• Des [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    you think even a semi-conscious government would recognize treats are the only glue holding the tattered remains of american "culture" and cohesion together and would have put a stop to this particular type of gouging (even if just the food sector) using the various tools available

    but nope. speedrun this thing lets do it. how about that supreme court case coming up about destroying the concept of unions being legal entities

    • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      People act as if "bread and circuses" was this scam the Roman Empire ran to keep the people as complacent sheeps or whatever, without realizing that being fed and being entertained are basically the only two things people care about, and that anyone who provides that is going to avoid collapse

      The Roman Empire didn't fall because it tried to keep everyone placated with bread and circuses, it fell because it could no longer provide that stability to its people

      • Tunnelvision [they/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Yeah anytime someone mentions bread and circuses it’s always with the smug aura of “couldn’t be me, I’m too smart to be fooled like that” like bitch we’re in the YouTube comment section what the hell do you think the circus is?

    • ashinadash [she/her]
      ·
      9 months ago

      would have put a stop to this particular type of gouging

      Sorry nope, line go up.

  • HamManBad [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    It's ok comrades, Uncle Joe Biden has sent a strongly worded letter to corporate bosses to please stop with shrinkflation. We are saved biden-leftist

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      My favorite moment in politics lately was when a reporter asked the press secretary

      "Have you considered any actions other than "conversations""

      It was about Palestine but it applies to pretty much everything and boy howdy did that question piss off the press secretary. I'm pretty sure the official transcript included sputtering

      • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        One of the few things that brings me joy lately is knowing that Genocide Joe himself will likely die of old age without ever facing justice (aside from losing the election) but these little twerps like the press secretaries whose hands are just as covered in innocent blood will live long enough that we can get some payback, someday

  • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    Ngl the slop getting more expensive was a significant factor that got me to stop eating fast food. At least when it was cheap I could tell myself there was a benefit to the garbage I was eating, but even the "deals" stopped being worth it.

    • Evilbunbun [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      9 months ago

      Yeah the fast food staples like wendys, taco bell, mickey ds etc have pretty much lost the purpose of “cheap”

      Id rather just spend an extra 2 bucks and go somewhere fast casually like Qdoba or something. Or Sandwich places (jersey mikes da best)

  • KhanCipher [none/use name]
    ·
    9 months ago

    >4 food items

    >$25

    That's only true if you buy the items individually which seems to be very common with how many people i overhear the order of in the drive thru.

    But I know for a fact that you can get a cheesy gordita crunch, beefy 5 layer, cheesy fiesta potatoes, and a medium (+$0.10 to make it a large) drink for $7 (in the taco bell app, it's the 'build your own cravings box'). Welcome to what I like to dub the "pizza place monetization scheme", where prices are inflated to shit and back unless you know or research the magic code and/or corporate advertises the magic code.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Not coming at you personally but I keep seeing this posted when people talk about fast food prices.

      It shouldn't take a dedicated app, advanced planning and signing away your rights to a class action lawsuit to not get charged $8 for 1 item of fast food slop

      It's like if somebody responded to a complaint about grocery prices with a link to that extreme couponing show and said they didn't know why people were complaining.

      Not that I'm trying to take fast food that seriously, just not eating the stuff is pretty easy when there isn't any of it for 40 miles in any direction but this slop was the closest thing to a creature comfort for a lot of people who are struggling.

      • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        This is true and the fact that you need to navigate a bunch of bullshit for an affordable meal seems like it also functions as an anti-homeless measure for the companies

    • Dessa [she/her]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I don't want fast food dlc. I just want a fucking taco

    • Raebxeh
      ·
      9 months ago

      What’s the name of that TikTok guy who gets paid to share food discount codes but acts like they’re secrets and bugs that the company forgot to fix?

    • Smeagolicious [they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      i didn't know about the build a box shit, that's new tech to me. I always just got dollar menu items previously

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]
    ·
    9 months ago

    Biden ameria is what Happened...... the rise in food pri ces, the defunding of police, the unemployment, sending our taxes to fund Hunter's war against Putin in Ukraine.... it's all apart of The communist agenda.

