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677 lines
88 KiB
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>12 September, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy</strong> - Is a controversial curriculum, entrenched in New York City’s public schools for two decades, finally coming undone? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-rise-and-fall-of-vibes-based-literacy">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mikhail Gorbachev, the Fundamentally Soviet Man</strong> - The last leader of the U.S.S.R. attempted to modernize and reform his country, even as he failed to imagine it as anything but an empire. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/mikhail-gorbachev-the-fundamentally-soviet-man">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Student-Debt Plan Could Chip Away at the Racial Wealth Gap</strong> - Loan forgiveness and other measures don’t solve the problem of rising tuition costs, but they could help some Black families start to catch up. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/bidens-student-debt-plan-could-chip-away-at-the-racial-wealth-gap">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ben Okri Reads “The Secret Source”</strong> - The author reads his story from the September 19, 2022, issue of the magazine. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/ben-okri-reads-the-secret-source">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mind Games at the U.S. Open Women’s Final</strong> - Along with their agility and power, Iga Świątek and Ons Jabeur brought to the court an openness about processing the pressures of the sport. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/mind-games-at-the-us-open-womens-final">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The Marxist scholar who thinks reparations are “a waste of time”</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A photo illustration shows a Black man, scholar Adolph Reed, in profile and smiling. In the background is another Black man with his face not visible, and over both, there are stripes of black and white, with scattered dark green stars, as from the US flag in different colors." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qVSeluWVFwX8EMuZ4tCz4Z97T4U=/225x0:1576x1013/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71355705/ReedFinal2.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Joan Wong for Vox
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Adolph Reed on why talk about reparations is counterproductive.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9iyQi3">
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The past decade has seen a <a href="https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2022/9/1/23330727/reparations-case-nkechi-taifa">resurgence of discussion about reparations</a> for slavery.<strong> </strong>But Marxist scholar Adolph Reed believes the reparations conversation is a “waste of time.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y8mv8Y">
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On the third episode of <a href="https://www.vox.com/23329372/reparations-could-heal-america">40 Acres, a special miniseries</a> of <em>Vox Conversations</em>, Reed, who has long pushed back against what he calls <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/adolph-reed-jr-the-perils-of-race-reductionism/">race reductionism</a> — the tendency to use only race to explain Black people’s life outcomes — told me that reparations wouldn’t address the societal inequalities it seeks to tackle.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gxf4IY">
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Reed, a political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, comes to this conversation as a member of the last age cohort for which Jim Crow was a lived experience. He recounts his upbringing in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and New Orleans in his new book <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3945-the-south"><em>The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives</em></a>. In the episode, Reed explains how the regime enforced racism and upheld white supremacy, defining the boundaries of his daily life, from what stores he could shop in to what rides he could get on at the amusement park.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cbe424">
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The fundamental purpose of Jim Crow, he said, was to secure and stabilize ruling class power. All Black people were unequal, but some were “more unequal and unprotected than others,” he wrote in the book. These differences in social position would shape Black politics after Jim Crow, Reed argues. He believes that Jim Crow, and not slavery, is the formative Black experience that has had the most impact on modern life.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5MlOmY">
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Yet despite the atrocities he experienced under what he calls the “petty apartheid” of Jim Crow, and the fact that most of his grandparents were born not much more than a generation away from slavery in the United States, Reed is not interested in reparations. Reparations would not address wealth disparities since the racial wealth gap only concerns people rich enough to accumulate wealth in the first place, Reed told me. Instead, policies that aren’t race-based, like increasing the minimum wage, would better serve Black Americans and include other Americans, too.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N62Vsp">
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And despite new <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/08/30/black-americans-views-on-reparations-for-slavery/">Pew research</a> showing that 77 percent of Black American adults support reparations, Reed insists that Black people are not interested in “elaborate programs of separate development,” as he wrote in the book.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pLN0TM">
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I talk to Reed about what it was like to grow up under a segregationist regime and watch it crumble. We talk about the politics that have replaced Jim Crow, solutions to current-day inequality, and why he believes reparations won’t ever be a reality for Black Americans who are descendants of people enslaved in America.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWFZEw">
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Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so subscribe to <em>Vox Conversations</em> on <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vox-conversations/id1215557536">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/search/vox%20conversations">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6NOJ6IkTb2GWMj1RpmtnxP">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/vox-conversations">Stitcher</a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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</p>
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="1rKMxu"/>
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<h4 id="P5qrSv">
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<strong>Fabiola Cineas</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MgZrB9">
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In your book, <em>The South: Jim Crow And Its Afterlives</em>, you say that Jim Crow is the formative Black American experience for contemporary life. And you say that Jim Crow is that formative experience over slavery, actually. So why do you feel that that’s the case with Jim Crow?
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</p>
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<h4 id="KrdbGl">
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<strong>Adolph Reed</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SwIySE">
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I think there are a couple of reasons, at least. One’s pretty prosaic, and that’s that the Jim Crow order was between slavery and now, right. I’d say the 60 years after emancipation that were moments within the production of American society, that most of us know it and have grown up in it and have family members before us who grew up in it. And that means industrialization, the Great Migration, the transcendence or displacement of an agrarian-based economy, urbanization of the society and of Black Americans in particular.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iwpdzv">
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The experiences of segregation, the descent of the wall of segregation and the struggle against it and its overcoming, are more immediately formative of Black Americans’ lives, practices, and self-understandings than slavery was, or is.
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</p>
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<h4 id="BHCWsO">
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<strong>Fabiola Cineas</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8vEI4I">
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And why do you think popular history is trying to bring slavery out to the forefront and get Black Americans, I think, to think more deeply about slavery and look at slavery as the foundation of what our experiences are today?
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</p>
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<h4 id="tH0hs0">
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<strong>Adolph Reed</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mhQOTH">
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Yeah, that’s a very good question. For at least the first two-thirds of the 20th century, it had been possible for us to assume that most Black Americans came together around at least one common objective, and that’s overcoming racial inequality and discrimination. But as my good friend and comrade professor Willie Legette has said often, “The only thing that hasn’t changed about Black politics since 1965 is how we think about it.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0hR2n5">
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And what’s happened is, with passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act — and not just passage of those laws, but the development of an anti-discrimination apparatus that followed from their passage — for racial inequality that it might have seemed to be prior to that. What that means also is that interest differentiation among Black Americans, as well as class and income differentiation among Black Americans, has extended, some would say radically, since 1965.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OzB475">
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I believe that people who have political interests in sustaining a view that a one-size-fits-all way of talking about Black politics also have an interest in wanting to make slavery the uniformly shared Black condition.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QFm0zL">
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Racial inequality gets reduced to racial disparities. And so much of arguments that focus on racial disparities as the principal, if not the sole actionable forms of inequality. For instance, Michelle Alexander’s book <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/summary-the-new-jim-crow-by-michelle-alexander-mass-incarceration-in-the-age-of-colorblindness-9781987682823/9781987682823"><em>The New Jim Crow</em></a> hinges on an analogy that even she has to acknowledge doesn’t work. And that is that the carceral state is like the Jim Crow order.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8QLhK3">
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Well, it’s not, it wasn’t, couldn’t be.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H1aujA">
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And the same thing with arguments that the 13th Amendment didn’t do what the 13th Amendment did, and arguments that the essential condition of Black Americans hasn’t changed since 1865, or since 1619.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OweS3F">
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The assertions that nothing has changed for Black people since Jim Crow or since slavery shouldn’t be read literally. They should be read as rhetoric.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IEpCyY">
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That rhetorical move is in fact an acknowledgment that things have changed, and a call on the listeners to demonstrate that this bad thing that happened, this outrage that happened, was an atavism, right? And a call on all of us to do better.
