Ok I love that you brought up adhd & transit bc I went to a national adhd conference organized by the FDA last month and they kept saying that adhd causes car crashes so we need everybody to take their stims everyday to keep the roads safe and lower the “economic burden” of adhd 😑 so naturally I have been unable to stop researching the social costs of car dependency and auto-oriented city planning FOR WEEKS NOW
The degree to which car dependency ravages disabled people's lives and prevents interdependence and community is so overwhelming I can't even seem reasonable when talking about it. I just foam at the mouth. As a non-driver there are like... three habitable zones in the entire United States. And I'm in the only one that's affordable.
Hi Devon, I really benefit from reading your posts here. I am not Autistic but have chronic fatigue syndrome, and have also come to realise recently that it is society that renders me disabled. Like you, I am mostly okay at home or in social situations where I can make accommodations! Thanks for your work in bringing this aspect of disability to light. I think most of us are conditioned not to question the norms of capitalism but it truly doesn't have to be this way.
Wow this is INCREDIBLE!! Also re airplanes I still get the paper tickets, you can print them at the kiosk or the agents at the entry can give you one. I use them for the same reason you write about
Your description of waiting to board the plane was so evocative that it made me want to scream and scratch my skin off lol.
I also want to fist pump your comment about the incredible effort needed to spend the day away from the house. I was able to switch to remote work at the start of the pandemic, and now when I think about the enormous amount of unpaid, unnecesary work that was required of me to go into the office everyday, I am nearly speechless. I can't believe it took a literal global pandemic to make WFH possible.
Another well-written, incredibly insightful piece!!
A lot of these sentiments, especially about the internet insufficiently approximating real-world desires, remind me of Jia Tolentino’s book of essays, Trick Mirror. Highly recommend it. It’s also part of what led me to quit social media, because it’s true—it’s engineered to leave you constantly wanting more, but it never really scratches that itch. Ever since I left, it feels like I quit smoking. It was hard but also so worth it—there’s so much less sensory overload, pressure to perform, pressure to express a thought on everything and anything. It’s not like it cured my anxiety or depression, but it did force me to start seeking more substantive relief.
I also love the line “As an Autistic person, I often can’t fake being a perpetual consumer well enough.” YES. THIS. Being poor my whole life, I’ve felt this dual struggle. Like not only do I stick out because I can’t afford to blend in and keep up with consumer trends, but I don’t want to. Not necessarily out of a holier-than-thou-ness, but because I’m my own unique person with my own unique needs and desires. But people are offended when I stick out on both of these fronts, as if my existence chafes against theirs (in a way, I guess, it does, but the feeling is often mutual).
I also recommend Zadie Smith’s essay on the importance of public libraries as a place to exist without having to buy anything. Mercifully, in recent years, Starbucks has had its hand forced into becoming this as well per policy, but we all know the racist ass incident that started it all.
Finally, I really applaud the discussion of headphone jacks and speakerphones being a massive nuisance. I’ve felt like such an old fogey (despite being in my twenties) insisting on bulky, wired headphones for all of the reasons you outlined. And I’m also endlessly pissed at having to buy a dongle to to it, such an obvious and egregious scam that companies are somehow allowed to get away with. It also seems like such a fucking joke that the bodies out there presuming to protect consumers and disabled people have been so gutted and paid off that they are now utterly ineffective. Planned obsolescence should absolutely be illegal, but fuckall that means.
Worst, the most marginalized and the most overwhelmed must still be the ones fighting the hardest to protect themselves. And people with their bills paid do nothing and usually add to the problem.
Fuck this capitalist surveillance state. I’m manipulated, watched, critiqued, harassed enough without getting yet another goddamn ad and logging in AGAIN.
Thanks for your comment Casanova! Thanks for the reading recommendations... your comment also reminds me of how wonderful it felt to quit social media for a couple of months last year. If only I didn't have to do some book marketing bullshit right now I would be seriously tempted....
> And if they’re fixated on keeping meticulous, ongoing mental track of all their possessions, as many of us are, carrying them around is itself a stressor. Everything is always about to be lost or to break, the burden of accommodating ourselves in all ways a literal weight hanging off our bodies.
It's actually a commonly recurring nightmare for me where I try to find something important and I've lost it. Whether it's because this has happened many times because comfort items were taken way because it was Wrong and Childish, stolen/destroyed by others because that's fun, or otherwise isn't important. But it's a Big Thing. I still quintuple check whether I have everything I need whenever I leave the house, just to be sure.
The pointless changes manufacturers make to things is very pertinent. I recently had to finally replace my cellphone, and where my old one had a little blinkenlight to show I had messages, the new one doesn't. It's a very small thing but it helped me not miss things when I wasn't on my phone (which when I'm not out and about, is pretty much all the time). It's just so... unnecessary.
While I agree that capitalist bullshit like eliminating headphone jacks is, at least in parts, to blame for people to just blast their noise on speakerphone, it's not just that. Though definitely before the pandemic, but not too too long ago, it was considered quite rude to have a phone conversation on the train etc. where you're imposing yourself on others at all. Or wear an excessive amount of upmarket crowd dispersant (better known as perfume). Maybe the lockdown experiences eroded people's feelings of responsibility to others, but it sure as hell makes public transport even less accessible.
