my personal definition of it is this: a non-essential (or classified essential, but over-the-top, exotic, extravagant, and/or inefficient for the purposes of fulfilling human need) commodity that has an unfortunate capital-T Tendency (as in, the TPRF in which it applies without fail) of being invoked in political discussions, almost always making said discussions objectively worse.
A sub-classification of treats, which I wish more people would directly invoke instead of using the broader term since it's funnier to me, is the 'adventures': escapist, less-than-nuanced fantasies that are, without fail, invoked by people to explain complex political issues.
Any additions? Disagreements? we must synthesize this before it becomes the new tankie in watered-down 'thing i dislike' applicability.
if it's in the very top set of maslow's hierarchy of needs, it must not be invoked in the politic in issues that don't specifically regard it and its domain, lest thyne cringepost
T minus 5 minutes until a liberal uses it to refer to poor people being worried by high gas prices. "Oh the Trumpkins miss their treats now that their buddy Putin has started a war 💅🏻🙄⛽"
the weird urbanist socdems will introduce it to the libs with an "heh, chuds, if you don't like your treats going up maybe take a train? conveniently ignores the crumbling public transport infrastructure in america" and then the libs will say "sweaty if you don't like the treats going up get an electric luxury treat, it's eco-friendly too 😉" and then
the nuclear sirens will start blaring and we will embrace the warming hellfire over the frozen hell we live in nowjoe biden will say it and pelosi will clap :amerikkka-clap:Heading to my treat-shelter to preserve my treat-body from treat-annihilation.
if my treat-shelter does not have the adventures i like i will take my business elsewhere immediately
those sirens are pretty funny, just like the aveenger when the sovolkonomoronova or nu-York is blown up by the bad man :so-true:
Reminds me that everyone's gonna survive the nuclear war by going into their basement or something, and then they'll get tired of not being able to play video games and eat candy, and leave the shelter to go on a wasteland adventure, and then die in a couple days from radiation exposure. But they'll keep going out anyways.
March 24th, 2035: Man found dead outside the Walmart(r)-cum-Proud Boys Headquarters in Los Angeles, death judged to be due to radiation overexposure without proper PPE. Last tweet from the man, two days before death, reads: "i'm going to be like the courier!"