What are your favorite brands and why?
Ew. No. With the prices of everything presently, I have no favorite nor any sense of brand loyalty. I am NOT giving free advertising for this horseshit. So buckle up, because any one of these points is a massive post in its own, and it’s worth putting all together.
We are all getting price gouged and poorer, so why would we like any of it? It’s like “pick your favorite item to be shoved up your ass”, and the selection is varieties of cacti and spiked dildos. Firstly, we are all free to put whatever we want consensually up any asshole – full stop. Enjoy yourself and live your best life, man, no judgements here. We all do weird shit with asses, ya know? Personally, I don’t like any things shoved up my ass, it’s an exit only zone, so no, I will not pick my favorite ass cactus.
No corporation or brand gives a shit about me or you, so why would we have any affinity for them?
Any brand I would reference as a favorite is merely a result of successful marketing strategies, more than anything else. It’s far more about manipulating than marketing anymore anyway, the words are interchangeable.
So, what, pick my favorite manipulation? Mmm, no. Who paid for this prompt, I’d like to know.
I fucking went to Walmart yesterday and yet again got not much for a lot of money. It was even less shit than before, yet again cost more. I fucking hate Walmart, but there I was because I have to provide food and whatnot for people who are growing and eating lots, and there is a lot of shit I can’t afford anymore. So, please, don’t think I’m speaking from some high and mighty, organic space of all my shit is humanely purchased and nobody is enslaved to make my ____. We are all in this cesspool together, and I do not judge my fellow peoples, just the pieces of shit hurting us all by forgoing their humanity for money.
Has anybody tasted Kraft Mac n cheese lately? It’s disgusting. There’s no flavor now. Just harmful chemicals, noodles, and wondering how I paid 10x the price for 1/10th the taste, so I’ll just make my own and never buy it again. Less chemicals and cardboard. I guess.
There are some brands I don’t like the generics, but with today’s fucking prices? We don’t need it, so I don’t buy it. No loyalty, and fuck you, I will not pay exorbitant prices for worsening quality and shrinking quantity. I’m a monetary mercenary, idgaf.
The prices I’m bitching about aren’t inflation; we all know it is corporate greed, we have all seen the bonuses and paychecks the CEOs are pulling in (if you’re not too busy working 6 jobs to afford to be broke, in constant survival mode, and have time to see any of this shit…)
And it gets dumber. Because now corporations have learned to monetize our attention and outrage.
Do you really think Bud Light gives a flying fuck about anybody’s rights, or do you think they saw a way to make more money? Do you think Kid Rock actually drinks Bud Light?!?! He’s a fucking brand, not a person! He grew up in a rich family, in a massive house with his wealthy father who owned multiple car dealerships. If he’s straight out the trailer (he isn’t) I assure you, it’s a fucking bougie one. (That he bought as a publicity stunt after becoming famous). We all know publicity, trending, and manufacturing outrage is just free advertising and ways to get more money from us, and yet how many do exactly what they’re supposed to like the puppets with pockets we are seen to be.
What, Google/Alphabet just laid off thousands of us while Sundar Pichai took home $226M. Does he need that much, and wouldn’t any percentage of that been helpful to keep people employed? This dude and so many others have made so much money off our data and attention, it is sickening, and yet how many tech companies are laying people off? It’s so weird too, how it coincided with the Fed/JPOW remarking that increased unemployment will ease inflation, eh? It’s almost like this shit works together…?
Do I still Google shit? Yes, but I try very fucking hard to use Ecosia for every search and plant a tree. But their Goldblum image search and a lot of others leave a lot to be desired. But I still try as much as I can when I can to make any choice that is better than most of the shitty defaults we’re presented.
There are so many paydays and golden parachutes happening while I practically vomit every time I’m supposed to pay for something, and generally have less money to do anything else with. I know that’s not a me thing, that’s a we thing.
Hell, how many millions did the execs get while their banks are failing, and our tax dollars are supposed to help? Why?! If I fuck shit up, I have to fix it, why do I have to fix anything for somebody who has exponentially more money than I do? We certainly don’t get multimillion dollar bonuses when we fuck up, if that were the case, this post would be a one paragraph Ode to Oreos or some shit. And yet we’re all gonna argue about student loans?? If everybody has to pay their debts, why don’t we start highest to lowest, and I’ll talk to ya in a century or so about my $40k, okay? That’s not socialism, that’s basic fucking accounting and credit collections!
Who cares, right? If we’re all too broke to do or buy shit, we can give them more ad revenues while we scroll, depressed, isolated, and still serve our purpose continuing to make somebody else richer.
God, Marvel has been quantity versus quality since Disney ruined it bought it and made themselves an even bigger monopoly. You can’t even enjoy movies, right? It cost like 200 bucks to see Guardians and Ant Man, and come the fuck on. I’ll rant on that in another post, this is already too long and I’m barely getting started, and arguing with fanboys just… not right now.