          • Dessa [she/her]
            ·
            9 months ago

            I remember believing that. Then I saw the Democratic party cheat and gaslight the public into thinking theres any real democracy in their primary.

            It's Joever, dude. Democracy is dead

              • Dessa [she/her]
                ·
                9 months ago

                That's an assumption you've made, and its not factual. It's a supposition of fact that you shpuld treat with appropriate skepticism

                  • oregoncom [he/him]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    That's why in nature all organism live forever instead of creating an entirely new organism to propagate their genetic line. Why waste all the resources on reproduction when you can make the original organism live forever. It's that simple!

                      • oregoncom [he/him]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        Your attempts at sounding smug just make me feel bad for you. You're like the verbal version of those robots that can barely walk getting hit with sticks over and over again and struggling to stand back up. Go back to reddit. You're clearly distressed by the fact that you've stepped outside your echo chamber.

                          • oregoncom [he/him]
                            ·
                            9 months ago

                            99% of the time poorly socialized r*dditors like you make up the majority and people like us are the minority. It's pretty obvious that this is the first time you've ever been anything other than the majority and it's very distressing to you.

              • Tunnelvision [they/them]
                ·
                9 months ago

                it will always be easier to engage in what already exists.

                Yes, that’s why everyone in this thread is explaining to you why that’s bad.

                • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  michael-laugh exactly! It is super easy to just vote. But it doesn't change anything. Doing easy things are not going to fix anything

          • oregoncom [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            You: "I disagree with Ogodei Khan's's policies and the Mongol Empire is collapsing on multiple fronts, if only we declare Kublai Khan the Great Khan at the Kurultai then the true will of the people will prevail and the empire will be cured!"

              • Dessa [she/her]
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                at our current rate of economic and ecological breakdown we don’t really have the time or resources to form a better structure.

                Which is why we need to do a slow incrementalism by voting?

                  • Dessa [she/her]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    And this is achieved through voting how? We need a radical in the white house by november.

                      • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        This is the root of the issue that has allowed the current system to be so corrupt

                        The system is not corrupt. The system in the US is working 100% as intended. The root of the system is capitalism. This us what living under capital is. You can't change anything unless you understand the problem.

                        You want to blame the least powerful people in society for not vote ing hard enough, instead of looking first at the most obvious thing we should consider - how all resources are extracted, produced, and distributed in society and what that means for evetything else

                      • Tunnelvision [they/them]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        This is what I don’t understand with people like you. The upper class holds all the cards and shits on everyone else, but supposedly it’s the lower classes fault for being shit on? Why is it their fault?

                  • oregoncom [he/him]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Let me paraphrase what you said for you:

                    "I will eat shit forever because the people forcefeeding me shit taught me that any alternative involves me eating shit AND drinking piss"

              • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                9 months ago

                it’s easier to fix the system than replace it.

                If we can’t even decide on basic shit like “is the earth warming at a rate that is hostile to life” how are we supposed to form a new cohesive government? It’s going to be hard enough electing decent people to any structure you can think of.

                You yourself are making our point for why liberal democracy cannot fix itself. We can't form a "cohesive government" as you say within this system. That's why its necessary for this system to end.

                You will never be able to elect "decent people" because you, us, the people do not have a say in who they get to vote for. This government does not exist for us, and it is not a democracy for us. And it never will be, until the power of capital is broken

                  • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    how are you going to protect this revolution from the next one?

                    There's an entire intellectual tradition about this called Marxism-Leninism. There are successful Marxist-Leninist governments that exist right now, including the largest nation on earth. We aren't aren't talking about a fantasy here, there is is over a hundred years of paractice and two hundred of theory, if you're interested in our worldview

                    As you said, the government doesn’t work for us. I don’t know of any structure that truly does

                    Liberal democracy does not work for us - as in the people who are not in the ruling class. That isn't because of some immutable characteristic of all governments, it is by the design of the US government and all liberal democracies.