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</p>
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<h4 id="Dg2gx1">
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<strong>Fabiola Cineas</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dNZza5">
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You belong to the last cohort for which the Jim Crow regime is a living memory. Why do you think that’s so important to recognize that and acknowledge that right now?
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</p>
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<h4 id="3GRWB9">
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<strong>Adolph Reed</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0837PH">
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Well, yeah, to be honest, to be completely honest in a way that I wasn’t totally forthcoming about in a book, when the two friends and I whom I mentioned talked about this for a number of years, what animated our ongoing discussion was the really shoddy character of both a lot of the scholarship and the personal memoirs and the popular constructions of what the era was like and what it was about.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LMW1Jd">
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And I had no illusions about changing that, but I thought the least we could do is get another perspective out there. One that’s a little more grounded.
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</p>
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<h4 id="nAMiGR">
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<strong>Fabiola Cineas</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dD2792">
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Yeah. Because you mentioned that these photos and images that we have — because my generation certainly learned about it this way, too — through the photos of the water fountains, the segregated restrooms. What do you feel is missing from those images of the Jim Crow era?
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</p>
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<h4 id="nWpGoS">
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<strong>Adolph Reed</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MdEyEy">
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Yeah. Look, I mean, those things were real. When I describe it as petty apartheid, it produced indignation, and people sometimes forget that the point was never “separate but equal.” The point was separate and unequal. But what’s missing is that these were more than inconveniences, certainly, but they weren’t a deep structure of the segregation order. And that’s why taking into account where it came from is helpful.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o0oehs">
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The dominant planter-merchant-capitalist class had lived in what even I thought for a long time was irrational anxiety about the prospects of poor working-class whites and Black free people forming electoral alliances that would challenge [the] absolute prerogative, like a ruling class.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lPWFYz">
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But it wasn’t irrational anxiety, because there were enough instances of that kind of political alliance having won victories here or there, to keep it real. And it just sent the message to the ruling class that it was time to take radical action to stop this stuff. And then Jim Crow was the institutionalization of that new regime.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSOLBr">
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And among other things that people don’t ever think about is … the ways that whites were affected by Jim Crow.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hjQs0K">
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Because it was not a social order that whites imposed upon Blacks. It was a social order that some white people imposed on everybody else, Black and white. But by disenfranchising Blacks — and, depending on the state you were in, maybe up to a quarter of the white voting population — you took away the potential for political alliances based in the working class and among poor people and farmers.<strong> </strong>So even those whites who were still able to vote had to make their choices within a context that was heavily skewed to favor the agendas of the ruling class.
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</p>
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<h4 id="nsuKMC">
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<strong>Fabiola Cineas</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1cdYSQ">
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So what came to replace the Jim Crow order? And I’m curious what parallels you see between today’s order and what existed during Jim Crow.
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</p>
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<h4 id="3RjrYV">
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<strong>Adolph Reed</strong>
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2KvPw9">
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We’re still evolving away from it, right? After 60 years now, practically, of the upwardly mobile Black and white people going to the same schools, living in the same neighborhoods, belonging to the same club, going to the same coffee shops, what one would expect sociologically is that while race discourse remains as an organizing principle for factions and alliances, you would expect we would have evolved much more toward a governing regime that’s more seamlessly interracial. And I think we by and large have. I think that, depending on circumstances and context, everybody in the elite level has an interest in emphasizing race to one degree or another and in some context.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h8vlYF">
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An old joke about the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, near the University of Chicago, was [it was] a place where Black and white lock arms against the poor.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kTeWKh">
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And I think that’s more what the governing order in most cities and in the country is at the moment.
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</p>
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<h4 id="kCh5lI">
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Fabiola Cineas
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PXlv3U">
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What is the problem with asking the federal government for reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, and ongoing discrimination?
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</p>
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<h4 id="AJdZna">
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Adolph Reed
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WfSU7x">
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Black people are concerned about the same stuff that other working people are concerned about: economic security, health care, housing jobs, education. And there’s no way we’re gonna get those just for Black people. And I think the effort to do so may as well be a recruitment campaign for the KKK.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f2ckKn">
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I’ve been asking the same question for more than 20 years now: How do we propose to develop a political coalition that can prevail on a reparations campaign? And nobody’s given me an answer yet, because in a democracy — even a nominal democracy like this one — prevailing would depend on generating, if not an absolute majority coalition, at least a big enough plurality to encourage public officials to follow through on the demands. And there’s no way we can do it. The nature of the demands undercuts the capacity to build a coalition that could pursue them.
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</p>
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<h4 id="7H8aDq">
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Fabiola Cineas
|
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1e02Mw">
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But aren’t we the closest we’ve ever been? Especially if you look at <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/40">HR 40</a>, the amount of lawmakers who have signed on is unprecedented. And we do have a diverse coalition of people calling for Biden to just go ahead and for example, create a reparations task force by executive order. Has Biden responded? No, but some people argue that this is a sign of hope, the fact that reparations advocates have gotten this far.
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</p>
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<h4 id="dzPwOa">
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Adolph Reed
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wh2dcL">
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Well, I don’t think they’ve gotten that far. HR 40 has been there for a while. It’s also the case that people sign on to bills that they know have no chance of passing all the time. And sometimes they sign on to them because they know they have no chance of passing, but even if HR 40 were somehow magically to pass, what it would do is authorize a study commission or a task force or something. And, I mean, that’s no closer to the reparations than we are right now. It’s a symbolic move.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qfXGM5">
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And it’s not a moral question. It’s not a question of who deserves what, right? I mean, that’s a question that you talk about at church on Sunday. That’s not a question for politics.
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</p>
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<h4 id="zckh8o">
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Fabiola Cineas
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiZ2jA">
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But what about examples, like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22995013/anti-lynching-act-emmett-till">Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act</a>? That was something that took many, many tries to get passed; finally got passed this year. I think other symbolic things — like maybe <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/18/21294825/history-of-juneteenth">Juneteenth</a> legislation that Biden recently passed to make that a federal holiday — a lot of these things have been in the works for a long time, and people thought that these things could not get anywhere.
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</p>
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<h4 id="qx3BB4">
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Adolph Reed
|
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="grkrcY">
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Right. But none of them takes a dollar out of the federal budget or any taxpayer’s pocket. And that’s the crucial difference. I know how these things go. I’ve seen ’em over and over. And, in fact, I saw this in the 2020 campaign. What it got to was, “Well, how about if we just call this reparations?” Right? And that to me seemed like an expression of what’s really counterproductive about symbolic politics. Because a commitment is more toward winning support for something that you can somehow twist around and call reparations than it is to winning anything concrete.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFFrS1">
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<em>The </em>40 Acres Vox Conversations<em> series explores where the reparations debate stands now and where it is headed. This series is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Canopy Collective, an independent initiative under fiscal sponsorship of Multiplier. All Vox reporting is editorially independent and produced by our journalists. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Canopy Collective or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation</em>.
