#WritersCoffeeClub 21 April: What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?

The idea that you should write for the broadest audience possible.

Studies show that 54% of the US population read at or below a 6th grade (age 12) level of comprehension.

Fuck 'em, they're not my readers: I write to entertain readers who're willing to put some effort in, I'm not going to enshittify my output to accommodate people who don't read for pleasure. (Low grade readers never got the habit.)

"No one wants to work, our turnover is terrible!"

Ok, do you pay a living wage?
"No"

Do you give annual raises more than 7%, the annual rate of cost of living increase?
"Also no, but-"

Do you give larger raises and bonuses to execs than to your workers?
"Well yes, but-"

Did you force people to stop working from home in order to justify the cost of maintaining real estate you own?
"I mean, we-"

Do you heavily invest in AI so you can justify massive layoffs?
"Like every other co-"

Do you ask your employees to pick up the slack for the people who have left?
"We had t-"

And did you install digital tools to spy on your remaining employees?
"Look we need to ensu-"

Sounds to me like people DO want to work, you've just made it unpatatable for them to work for YOU.

DoorDash Grandma isn't a paid plant. (For that, you need to be paid!) Instead, her story is far worse.

She's a depressing example of how MAGA cultists have internalized the lies that justify their own oppression.

An analysis.

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/17/trumps-doordash-grandma-isnt-a-plant-the-truth-is-much-darker/

I buy peppermint tea from Aldi. It's not very convenient because every single individual tea bag is wrapped in paper for some reason but I can at least just go and buy them from a shop with cash normally. At least until 2024, when they started wrapping each? individual?? teabag???? in plastic??????? so of course I stopped buying my teabags there because, well, OBVIOUSLY I stopped, wew lad yikes. I sent Aldi an email saying hey yo I'm not buying your weird plastic-wrapped teabags, email me when you come to your senses, they emailed back almost immediately saying they were a very sustainable company actually and you can put the plastic in the recycling and do not reply to this email.

So I started getting Celestial Seasonings tea bags which just come in a cardboard box lined with wax paper. I bought a bunch of boxes off the evil monster bastard empire amazon. Then I went grumble grumble well I suppose I should stop buying shit from amazon as well, they're so convenient why can't they just be good, so I would occasionally grab a box out of Giant Eagle, which is a real American grocery chain that actually exists and has that name and this is your daily reminder that it's impossible to satirize Americans.

Anyway spouse has a sore throat and needs much pep T so yesterday I was gonna go to the whiskey shop for whiskey and Aldi for milk and also heck we're out of mintyhot so I went up to Giant Eagle and as I was walking up to the door a guy walked in with a handgun and one of those belts with all bullets around it straight past the bouncer bold as brass and I turned right around and went nah fuck that I'll go to Aldi.

Defeated at amazon by their evil-capitalism shittiness and defeated at giant eagle by their guns-yay shittiness I returned to Aldi to embrace their that's-a-lot-of-plastic-even-for-americans shittiness and I shamefully bought a box of peppermint-plastic tea.

And when I opened it this morning the teabags were still individually wrapped, but in paper like they were before. So like, still a pain in the arse and a pointless waste, but apparently while I wasn't buying their plastic-wrapped teabags they stopped wrapping them in plastic. And never bothered to email me back and say hey Dan we did what you asked, come back and give us money.

You don't expect buying teabags to have fucking three acts and a betrayal and a twist and a redemption arc but here we are I suppose

Are the kids all right?

Of course not; they're entirely aware that COVID does them harm, that the policy decision was that "the economy" (maintaining a high rate of profit…) was more important than not doing unknown damage to all of them, that public policy is to fight wars to guarantee fossil carbon extraction increases (which means the world they'll have to live in is being made uninhabitable), and that they'll never have any say in anything.

Infantilizing youth goes with plans to hurt them.

A resounding victory for trans rights in Montana, which also sets an important precedent.

EDIT: In case it wasn't clear, this precedent (that trans people are a suspect class) is only legally binding in Montana. However, I still think it's important that *any* state supreme court has set such a precedent, even if only for the social impact. That's what I meant by “important.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/transitics/p/montana-supreme-court-effectively?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web