                    They were designed by and to work to the benefit of the ruling class - capitalists. That's why it doesn't work for us. Thats the key element and that's what we advocate for a change of. The only way to change things in through class struggle - and placing power in the hands of our class.

                    But the alternative is anarchy, and that’s not going to work either.

                    We have anarchists here and we keep the place non-sectarian. MLs would agree but not for the same reasons as you. Our disagreement is that we need the power of a state to safeguard the gains of a revolution against the global capitalist class and their state forces. Anarchists have a different view, but they understand the importance of revolutionary class struggle and disagreements aside, their theory of change is infinitely more grounded in reality than yours

                      • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        China is the most obvious one, but Cuba, DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR did very well until it lost its conflict with the US.

                        You're probably going to say some dumb shit like China isnt really communist, which shows you don't know what you're talking about, or maybe some other westoid propaganda talking point about muh authoritarianism. If that's what you've got don't bother.

                        You probably don't consider these countries "successful" for some reason based on US propaganda. Great, we've all heard it and know its bullshit.

                        If you want to pretend that China is not currently the most successful nation on earth, the world's largest democracy, and led by a Marxist Leninist party, cool. Most of the west likes to pretend that shit to. It doesn't change reality, and no one here wants to hear about your lib fantasy world

                  • Dessa [she/her]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Corruption is a fundamental problem of any system of governance, and it reaches a point where the only route to defeat it is to kill the fucking cheats who set it up.

                    Voting is nit going to fix a system that has intentionally broken voting to invalidate you. Only revolution can do that.

                      • Dessa [she/her]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        Why bother trying to do anything ever if everything we do is doomed?

                          • Dessa [she/her]
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            9 months ago

                            Okay, so we're in the same place. Replacing the current system with something better may get corrupted, but so may status quo. So has status quo.

                            We don't want revolution because we think everything would perfect and incorruptible in that future, but because a fresh start affords us aon opportunity to reflect upon our foundational mistakes and do build something great from the ground up.

                            And this is how it works with any project. Sometimes the movie isnt coming together and fixing costs more than starting over. Sometimes your drawing has fundamental issues that can't be fixed by small tweaks, and entire sections or pieces need to be cleared or restarted afresh.

                            Trying to fix this system certainly is a thing you can try, and many people here have. I spent 35-odd years of my life as a diehard Democrat. I caucused locally and helped my mayor get elected. I didn't come to my position today from a lack of consideration. I think we'd all prefer this shit to be fixed as easily as possible, and no good marxist is under the impression that revolutions are simple, painless things to attempt.

                            Being liberal is about keeping an open mind, yeah? Like openmindedness is a central principle to modern liberal political philosophy. Keep that energy. Let your mind be open to what the left suggests. I'm not under the impression I can talk you into leftism, but it doesnt hurt you to consider what the left has to offer to your personal philosophy

                  • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    What's sad is that you think you're the one being realistic, when your theory of change is complete fantasy.

                    What we're talking about has been done and accomplished before and exists in the real world, including the largest nation on earth. What you're talking about has never happened

                      • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        People's Republic of China. Worlds largest democracy. Largest manufacturing nation - poised to be world's largest economy. Seems pretty successful

                      • Wakmrow [he/him]
                        ·
                        9 months ago

                        Can you name an example of capitalism working

                      • Tunnelvision [they/them]
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        9 months ago

                        The Soviet Union lasted for decades and at the time was on the cutting edge of science, math, industry, social sciences etc and became the second leading superpower only 20 years after forming. Pretty successful if you ask me. It took the US over 100 years to do anything similar.

                        Then there’s China which is looking to be even more successful than that.

          • D61 [any]
            ·
            9 months ago

            "Who am I supposed to vote for Ben, Aquaman?"