|
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</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><strong>Work sucks when you’re the only one left</strong> -
|
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<figure>
|
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<img alt="Art depicting a person with their head on a desk in front of a computer screen." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5_J18X_xZxvCZGk06OIbKMm69AA=/97x0:1982x1414/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71355579/GettyImages_1308803174.0.jpg"/>
|
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<figcaption>
|
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|
|
Workers to employers: For the love of God, just hire more people. | Carol Yepes/Getty Images
|
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</figcaption>
|
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</figure>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Not everyone quit during the Great Resignation.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="955BSm">
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|
When I reached out to Paige to talk about a post she’d written online about feeling stretched at work, she first had a question for me: Was I her boss secretly trying to trick her? She was a “little paranoid” about it, and rightly so — the Oregon receptionist has not exactly had the warmest feelings about her place of work lately.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9X05Y9">
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Paige, who asked to withhold her last name in order to retain said job for now, has felt extremely overworked lately. She was initially hired in late 2021 to work part time at a local medical office, but they’ve since lost a ton of employees — the last receptionist on staff besides her just quit (when she started, there were four). She now works 12-hour days, spending her lunch hour at her desk since there’s no one to cover for her, and when she asks about what’s going on, she’s told to be a “team player.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="puRJAA">
|
|||
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|
Recently, it seemed like there would be some reprieve when the office made a new hire, but the person was let go after three days because the manager — the owner’s daughter — didn’t get along with them. “The vibes weren’t good,” Paige said she was told. But, as she said, “Vibes don’t matter when you literally have employees that are struggling.”
|
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</p>
|
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<div class="c-float-right">
|
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<div id="bdsPn7">
|
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<div>
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</div>
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</div>
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRIUco">
|
|||
|
|
There has been no shortage of stories about the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22841490/work-remote-wages-labor-force-participation-great-resignation-unions-quits">Great Resignation</a>, the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/04/companies-are-reinventing-rules-as-employees-seek-remote-work-and-flexible-hours.html">Great Reshuffle</a>, or whatever you want to call it. The rate of people quitting their jobs <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/30/jolts-july-2022.html">has declined somewhat</a>, but it still remains above pre-pandemic norms. There are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-30/us-job-openings-unexpectedly-rise-to-11-2-million-near-record?srnd=premium">still about two job openings</a> per every unemployed worker in the United States. The labor market remains incredibly tight.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2e2G5Q">
|
|||
|
|
There has also been no shortage of stories about the impact all of this is having on consumers. <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/6/30/23189458/summer-travel-2022-pilot-shortage">Air travel sucks</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/02/17/restaurant-service-problems-pandemic/">Restaurant service is a disaster</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/business/customer-service-pandemic-rage.html">Customers are throwing full-blown hissy fits in public</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LFp75v">
|
|||
|
|
What does this add up to for the workers still on the job, trying to make their situations work under increasingly tight and stressful conditions? The “labor leftovers,” if you will, are being asked to do the same amount of work or more in order to compensate for their current situations. And, to put it plainly, it sucks.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C5IFXt">
|
|||
|
|
Millions of workers — blue-collar and white-collar — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/12/job-unhappiness-is-at-a-staggering-all-time-high-according-to-gallup.html">feel pushed to the brink right now</a>. They are overworked, disengaged, and burnt out. And many, despite a labor market with mobility, feel like there’s no end in sight. It’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22673353/unemployment-job-search-linkedin-indeed-algorithm">still hard for many people</a> to find a job, and when they do get to a new place, some find it’s the same situation: too much work to go around with too few workers to complete it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="qaEvCb">
|
|||
|
|
<q>The “labor leftovers” are being asked to do the same amount of work or more</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="isf7XO">
|
|||
|
|
Work stress and overwork impacts people’s lives outside the workplace in myriad ways, said Joseph Mazzola, associate professor of psychology at Meredith College and an expert in industrial and organizational psychology. He noted that evidence shows life satisfaction can be fairly equally predicted by satisfaction with one’s spouse and with one’s boss. “We know burnout is linked to mental health issues like depression and anxiety and linked to physical issues. It can eventually lead to heart attacks, hypertension, and a number of terrible things. But even in the short term, it leads to more symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, even body aches,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MpggKh">
|
|||
|
|
In Paige’s case, it’s just meant she’s not taking care of herself physically in the way she probably should. She recently got sick. She told her boss she had strep throat, hoping that would mean she would only need to miss Friday at work, spend the weekend recovering, and be back on Monday. Her boss wouldn’t allow her to call out unless she got a note from her doctor. So she did — and it turns out she had Covid-19, meaning she had to be out for longer. “I got so much shit at work following that,” she said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FPzZok">
|
|||
|
|
Paige feels like she can’t quit, not because she really needs her job (her partner could support them for a while), but because it needs her. “If I leave, they will be absolutely screwed,” she said. At least they’ve raised her pay a little bit. If she does manage to leave, it’s not like whoever replaces her is in for a fun ride.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="9ll6YG">
|
|||
|
|
Do more, just with less — Signed, your boss
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OHMEmu">
|
|||
|
|
At the outset of the pandemic, employers laid off workers in droves. Now, they’ve had a hard time staffing back up, or in some cases, they don’t want to, at least entirely. Many companies have figured out they can do more with less. Amid <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/28/23282473/gdp-recession-economy">fears of a recession</a> on the horizon — on top of a tight labor market — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/03/tech-companies-banks-overstaffed-while-airlines-hotels-need-workers.html">some are holding off on hiring</a> until they see how it shakes out, or letting attrition take its toll.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p8PaWO">
|
|||
|
|
“On one hand yeah, maybe the employer’s like, ‘Yes, great, now more people are available to hire,’ but the business mindset might win out is more of, ‘Do I want to take that risk if economic growth is slowing down?’” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, senior economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. “If your team was able to operate with a smaller number, do you need more people? Maybe not.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dB9VE4">
|
|||
|
|
That’s been the experience for Kate, a marketing coordinator at a Pennsylvania engineering firm who, like all of the workers I spoke to for this story, requested anonymity in order to protect their privacy and jobs. Over her nearly two decades at the firm, her department has gotten leaner and leaner — it was 10, then it was five, now it is two. “More staff kept leaving and kept leaving, and we couldn’t find new people,” she said. Many of her former colleagues have gone into different fields altogether.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s7x9M8">
|
|||
|
|
Kate keeps trying to get across to her superiors that she cannot produce the workload expected of her, but said she is repeatedly told she’s just “gotta chip in” for the team. “I have all these deadlines through this week, and there’s only so many hours,” she said. Her bosses ask her to complete 10 tasks; she explains that she can only do three, so they’ll have to choose; and then they just … don’t. She puts in the hours to get all 10 done, but the quality is lacking. “One thing I’m really worried about is I’m going to make a big mistake.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cJZ9pl">
|
|||
|
|
