this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Great. So do it. Don't talk about it be about it.
But that's not what this meme is about. Spouting context free statistics to pretend there's an evil conspiracy is just tin foil hat shit that serves no one.
I'd love it if I could always find someone who wants to finish the last half of my fried rice before it dries out in the fridge, but a food bank won't take half eaten food. The distribution system exists, the soon to be wasted food has a willing donor. But there are practical limitations that generate millions of pounds of wasted food that have no basis in greed or Ill will.
This is a moral superiority circle jerk. "Look at us. We get it. Waste bad. Efficiency good. Helping others good." Groundbreaking shit. It's a shame no one's thought of this before.
Which people do you want to put in what a vacant home? Who gets to decide? How do we relocate them? Do they have a say in this? What do they do once they're there? What do we do if they won't relocate? Show me a reasonable policy document you want passed that addresses any of this shit... I'll personally write my congressman and senator about it. I'll donate time and money to the cause.
It's wild to see the assumption that just because somebody makes a meme about a topic means that they don't actively participate in trying to better our system. Namely because so much of the waste we're talking about isn't your half eaten fried rice, and the example you provided about housing is but one example of vacant homes. There are so many vacant homes on the market that are perfectly suitable to live in, but we live in an economic system where housing is denied unless you can pay for it. Which means so many of us are at the whims of the real estate market and the people who profit off trying to make their property as valuable as possible. That's the thing, it's not necessarily about intentional ill will, but the side effects of things that seem like perfectly reasonable justifiable decisions. Throwing away food because it's cheaper to do so, leaving suitable houses empty for decades because it's cheaper to do so, manufacturing millions of dollars of cheap electronics that are going to go to waste because getting people to buy the new thing is profitable. I think it would be totally possible for us to build manufactured housing at scale, using our tax dollars, and when a person wants to live independently they can apply and receive a home at no cost to them. It would be totally possible for us to manufacture devices that are intended to be maintained and used long term, generating less waste. But when everything is built around making money, this all goes out the window.
If half the people wasting time on memes dedicated that to helping others, there'd be a demonstrable difference.
This is just an excuse to be anonymously judgmental while ignoring your own lack of effort.
Can you provide a few examples?
There isn’t an evil conspiracy, there is capitalism.
Yes. And socialism. And communism. And feudalism.
Instead of doing the captain obvious bit, point me towards the -ism that fixes inefficiency, food spoilage, lopsided real estate demand, while respecting basic human rights and public safety. Cuz I'm in.
Hold the memes and show me the solution.
Anarchism.
If you don’t want to learn about it from memes, go do some hard reading. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index
Isn't anarchism just "only local government"? Not sure how that helps anything.
See how easy it would have been to start there?
There are vacant homes so if there was anarchy... People would identify and relocate to those vacant homes... By some means.
Or "if it wasn't for this damned government, I wouldn't be throwing away carrot skins and old leftovers, I'd be making vegetable stock and unregulated penicillin with them".
More like if it wasn’t for this system, we wouldn’t be wasting 300,000 potatoes to make packets of chips that went into the bin when they didn’t sell compared to the more advertised brand.
More like if it wasn’t for this system, my toaster wouldn’t conveniently break 2 weeks out of warranty, and I would have a right to repair it myself.
More like if it wasn’t for this system this empty house with squatters wouldn’t be evicted and left empty again.
Okay so we're going to overlook the waist created by 350 million consumers disposing of unconsumed food products and focus on 150,000 lb more or less of product produced by the potato chip industry.
Odd choice but let's start there and with actionable items. We get rid of consumer choice and advertising. Presumably we've now reduced potato production to the exact demand required for chips. So they're not wasted.
How does that help anybody?
Are we reallocating that farmland to a more productive crop? Who's in charge of that? How is it managed? I'm told anarchy is the fix but I don't see how anarchy tackles this specific potato chip issue.
And under what system do we have zero waste potato production?
"I'm twelve and this is deep" kind of take.
"I'm a dumbarse and don't know what anarchism is" kind of take.