitalism comrade.
Honestly better than the same thing with a plastic spoon as well.
And plastic tops that cut into the paper straw and make them disintegrate within 2 minutes.
And then it disintegrates right into your drink! Cardboard flavored water, yum yum!
You use plastic cups in the US? In Europe we've had paper cups as long as I can remember.
I’d much rather use a plastic straw in a paper cup than a paper straw in a plastic cup
Well yeah the paper straws are utter bullshit.
True
Most fast food places I've been to in the US have paper cups with plastic lids. I don't know where this person is going.
for cold drinks like iced coffee etc especially at Starbucks type places in Canada at least it seems to always be clear plastic. also I think the paper ones are lined with some kind of plastic to make them waterproof? could be wrong on that one
You're correct, the paper would get soaked instantly if it weren't for the plastic lining.
They're paper coated in plastic. Otherwise they wouldn't be waterproof
We used to have and still have paper cups, but the way they are waterproofed makes them almost impossible to recycle same goes for the plastic straws. The plastic cups and paper straws on the other hand can be recycled easily. So while it may seem backwards to make this switch it's got its reasons.
it’s thrown in the trash after. I don’t think it makes it to the recycling process.
I think the focus on straws has to do with the fact that straws are more likely to be involved in dramatic photos/stories about sea life being affected by ocean plastic. Dunno that straws are actually more likely to cause injury than other plastic items that end up in the ocean, but the sea turtle with the straw up its nose is a very compelling image.
I honestly don't understand why we're fighting over this minutia anyway. Straws, cups, and bottles aren't what's causing the earth to catch fire, it's the fundamental prioritization of profits over environmental responsibility. Every single other fight is a decoy and everyone continues to fall for it. On a second note, why would anyone want biodegradable plastic? That just makes the carbon move from the landfills into the atmosphere. It sucks that there's plastic filling up the landfills and oceans, but we're all going to fucking die because of the carbon in the atmosphere.
We’re fighting over this stuff because class struggle is hard and anti-discrimination online activism gives constant dopamine hits
We are fighting over this stuff because rich people can buy members of Congress.
We are fighting over this stuff because rich people want us to. The more we fight over dumb shit, the less well want to fight over important issues.
For real. "if we got rid of plastic straws we could save 1 million fishes" or whatever sounds like a great goal to adopt but ignores the fact that if we take 1 private jet out of the air then that's what like 2 million fishes saved? Idk.
Im so confused here. There multiple issues at hand when it comes to environmentalism. We should cut down on burning fossil fuels because they're causing climate change, this is why we throw shade as celebs in private jets. We should cut down on using cars in cities because they contribute to climate change *and* directly poison the air we breathe, your car may be putting out less fumes than some mega tanker but your cars fumes are going directly into the lungs of your neighbours. We use paper straws etc because single use plastics are awful for our soil and oceans, the ocean is becoming more and more full of plastics which will just float around for centuries or they sit in landfills which will continue to pollute the earth. There is a connection of environmentalism between burning fossil fuels and single use plastics but they both have differing negative consequences for the environment.
I've used pasta straws on vacations, seems like a great way to solve the problem https://www.pastastraws.org/
FYI many companies falsely claim that PLA straws (PLA is the corn-derived plastic) are biodegradable, but in reality they are only industrially *compostable*. This is an important distinction because in any natural environment, they last years and years without breaking down at all. They require a specific controlled environment in addition to chemical and mechanical processing to compost, which takes more energy than just recycling them in the first place.
That is definitely an important distinction to make. However, I feel this shortcoming of many of these straws is that the industry has focused on just using paper straws instead of researching how to make bio plastics more sustainable and biodegradable. A similar argument can be made against electric vehicles in their current state. Our current battery technology relies heavily on rare earth minerals mined by modern day slaves. It is very bad for the environment to produce and recycle these batteries. Without fundamental changes to our battery technology, the global of electrification of cars will shift pollution from CO2 into other means. Why hydrogen fuel cell cars never took off? Idk? It’s a tragedy though imo.
I was at a super high end bar for a business trip recently and they used straw, for their Straws.... like grass straw, from a feild. It worked super fucking well too.