Hang in there friend.
All these asshats have more money than any of us know what to do with. Yet here so many of us are, if we’re doing okay, you get the privilege of shit choice after shit choice. You try to go out to eat bc it’s supposed to be a nice treat. Yet, it was almost 20 bucks for chicken tenders for my kid at a restaurant we like, and they tasted like dogshit. They were gristly, full of fat, not really chicken. Fun!
So much shit is simply not worth it anymore! And cool story bro, with your first world problem…but it’s not just the nice to haves, it’s fucking everything! There are so many people who don’t even have potable fucking water, food, or a house in our first world problem corporation country!!
But just sticking with nice to haves…Has anybody else noticed how much more fat is in meats? Bacon sucks anymore!! It’s like, barely any meat now, it is all fat, but 2x the price it used to be. Lunchmeat: over $10/lb and the meats are all marbled with visible fat now. I’m not talking Waygu, I’m talking ham and bologna. It used to be a cheap sammie to fill tummies, now it costs $20 to put fatty ham and processed cheese product on smaller bread slices. PB and J it is y’all!
The quality in basically anything you can list has gone waaayy down, yet the prices keep going waaayyy up. Wages stay stagnant, and advertising ramps up to try and get us to hand over more of our money. Cost of living, cost of housing, cost of gas’ing – everything is going up, as we are spiraling down.
We all get the privilege of being broke, miserable and stressed. Struggling to make shit work that worked fine before more profits came before more people.
People argue against raising wages or providing any kind of support for somebody making tens of thousands of dollars a year, but if you make incomprehensible millions or billions, you get tax breaks, and whatever else you want. And it’s totally cool? How does that math work?
Employees, meanwhile, are being treated worse and worse, and yet people argue against collective bargaining and unions to try and make anybody’s life a bit better. And that’s not mentioning the folks that are basically slaves in countries we don’t think about because that’s their problem.
Fuck, it’s not like they’re just robbing us blind to line their pockets. We’re being abused, poisoned and killed for profit! Look how many American foods aren’t sold in other countries bc of chemicals they contain or whatever else. And look how comfy the FDA is to any pharma or other massive corporation that bribes them funds their own “non-biased” research.
Which makes sense, cause they practically own governments and everybody else. They’re not even publicly shamed for underpaying employees, profiting in massive quantities from their labor, proliferating problems and poverty. They show their faces in public and get praised more than anything. They’re celebrated for….winning capitalism, I guess? The fuck?
In my area, Musk gets tax free this and that, while the infrastructure cannot support any of it because there’s no taxes for the rich dude who literally holds the Guinness record for losing more money than anybody else. Why can’t he pay to support the roads, housing, public services, etc. to make the expansion of my area at least semi-logical and manageable? While my kids are at super overcrowded schools because of the population boom, this fuckface lost more money with Twitter and stonks and whatever else he’s manipulating that my state could use in tax revenue to build appropriate infrastructure. But let’s give the poor guy a break. He’s earned it probably bribed somebody.
This continues to not be a red or blue thing, because all of them take their bribes campaign contributions. Both sides keep working for the profits, not the people.
How can anybody blame somebody who is just getting by versus the people who are taking almost everything and leaving just enough for all of us to fight over? Does somebody really not deserve food stamps? Unemployment? Welfare? Insurance? Are they the ones who need to do better, really?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask the dude who is buying all our farmlands to actually feed people instead of profit off or experiment on them? It’s not like he can’t afford it…
How can any of us be okay with the disparity? What is the difference between the shit we got going and feudalism?
Look how Nestle has literally killed African babies by getting their mothers to use formula instead of breast milk and when they can’t afford to buy the formula…sucks for you kiddo – but make sure you vote for life at the polls!!! And that’s just the one on the top of my head.
Look at Bezos and the conditions we all know people are working in to bring us shit from Amazon quickly or to make the shit Amazon brings quickly.
Look at Tim Cook/Steve Jobs, and their money versus the fucking nets they put outside of Foxconn to stop the people who are building phones just like the one I am typing on from killing themselves!!!!
Keep looking at Musk and what he did to all the human beings working at Twitter, how many injuries are happening/underreported, shit working conditions at Telsa…and that is funny somehow because a billionaire can totally ruin thousands of lives and an entire platform if he wants, as long as his Tweets are amusing and he pumps and dumps crypto or Bezos flies a penis in the sky, or they toss some money at a charity?
What are you gonna do about it, right? Oh and sure [this name] does [this good thing] Sundar Pichai has put millions to a cause near and dear to me: bipolar research. Gates and his vaccines, which may or may not be helpful or harmful, depending on the batch and who you’re asking I guess. There’s a few people with polio after getting vaccinated against polio that may not feel so philanthropized. Uncomfortable facts do not make conspiracy theories. There do tend to be truths that give veracity and credence to shit we don’t like, and conspiracy theories just serve their purpose of distracting us from the kernels. Musk and I guess Bezos are getting us into space and I agree that ceasing space exploration would spell the collective doom for humanity, but Jesus Christ, humanity would be a lot fucking better if these psychopaths and sociopaths would just start with taking care of their employees and fellow man even a scoche much as they take care of themselves before venturing off to the great unknowns.
