Quinn NortonMar 14

Europeans don't, maybe sometimes can't, understand the absolute crushing pressure and gaslighting that most Americans are put through to make us the way we are.

It's a decades long effort to turn most of the population into a money and power pump for a tiny elite class, all while grinding us into dust.

We're crazy and scared all the time, and have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world.

There's a reason dying of opiates seemed like a rational choice to a lot of people.

Show threadQuinn NortonMar 14
The rest of world never sees the poor and desperate America, they mostly stay in the decently rich bits of New York or California, and have no idea what a "food desert" is.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMar 14
@quinn What's a "food desert"? My wife has on business trips to the USA stayed in neighbourhoods where it's impossible to buy what we in Europe would regard as real food - the only thing on offer is (extremely) junk "food" that is completely incapable of sustaining normal life. Is that what "food desert" means?
Show threadCassandrich
@TimWardCam @quinn AIUI a "food desert" is a place where it's impossible to get to a place to buy basic grocery items without long distance drive by a car you may not have.
Mar 14 at 2:08pmWeb
Show threadusspacenutMar 14
@dalias @TimWardCam @quinn yep. There are some maps of this in the US but here’s an explainer for it https://gisportal.ers.usda.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience?id=a53ebd7396cd4ac3a3ed09137676fd40
Experience

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMar 14
@dalias @quinn That would count, then, if all the local walkable shops only sell junk.
Show threadDeadTOm Mar 14
@TimWardCam @dalias @quinn Most neighborhoods in the US don't even have walkable shops anymore. They've been squeezed out by ridiculous zoning laws, mostly created at the behest of large chains like Walmart and Costco. If I want a loaf of bread, I have to travel a minimum of three miles to pay $7.50 for a small loaf, or go five miles to get a decent loaf at a decent price. And what we call "bread" here is mostly fillers and preservatives, effectively poisoning us.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMar 14
@deadtom @dalias @quinn I have to walk half a mile to buy decent bread (I'm pretty sure that my nearest shop, which I boycott for other reasons, only has wrapped sliced bread that tastes of blotting paper). If I want anything more exotic than that I have to walk or cycle about a mile and a half (and I've got a choice of directions to do that). (But mostly we make our own bread.)
Show threadSzabó Em, Enigma He-Art Director Mar 14
@TimWardCam @dalias @quinn I have family in places where the closest "local junk" is a 10+ mile walk away (meaning quality food is even further). We have massive problems with our food supply and infrastructure :/
Show threadNeil KandalgaonkarMar 14
@TimWardCam @dalias @quinn Instead of imagining a little town with bad local shops imagine that you live on the side of the A12. The nearest place that would accept money in exchange for any goods and/or services is a 45 minute walk away on streets with no sidewalk. You decide to walk it anyway, and cars stop to ask if you’re lost or in trouble. Your destination is a store that only sells highly processed food in massive packages. After you buy five things it’s far too heavy to carry home.
Show threadBill WoodcockMar 16
@TimWardCam @dalias @quinn

No, that's not what she said. She said "impossible to get to a place to buy basic grocery items without long distance drive." She didn't say that there were "local walkable shops." Local walkable shops is a thing that exists in Europe, but not in most of the US.
Show threadQuinn NortonMar 16
@woody @TimWardCam @dalias i mean they exist in a lot of cities, but you pay a premium to live in a place where you can walk to a decent grocery store. Basically, if you can walk somewhere and get fresh fruit and veg, you're already rich. (there's a few exceptions, but they're generally being evicted and pushed out of cities.)
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMar 16
@quinn @woody @dalias Yes. The scenario my wife has encountered is that you can walk to a grocery store, but it doesn't count as "decent" and doesn't sell weird stuff like fruit and veg.
Show threadBill WoodcockMar 16
@quinn @TimWardCam @dalias

That seems like an accurate summary. I was trying to test it by thinking of counter-examples, and there are certainly some dense ethnic enclaves in which (if you speak Amharic or Spanish or Hmong or whatever) you could certainly find fresh food grown locally at affordable prices, walking-distance from affordable (if probably very dense, and perhaps not code-compliant) housing. But those are very much the exceptions... islands-within-islands.
Show threadQuinn NortonMar 15
@dalias @TimWardCam but you can usually buy cheap and unhealthy food, like gas station beef jerky and candy. Have lived on that myself!