“What I keep thinking about is, what if everyone I worked with just worked eight hours? How many employees would they have to hire to fill in?” she said. Kate has browsed other job listings, but wonders what guarantee there is that a new job would be any different. “I’ve looked at other companies and just think, ‘well, it’s just more of the same somewhere else.’”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m9bC09">
|
|||
|
|
Companies are in a bit of a catch-22 situation in their staffing, Konkel said. Employers may be able to entice new people through the door by offering hiring bonuses, extra pay, etc. “But their staff is stretched really thin,” she said, “and then more people quit, and it’s a cycle that goes on.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v5fnUG">
|
|||
|
|
Nicholas, who until recently worked as a production scheduler for a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, is one of those workers who finally gave in and quit — leaving just one person behind in his department. He’d been with the company for 17 years, working his way up from the factory floor to the front office. Not only was he overworked from his front-office job, but as a scheduler, he had a birds-eye view into what was happening with workers across the company. “They had a real problem toward the end with the amount of overtime they wanted people to work and how receptive the general workers were to that,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6xqHbS">
|
|||
|
|
Workers grew so tired, he said, it got to the point that about 75 percent of people were even showing up every day. And because the company was so short-staffed, there wasn’t much to be done. “They were just so desperate to keep people, I don’t think there was much discipline going on,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pwx5ZT">
|
|||
|
|
In 2021, he put in a request to limit his own hours to 45 hours a week and was written up for it, which “pretty much negated any yearly pay increase for me,” he said. So he started looking for a new job, and after an eight-month search, he found one. He sent what he describes as an “epic” letter on his way out, calling out his department for an “environment of hostility and unprofessionalism,” and informing his counterpart — now the only person on his team — that she was “drastically” underpaid. He now has a job in the public sector, where he said he’s making more money, doing less work, and loving it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="icmzx5">
|
|||
|
|
The tight labor market lends to this overarching narrative that it is relatively easy for workers to pick up and leave their jobs if they’re unhappy. This was the case for Nicholas, and one economist I spoke to even suggested this was the solution. But the reality for many workers is much more complicated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
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|
<aside id="5y4oGF">
|
|||
|
|
<q>People feel attached to an organization or, in this case, a place of work</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fWoviG">
|
|||
|
|
Mazzola pointed to a phenomenon called “organizational commitment,” where people feel attached to an organization or, in this case, a place of work. Sometimes, people feel like they’re a part of helping the organization achieve its goals. Or, they worry about what they might lose in leaving a job — benefits or compensation or stability — and that holds them back. Or they feel a sense of guilt about exiting, worrying that there will be consequences for the company or for their colleagues.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sKnzr6">
|
|||
|
|
The good news, at least in part, is that the pandemic has brought some of these longstanding issues to the forefront. “To see people talk about burnout, to see them tell their employers they want work-life balance, is good,” Mazzola said. “Whether or not we’ve made strides on people being less burned out, that still remains to be seen.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="2OZec9">
|
|||
|
|
Dealing with customers in this environment: Not so fun
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ldUBQ">
|
|||
|
|
If you are not feeling overextended at work (if so, congratulations), you have undoubtedly noticed that workers at the places you frequent are. Take a look around next time you go to the pharmacy, where there are probably a handful of people on staff; one working the register, one restocking, and one running around <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/business/drug-stores-locked-products/index.html">trying to unlock</a> all the deodorant and shampoo that stores have decided to lock up as part of a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_loss_prevention">loss prevention</a>” strategy they’re not staffed enough to execute. Or maybe you’ve made a mistake at the self-checkout and now have to wait for assistance, in which case, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/2/17923050/self-checkout-amazon-walmart-automation-jobs-surveillance">good luck</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8VSJSz">
|
|||
|
|
Many consumers are, understandably, finding themselves frustrated with staff shortages causing longer waits and worse service across multiple sectors. Workers in those sectors often bear the brunt of that frustration, so on top of being overworked, they’re treated cruelly and even abusively by customers. And American consumers <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23013102/american-consumers-expectations-anger-entitled">do not exactly have the best reputation</a> for being extra-considerate in the first place.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9tvbkF">
|
|||
|
|
When the pandemic hit, the convenience store Nichole works for in Wisconsin “just ran with who we had” and kept open with their limited staff. Customers were less than thrilled. “A lot of people in the world are very angry, and they’re not understanding that we’re short-staffed, so they don’t like to wait in line for an extra few minutes. And then they take it out on us, and we get yelled at,” she said. “The morale goes down when we get yelled at every day by customers.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y5smTc">
|
|||
|
|
She’s an assistant manager and estimates she’s putting in an extra 25 to 30 hours each week because they can’t find people to hire — and because she wants to give her burnt-out staff some reprieve. “I can’t ask them to put even more hours in,” she said. She’s a single mother of two, so she also feels guilty that when she gets to be with her children, they don’t do much because she’s so tired.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vJ3PyW">
|
|||
|
|
While the vast majority of people in the country spend much of their lives as workers, many Americans still view themselves primarily as consumers. Through that consumer lens, they often have excessively high expectations — <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/pandemic-american-shoppers-nightmare/619650/">expectations they’ve sort of been trained into by companies</a>. When those expectations aren’t met, they experience it as a loss. The customer has been told for decades that they’re always right, they’ve come to believe it, and now that they’re met with snags in that framework, they lash out.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PSVsrl">
|
|||
|
|
“Other countries have a more balanced view on ‘the customer is always right,’ and that’s somewhere that we can dig in as a society,” Melissa Swift, US transformation leader at Mercer, a work consultancy firm, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23013102/american-consumers-expectations-anger-entitled">told me in an interview earlier this year</a>. “Why do we believe that? That doesn’t have to be a baseline assumption.”
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<div class="c-float-right">
|
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|
|
<aside id="vcInDE">
|
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<q>“If you’re going to be a dick, don’t come back”</q>
|
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|
|
</aside>
|
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|
|
</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YgwI7P">
|
|||
|
|
Nichole said her store has had two workers walk out of the job because of rude customers recently. When I asked her what she wanted consumers to know about workers in situations like hers, she said to “maybe find a way to get the word out there to people that we’re short-staffed so that we’re not getting yelled at.” She had an addendum: “If you’re going to be a dick, don’t come back.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="ccHONO">
|
|||
|
|
If there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, workers want to know when
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FnNzob">
|
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|
|
In the current moment, it really does feel like everyone is overextended at work. Across industries, from <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/half-health-workers-report-burnout-amid-covid-19">health care</a> to <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate.aspx">education</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/restaurant-employee-burnout/">hospitality</a>, workers say it’s just too much.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SpJfmH">
|
|||
|
|
Kevin, a professor at a midsized university in the Midwest, saw many of his colleagues and administrative staff let go at the start of the pandemic, and on top of the normal turnover, staffing rates just haven’t rebounded. He finds himself spending hours trying to help contractors navigate IT issues instead of where he’s supposed to be: teaching in the classroom. “Everybody’s like, ‘We’re all doing more with less,’ and it’s like, okay, but when are we not going to be doing more with less?” he said. “You can always deal with things when there’s some sort of end date to it, but right now, it doesn’t feel like there’s an end date.”