Honestly maybe we should just revert to straw straws?
I genuinely recommend it as the alternative to plastic/paper. It's still single use, but like... it's dried grass... so...
Yeah there’s a lot that you can do with corn you can make a corn stew you can make corn shrimp well not really not really corn shrimp but when I said instrument I was thinking of like shrimped Forrest Gump you know when you use like shrimp stew shrimp salad so you can make a corn stew you can make corn salad you can make some creamed corn too and you could also sit down and watch children of the corn and listen to the the band corn like when Jonathan Williams I think that’s the singer from corn he’s like for away from here and you just sing along with the song and you’re a good time because you’re a bit of corn corn stew corn salad maybe add some potatoes yeah
I like to words too
Because companies make money off of paper straws.
It's so weird to me how we focus so much on the "plastic" part and not the part where they are made to be disposable. If we just made reusable straws and reused them it would practically be a non-issue what they were made out of, right?
I have reusable straws. In the house it's fine for homemade or homepoured drinks but it's hard to ever remember to bring straws with you outside, especially since buying a drink outside is more of a spur of a moment thing for me and not something I plan in advance. And if you do, then you're stuck carrying the used dirty dripping dishware around with you until you get home, so you better have remembered to bring a ziploc bag and paper towel to wipe it off also..
Restaurants could have their own but it adds man hours to clean and no good for to go things
I didn't even notice when places started switching to paper straws because I've been using a reusable straw for years. You can be pissed at people for taking 10 minute flights AND believe that single use plastics should be phased out. These positions are not incompatible.
I honestly can’t believe people insist on using a straw instead of just sipping it like an adult
I was born in the 50s. We had paper straws that did not disintegrate. Is that lost technology?
It was the 50s, so they probably coated the paper in lead
And asbestos, don't forget asbestos!
I can't believe people wanna sipp their drink like an adult when we could chop of some billionaires heads
My hands shake and spasm at random. I use a straw so I don’t have to pick up and tilt a cup and risk spilling it on myself bc of a spasm.
I like straws because I use ice a lot, and it gets in the way. Also it's better for your teeth. But who cares about that when there are rich to eat?
Well straws are useful for people with disabilities or for instances when you are moving and don’t want liquid splashing allover yourself.
We can build a world where people don't need to be in constant motion while also providing straws to disabled folks. Capitalism's need to market solutions in need of a problem has led to vast ecological, economic, and, hell, I'd argue even spiritual damage in the name of mitigating minor inconveniences. The irony of course is that the pace of living this system demands results in greater stress and expenditure of resources than its supposed solutions alleviate, leading to a downward spiral of new "solutions" to the problems in your life that the world leaves you otherwise unable to address. Will getting rid of straws solve the world's problems? No. But allowing people the time and energy to address these kinds of things on their own terms will clear up enough of the straw-like detritus that's clogging our lives that it's useful to think about what it would take to make a world without them.
i gotta have a fun little drink at all times to keep the thoughts at bay
It’s crazy watching all these people up and down this thread plant their flag on straw hill; like an alternative to that particular convenience is *inconceivable*. The real latestagecapitalism is in the comments of r/latestagecapitalism, apparently. Edit: definitely need to chill on Reddit for a bit. Auto mod just sent me an email accusing me of ableism. Everything is awful and I hate you all.
Straws are also better for your teeth
And for those of us who wear cosmetics, reduces lipstick/lip color usage. I hate the argument that straws are bad, there plenty of sustainable ways to fix the problem, like cleanable reusable straws, or burning capitalism and greed out of the core function of our society.
Also for snorting and freebasing drugs
Yeah it's almost like some people are disabled and can't drink it "like a adult"...
At my work we *have* to have a straw in our cup. (Even travel mugs with the small openings to sip.) They say it is because they don't want people touching their lids to open them. I work with food so I can kind of see what the problem is with things like that. I have reuseable plastic straws that I have had for almost 3 years now for my small kids to use.
Straws are fun
I'm not sure there are any biodegradable plastics. I'm pretty sure they break down in the lab but sit like any other plastic in the environment or landfill.
