Boutique Suffering
In the comments, Pst314 and Dicentra steer us to new realms of niche woe:
In which, Ms Taylor Lorenz, an “online culture journalist,” struggles with causality. Including the seemingly difficult concept that a heavy reliance on delivered takeaway, and the mindset that implies, may have some bearing on how little cash one has left at the end of the month. And so, via some contortion, we arrive at the conceit that preparing a simple meal, even a packed lunch, is a physical impossibility for those deemed downtrodden.
Readers may note that, during the exchange, the more excuses that Ms Lorenz conjures into being, the more she pretends to care, the less she sounds like an actual person so much as a weird programme that’s been left running.
Despite Ms Lorenz’s pretence of cosmopolitan expertise, there’s no sense at any point in the exchange that the topic has actually been thought about, autonomously, poked at from various angles. Her mouthings merely suggest someone who’s memorised some pre-approved excuses for suboptimal behaviour. I don’t believe that any actual thinking has taken place.
Instead, there’s a sense that Ms Lorenz has merely recalled the mouth sounds that will denote some fashionable stance, an approved position, one selected well in advance of any mental activity.
Should any occur.
Update, via the comments:
Chow Bag adds,
When not dining out, that is.
At risk of sounding insufficiently sensitive, I’d suggest that if your life is so disorganised that you use delivered-to-the-door takeaway services for the bulk of your meals, week after week, in ways you cannot afford, then the problem, the actual problem, is your being so disorganised.
Readers will note how Ms Lorenz has to add implausible and contradictory complications to bolster her assertion.
And so, not only are these weirdly incompetent young people all working double shifts, every day, every week, but they’re also elderly and disabled and unable to operate a hob or reach for kitchen utensils. And they’re so pressed for time, so downtrodden, that they can afford to spend half of their food budget on dining out in restaurants.
As one does.
I doubt it’s ever occurred to Ms Lorenz that, by excusing foolish behaviour and the habitual displacement of responsibility, by encouraging the cultivation of victimhood, she’s making poverty more likely, and more likely to persist.
Her supposedly compassionate philosophy, such as it is, seems to be, “Carry on doing that really stupid thing. Just remember to blame other people for your own bewildering choices.”
Ms Lorenz has subsequently restricted who may reply to her assertions.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
It’s amazing what I managed to learn with nothing more high tech than paper books and chalk boards: differential equations, chemistry, geology and paleontology, electromagnetic theory, quantum mechanics, special and general relativity.
But shouldn’t that be blacks and liberals and teachers union cronies?
“Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.”
Yes indeed. I remember Mom’s bacon grease canister. Likewise eating the heels–peanut butter made them tastier.
I can afford various luxuries now, but still have a “do I really need that?” attitude, and tend to hang on to stuff because it still has some wear left in it or it might come in useful some day. Some of my Goodwill donations could have been made 20 years ago except that I hung on to them “just in case”, LOL.
[ Checks tomorrow’s Ephemera for mortifying typos, clicks schedule. ]
Raises eyebrows.
[thinks about the linen closet shelf where old t-shirts, repurposed to cleaning rags, sit]
Like crumpets, baked potatoes are a pretext for ingesting vast quantities of butter.
As all God-fearing people should.
Cargo cult.
Or post hoc ergo propter hoc if you want to be fancy.
Home-made or delivery app?
[ Indignantly shakes large potato at screen. ]