|
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|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XSVwhs">
|
|||
|
|
The pandemic has, of course, <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress">contributed to much of worker burnout</a>, but that’s not the only thing in play here. While workers currently are supposed to have more power than they have in recent years because the labor market is so tight, for many of them, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22977654/future-of-work-restaurants-retail-hospitality">work hasn’t really changed much at all</a>, or has gotten worse. Structurally, policy solutions that could give workers some more weight in the employer-employee dynamic — such as making it easier to unionize or updating the unemployment insurance system — haven’t happened.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mXdxTI">
|
|||
|
|
And so, things are worse. When there’s one server at a restaurant trying to do the work of what used to be three, it’s annoying for that server and for the diners. The office worker now working remotely might enjoy the time they’re saving in their commute, but many are just <a href="https://money.com/work-from-home-longer-hours/">filling that supposedly saved time with longer hours</a> because they are now a team of one. It’s a bad situation for everyone involved — well, almost everyone.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Q99Jx">
|
|||
|
|
On perhaps the broadest level, the point of a company is to make money for its owners and its shareholders. That can translate to a dynamic of trying to squeeze as much out of workers for as little as possible. Squeezing them <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2022/08/08/american-workers-are-becoming-less-productive-blame-the-pandemic/">may not make them more productive</a> — as Mazzola explained, longer working hours can actually lead to less productive workers over time — but it might still mean more money for the people at the top. Even if things are worse for customers and workers, paying less in wages for nearly the same productivity is a boon for balance sheets.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5CO5z2">
|
|||
|
|
The situation isn’t a particularly new one — long before the pandemic, many employers have been pulling as much as possible from their workers, piling task upon task on them that often used to be shared responsibilities. Now, more workers are starting to reach their breaking points, or at least to talk about it. But talking about the burden only goes so far if the burden — and the extractive, capitalistic system at the root of it — isn’t addressed.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>How everything is getting worse — and better — for animals, explained in 11 charts</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Pigs on a farm in Cambodia." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OdWdQgVvY3mO_ZI8qTsaZXs-_Xg=/288x0:4896x3456/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71355489/GettyImages_929339394.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Pigs on a farm in Cambodia. Over the last 60 years, meat production has exploded in high-income countries and is projected to do the same in low-income countries in coming decades. | Universal Images Group/BSIP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Animal welfare has suffered as humanity has improved, but there’s hope on the horizon.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gtnuxw">
|
|||
|
|
<br/><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lZ0FDEuMOUKEXycqJI8fkXCiHIsyNmw6ZXy1oD9v73Y/edit"></a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SYR8JG">
|
|||
|
|
If you could choose to be alive at any point in human history, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better moment than right now. We’re living <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=chart&time=1770..2019&country=Africa~Asia~Europe~OWID_WRL~Americas~Oceania">longer</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty">richer</a> lives with better access to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/water-and-sanitation?tab=chart&facet=none&hideControls=true&Resource=Drinking+water&Level+of+Access=Safely+managed&Residence=Total&Relative+to+population=Share+of+population&country=~OWID_WRL">clean water</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-out-of-school-children">education</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-with-and-without-electricity-access">electricity</a>, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-rights-protection?tab=chart">basic human rights</a> than ever before.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PA9Qnm">
|
|||
|
|
We can celebrate human progress without becoming complacent — after all, there’s never any shortage of <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/8/30/23327725/pakistan-flooding-unprecedented-political-economic-humanitarian-crisis">bad news to report</a>, and <a href="https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/blog/measuring-global-inequality-median-income-gdp-per-capita-and-the-gini-index?gclid=Cj0KCQjwguGYBhDRARIsAHgRm48vMNdxJ8wj2op-P3KwjXKdWN4EY5aGRpB2Qkm73wNzMe6exSduTIQaAiPCEALw_wcB">gaping disparities</a> between rich and poor countries will remain far into the future. But McCartney and Lennon were onto something when they sang about things <a href="https://genius.com/The-beatles-getting-better-lyrics">getting better all the time</a>, even if they were talking about love, not life expectancy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6yTVCd">
|
|||
|
|
But for just about every animal species besides Homo sapiens, today is probably the worst period in time to be alive — especially for the species we’ve domesticated for food: chickens, pigs, cows, and increasingly, fish.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7cItgt">
|
|||
|
|
That’s because a not-insignificant amount of human improvement has come at the direct expense of these animals, with rapid human population growth — and all those people leading longer, richer lives — creating a <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-meat-production-by-livestock-type">surge in demand</a> for cheap meat over the last 60 years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right">
|
|||
|
|
<div id="KIdSaP">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6YIet2">
|
|||
|
|
Human prosperity and animal suffering exist in a kind of twisted symbiosis: Economic growth leads to more food production and consumption, which in turn results in faster population growth and longer life expectancy, which then requires more intensive, factory-farmed meat to satiate growing populations.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4eMjZT">
|
|||
|
|
The cycle has been miraculous for humans. For all the problems of our global food system — including a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/6/world-hunger-rising-as-un-agencies-warn-of-looming-catastrophe">recent rise in world hunger</a> due to the Covid-19 pandemic and price hikes for grain caused by the war in Ukraine — far fewer people are <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">undernourished</a> today than they were in the 1970s, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/opinion/is-the-era-of-great-famines-over.html">specter of famine</a> has largely diminished. But the cycle has been disastrous for the environment and animals, as hundreds of billions of them are now raised on factory farms each year, accounting for about <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22905381/meat-dairy-eggs-climate-change-emissions-rewilding">15 percent</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rFh9m2">
|
|||
|
|
Growing prosperity and human population have also meant that more and more animals are being used in testing for drug development and consumer products, and that deforestation of massive areas of wildlife habitat is increasing — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/03/09/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-beef/">primarily for beef and livestock feed</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oUJoMj">
|
|||
|
|
But it’s not all doom and gloom. An exception to this rule — that some of human flourishing has come at the cost of animal welfare — is pets; US euthanasia rates at pet shelters have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/upshot/why-euthanasia-rates-at-animal-shelters-have-plummeted.html">plummeted</a> since the 1970s. And perhaps more consequentially, we’re at the start of what might be a moral revolution in our relationship to other animals. Countries are passing laws to ban the worst factory farming practices; <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Justice-for-Animals/Martha-C-Nussbaum/9781982102500">leading philosophers</a> are calling for an expansion of who we include in our moral circle; and scientists are building technologies that could one day eliminate the use of animals for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/5/28/18626859/meatless-meat-explained-vegan-impossible-burger">food</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7c35e08a-4931-4401-b27e-acabf974bff8">medical research</a>, and <a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/article/the-new-plant-based-craze-in-fashion">textiles</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8mOdrB">
|
|||
|
|
Though currently low levels of meat consumption across Asia, Africa, and Latin America are <a href="https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/4395-global-meat-consumption-to-rise-73-percent-by-2050-fao#:~:text=By%202050%2C%20meat%20consumption%20is,predicted%20to%20grow%2058%20percent.">projected</a> to skyrocket in the coming decades, they’ll likely still be much lower than consumption in the West. But meat eating seems to have more or less peaked, or will at least grow very slowly, in richer parts of the world like the US and Europe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h6qdKE">
|
|||
|
|
Some countries, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23273338/germany-less-meat-plant-based-vegan-vegetarian-flexitarian#:~:text=Germans%20are%20eating%20about%20the,of%20a%20pig%20per%20person.">Germany</a> and <a href="https://jordbruksverket.se/mat-och-drycker/hallbar-produktion-och-konsumtion-av-mat/konsumtion-av-kott">Sweden</a>, are actually starting to eat less of it overall, thanks in part to heightened campaigning over the environmental toll of meat production. The European Commission projects a <a href="https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-agricultural-outlook-2021-31-consumer-behaviour-influence-meat-and-dairy-markets-2021-12-09_en">4 percent decline</a> in per capita meat consumption within the bloc by 2031.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CJAeR3">
|
|||
|
|