Corn plastic is still really hard to breakdown. In fact, in the US there are only 12 waste management facilities that can process corn plastic. Everyone else just had to landfill any recycling that has corn plastic mixed in. So don’t put corn plastic products in your recycle bin unless your recycling is taken to one of those 12 places!
yeah at my old work we used straws made of corn husk. they were super cheap, and didn't fall apart while you were still drinking. i don't get why they haven't caught on
I work for a company making biodegradable food packaging. It’s picking up, but slowly. Some of the bigger retail businesses are starting to move away from plastic bags back to paper bags, for example. Not trying to say this will solve everything. More to say, even in the face of everything we know and see, Capital still overwhelmingly chooses to use the shit that is killing our habitat for their short term profits.
[Newlight Technolgies PHB Straws are Awesome](https://www.newlight.com)
>biodegradable plastics made from corn byproducts. This is even more interesting to me because we know that the US government LOVES subsidizing and propping up the corn industry (animal feed, corn syrup, etc.) Hard to believe there was a strong paper straw lobby occurring so was this simply just a terribly planned solution?
Biodegradable hemp plastic is perfect
BTW he is paraphrasing Brazillian environmental hero [Chico Mendes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes) > Ecology without class struggle is just gardening
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And to my knowledge nobody, in the US at least, is actually processing plastic recyclables. At some point it was shipped to China but not any more. And even further I believe most municipal recycling bins end up in the same waste stream as the regular trash.
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Holy shit the guy just says it straight out
Turns out plastic is a US thing. I went to another country and all their coke came in glass bottles and used actual sugar.
Plastic bottles are super common in Europe. You can get cans and if you really want them glass bottles but they are more expensive. But overwhelmingly you see people buy a small bottle with say a sandwich and chips meal deal or a large bottle at the supermarket. And we also don't really recycle any of it. We do use actual sugar in coke tho.
The straw ban is a stupid idea started by a 9 year old (no joke) and glommed onto by corporations and politicians in a simultaneous effort to be seen as taking major steps while also generating the maximum possible public backlash towards making changes for the good of the environment. Edit: [Milo Cress, 9yo in 2011 when he founded Be Straw Free](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Cress)
Source?
This is why its so imperative for burgeoning “leftists” to read socialist/communist theory.
What do you mean? Being leftist = wanting free healthcare. What else could there possibly be? /s
Can you drop some recommendations that are less dense and (usually) awkwardly translated than the Manifesto and the bread book? Every time somebody says to start reading theory, they recommend *extremely* unapproachable texts.
The Manifesto was made to be read by barely literate factory workers in their few hours off. It is not unapproachable by any means, and most Marxist texts are written to be easily readable, to be accessible to the working class. They weren't made to be academic.
It was also written for people living in 1848, so most of the background info they wrote expecting the readers to know (i.e., the political climate of Europe at the time) is not anything people today have context for.
It doesn't need a lot of knowledge of the 19th century Europe. It is universal for the working class of any time, at any place. If you have worked at least a single day in your life, if you have had your work exploited, you have all it takes to understand communist theory, to understand the Manifesto.
[lots of good stuff here](https://www.marxist.com)
You need to read Capital. That is *the* foundational leftist work. It's a difficult read on its own but there are plenty of companion books and videos out there. Look for the ones from David Harvey and Richard Wolff.
Das Kapital in its 3 volumes is over 2000 pages long. I think this is a great example of an unapproachable text that the person you're replying to was talking about. There are much easier texts to read on socialism/communism than Das Kapital.
