Your Affirmation Is Mandatory

How mindless do you want to go?

Are you new here?

It’s difficult to say in advance what will work for me. I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. As it’s for last-thing-in-the-evening viewing, just prior to sweet oblivion, I tend to steer clear of anything real-world political in the present day. I get enough present-day during the, er, present day.

Previous viewing has included The Expanse; House of Dragons; I, Claudius; The Crown; various documentaries on physics and cosmology; and videos on bespoke table-building. 

[ Checks tip jar. ]

Bless you, sir. When shopping for groceries, may you not be obliged to stand alone and unnoticed at the checkout, for a good 50 seconds or so, before an assistant finally arrives and then, immediately, instead of ringing up your purchases – a task of maybe 15 seconds – spends that time inviting you to use a self-service checkout, thereby prompting a steely look and the words, “No, I’d rather not.”

I hate self checkout. I’m already paying for the stuff (and the staff). I shouldn’t have to work the till too. 

I don’t dislike the fact that it’s an option. For some people, just picking up a handful of items, I’m sure it’s adequate. The Other Half, for instance, prefers them, though he’s not exactly a big shopper. I do, however, resent the recent push to make self-checkout the default option, or even the only one. 

Some places seem determined to make the customer feel devalued, an inconvenience to the staff who are doing something else. “Oh, must I come over to take your money? What a nuisance.”

I mean, seriously, fuck that. 

I hate self checkout. I’m already paying for the stuff (and the staff). I shouldn’t have to work the till too. 

This came to mind, from a comment last year: 

At the start of the pandemic drama, a local pharmacy, part of a big chain, installed two self-checkout stations, and closed one of the two conventional tills, having seemingly fired half the staff. As pharmacies tend to have lots of elderly customers, few of whom fancy grappling with an unfamiliar device, the stations weren’t at all popular and I rarely saw them used. Or indeed functional, judging by the beeps that signalled an error of one kind or another, and which went unaddressed due to the sudden shortage of human staff.

Faced with disgruntled customers, many of whom needed items from behind the counter and therefore couldn’t use self-checkout, and with large and growing queues for the one remaining till, the appeals to use the new, improved, high-tech option became increasingly plaintive, almost desperate.

The atmosphere of the store changed quite noticeably. From a place where the elderly or unwell could ask staff for advice easily, or for help finding what they needed, and where they would generally feel acknowledged, the place had been transformed into a big room with a bad mood in it.

And then of course there’s the irony of a pharmacy, with signs insisting that customers wear masks and maintain social distancing at all times, simultaneously telling customers to share the same touchscreen as hundreds of other people, despite said items being notorious bacteria farms and an excellent way to spread disease. It was, in hindsight, almost funny.

I don’t shop there anymore.

And if I’m spending money in a store, and doing it regularly, a few seconds of human interaction don’t seem an outrageous expectation on my part. As opposed to the implication, upthread, that I’m being an insufferable nuisance by giving them money. 

[Sets alarm clock to wake up early]

No pressure, then.

only if they won’t take cash.

Bit radical, cash. I use hard currency for only three things: Taxis, the fish and chip shop, and food-delivery tips. 

Oh, and the trollies at the supermarket, which require a pound coin to unlock. 

I’ve never seen such trollies here in the States. 

You do get the coin back when you return the trolley. And if you don’t have a coin, there’s usually a desk by the entrance where you can pick up a token that does the same job. It does seem to have some effect on random trolley abandonment. Which always struck me as a sign of having no class. 

Cathy is “genuinely baffled.”

being an NPC who writes for, among other rubbish, Vice, she must spout the party line.

I’m coming to the conclusion that in sufficient numbers such women could be the downfall of civilisation. The immediate, signature hostility to anything, however necessary, that sounds insufficiently indulgent and generous, as they use the term. Which generally means someone else, someone who isn’t them, being imposed upon or footing the consequent bill.

And the apparent imperviousness to any contrary evidence, regardless of how glaringly obvious it is.

Cathy cares far less about “the losers” than do her critics. Very “progressive” of her.

Absolutely. There’s no in-group status to be had in pretending to care about them. Instead, she pretends to care about more exotic demographics.

See also Simon Schama.

And hey, no-one’s shitting on his doorstep.