However, declining consumption is relative. <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year">Recent figures show</a> Sweden’s per capita meat consumption is almost five times that of Pakistan’s, while the average German eats about as much meat in a month as the average Nigerian does in a year.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BSRXMT">
|
|||
|
|
But just as some countries have figured out how to <a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/absolute-decoupling-of-economic-growth-and-emissions-in-32-countries">decouple</a> greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth — improving quality of life while lowering the national carbon footprint — someday we might do the same for animal welfare.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A7AhDl">
|
|||
|
|
We’ve made 11 charts that lay out the grim case for how human progress has too often come at the expense of animal welfare, while indicating some hope for a future where both humans and domesticated animals can flourish together.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/74qKc72lM5tJYx602Jkph6JUK6g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009511/YwBux_we_farm_a_mind_boggling_number_of_animals_every_year__3_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="by2hY9">
|
|||
|
|
In 1961, there were 2.5 land animals farmed for each human; in 2020 there were 9.5, a 280 percent jump. There’s now 74 billion of them churning through our farms and food systems each year.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dV6tQT">
|
|||
|
|
But meat from all those animals is not consumed equally around the world: The average American consumes around <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/meat-supply-per-person">273 pounds</a> of meat per year while the average Ethiopian purchases just 12 pounds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tEJlwP">
|
|||
|
|
It’s not just sheer numbers, however. As demand for meat has risen, conditions for animals have worsened. To raise those tens of billions of chickens, pigs, and cows, farmers and meat companies have prized efficiency over animal welfare and environmental conservation. The resulting factory farming model, first built in the United States and Europe in the post-World War II era, has since spread across the globe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EL5Ckp">
|
|||
|
|
By <a href="https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/global-animal-farming-estimates">one estimate</a>, almost three-quarters of farmed land animals in the world are reared in factory farms, in which they’re crammed tightly into industrial warehouses and given little to no fresh air, sunlight, or access to the outdoors. And nearly all of the land animals raised for food are chickens — <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/animals-slaughtered-for-meat">around 95 percent</a> of them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/25I9w-xAtBzMNqb2RNga4gXSFDo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009513/P1bP0_the_demand_for_more_meat_is_the_leading_cause_of_deforestation__5_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4fb40i">
|
|||
|
|
The rising demand for meat, especially beef, doesn’t just mean more animals suffering on farms. It has also destroyed wildlife habitats in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/03/09/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-beef/">Amazon rainforest</a> and elsewhere in the tropics.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5d5vM2">
|
|||
|
|
Agriculture — clearing trees for farmland — is the overwhelming cause of deforestation. In 1700, just 9 percent of the world’s forests and wild grasslands had been cleared for agriculture. Today, it’s 46 percent, primarily for<strong> </strong>livestock grazing, growing crops like <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drivers-forest-loss-brazil-amazon">soy</a> to feed pigs and chickens, or for the production of palm and other oils.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wYpjeM">
|
|||
|
|
Meat production doubly affects climate change, too. Not only do the animals we farm emit greenhouse gases, all that related deforestation releases carbon stored in trees, contributing to climate change and accounting for <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/whats-redd-and-will-it-help-tackle-climate-change/">up to 10 percent</a> of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/h14zEE-yCf18joVodHx5kX0xMVY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009518/eeDww_global_seafood_production_has_exploded_since_the_1980s__2_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ASCOyg">
|
|||
|
|
The world produces around <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/capture-fisheries-vs-aquaculture">200 million tons</a> of seafood each year, but we don’t know how many animals that represents, as fish are measured by weight, not individual animals. But one group — appropriately called Fish Count — <a href="http://fishcount.org.uk/studydatascreens/2016/fishcount_estimates_list.php">estimates</a> that anywhere between 1 trillion to 3 trillion fish and crustaceans, like shrimp and crabs, are eaten each year (though this figure excludes wild-caught crustaceans, which the group hasn’t yet calculated).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GDhz9H">
|
|||
|
|
The farming of land animals is a mere rounding error when compared to seafood production.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WyaVvV">
|
|||
|
|
To put that into perspective, there are far more fish and crustaceans raised and caught for food each year — 1 trillion on the lower end — than there are humans who’ve ever existed, which is estimated at <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/quantifying-human-existence/">117 billion people</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZdtVW8">
|
|||
|
|
Seafood production is unusual in that it relies on both catching fish in the wild, and farming them on land or in offshore pens. For most of human history, wild-catch was the dominant method. The fish we caught lived normal fish lives and only experienced pain for the minutes or hours it took to catch and slaughter them. Then, in the 1980s, fish farming took off over <a href="https://hakaimagazine.com/features/a-short-history-of-aquaculture-innovation/">fears of declining wild fish populations</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ifSmJ">
|
|||
|
|
Now, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/capture-fisheries-vs-aquaculture">more than half</a> of the fish we eat comes from fish farms. They are essentially underwater factory farms, repeating many of the same problems found in farms on land: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22301931/fish-animal-welfare-plant-based">overcrowding, disease, and injuries</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WgLQPp">
|
|||
|
|
Just as agriculture has transformed natural landscapes through deforestation, commercial fishing and fish farming have transformed oceans through pollution and overcatching. Discarded fishing gear accounts for around <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-fishing-gear-is-biggest-plastic-polluter-in-ocean-finds-report">10 percent</a> of plastic found in the ocean, offshore fish farms <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/05/02/180596020/can-salmon-farming-be-sustainable-maybe-if-you-head-inland">pollute oceans</a>, and the fishing industry is a <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral09_humanthreats.html">leading threat</a> to coral reefs, according to the US National Ocean Service.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oHq2V1">
|
|||
|
|
If the demand for meat and seafood keeps rising, the toll on both the environment and animal welfare will be immeasurable. But there’s some early evidence that at least some countries may have hit their peak of meat consumption.
|
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</p>
|
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|
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<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/D0b9p4-6aKQx4fVjqoRCEYH1JNE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24005298/nZDGg_german_meat_consumption_is_on_the_decline__2_.png"/>
|
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</figure>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b2GE9Y">
|
|||
|
|
Over the last decade, Germany’s per-capita meat consumption <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23273338/germany-less-meat-plant-based-vegan-vegetarian-flexitarian">fell 12.3 percent</a>. Experts attribute much of the change to the country’s environmentalists, especially the younger set, who’ve raised a big stink about meat’s contribution to climate change. Other factors may have contributed to the drop too, such as increased awareness of animal cruelty and labor issues in the meat industry.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rq5zVY">
|
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Germany isn’t alone — Sweden’s meat consumption has been on the decline since 2016.
|
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</p>
|
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<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3HS23navDBZjrjj68KHLaqmGIUM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009523/zefHg_swedish_meat_consumption_is_on_the_decline.png"/>
|
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|
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</figure>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rTEWYj">
|
|||
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|
Sweden’s per-capita meat consumption fell <a href="https://jordbruksverket.se/mat-och-drycker/hallbar-produktion-och-konsumtion-av-mat/konsumtion-av-kott">9.2 percent</a> from 2016 to 2021 (with a slight uptick from 2020 to 2021).<strong> </strong>
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XbRvFN">
|
|||
|
|
Anna Harenius of Djurens Rätt, a Swedish animal protection group, told me environmental awareness also played a role in the country’s shift to plant-based eating (after all, Sweden is home to perhaps the most notable vegan environmentalist, Greta Thunberg).
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AbdkfU">
|
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|
Harenius also says Swedes are unusually fond of boycotts. They even boycotted the company that put Sweden on the plant-based map, <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/oatly-faces-boycott-backlash-for-its-investment-from-blackstone/584778/">Oatly</a>, for taking investment from Blackstone, a private equity firm that’s <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/27/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackstone/">linked to deforestation</a> in the Amazon rainforest and whose CEO has been a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/business/schwarzman-blackstone-trump.html">donor and adviser</a> to Donald Trump.