That bit about keeping track of everything pinged in my brain too! I buy multiples of things just so I can have the essentials in every possible bag I might take somewhere, including multiple high capacity battery packs and charging cables. My friends can count on me to also be a walking pharmacy, with painkillers, antihistamines, antacids, etc. I almost feel like it's a C-PTSD thing because I'm so scared of being without something when I need it.
Also, I friggin' hate people playing videos or music in public, and it certainly predates the move to bluetooth, but I do think lockdowns changed people's behaviour.
What I forgot to mention, is how people not understanding my situation is really aggravating.
I don't get out much, because doing so requires just too much energy. Travelling there, travelling home, the thing I go do itself, it all adds up. Every time I have to weigh whether I have the energy for it (mostly not), or whether it's worth the crash and its aftermath (mostly also not). But that's somehow really hard to understand for others.
Another amazing, insightful article. Just a note--cobalt is mined in the Congo, not Sudan! Sudan is currently embroiled in a power struggle between two autocrats who are attempting to hijack the recent revolution. The DRC has been effectively ruled for years by paramilitary gangs who exploit and displace people in order to mine cobalt.
PS the amount of navigation and logging in and clicking in and out i had to do to post this comment is such a case in point...
Have you read Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman? Came out recently and talks about these same ideas along different veins. Highly recommend! Thank you for all you do.
I have been lamenting about all this for years, too. I try to not think about it much because I easily slide into a dangerous hopelessness nowadays. I'm existentially exhausted.
I wonder about your take on "capitalism" vs. "consumerism." Whenever I talk about things like this, I talk about capitalism, but my partner usually corrects me and says that what I really mean is "consumerism." I know that if he were to read this article, he would say, "when Dr. Price says 'capitalism,' he *means* 'consumerism.'"
This is far more of a systemic issue caused by decisions made on the manufacturer and designer side of things (and due to a lack of adequate social resources) than it is a fault of individual consumer behavior. Consumerism is a bit of a liberal distraction from criticisms of capitalism, I wonder why your partner is so hellbent on asserting that so many problems have their origins there.
I think it's because of the idea that, theoretically, capitalism is possible without consumerism. Honestly, I don't spend much time thinking about it because I'm tired and I would rather think about other things, and I just leave it as just one of those things where he and I are different (like how we each pronounce "gif" differently).
Personally, I can't really see how capitalism is possible without inherent consumerism.
Thank you for taking the time to respond! I appreciate it.
I think of consumerism as a cultural tool of capitalism -- capitalism alienates us from other people and from the fruits of our labor, then it offers up consumerism to fill the hole left behind. In that sense, consumerism is not the root issue -- and focusing only or primarily on consumerism draws our focus toward individual people being too greedy or attached to their possessions, and that's not really the problem that needs addressing in a primary way. If we addressed the ills of capitalism, much of the psychological bent toward consumerism would slowly go away. That's my perspective on it anyway.
I had never thought about the issue in this way! My phone is 7 years old so I can still use it with old-fashioned plug-in headphones. I love bluetooth headphones for the noise-cancelling option, but I'm onto my second pair (the first was replaced under guarantee) that has stopped working. And I always worry about one of the ear buds landing in the toilet or disappearing behind the couch. I was planning to get a new phone as the battery struggles a lot these days, but perhaps I'll try to hang on a bit longer as presumably no new model has a headphone jack. Maybe getting the battery replaced is the way to go.
Never thought about why so many people suddenly started doing this. This is such a good explanation. I just assumed people didn't care. But maybe they simply don't have Bluetooth headsets. Which is understandable because they are more expensive and I dont think everybody can afford them. Whereas with the old ones you could get reasonable sound for a reasonable prize.
I was just really annoyed by people doing this because I had to listen to music louder than I would wish to and still hear these Fragmentes sounds.
Thank you for writing. On days like today I need to read what you write to remember there's a reason I'm feeling how I do and a reason to get up and change some shit.
Ok I love that you brought up adhd & transit bc I went to a national adhd conference organized by the FDA last month and they kept saying that adhd causes car crashes so we need everybody to take their stims everyday to keep the roads safe and lower the “economic burden” of adhd 😑 so naturally I have been unable to stop researching the social costs of car dependency and auto-oriented city planning FOR WEEKS NOW
The degree to which car dependency ravages disabled people's lives and prevents interdependence and community is so overwhelming I can't even seem reasonable when talking about it. I just foam at the mouth. As a non-driver there are like... three habitable zones in the entire United States. And I'm in the only one that's affordable.
Hi Devon, I really benefit from reading your posts here. I am not Autistic but have chronic fatigue syndrome, and have also come to realise recently that it is society that renders me disabled. Like you, I am mostly okay at home or in social situations where I can make accommodations! Thanks for your work in bringing this aspect of disability to light. I think most of us are conditioned not to question the norms of capitalism but it truly doesn't have to be this way.