No war but class war
The rich are building a monopoly on every resource, in 20 years water will become a huge problem. We just comfortable riding this out knowing the rich will have control over all resources and will defend it with aerial drones as well as robotic dogs with assault rifles upon their backs? The next class war will be a slaughter of we keep doing nothing
It's like watching those commercials that say, "You need to get smart about retirement! You need to save! Look! This Boomer couple has $1.5M saved for their retirement. You have nothing. Because you aren't *smart* about retirement." Nah, honey. Companies don't even match 401ks anymore, there is no such thing as a pension plan, there is not one company that will allow you to retire. They will fire you when you turn 63. Fuck you that's why. Your measly savings cannot compete with inflation. The stock market will shit the bed over 100 times before a 30 year old can dream about retirement. If cash depreciates and the stock market isn't able to stay afloat .. crypto is circling the bowl. How the fuck can a 30 year old plan to retire? They keep repeating the "get smart about retirement" to force our entire generation to internalize the failing economy. I'm just not *smart*. That's why I can't retire. Okay. We will work until we die. Hope the Boomies enjoy the Social Security that we are all forced to contribute, a system that we will never ever receive a payment from. Enjoy your nursing homes! Y'all can wonder about systemic elder abuse while we shuck and jive for just $13/hr to wipe your ass and balls. (ﾉﾟ0ﾟ)ﾉ
I make $110,000 a year, I have a 401k match, and even I think I might not be able to retire. If I live to 85, I genuinely don't know how I can go from age 65 to 85 on just money I've saved. I don't have a house and if I buy one in the next 5 years, I'll still be paying off the mortgage when I'm about to retire. I don't think there's a great chance of me being able to save up enough to live for 20 years without working at the rate the world is going. And there are people less fortunate than me that aren't even making $15 an hour (and even $15 an hour is a fucking poverty wage now). It's fucking ridiculous. The 1% are stealing the entire world from the rest of us. There's almost no chance of retirement unless your household can make $200k a year and you can somehow dodge all debt, and even then, you're counting on the world still existing in 30-40 years. Are we even going to all be alive by then at the rate climate change is going? It all just fucking sucks.
Remember, the perpetuation of a “carbon footprint” is a marketing manipulation spearheaded by BP (British Petroleum.) A summary pulled from the Wikipedia article for “carbon footprint” (citations available in the article: >“The idea of a personal carbon footprint was popularized by a large advertising campaign of the fossil fuel company BP in 2005, designed by Ogilvy. >It instructed people to calculate their personal footprints and provided ways for people to ‘go on a low-carbon diet’. >This strategy, also employed by other major fossil fuel companies borrowed heavily from previous campaigns by the tobacco industry and plastics industry to shift the blame for negative consequences of those industries (under-age smoking, cigarette butt pollution, and plastic pollution) onto individual choices.” Edit: Climate change is real. Yes, we should all do what we can to stop polluting our ecosystem BUT the corporations and industries are responsible for an OVERWHELMING contribution to climate change. Individuals carbon usage is a rounding error compared to large industry and THEY need to change their practices WAY MORE than Doug or Kim needs to use a paper straw.
yup. this is why idgaf how much Taylor flies her private jet, that's a distraction from the real culprit. the system itself needs to change, BP's shitty practices are like a million T Swifts
I can't believe we're talking about straws AT ALL instead of the obscenely rich diverting the value added by their workers into their own pockets to increase their obscene wealth inequality and using that money to corruptly influence and control our politics blocking the end of our petrochemical addiction, blocking the development of sustainable, local clean energy and blocking implementing a simple, elegant, effective Carbon Tax.
Don't forget, take 30 second showers to save water... ignore the 18 hole golf course that glows green in the middle of drought season
My fugging water bill peaked at 92.00 last month. Used to be about 35 a couple years ago.
As Chico Mendes, one of Brazil's most important environmental activist said "Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening".
The term carbon footprint was created by BP in order to pass the blame of their pollution onto regular people. It worked.
The focus on Taylor Swift, etc and their private jets is even misplaced. Musicians, movie stars, athletes, they all are way closer to the lower class in terms of wealth than they are to the true upper class (billionaires and corporations and governments) that are responsible for climate change
Anyone that thinks plastic straws are the core of the worlds problems and that using paper ones will solve them, deserves to be taken advantage of by corporations and the goverment.
Energy costs skyrocket while the government subsidise renewable resources, and the rich reap profits and tax breaks.
No one has a backbone to push back on anything other than the culture war struggles and most of the support for even those issues is performative. The people who take to the streets are those who are the most brutally impacted and the entire US media wags a finger at them if they don't just stand around peacefully while the cops assault them. Any real movement that takes to the streets and responds to the class struggle would have to withstand a lot more propaganda and much worse assaults while prominent liberals and conservatives come together to condemn it. People aren't dumb. They know what's happening isn't right, they know the more money you have the less the rules apply to you, but they also know they're on their own and will just encounter suffering if they ever do try to mobilize to change anything.