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GQUPJ2">
|
|||
|
|
The two countries demonstrate that change is possible even without forceful government policy, which goes against the idea, often floated among some environmentalists, that <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/4/22/23036010/eat-less-meat-vegetarian-effects-climate-emissions-animal-welfare-factory-farms">individual choices don’t matter</a> all that much. Germans and Swedes just kept hearing the arguments for reducing meat consumption and seemed to take it to heart. (There’s no doubt that in order to move the needle on meat and dairy production’s environmental impact, governments will need to <a href="https://www.vox.com/21562639/climate-change-plant-based-diets-science-meat-dairy">take stronger action</a> at some point, as they have on energy production and transportation.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CEc77Qn_F9KTYclNu4Ul18OztPc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009525/wfyYc_investors_are_betting_big_on_alternative_protein__7_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kw7Rdm">
|
|||
|
|
Humanity has become accustomed to eating a lot of meat, and cheap meat at that. Campaigns to persuade people to eat less of it might work in some countries, but for most consumers, rich or poor, it’s a hard sell. Enter alternative protein products that aim to provide the taste and nutrition of meat and dairy without killing animals.
|
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</p>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdp5Te">
|
|||
|
|
Alternatives to animal meat have been around for <a href="https://thenib.com/a-delicious-history-of-meatless-meat/">centuries</a>, but only in recent years have they become more like meat than plants. Now, <a href="https://gfi.org/press/record-5-billion-invested-in-alt-proteins-in-2021/">investors</a> — and a growing ecosystem of scientists and advocates — are eager to make them taste much better and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21366607/beyond-impossible-plant-based-meat-factory-farming">come down in cost</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cA1ypj">
|
|||
|
|
Until 2016, a few companies dominated the plant-based meat market. Then, burgers from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods changed the game. Suddenly, consumer interest in plant-based meat spiked, and investors followed. In 2013, meat and dairy alternative startups received just $23 million in funding. In 2021, it was <a href="https://gfi.org/press/record-5-billion-invested-in-alt-proteins-in-2021/">$5 billion</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wzcpag">
|
|||
|
|
Much of that went to plant-based startups, but companies that are racing to commercialize <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/12/2/22125518/lab-grown-chicken-meat-singapore-bioreactor-approve">cell-cultured</a> or “cultivated” meat — meat grown from animal cells — have gotten in on the frenzy. So have companies using different methods of <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/record-435m-invested-in-fermentation-this-year-report-says/585444/">fermentation</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5A0780">
|
|||
|
|
Some governments, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/8/13/23301768/inflation-reduction-act-agriculture-meat-dairy-farming-plant-based">including the US</a>, are funding alternative protein research, while others are even <a href="https://www.realagriculture.com/2020/06/trudeau-announces-90-million-in-financing-for-manitoba-pea-and-canola-protein-plant/">investing in plant protein companies</a>. But it’s going to take awhile to see if all that investment pays off and actually changes how we eat; plant-based meat is still estimated to comprise <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-plant-based-meat-hasnt-stopped-climate-change-yet-lagally/">less than 1 percent</a> of total meat produced in the US.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I_mfuJH5qhRfB3LIYo3-IUSshaM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24009531/oCTWf_us_plant_based_meat_retail_sales_doubled_from_2017_to_2020__1_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k96Yhz">
|
|||
|
|
For years, sales of plant-based meat grew at a rapid clip. But in 2021, that <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22876919/plant-based-food-pandemic-covid-vegan-vegetarian-meat-milk-eggs">growth stalled</a>. That’s partly because the growth in 2020 was unusual — the pandemic, and all the panic-buying it induced, sent all grocery sales to the moon, plant-based meat included.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ql7xkx">
|
|||
|
|
But now, repeat purchase rates are lower than companies anticipated. Maple Leaf Foods, a big plant-based meat (and animal meat) producer in Canada, <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/maple-leaf-cuts-greenleaf-division-plant-based/629146/">walked back</a> some of its ambitious plans to scale up plant-based meat production after lagging sales, and Bloomberg has reported <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-24/which-fast-food-has-fake-meat-not-many-serve-beyond-meat-impossible-foods">disappointing trials</a> of veggie burgers at fast food chains.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ow3MET">
|
|||
|
|
But the global outlook for plant-based meat alternatives appears rosier than North America’s.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I99Dqul8jywP3XRNGbKxb-q2yY8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24005317/yt3pP_global_plant_based_meat_retail_sales_doubled_over_the_past_five_years__1_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MgCuhE">
|
|||
|
|
A lot of the noise about the plant-based meat market comes out of the US, where some of its biggest companies are headquartered. But Asia and Europe are also major producers and consumers of meat alternatives.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OhPQPB">
|
|||
|
|
According to an <a href="https://gfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2021-Plant-Based-State-of-the-Industry-Report-1.pdf">analysis</a> from the Good Food Institute, using data from market research firm Euromonitor, grocery sales of plant-based meat are estimated to have doubled around the world from 2017 to 2021.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a9fQDFmJzGFkuz1CYuzLR2kXEyo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24005319/0lP4T_the_global_plant_based_food_market_is_expected_to_more_than_triple_by_2030__3_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfeFwO">
|
|||
|
|
The growth is expected to steadily continue. Bloomberg Intelligence is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/company/press/plant-based-foods-market-to-hit-162-billion-in-next-decade-projects-bloomberg-intelligence/">forecasting</a> global plant-based food sales to more than triple from 2022 to 2030.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4PP4Lr">
|
|||
|
|
The meat and milk alternatives industry hasn’t <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/plant-based-meat-replacing-animal-meat/">made a dent</a> in displacing conventional animal agriculture, but it’s still quite young. Advocates for a more humane food system aren’t putting all their eggs in that basket, though, and have been steadily working toward regulations that make factory farming a little less awful.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9IIORa-r0OWVDYRxvKYlt-5srhk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24005325/WimRK_an_increasing_share_of_hens_in_the_us_are_raised_cage_free__2_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WdAAyc">
|
|||
|
|
The US egg market looks a lot different today than it did at the start of 2015. Back then, only about 6 percent of hens raised for eggs were cage-free. The rest suffered miserably in what the industry calls <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22331708/eggs-cages-chickens-hens-meat-poultry">battery cages</a>, where each hen is given less space than a sheet of paper. They’re forced to live that way for 1 or 2 years until their productivity wanes and they’re turned into <a href="https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/finding-the-value-in-processing-spent-laying-hens">soup stock, animal feed, or pet food</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qHyHUA">
|
|||
|
|
But in 2015, a California law that bans cages for hens went into effect. Big food companies, like <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-does-it-take-five-years-for-restaurants-to-switch-to-cage-free-eggs-2015-11-05?mod=article_inline">Panera Bread</a> and <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/10/03/starbucks-cage-free-eggs/">Starbucks</a>, started sourcing more and more cage-free eggs following pressure from activists. Then <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/HSUS_state-farm-animal-protection-laws.pdf">more states banned cages</a> and <a href="https://welfarecommitments.com/cage-free/">more companies</a> moved on the issue, creating a virtuous cycle. Now 35 percent of hens in the US are cage-free, showing that progress can be made on the welfare side of things, and that it can happen quickly.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yi8DjU">
|
|||
|
|
Still, it will be important to keep an eye on a pending case in the Supreme Court about <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22576044/prop-12-california-eggs-pork-bacon-veal-animal-welfare-law-gestation-crates-battery-cages">another California animal welfare law</a> that bans the use of crates for female breeding pigs — if it’s struck down, it could have lasting negative effects on efforts to improve farm animal welfare in the US.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6wYIZf">
|
|||
|
|
A word of caution: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/30/18197688/organic-cage-free-wild-caught-certified-humane">Cage-free</a>, while superior to conventional farming practices for the chickens’ welfare, does not equate to cruelty-free. Most cage-free hens never have <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/ShellEggLabelingUSDAGrademarkedProduct.pdf">access to the outdoors</a>. Many still <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-81868-3#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20in%20the%20United,raised%20in%20conventional%20cages29.">die prematurely</a> from disease. They live in their own waste in cramped barns. But it’s progress nonetheless, and that progress has moved even faster across the Atlantic.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QyoBEmch6bhVGutP0fqx3rakhKQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24005328/T00rs_an_increasing_share_of_hens_in_europe_are_raised_cage_free__1_.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NHqGA4">
