Doof


How much pet food comes from factory farms that brutalize animals?

I'd been thinking about pets. When most people lived on farms or hunted, they played a functional role, at least I think. Today, they're more of a self-indulgence. Yes, we love them. We don't know if they have consciousness or can love, but we believe they love us back. They seem to enjoy life, which is an end to itself, even if they don't serve any function for us. Still, I think most people have pets to feel good themselves. Do they have costs beyond the cash we spend on them? I've written before about the countless (probably billions annually) of plastic bags people collect dog poop in. What about their food? Whether vegetarian or not, most people I've talked to about it find factory…

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Do you think BP tricked us? Here’s a way to respond.

Environmentalists constantly point out BP promoting personal carbon footprints and bizarrely use it as an excuse not to act. It would seem counterproductive except when you remember that people are less rational than rationalizing. Whatever their words, if they pollute and deplete without meaningful attempt to change, their deeds oppose their words. Environmentalists rarely have hands-on practical experience trying to live sustainably. Do you know any who are trying to live sustainably beyond a few little changes? Since they haven't experienced that living more sustainably improves their lives, they generally still think it makes their lives and cultures worse. Ignorant and sad, but how things are. They prattle on about people "in communities" who can't afford to buy expensive things, not realizing actually acting as…

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I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 3b: More drugs

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.…

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I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 3a: More drugs

Following up a recent post I love where I live. How it’s being destroyed, part 3: Drugs, here are a few more pictures and videos of addicts in my neighborhood. To clarify, I'm not going out of my way or looking for these images. As a New Yorker, I'm usually in a hurry. Most scenes like the ones below I pass by without taking pictures or videos. These images are about our culture, not the individuals in the images. If you use social media, fly, buy doof, or own shares in companies whose business models depend on addiction, THESE PICTURES ARE OF YOUR CREATION. I see little difference between these scenes and McDonald's or Instagram. Here's a video version of the couple: Here's a video…

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To conservatives and libertarians annoyed at trash strikes: Sanitation systems are socialist. Most of your garbage promotes socialism.

Sanitation systems across the nation are on strike. It started in Boston: and expanded to the west coast in solidarity: Since people who are conservative and libertarian often don't like strikes, which they may see as socialist, communist, or moving in that direction, Today I want to clarify for them: Sanitation systems are socialist and motivate waste, violate Enlightenment thinking and practice, and violate the original intent of the Constitution. (For liberals and progressives, they are also imperialist, colonialist, and contribute to racism, which I'll cover in another post.) First, a personal note: you can improve your life by reducing your garbage by well over 99 percent. Also your health, safety, security, freedom, family, budget, and longevity. I grew up generating as much or more…

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I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 1: Takeout instead of food

Many new restaurants have few to no tables. Single-use packaging costs less than rent for the space for tables, a dishwasher, people to wash dishes, etc. They don't have to pay for cleaning anything. We taxpayers pay those costs. We suffer their pollution we didn't consent to. Since the packaging takes resources to make, in polluting processes, and the waste poisons the rest of us, they destroy life, liberty, and property for personal benefit, the opposite of a free market. A government-run sanitation department is socialist and creates perverse incentives. I could go on about polluting and depleting undermining democracy, but in this post I want to show the pictures I took when I went for a walk Saturday morning. I wasn't looking for trouble.…

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Love Is Love, Garbage Is Garbage, and Pollution Hurts People: Pride 2025

Yesterday was the annual Pride March, which means a wrecked Washington Square Park. I make it an annual habit to take pictures of the state of the park after. As usual, to clarify, I'm selecting the event not to say anything about the march itself, its causes, or its people, but for the garbage. My mission is to change American and global culture and the pictures illustrate our culture. I wish I could record the noise overnight of the street sweepers, garbage trucks, and leaf blowers. They sounded like jet planes right outside my window, hour after hour. In past years, I've gotten up around 3am to take pictures. This year I went around 7pm, when the march had just ended and park was still…

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More junkies shooting up in broad daylight in the park

The title says it all. Here are pictures of more junkies shooting up in broad daylight in the park. Sorry the exposure isn't brighter for the people but I was trying not to draw attention to myself. I was in the park charging and trying to work. There were half a dozen people in the group shortly before I took these pictures. If you magnify the second image you can see the syringe going into his arm. For the record, as far as I can tell, people who fly, drive, buy doof, order takeout, buy fast fashion they dispose of soon after, or shop a lot online hurt other people and communities more than these junkies. A lot more. It's just less visible, or rather…

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How can anyone imaging this self-indulgence a better life?

