u/Jafishya

Almost 2 weeks ago, I went shopping. Got mainly staple foods like chicken, beans, rice, ETC. Where I diverted from the usual process was when I got a good look at grocery proces. Goddamn, they were high as heck. So, I decided I had enough of relying on dubiously processed, pre-packaged snacks, and that I'd instead buy *healthy ingredients* to make *healthy food*. What a dick.

So here I am, eating a giant salad with chicken, squash, and other bits and bobs which is admitedly pretty delicious. That said, I was like 45 bites in and still hungry. Crazy. Lame. Bullshieeieueieit. I was starving, and after like 45 minutes of effort (prep and chewing like a goat), I can't tell if I'm full or just tired of chewing.

Now, let us consider the noble cheeseburger. It's like 20 bites, maximum, and it only takes up to the 4th bite to feel full. It's small, heck, you could put it in your pocket if you wanted to, and it gives so much more energy. The cheeseburger really is peak efficiency.

-The US spraying glypohsate on its forests.

- drawing back enviornmental protections.

- denying climate change.

- not at all caring about the water supply.

- not caring that AI data centers are raising local temperatures by *multiple degrees, devistating nearby wildlife and local enviornmental lifecycles of everything alive*

- Moving toward selling public lands, exploiting and destroying natural spaces (which would historically become a rescource when people couldn't rely on the government/market)

- "evicting" buffalo (an echo of the extermination of bison in the late 19th century as a deliberate policy to destroy the economic base of Plains Indians, the so-called "lesser" populace at the time.

- Raising market costs, including fuel, food, materials, lumber.

- Disproportionate wages, crap job market.

- automated industries (The real "they took er jerbs!", blaming immigrants instead)

- incredible amounts of food waste, defunding programs to support farmers, and things like market cost and gas prices resulting in no food in local stores and hiking prices.

It basically feels like a system meant to not support *us*, and gradually take away things that would support us outside of being wrung out for capitalistic gains. As the wage gap increases, the more we're coming to rely on the little bit that we could afford. Because the natural and ecological supports we had as people for thousands of years is becoming increasingly scarce, *not* having cash becomes more detrimental. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer jobs are created, old industries are dying, and newer industries are relying on less manpower. (And everything's costing so much more??)

Essentially, there's less and less room for *us* and the rich elites are becoming less dependent on people like us to keep things functioning. "No longer relying on the little guy", I say at the risk of sounding like a 70's tradeaman (who, for all intents and purposes, was *not* wrong).

To wrap this up: I call it a tinfoil had theory because it *does* sound ridiculous. I'm getting it off my chest because the more time passes the more real it's starting to feel. I'm autistic and an analyst by trade. Patterns, tracking, and analyses are kind of my whole bag.