|
|||
|
|
Some of Europe’s biggest countries have a <a href="https://www.poultryworld.net/poultry/layers/shift-to-cage-free-in-eu-continues/">majority of cage-free hens</a>, like Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. The rest of the continent is catching up; in 2017, 47 percent of hens were out of cages, and by 2021, it had risen to 55 percent. That equates to millions fewer hens in cages over the last few years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xd0p4J">
|
|||
|
|
And the effort might accelerate over the next decade. From <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22698265/europe-cage-ban-animal-welfare-eggs-pork-united-states">Vox contributor Jonathan Moens</a>:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JDuAwt">
|
|||
|
|
The European Commission — the executive branch of the European Union — announced in June [2021] a ban on cages for a number of animals, including egg-laying hens, female breeding pigs, calves raised for veal, rabbits, ducks, and geese, by 2027. The plan would cover hundreds of millions of farmed animals raised in 27 countries. It puts Europe on track to implement the world’s most progressive animal welfare reforms within the decade. If ultimately enacted, it could turn out to be a pivot point in the decades-long fight to ease animal suffering.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZSTvxz">
|
|||
|
|
There’s no doubt that the spread of factory farming across the globe, and the rise in meat consumption in lower-income countries, erodes the effects of many changes afoot in Europe and the US, as developing nations try to catch up with Western lifestyles.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X8kNCI">
|
|||
|
|
But there is also <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fanim.2022.960379/full">strong public support</a> for farm animal welfare across low, middle, and high-income countries, and there are budding <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/26/22772693/animal-rights-welfare-movement-global-factory-farming">animal advocacy movements</a> and plant-based food startups <a href="https://contxto.com/en/news/alternative-protein-startups-are-going-mainstream-in-latam/">sprouting up</a> across the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2021/04/19/30-under-30-asia-these-startups-are-bringing-alternative-meat-to-the-region/?sh=3d8a1820330b">Global South</a>, all trying to head off what could be a looming tsunami of industrialized meat production on the horizon.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC T20 World Cup 2022 | India squad announced; Bumrah and Harshal Patel return</strong> - The BCCI medical team has deemed Bumrah, who was suffering from back injury and Harshal, who had a side strain, fit for the marquee series</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jeswin clinches gold</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Guru Gobind Singh Sports College advances</strong> - Special Correspondent</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Carlos Alcaraz wins U.S. Open for 1st Slam title, top ranking</strong> - Carlos Alcaraz has defeated Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3 in the U.S. Open final to earn his first Grand Slam title at age 19 and become the youngest man to move up to No. 1 in the rankings</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Asia Cup final, Sri Lanka vs Pakistan | Sri Lanka’s Cup of glory as Pakistan get vanquished</strong> - Sri Lanka defeats Pakistan by 23 runs to win sixth Asia Cup title</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>28 dentists win awards at seminar</strong> -</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bhatti flays Centre on power reforms, freebies</strong> - Balka Suman says Maharashtra ryots drawing water from TS after buying land here</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IIT Madras is now member of IBM Quantum Network</strong> - It is the first Indian institution to receive membership</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>KCR steps up attack on Centre from floor of Assembly</strong> - He alleges conspiracy behind power reforms being pushed by Centre</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: general stores owner stabbed to death for asking customer to repay debt in Eluru district</strong> -</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russians ‘outnumbered 8-1’ in counter-attack</strong> - Ukraine’s army makes significant territorial gains, while Russia hits back with missiles.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Shock and joy in newly liberated villages</strong> - “They asked ‘is anyone alive?’ and I realised they were ours,” says one woman. “They were so beautiful.”</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sweden election: Result could take days as vote too close to call</strong> - Anti-immigration Sweden Democrats set to become the second largest party with vote too close to call.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tunisia: Eleven migrants die in latest Mediterranean accident</strong> - Over 1,000 migrants are thought to have died this year trying to cross the central Mediterranean.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kharkiv offensive: Ukrainian army says it has tripled retaken area</strong> - On Saturday, Ukraine captured key eastern towns, as Russian forces withdrew to “regroup”.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How an enormous project attempted to map the sky without computers</strong> - The Carte du Ciel provided signposts for how future astronomical discoveries would be made. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1866485">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nick Fury takes the spotlight in first trailer for Secret Invasion</strong> - Also: trailer for <em>Werewolf by Night</em>, new footage from <em>Loki</em> S2, <em>The Marvels</em>, and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880298">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This should be the absolute peak of hurricane season—but it’s dead quiet out there</strong> - Seasonal activity is running 50 percent below normal levels. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880284">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Today’s best deals: HBO Max subscriptions, Apple iPads, and more</strong> - Dealmaster also includes the AirPods Max, Disney+, and HyperX gaming headsets. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880204">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mando and Grogu are a clan of two in The Mandalorian S3 teaser</strong> - Plus final <em>Andor</em> trailer, <em>Bad Batch</em> S2 delay, and animated <em>Tales of the Jedi</em> trailer - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880214">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>my wife asked me if I wish she had been born with big tits.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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I told her that I find big tits on babies disturbing.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ES_FTrader"> /u/ES_FTrader </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbv81r/my_wife_asked_me_if_i_wish_she_had_been_born_with/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbv81r/my_wife_asked_me_if_i_wish_she_had_been_born_with/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>I’ll never forget my Grandfather’s last words to me just before he died.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Stop shaking the ladder you little shit
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/littlemissfordy"> /u/littlemissfordy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xc5caa/ill_never_forget_my_grandfathers_last_words_to_me/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xc5caa/ill_never_forget_my_grandfathers_last_words_to_me/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A police officer stopped me and searched my pockets. Found a bag of weed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“What have we here?” “It’s not mine officer.” He scoffs. “I’m serious! I was cursed by a leprechaun, you know what scallywags they are. Now, every single time I flush this chronic down the toilet it magically reappears in my pocket.” “Bullshit.” “Try me!” He frowns, but follows me as we head to the bathroom in this cafe. I take out the cannabis and flush it down the crapper. He checks my pocket and asks, “So where’s the bag of weed?”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“What bag of weed?”
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</p>
|
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Owlmoose"> /u/Owlmoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbupso/a_police_officer_stopped_me_and_searched_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbupso/a_police_officer_stopped_me_and_searched_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
<li><strong>Did you know the magnifying glass was invented by a Chinese guy?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Yeah, his name was Tzu Minh
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/98re3"> /u/98re3 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbfwa4/did_you_know_the_magnifying_glass_was_invented_by/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbfwa4/did_you_know_the_magnifying_glass_was_invented_by/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><strong>Hillary and Bill sneak away from the secret service</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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|
Hillary and Bill Clinton sneak away from the secret service and go for a drive. The two end up at a gas station and when they walk in, Hillary recognizes the clerk.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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|
Hillary says hello to him and the two walk out. She turns to Bill and says “I used to date that guy before I met you”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Bill laughs and laughs and says “wow, imagine where you’d be if you would’ve married that guy!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Hillary looks back at Bill and says “I’d be married to the President of the United States”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
~ Courtesy of my father
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CrazyPineapple23"> /u/CrazyPineapple23 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbrfjx/hillary_and_bill_sneak_away_from_the_secret/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xbrfjx/hillary_and_bill_sneak_away_from_the_secret/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
</ul>
|
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