My building neighbors often have deliveries to their doors, which I presume happens all over New York City. Here are some recent deliveries, first, I think, coffee, pastry, and other doof: Next, unnecessary sundries: I know plenty of people who marvel at how convenient modernity has made life. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked enough into my past if I found I liked the prospect of not having to leave my apartment, talk to a person, or even interact in any way with a human or challenges of life to get luxury, polluting, inessentials. I don't remember the last time I bought paper towels. Probably before I started avoiding packaged food, which would be over ten years ago. Meanwhile, I have more sponges than…

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Juneberries, the law, and discovering local fruit

Juneberries are just going out of season. I love their taste. I love the process of picking and eating them. I don't know their nutritional value, but I understand that purple in the plant kingdom usually means lots of antioxidants and that berries in general are very healthy. [EDIT: I got lucky and found a couple pages on juneberry nutrition and it turns out they rank near the top of antioxidant content of all berries. Score!] So I eat tons of them. While eating them, I constantly say to myself, "Only a handful more, then I'll leave. If I want more I can come back tomorrow," then keep eating them. No regrets! A few people pushed back, saying it must be illegal to take them.…

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Are there people who eat absolutely zero unpackaged food? I think so.

I was out in the park along the Hudson River picking juneberries. Not only was the food not packaged, I picked them myself. They're incredibly delicious. The tree evolved to provide fruit to be eaten. I saw a lot of people picnicking on the grass, eating at the outdoor bar in the park, and eating while they walked. Every piece of food or beverage I saw them eating was bought pre-prepared, pre-packaged with disposable garbage that hurts people, with the exception of a few reusable bottles. I didn't see even one apple or other piece of fruit or non-disposable food container, like Tupperware containing something homemade. I saw pizza, Gatorade, bags of chips, plastic platters of crudités, takeout containers, and mostly doof. It got me…

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Ayahuasca and psychedelics: I propose an alternative if you want to learn about ego, life, the universe, and everything

I don't know what it's like where you are, but in New York, people talk about psychedelic drugs a lot. Everyone is talking about microdosing (probably not as much as in California), going to shamans in Peru for ayahuasca, and so on. People describe the value of the experiences as life changing. I'm prompted by a recent New Yorker piece This Is Your Priest on Drugs: Dozens of religious leaders experienced magic mushrooms in a university study. Many are now evangelists for psychedelics, by Michael Pollan. He cites that "Ninety-six per cent rated their first encounters with psilocybin as being among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives." I think we're supposed to think, "Wow, if I take some mushrooms I can…

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Do I miss anything from when I polluted and depleted like the average American?

People ask me sometimes if I miss anything from when I polluted and depleted like the average American, or more, really. They hear about not filling a load of trash since 2019, avoiding doof and packaged food, and not doing all the things mainstream culture considers normal and necessary and think I'm giving things up. The honest answer is that I don't miss anything, at least I can't think of anything. All those things I get rid of get in the way of freedom, liberty, connection, community, and what creates meaning and purpose. There are two aspects to what I'm doing though, and the other one is challenging. The first is trying to live so I hurt innocent people less, which means living more sustainably.…

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Read about me in Gothamist: “Meet the NYC environmentalists going off the grid and eating discarded food”

The story Meet the NYC environmentalists going off the grid and eating discarded food begins: Joshua Spodek’s studio apartment in the West Village is an off-grid oasis. While other apartments in his 15-story co-op rely on electricity produced by fossil fuel-burning power plants, Spodek is disconnected from Con Edison and National Grid. The main circuit breaker in his apartment is turned off. Instead, he powers his few electric devices – phone, laptop, pressure cooker and a single light turned on only to read at night – with solar panels the size of an unfurled yoga mat that he charges weekly in Washington Square Park. He buys nothing in a package. The total garbage he’s accumulated over the last three years fits in a reusable shopping…

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America has acclimatized to overwhelming garbage. It will increase until we change culture to restore the values we’ve jettisoned.

Yesterday, April 20th, is a big holiday for people who love cannabis and many cannabis lovers love Washington Square Park so it was more crowded than usual, but it's not a national holiday or that big. Yet look at the garbage on a mostly regular day. I just took a few pictures, but every can was beyond full to overflowing. Each became the center of an ever-growing pile of garbage. In the title I call the garbage overwhelming because its production is overwhelming every sanitation system in the world as well as all our landfills. It is overwhelming our culture. I would say it's forcing us to accept it, but the point of this post and of my life is to invigorate and inspire you…

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Why treat doof as second hand smoke

If an adult wants to smoke in their home, that's their business. If they give themselves lung cancer, that's their choice, assuming their sickness doesn't tax others who didn't choose. Likewise, if people want to consume doof, that's their business too. But if someone smokes where others who don't or can't consent to breathing that smoke, or if someone too young to know the long-term results of their choices smokes, then I consider a role of a government to protect the life, liberty, and property of those people who don't consent. Also, if smokers litter cigarette butts and packaging, I see it the responsibility of government to protect the rest of us from their destruction of our lives, liberty, and property. Likewise for doof. Unlike…

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What happened to produce stands in America?

I passed through Chinatown this afternoon and passed countless produce stands selling fresh vegetables and fruit. A while ago I read in the New York Times that many stands there have a separate supply chain for their fresh produce that's grown relatively locally independent of the supply chain for other grocery stores or farmers markets in the city. While Chinatown is full of produce stands, the rest of New York City has almost none. In fact, people constantly treat my buying fresh as privileged and a luxury. New York City is full of corner delis and bodegas, which are full of soda, beer, chips, and other doof, almost no food. These stores don't stay open magically. People near them are buying those products of zero…

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In 2025, can you become obese without doof, whose packaging hurts people as surely second-hand smoke, but remotely?