Literally, how much mental illness can be abetted if people just had their basics met? How much poverty can be eradicated with true living wages? How much illness can be eased with proper medical care that is actually affordable? In this day and age, with all of our technologies and resources, why should any human being be hungry? Exist in survival mode? Fundraise lifesaving medical treatments??? Die of preventable or treatable disease?
This is no different than the fucking robber barons, who invented the corporate philanthropy bullshit to whitewash them from being the pieces of shit they are! Who cares what you donate if you’re putting your employees and so many others in poverty?!
And it works!!! Look how people talk!!!Philanthropy, my ass. It’s more like legalized money laundering! It’s not charity if it is used as a loophole to make or keep more money! Looking at you Clinton Foundation and all your great works, multi millionaire Brett Favre stealing welfare from folks (guess Wrangler ain’t as comfy as TANF, eh?) and so so so many more….
So, why the fuck would I have a favorite brand? If anything, I should be boycotting as much as I can, and buying as little as possible, and I do try. Sometimes, it is just fucking easier to go to Amazon, you know? It’s just… anymore it’s like pick something and hope you’re not supporting the murder, torture, or mistreatment of innocent people somewhere while also trying to keep up with any facet of your own life, tread water, barely make it, and tell yourself it’s cool.
I just don’t want somebody to suffer so I can wipe my ass with plusher toilet paper or eat too many Oreos and feel guilty, get a fucking coffee at Starbucks and not feel like a piece of shit. Is that so much to ask?
Sure, there are brands and corporations doing good. Like I said, Ecosia is a search engine that needs improving and plants trees every time you search. I’d rather plant a tree than a penny for Sundar. Maybe I can’t do it all the time, but I can do it as much as I can. There’s that one CEO who stopped taking a paycheck and pays everybody $70k. There’s brands that donate actual percentages to charities and it isn’t a way to get a tax write off with your cash. This should be the rule, not the exception, and it shouldn’t be a fucking morality test to buy chocolate milk!!!!!
I don’t have a solution per se, but I do think more of us waking up to this bullshit, looking around, and getting noisy can at least make the keepers nervous. More of us not paying attention to the manufactured outrage and bullshit. More of us getting off these platforms of foment and division, no comments, no shares, no attention. Like with anything, don’t pay attention to or pay for shit you don’t want.
If something is tugging at your emotions, it’s also overriding your logic, and somebody is profiting. We do get to choose who we profit, and we do need to ask who we’re profiting. As best we can. This needs to be the rule, not the exception too.
There are certainly lots of people that have said “fuck this” and started growing their own food or living off grid. But, I want my creature comforts. There’s so much fucking money, there’s no reason any of us can’t have the lives we want. Christ, you can’t eat paper anyway!!!
If a lot of us get a lot more pissed, and start talking to one another, I don’t know what can happen, but I do know the manufactured and monetized outrage is dividing many while making a few very rich, and the rest very poor- in cash, critical thinking, and quality of life. Does it really matter which side of the toilet any of us are on if we’re all collectively, constantly getting a shit filled swirlie? Does a red turd taste better than a blue? Does it taste better trademarked or marked down?
Incremental change IS the way to change, and small things do have great power! None of us are anywhere near as powerless as we’ve been generally brainwashed to believe. So yeah, sure, this shit sucks, but that’s when people start making actual changes. Intolerable always becomes intolerable, enough, no more. Look at all the revolutions in the past, it’s generally poor people getting sick of rich people, and killing them basically. And I’m not advocating trending guillotines. Cutting more cords, not heads perhaps.
None of us need Oreos, Nestle, Amazon, Google, Facebook, [insert brand name here] to survive.
But every single one of them, and every single multimillionaire CEO needs us to give them our money, time, and attention. Those golden parachutes do not make themselves. So who is the real freeloader here??? And who actually has power?
Enough of us could take any corporation down simply with united ongoing efforts. It has happened before, but it’s not enough to hashtag it or change your profile pic.
We let ourselves be dumbed and numbed out of our humanity. There are many more humans than brands, CEOs, or purchased politicians. We – we the people – are very powerful and very stupid – just look at all the power we’ve abdicated and people we’ve made rich beyond our very comprehension…
And if you somehow made it this far, there’s a lot more hope than it seems, because awareness does actually change things. Knowing there is a problem is the first step to solving it, and I think more of this kinda shit can make a difference. (Just don’t give a bunch of money to organizations like Susan G Komen, so they can raise bullshit notions of awareness for breast cancer kinda and make their executives super rich, a lotta….sigh)
Mah Butt Itches 