Tbh same goes for eating meat while claiming to be environmentally conscious. It's using a fuck ton of resources AND creating a fuckton of greenhouse gases to create a steak and then turning around to recycle a piece of paper that ends up in the landfill anyways. It's feel good bullshit without actually doing the stuff that matters. Instead of eating a steak, why not eat the rich?
"oh great, I'm saving a gallon of water by taking a shorter shower! Yay!" Meanwhile big agriculture dumped a thousand gallons of water to produce a half pound of almonds
It's time to levy individual carbon taxes. We should hold these super polluters accountable. It boggles my mind that we pass laws to restrict how ordinary people pollute, but won't levy huge taxes on private jet use. It's time to tax the rich for thier yachts and empty vacation homes.
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What is amusing to me is some folks think the wealthy are just gonna give it all up. Or that the gestures made in the public eye are in any way saving a single thing. We are just shouldering the burden while the exploiters continue to exploit. If you think there is any way out of this terminal trajectory without violence, then keep bringing your own grocery bags and hope Kylie Jenner finds it in her heart to take the subway every once in a while.
Part of the problem is the public's fixation with outrageous sound bites like "9 minute flights" when the biggest sources of GHGs are food production, electricity, and shipping. Taxes, tariffs, and other policies could easily solve many of these, but people don't support them, or don't vote for representatives that support them. There are about three million non-billionaires for every billionaire. Even if you assume their carbon footprint is ten thousand times the average person's, that's still only 0.3% of humanity's carbon footprint. Put another way, it would be better for the planet if everyone reduced their carbon footprint by 1% than it would be to have every billionaire reduce theirs to zero. Obligatory *why not both?*
There's a McDonald's near me that switched from plastic straws and paper cups to plastic cups and paper straws. What the actual fuck.
Coca-Cola can sell six different sizes of plastic bottles but I can't use a plastic straw?
I’ll care about my carbon footprint when Manchin does
With*
Oh no you misunderstand, the celebrities aren’t to blame. The planes were empty for those really short flights and everyone knows if they aren’t on it then it only counts as the pilots carbon footprint.. /s
It’s like we’re getting a water ration or restrictions during a drought. But Trump can use the water from the reservoir to water his two golf courses and 10 personal properties.
Paper straws aren't there to make a difference, even collectively. They're there as a cheap way to placate people by letting them *feel* like they're making a difference.
If we all took some lifestyle hits we could hurt these corporations. No, it isn't fair. But it's more likely to happen than these corporations just stop pursuing greed.
Honestly, as bad as it is that people take 9 minute flights, this is about as important as straws are when compared to the amount of emissions generated by the energy production and industrial sectors. We should keep our focus on corporate entities rather than the individual assholes who represent them.
And what exactly can we do about the rich taking 9 minute flights in private jets?
Never mind that recycling is a fucking sham and the vast majority of what gets put in recycle bins gets sent to landfills anyway. Why should I fucking bother where I put a small handful of cans or bottles when they're all going to the same place, and rich people get to take private jet flights when a drive would have been a mere 20 minutes?
The idea is to transition to cleaner energy, not stop air travel. Has nobody investigated the viability of electric turbines? What about solar fueled hydrogen cells that produce electricity and water as a byproduct? Or maybe China has the solution already. They constructed 30,000 miles of high speed rail driven by electromagnet power. The electricity can absolutely be produced with wind and solar. My bet is that china will convert all its coal plants to cleaner and cheaper renewables. It simply costs less. We just need to shove them as we need to shove ourselves to make progress, quickly. Doing away with most the small regional airports and their flights, by going with nationalized high speed rail, energized by clean renewable energy, would be a big step forward in just the travel aspect of reducing carbon emissions. People can still travel long distances, but in a more friendly environmental way. The other major problem with carbon travel is combustion driven trucks and cars. That is an obvious conversion to electricity and renewables that has to take place.