Aparna Nair

I'd agree, and go further to say that many people probably don't even know what coffee tastes like, under all the dairy and sugar.

Photo of Ahmad, a young Palestinian man in a black tracksuit, doing a peace sign in front of rubble

It is the holy month of Ramadan and I am still struggling to cover costs of shelter, transportation, food, and my mother’s treatment 🙏

Your support means everything to us — every donation, every share brings hope back to our lives. 🫂🇵🇸🌙

- Ahmad
@mommunism.bsky.social

chuffed.org/project/157281

I've mentioned this before, but it's a mistake to assume people absorb and interpret artwork entirely divorced from the author. Even death of the author people find it hard to enjoy Woody Allen movies at this point.

It's not that there's a soup can. It's that a person is behind the soup can.

Woman in black niqab and head covering with a young boy holding medicine, possibly in a refugee camp.

Child examined by doctor.

A young boy lies on a patterned surface with his eyes partially closed, holding his hands together. He appears to be resting or sleeping.

2 of my daughters were killed in this war❤️‍🩹
My only surviving son is weaker today. Every cough in this cold tent breaks my heart.I’m terrified for him.
He is my whole world, my last hope.Please,don't let me lose him too. Your help is his only lifeline😭
tinyurl.com/baraaZ2
✅️ @mommunism.bsky.social

Ahmad's family in their tent

Ahmad's father sitting on the carpet of their tent using a nebulizer

Various medicine for Ahmad's father

We are living a very hard life in tent hunger and cold never leave us,and my father is sick and needs urgent treatment.
I feel helpless watching him suffer while I can’t help him or even provide food for my family.
Please don’t leave us alone.
Any help,or even sharing this chuffed.org/project/161883

My personal theory (cancel me now) is that many people actually might not like the taste of coffee (especially the bitter stuff you get in Starbucks etc) and loads of sugar and flavoring is the only way to make it palatable.

Hammam and Abood and their mother in a tent Abood and their mother are hugging

Abood laying in their tent with his right leg wrapped

🚨A plea for help🚨
My brother is disabled & my mother suffers from asthma. We are pleading with you to save us. We are homeless & without a tent, sleeping on the sand. My brother has a broken leg & urgently needs surgery to have a metal plate inserted😭😭
We urge you to donate to us

urls.fr/DzYN15

Which is why my post said ‘journalistic pieces and commentaries’ and not ‘all Americans’. Why be defensive over something I didn’t say?

So... should we all just have Victory Coffee and Victory Chocolate and Victory Cigarettes? Should we resign ourselves to a drab existence of uniformity b/c specialty drinks take a little extra time to make?

The irony of this is that this type of piece is the salted caramel mocha latte of journalism. We get to have a little unifying viral moment about nonsense as a treat. (And it's so much more scarce now than it was in the aughts/early 2010s!)

Professor Grygiel has a point. Let's do golf courses, too.

After all, “society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere."

Golfers are just asserting their primacy and the unique complexity of their desires; better to use the space for baseball diamonds.

One wonders if Mssr Grygiel has considered the anti-social effects of seething at people who don’t see the purpose of every interaction to be about moving through life with cold efficiency.

Say what you want about Edmund Burke, he certainly had thoughts.

I kind of love this. This is the funniest way to use Edmund Burke to argue fascist politics.

"The atomization of society begins with your morning coffee." Put caramel syrup in your latte? You're asserting your primacy over the Nation, Bolshevik.

I read through these linked quotes and all I can think of is "sir I ran a coffee stand for years, sir these are ON THE STANDARD MENU, you're not even getting worked up over 2/3 decaf 18 pumps caramel 14 pumps sugar-free caramel half mocha half white mocha half heavy cream half nonfat at 120 even"

They really said "you deserve to be sent to the guillotine for ordering a coffee with customizations".

I mean sure, I guess BILLIONAIRE OLIGARCHS are fine but damn if you waste everyone's time by having your barista grab a different milk carton, you're ruining society.

Gtfo.

yep.
There are all manner of sinister subtexts to that piece, not least how you can read it through the lens of gender: its quite clear he imagines the frivolous coffee-drink-ordering-individual as a pink haired woman, etc. And he obv thinks that their choice brings about the decline of civilization

anyway this is silly on the surface but the thing lurking beneath is extremely sinister

""controlling power upon will"" ok adolf

Yes! This is all just marketing bs to get people to engage with the material. It’s pure “prove me wrong” bro sitting at a table, trying to make content off your rage. The only way to win is to not play the game.

One of my fav artists ever

ah this is beautiful.
Funny, clever, poignant, and so acute on all the things we promise ourselves about the future and deny ourselves in the present it almost hurts

A young child crying with hands holding their head, wearing a black shirt and a hat.

Young boy lying down, wearing a face mask and a black shirt, appearing distressed.

My child will die…I can’t bear seeing Ahmed like this. He is very weak and suffering, and doctors say he has a dangerous virus.My heart is breaking because I can’t help him
We urgently need £150 for medicine and healthy food. Please help us…I
don’t want to lose my child💔🙏
chuffed.org/project/mahm...

The things the archive speaks when we dare to listen.

Now that might be the only good thing to come from that muddled piece

“All opinion columns will turn into fascist screeds framed as Seinfeld stand-up bits.”

Counterpoint: get your drip coffee from any other restaurant that doesn’t primarily trade in specialty beverages because literally 90% of all businesses in America that offer anything consumable offer drip coffee.

That is it’s sole ambition especially of late

NYT is really good at normalizing fashism, regardless of its format.

Fuck your quiz, how about that?

Stuff like this is just designed to further normalize gAI use to write; to numb us to criticism; to humanize LLMs and dehumanize actual authors and artists: I detest this kind of bs