          • sharedburdens [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            9 months ago

            be more aware of who the people we cast votes for and what they’re beholden to, but that’s not sexy enough for hexbear users.

            They're all bloodthirsty zionists and neocons

      • oregoncom [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        People are clowning on you because of the naive electoralism and because you come from a reddit-logo instance but you're not completely wrong. You just need to go a step further and realize that what the system is doing now is what it was designed to do. Working within it is not going to get you anywhere. Also the guy you're replying to is joking.

        • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          9 months ago

          You just need to go a step further and realize that what the system is doing now is what it was designed to do

          That's the key thing with all well meaning lib arguements. They believe their system is broken, when in fact its working perfectly and it was never their system to begin with

            • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              It’s broken for the people.

              It’s working for those in power.

              Thats how liberal democracy is intended to work you fucking lib shit!!!!!!

              That's what i just said and you read and you still don't get it, because you don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about

              echo chamber

              No communist in the west lives in an echo chamber. We hear your view - the fatalistic lib, capitalist realism veiw everywhere. You literally live in an echo chamber - its called the US, the most propagandized nation on earth

                • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  9 months ago

                  I have no clue what any of that means. I think its some kind of nerd way to say "no u" with a little emoji to show how not big mad you are right now. Go back to reddit

                    • Tunnelvision [they/them]
                      ·
                      edit-2
                      9 months ago

                      You ever notice how maybe only a handful of countries have ever reformed their way out of corruption and tyranny in human history, but a vast majority of nations have had a better chance at that through revolution?

                      I don’t need to convince you of my point history shows us that when the chips are down for the masses, the best way to stop it is to start lobbing off upper class heads. You’re the one that has to convince the rest of us that it isn’t necessary and that the upper class would willingly allow us to out vote them.

                • Tunnelvision [they/them]
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Damn I really thought we could have saved this one 😔

                  🎶Don’t save her, she don’t wanna be saved, don’t save her she don’t wanna be saved🎶

            • Poison_Ivy [comrade/them]
              ·
              9 months ago

              Dont worry comrade ill make sure to vote for Hillary Clinton in this election since you people got mad at me for not doing so in 2016

          • oregoncom [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            The software you're using was written by a communist lmao. Lemmy was just us and Lemmygrad/lemmy.ml for years before you rddit NPCs decided to freak out over some rddit bullshit and make a thousand reddit clones. Now every once in a while we get to see you basement dwellers accidentally walk outside your echo chamber and freak out.

          • Maoo [none/use name]
            ·
            9 months ago

            everyone else

            15 liberals that couldn't put an original thought together to save their lives.

          • oregoncom [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            I don’t really care, it doesn’t make them any more right 🤣

            rage-cry

            ^ you right now.

      • Maoo [none/use name]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Get a load of this lib.

        Congress functions to serve the owner class and has for its entire existence. It started out serving, exclusively, white land-owning men as part of a slave nation.

        It will not do anything else, ever. It is baked in and will only stop doing so when the owner class itself is subjugated, something that will only happen via revolution. It would be nice if that wasn't necessary and the ruling class could just let their power get voted out, but we don't have the luxury of such fantasies.

      • sharedburdens [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        The only fix? Voting harder? You're really tipping your hand when it comes to your total lack of imagination or investment in actually improving things.

  • StellarTabi [none/use name]
    ·
    9 months ago

    tacobell really jacked up their prices recently tho. lots of dollar things are now 2,3,4 etc.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Yea as much as we're dunking on this it really is the thing that gets the vast majority of Americans to actually start thinking in terms of materialism.

    • D61 [any]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Dollar menu

      Dollar(s) menu

      • edge [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        $6 for way too many calories worth of crunchwrap, burrito, potatoes, and a drink still seems pretty good to me. That's like two and a half meals if you have self control.

