post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
I had a slightly unsettling Philip K Dick moment yesterday.
So, I was watching the Weird Fruit Explorer video on the cupuaçu fruit, a close relative of cocoa. It sounded delicious, so I search Google for distributors. Unsurprisingly, the main results were from health food distributors. Apparently it's become a coveted smoothie ingredient, Because Antioxidants Or Something.
(con't)
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
Well, I noticed that one of the sales sites made the claim that "the people of the Amazon know the cupuaçu as 'a pharmacy in a fruit.'" A bit hyperbolic, but not too implausible. There's a lot of good shit going on in tropical fruit.
But I thought it was a bit odd that indigenous Amazonians would use an urban term like "pharmacy." So me being me, I looked into it.
Like any other classic gumshoe... I really shouldn't have.
(con't)
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
I did a verbatim search for "pharmacy in a fruit" and got a few hundred results. Some also claimed this phrase was common in the Amazon. Some of them weaseled right out and said "everybody" or just "experts" used it to describe the cupuaçu.
Still not surprising, really. Health food scammers gonna scam, and they're gonna pull claims out of nowhere. I kept going and found it used for several OTHER fruits...
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
Then I found the only source that had anything resembling a concrete claim: they said Anthony Zimmern called it that on Bizarre Foods. I'm still working on confirming that one, but he sure as fuck ain't from the Amazon.
Still kind of okay. Still kind of not surprising.
Then I found a lengthy "debunking" of the "pharmacy in a fruit" claim that was... sigh... obviously a concealed ad for someone's cupuaçu supplements.
*grumble* Fine. Let's keep going...
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
http://apfoodingredients.com/2014/10/06/fall-regional-ift-event-full-flavors/
This is where I gave up and started hating Terra. This is a blog post by a marketing company. It includes the line "But what caught my attention was how FONA referred to the ingredient as a pharmacy in a fruit."
No sources. No confirmation. No evidence asked or given. Just something made up for a BS supplement site to sell Cupuaçu. And here it is being parroted by apparently "legitimate" food science & marketing companies.
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
Naturally, after my journey here, I was skeptical. I was ready to believe these were just elaborate fake sites, too, puffed up purely to max out the SEO of some health skcammer.
Nope, sadly. I looked into FONA. I looked into Anderson Partners Food Ingredient Marketing. They both seem to be legitimate companies, respected in the food industry.
Anderson Partners, in fact, has just made a massive deal with Kraft Foods. Ponder that.
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
And I know this might all seem like some trivial caviling from furry fandom's HL Mencken... but I don't need to draw the connection for you, do I?
This is the exact same process by which our political news is made. And our crime news. And our advertising.
There is absolutely nobody at the controls here. The captain is dead. The thing at the helm is a zombie. And nobody dares point it out.
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
And that's what I saw last night, an innocent-looking, appealing, and totally unsupported fact-like-entity grow up from a blurb from a health food scammer to a truism worthy of pushing a "new" product to people on a global scale. Nobody keeping it in check.
Subsistence crops will go unplanted so our yuppie aunts and uncles can drink this shit. The abuses in the cocoa industry will spread to a brand new plant. This'll MATTER to real people in real places.
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
@zebratron2084 *Ma'at sighs heavily and orders another double shot of bourbon*
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
@green When I encounter stuff like this, my raccoonbot persona Kirsch likes to pop up over my shoulder and chirp, "You humans are soooooo baaaaaaad at this!" I think zie's looking forward to zir ancestors taking over from us.
=(^)_(^)=
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
@zebratron2084 *snort* and raccoons would be *better* at critical thinking and decision-making? "oooh, this looks like food! better stick it in water to wash it off!" *piece of bread disintegrates* "awwww...." XD
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
@green Have you SEEN their scores* on the Aesop Test? :D https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/animals-intelligence-raccoons-birds-aesops/
(* "OH LOOK GUESS WE BROKE IT NOM NOM NOM" out of 10
=(^)_(^)= )
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
@zebratron2084 loooooool. OKAY GRANTED. XD
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
well, thing is
> SERIOUS herd-scale memetic immunity fast
we haven't developed that yet over all the years we've existed and language has existed and lies were a thing
maybe we develop it, but I wouldn't bet money on it happening
> There is absolutely nobody at the controls here.
This is where I say, with certainty, that there never was.
The idea that human endeavor is led by a chosen few with 'vision' or 'leadership' is an illusion.
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
(which isn't to say that NEVER happens, but it's certainly not the norm, and I suspect it happens by chance when it does, b/c as far as I can tell being better at things guarantees basically nothing in this world -- merit is not a factor, PERCEIVED merit is a factor)
post-capitalist ennui, 20-50 millikafkas
If our species doesn't develop some SERIOUS herd-scale memetic immunity fast, we are colossally fucked.
We got a ridiculous and obvious lie as "people in the Amazon know what a pharmacy is, and have made an informed decision that this bean is an adequate substitute" into the ideosphere.
All that happened is that a few hundred sketchy people repeated it. Now Serious Adults are repeating it as exciting truth--- because there's money in it.
I'm terrified.