• usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        1 year ago

        “The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

        There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

    • LeniX@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      And this, I remind you, is when you have no sanctions, no embargoes, no wars on the ground for the last 100+ years, no major demographic crises, no shortage of arable land, nothing…

    • Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Just about every interstate exit in my area is a tent commune. And the thing is, cops will arrest or fine mutual aid groups for attempting to feed the homeless.

      • ihaveibs@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        1 year ago

        Everybody except the absolute richest 10% experience at minimum financial stress because neoliberalism has made everything require debt, which is inherently destabilizing and arguably traumatizing. Below that, you have people putting off medical care, severe mental health epidemics (everyone I know is on adderall, anti-depressants, or both), etc. all the way down to the worst squalor you will see anywhere in the world. It’s pretty fucking insane and illustrates how the Emperor is truly wearing no clothes.

  • fire86743@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    1 year ago

    “HAHA GOMMUNISM IS WHEN NO FOOD!1!1!1”

    “Food is not a human right, over 20% of our population can’t even get it.”

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s really hard to say, looks like this is made by an individual comparing food scarcity info about China from a foundation, to a Gallup poll in America.

      Not exactly a useful data set, Gallup polls are less than useful in comparative statistics.

      I think the only real data you could pull from this is that china has been reducing food scarcity while the US is perceiving itself to be increasing food scarcity. But again, Gallup polls are awful, and are typically used to “beg the question”.