  • Egon
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    deleted by creator

  • poppy_apocalypse [he/him, any]
    ·
    9 months ago

    i bought 2 chalupa supremes yesterday. Cashier said $13.45. I was like, "Not the combo, just the chalupas." Not to long ago 13 bucks would feed a family at taco bell. It's getting ridiculous.

  • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    My mystery flavor five for a buck ramen from the dollar store got 10% smaller a month ago. I'm furious. It's how I keep the lights on while feeding the kids real food.

    It's also technically vegan ramen? Or at least, I can't identify any animal products in the chemical soup on the label. Oh well, I'll keep eating that slop.

  • theposterformerlyknownasgood
    ·
    9 months ago

    This is a hexbear thread about food, as such I shall not be reading it. A curse upon all your houses.

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
    ·
    9 months ago

    These people complain about inflation when the real problem is low/stagnant real wages.

    • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      I think people in the US have been conditioned to expect low inflation forever, because inflation was concentrated on assets and large expenditures like Health, Education, Housing and so on. It's cultural inertia, really. Down here we are 30 years removed from a hyperinflation crisis, so even media discourse considers wether or not the minimal wage rises above or according to inflation. We also have all the problems you have, like shrinkflation and lowering quality of foodstuffs. And arguably ours are worse. But the discourse of 'what happened, I used to be able to buy a penny' is never done with the implication that inflation itself is simply wrong for existing.

      • Florn [they/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        You might be overthinking it. Most people call any increase in price "inflation" and leave it at that.

        • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          What I'm saying is that the way americans talk about inflation feels dramatic and sheltered. If I didn't know any better I'd think americans simply have 0 inflation, but I know it's confined to costs of living which the government doesn't subsidize. Ie, anything but cars and gas. It's all very

          Show

          • Dessa [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            9 months ago

            Homeless population is exploding. I guess in a literal sense, we're accustomed to being sheltered, but I don't see what's dramatic about economic insecurity from stagnant wages and rising prices. "I am genuinely at risk of sleeping under a bridge" seems like a rational fear to me.

            • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]
              ·
              9 months ago

              I remember growing up and watching a foreign movie from the US and finding it strange that families would do grocery shopping on a weekly basis. That felt like such a waste of gas. It was later that I realized that our own culture of monthly shopping arose after the periods of hyperinflation, especially due to the Volcker Shock in the 80s. There's a lot of small ways in which long term economic prospects shape our culture at large. And unlike what some romantic writers seem to think, American optimism is not inherent to people in the US. It's something that came into being out of historical circumstances.

              I don't think american decline or even it's relative decline is written on stone. But if the post 80s libertarian policies aren't reversed, I can see a traumatic situation akin to that of Britain's stagnation. A total cultural shock. As a foreigner that's what I'm seeing. People surprised at shrinkflation, inflation and even older boomers shocked that the baseline welfare state they voted out of existence does not, indeed, exist any more. This isn't a criticism mind you. I think we here at the periphery are so used to rational fears, as you put it, that we normalize these things.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Wage growth is totally dogshit but that's been true for 30 years. This inflation stuff really is fucking crazy. You can barely walk out of a grocery store for less than $60. Everything has gone up damn near 50% in the last two years between prices going up and pirti9ns of literally everything going down.

      Enshitificiation really is in full swing.

      • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Yea, i meant, low real wages. If inflation is 10% and wages increase 20% thats still good. but in this case there is no counter to inflation in form of increase in wages.

    • oregoncom [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      it's a regular American hard shell taco with somehting resembling naan bread wrapped around it for some reason.

      • SpiderFarmer [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        I've made this at home with better ingedients+the taco bell sauce they sell in groceries. It absolutely slaps. If you're gonna mock Mexican cuisine, may as well commit.

        • oregoncom [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          I think people are just confused by what Mexican dish a "taco bell gordita" is even supposed to be emulating.

          • D61 [any]
            ·
            9 months ago

            Its the "flat tire repair kit" for a failing hard taco...

        • crispy_lol [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Tortilla a protein and onion lime and cilantro you got urself a fine supper