My posts about addiction aren’t about the addicts in the pictures or videos. They’re about our culture. I see the person in the video below as the inevitable outcome of our culture. He is a more extreme example in one direction, but only a few steps ahead of many users of McDonald’s, Instagram, Delta Airlines, and Netflix.

Context: I was walking home, saw this guy, and decided to get my phone out and record. Did I worry about making his identity public? Yes, but his face isn’t visible and he’s already in public. I didn’t look for the guy. I didn’t suggest he do anything. He was there. I may not have even broken stride.

I’d been looking up the fentanyl fold and nodding out. Then, what do you know, here’s a guy doing one of those patterns. I don’t bother taking pictures of the syringes all over my neighborhood.

I was more concerned about people not understanding our culture and why I promote sustainability. My next book describes the connection. I’m not focusing on sustainability because I don’t understand the problems people see as more immediate. I’m doing it because I do and they don’t.

I talk to some of the addicts, but they’re too often incoherent and even when coherent, can’t hold a conversation and start yelling without reason. I find this pattern with addicts of doof, television, and flying as much as fentanyl.

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Incidentally, kind of related came from a vegan market’s waste:

while the pizza box came from a pizzeria, the rest looks like it came from this event:

In fairness, city trash cans overflow with garbage daily, but vendors at this event spouted values about the planet and liberal talk about caring.

I went to see if it was something I would support. The images on the site promoting it are mostly doof, which means packaging and not fresh. Sadly they offered only doof in disposable packaging as far as I saw, and it was expensive. Twenty dollars for a dish in a disposable container with disposable utensils to be dumped on the public was revolting to me, not appetizing. The choices were greasy, like cheesesteaks, or mostly rice, or candy.

I brought a container and utensils with me in case something looked appetizing, not anticipating it would cost so much too. I didn’t want to see the trash can overflowing, but the total impression on me was like the one from the guy in the video above, just coming from addicted self-righteous liberals that society privileges instead of a homeless guy looking like society dumps on him.

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