We've all seen the graphs and data of rising obesity. People get riled up about it. I have no problem with people living by their values when their choices affect only themselves. I pick up litter daily and hear from Workshop alumni and podcast guests who pledge to pick up litter. They sometimes cry when their hands-on practical experience leads them to see and consciously process what they usually look past instead of at: there's way more litter than they expect. What we see in the U.S. is nothing compared to the places we export our waste to. The packaging no doubt correlates with the transportation and industrial processing that pollutes and depletes yet more. Buying doof drives that systems. Buying doof harms people. I…

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Sriracha sauce: yuck! Enjoying food over doof.

It's been almost ten years since I posted Why Sriracha Hot Sauce tastes good. In it I wrote: Did you ever wonder why it tasted so good? Here’s the answer: It’s twenty percent sugar! Out of 100 grams, 20 grams are sugar. Sure, you only have a few grams at a time, so a serving doesn’t have a lot of calories, but that’s a high percent of sugar for when I want something spicy. Progress report on enjoying food over doof I don't think I've tasted it in the decade since. Then in my volunteer work salvaging food that would be thrown away, I ended up with a jar to deliver. It had been opened, so I had a chance to taste it. It's been…

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Social media executives don’t let their children use social media. This time it’s personal.

Months ago, when I read Adam Alter's book and hosted him on the podcast, I learned that executives of social media companies often don't let their children use the services they work for. They know they design them to addict. I recently saw an old friend who works at Facebook. He has two kids. I asked him if he let them use Facebook. He said "no," with a look of: of course not, that would be bad for them. It's one thing to read and hear about it. It's another to experience it directly with a friend. Sometimes I can't believe people put social media apps on their phones. I mean, of course I know they do and I believe it. I'm the tiny minority.…

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See me with Rob and Andrew on After Dark: “When Sustainability Meets MAHA And Making English The Official Language”

Longtime readers know Rob, Andrew, and I appear on each other's podcasts and programs. They strongly support Trump. I strongly support sustainability leadership. Many people who support Trump or act on the environment consider the other group the enemy. We are friends. I recently appeared on their podcast-now-videocast: When Sustainability Meets MAHA And Making English The Official Language. It was evening and I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid so was just lit from a battery-powered light. (If the video appears small, click the link above for the original post.) The show notes: In the realm of sustainability and health, two influential voices—Joshua Spodek and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—offer compelling perspectives that resonate with today’s growing desire for meaningful change. Spodek, a leadership expert,…

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Plastic: “between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in low- and middle-income countries because of diseases related to mismanaged waste”

A group called the Tearfund published a report in 2019 on plastic waste called No Time to Waste. It states "between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in low- and middle-income countries because of diseases related to mismanaged waste." I expect that number has risen since. I expect I'll quote this finding as a measure of our culture. Consider this point: there was once no litter on earth. Not one piece of litter. Now it's everywhere, including our arteries and brains. I've quoted the Lancet's peer-reviewed paper on 9 million deaths per year from breathing polluted air. This report seems comparable and independent. Though not peer-reviewed, it documents its methods. Here is the beginning of the appendix that documents their methods, though read…

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Why Are So Many Young Adults Getting Cancer? Doof, not food.

I knew the article would cover food and not distinguish doof from food from its title: "Why Are So Many Young Adults Getting Cancer? New Columbia research looks at ultra-processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, and other possible explanations." Sure enough, it didn't. Imagine people didn't distinguish heroin from poppy, if they thought shooting heroin was like eating a poppy-seed bagel. They'd miss that heroin affects the body and behavior a lot different than poppy seeds. In this post, I'll quote a few paragraphs, then translate them to distinguish doof from food. For context, here are the first two paragraphs, which don't mention food or doof: When Beatrice Dionigi was in medical school fifteen years ago, she was taught that colon cancer — long known as a…

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Plastic appears more poisonous than you think, especially to your brain. You’d rather know these findings than not.

I try to avoid just quoting news. That's for social media, which I avoid. But sometimes the news merits it. Quoting the Washington Post: Our brains are filling with more and more microplastics, study shows A new study shows that microplastics have crossed the blood-brain barrier — and that their concentrations are rising. A new study shows that microplastics are making their way into human brains — with potentially dangerous effects onpeople’s health andmental acuity. A paper published Monday in Nature Medicine found that the tiny fragments of plastic are passing the blood-brain barrier and into human brains, and the amount of microplastics in the brain appears to be increasing over time. The concentration of microplastics in analyzed brains rose by about 50 percent from…

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A polluting cafe illustrates our how our culture values and promotes polluting and depleting

The picture below shows a new cafe down the block from me that shows how polluting our culture has become. Let me count the ways. First, it has no seating. You buy your coffee and walk away. They save rent for not providing space for customers. They give you disposable everything. They save the salary of someone washing, the rent for space for a dishwasher and cups. It's glowing red because it's using heat lamps despite there being nobody there. Like many local places, they're heating the outdoors. On the other side of all these savings for them: everyone pays the costs in health from plastic in our bloodstreams, pollution in the air, sickened wildlife, people displaced from their land to access minerals and fuel…

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