I have an online shopping problem. Most of us probably do. It’s hard not to, in this age of Amazon and with a pandemic quietly, steadfastly crippling the world’s capitalist infrastructures. The thrill of getting mail makes me swoon. Opening a package and having jeans that feel perfect on my plus-sized ass is just something I can’t get at a Big Retail Store, especially now. A fancy coffee from a favorite and well loved shop hundreds of miles away? Oh hell yeah. Not having to worry about whether or not I’ll find the batteries I need for my old thermometer? Yes plz. God forbid I finally loose my mind and buy the rare book on Japanese ceramics from an indie bookshop selling on Amazon. I’ve only been eyeing it forever.
It does not take a logistics expert to look and see that shopping like this has myriad costs. Sure, people are driving and flying less, but our shipping infrastructure has been stretched to the limit. Amazon is hiring everywhere, especially, it seems, in suburban areas where there are young men and women, freshly unemployed, who need jobs during pandemic. The protection of workers, from backbreaking labor conditions to um a fucking pandemic, has been set aside. But hey, at least they have jobs.
This same logic is frequently applied to other laborers, like those working in unseen positions picking fruits and vegetables or butchering meat on assembly lines. At least they have jobs. Young folks working in garment factories, making the bras that’ll end up in a Target or Walmart near you ... but hey! At least they have jobs. Who cares that these people are disproportionally affected by things like a global pandemic or dangerous breathing conditions from wild fires? At least I have my cheaply priced meat products and vegetables AND they still have their jobs!
They don’t “still have their jobs” if they’re dead because they caught Covid-19 at work. Workers everywhere are looking up and finding that they lack the protection they need to feel safe. It’s why I quit my job in July. Not only is it hard to get folks in charge to put systems in place to protect you and your coworkers, it is nearly impossible to feel empowered enough to tell others that they need to obey local Covid regulations. I worked in coffee, and I watched in horror as local newspapers hinted at the new rises in cases being linked to young folks in food service. As far as hourly wage workers go, I had a pretty cushy job, and I had the extreme privilege of being a part of a two income household. I could afford to walk away.
It’s not that way for the folks who work in meat packing plants or in vegetable fields. They have families to care for and limited opportunities to do so. For an immigrant worker with barely any English and a family to care for, a meat packing facility in Iowa is sometimes as good as you can get. As it stands now, we have done nothing for these folks. The American preoccupation for eating meat and eating it cheaply has deterred any corporate entity from adopting safety measures for their workers. Stopping production in order to put safety measures in place was unthinkable. Supposedly this would have made them less productive, and that would in turn mean that we’d run into meat shortages. A travesty, some might say. But we are omnivores for a reason; meat and vegetation have, historically, had seasons. We can go without meat for a while if we need to, if not altogether. This was normal for much of human history, I promise.
And yet, the meat plants did not adopt protections early enough, and Covid-19 acted as a scourge upon these unprotected folks. Some of the plants ended up closing anyway because they had to, and we still ended up with shortages. It could have been largely avoided if they’d just put protections in place to begin with. Would it have been completely avoidable? No. As with many things, this pandemic has laid bare the inequality still ever present in our economic girding. But somehow, people are still managing to ignore it, or brush it off. Still others are abusing retail workers for enforcing mask rules put into place by either their employer or local governments. Why is protecting others such a hot button issue? Why are we screaming at each other about this? Why don’t we give a shit about the folks who produce our food and bring us our Amazon packages? Why has caring about others become a political issue???
I used to get weird looks when I mentioned I bought most of my clothes on line, back in like 2016, but now it’s just normal. While I didn’t risk anything besides a bit of money to get the goods I’m now wearing, what did all the people along the line of production and delivery risk? The same goes for those who work in food service. Yeah, it might be nice to go out for a meal right now, to have a cocktail in public and hope for the best. But if you used to eat out with any regularity, you have almost certainly been served by someone popping ibuprofen to keep their 101 degree fever in check. I know this because I’ve been there. I’ve been there multiple times! You just go to the back and fucking cry because your body hurts and nobody could be dicked to cover your shift for you, or worse, you can’t afford to call out to begin with. People act so surprised when they hear about a restaurant worker being ill and later testing positive for Covid-19: how could they expose all of those people? How could a delivery person handle packages even with a hacking cough and high fever? Why on earth would a sick person show up to break down animals on an assembly line? Ah gee, I don’t know, probably because they have to or they’ll be fired and unable to provide for themselves or their families. We have created a system in which there is no social security for those who need it most, and as a result we have have hardly any compassion for them either. And, I suppose, we made a few 150 million-dollar fighter planes instead of pumping money into more social programs.
Most of us wouldn’t go out and kill a guy, but we’d allow the corporations that we buy things from to treat people this poorly? Has capitalism really robbed us of our humanity and expectations as well? It would appear so. We can turn a blind eye because of the layers of separation between us and them, but we shouldn’t. Never forget that human hands touch everything in your life, whether you realize it or not. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about what that means for the systems we feed. I can’t really say if I have a solution in mind for any of this besides burning it all to the ground. And that violent side of my line of thought is one I don’t find to be particularly productive. But I do think the very least we could do is stop and notice what these things mean and how they function. It’s a starting point; maybe along the way we can instigate meaningful change as well.
what I’m cooking: Leaning on eggs a lot recently. There’s something about a few fried eggs with toast and just drowning them in green Cholula. I’ve also been leaning hard on old favorites, like this cauliflower pasta that I’ve made so much in the past four years that I barely have to think about making it anymore. It makes so much that you’ll have plenty for tomorrow’s lunch even if you go back for seconds. It’s so damn easy and it’s so comforting without being weighty in your stomach. Baked pasta whom?
what I’m reading: I took a break from The Information and finished a few old Neil Gaiman favorites. I also started David Chang’s memoir Eat a Peach a few nights ago, and I’m just destroying it. For internet stuff, this article was an absurd delight that I enjoyed perhaps too much. There was also this piece, which I think many of you might benefit from reading. The next few weeks are going to be a disinformation extravaganza and we all need to look more closely. Related: deleting Facebook was the best thing I’ve done this year.
brain melters of the week: For those who would prefer a more sophisticated mind melt, this should do the trick. For those who prefer a goofy short form video to watch fifteen times before moving on with your day, this video has been a favorite. And lastly, for those who enjoy schadenfreude and use it to relax, there’s this (slight content warning for this one I guess lololololol).
Questions, comments, cries of pain? Is there something you want me to write about? Respond to this email to talk to me about it! Love y’all, take care!