Wow this is INCREDIBLE!! Also re airplanes I still get the paper tickets, you can print them at the kiosk or the agents at the entry can give you one. I use them for the same reason you write about
Thank you, I'll have to ask for one!
My daughter always requests that we stop for a paper ticket for these exact reasons.
Your description of waiting to board the plane was so evocative that it made me want to scream and scratch my skin off lol.
I also want to fist pump your comment about the incredible effort needed to spend the day away from the house. I was able to switch to remote work at the start of the pandemic, and now when I think about the enormous amount of unpaid, unnecesary work that was required of me to go into the office everyday, I am nearly speechless. I can't believe it took a literal global pandemic to make WFH possible.
Another well-written, incredibly insightful piece!!
A lot of these sentiments, especially about the internet insufficiently approximating real-world desires, remind me of Jia Tolentino’s book of essays, Trick Mirror. Highly recommend it. It’s also part of what led me to quit social media, because it’s true—it’s engineered to leave you constantly wanting more, but it never really scratches that itch. Ever since I left, it feels like I quit smoking. It was hard but also so worth it—there’s so much less sensory overload, pressure to perform, pressure to express a thought on everything and anything. It’s not like it cured my anxiety or depression, but it did force me to start seeking more substantive relief.
I also love the line “As an Autistic person, I often can’t fake being a perpetual consumer well enough.” YES. THIS. Being poor my whole life, I’ve felt this dual struggle. Like not only do I stick out because I can’t afford to blend in and keep up with consumer trends, but I don’t want to. Not necessarily out of a holier-than-thou-ness, but because I’m my own unique person with my own unique needs and desires. But people are offended when I stick out on both of these fronts, as if my existence chafes against theirs (in a way, I guess, it does, but the feeling is often mutual).
I also recommend Zadie Smith’s essay on the importance of public libraries as a place to exist without having to buy anything. Mercifully, in recent years, Starbucks has had its hand forced into becoming this as well per policy, but we all know the racist ass incident that started it all.
Finally, I really applaud the discussion of headphone jacks and speakerphones being a massive nuisance. I’ve felt like such an old fogey (despite being in my twenties) insisting on bulky, wired headphones for all of the reasons you outlined. And I’m also endlessly pissed at having to buy a dongle to to it, such an obvious and egregious scam that companies are somehow allowed to get away with. It also seems like such a fucking joke that the bodies out there presuming to protect consumers and disabled people have been so gutted and paid off that they are now utterly ineffective. Planned obsolescence should absolutely be illegal, but fuckall that means.
Worst, the most marginalized and the most overwhelmed must still be the ones fighting the hardest to protect themselves. And people with their bills paid do nothing and usually add to the problem.
Fuck this capitalist surveillance state. I’m manipulated, watched, critiqued, harassed enough without getting yet another goddamn ad and logging in AGAIN.
Thanks for your comment Casanova! Thanks for the reading recommendations... your comment also reminds me of how wonderful it felt to quit social media for a couple of months last year. If only I didn't have to do some book marketing bullshit right now I would be seriously tempted....
my comment was kinda heavy, so I wanted to leave this more lighthearted critique of some of the ideas in the article. Enjoy Devon! https://youtu.be/yvhv7bgmz64?si=3eYR0l6xN8Cx712G
Thank you!!! So articulate in naming things others won’t or can’t see
> And if they’re fixated on keeping meticulous, ongoing mental track of all their possessions, as many of us are, carrying them around is itself a stressor. Everything is always about to be lost or to break, the burden of accommodating ourselves in all ways a literal weight hanging off our bodies.
It's actually a commonly recurring nightmare for me where I try to find something important and I've lost it. Whether it's because this has happened many times because comfort items were taken way because it was Wrong and Childish, stolen/destroyed by others because that's fun, or otherwise isn't important. But it's a Big Thing. I still quintuple check whether I have everything I need whenever I leave the house, just to be sure.
The pointless changes manufacturers make to things is very pertinent. I recently had to finally replace my cellphone, and where my old one had a little blinkenlight to show I had messages, the new one doesn't. It's a very small thing but it helped me not miss things when I wasn't on my phone (which when I'm not out and about, is pretty much all the time). It's just so... unnecessary.
While I agree that capitalist bullshit like eliminating headphone jacks is, at least in parts, to blame for people to just blast their noise on speakerphone, it's not just that. Though definitely before the pandemic, but not too too long ago, it was considered quite rude to have a phone conversation on the train etc. where you're imposing yourself on others at all. Or wear an excessive amount of upmarket crowd dispersant (better known as perfume). Maybe the lockdown experiences eroded people's feelings of responsibility to others, but it sure as hell makes public transport even less accessible.
That bit about keeping track of everything pinged in my brain too! I buy multiples of things just so I can have the essentials in every possible bag I might take somewhere, including multiple high capacity battery packs and charging cables. My friends can count on me to also be a walking pharmacy, with painkillers, antihistamines, antacids, etc. I almost feel like it's a C-PTSD thing because I'm so scared of being without something when I need it.
Also, I friggin' hate people playing videos or music in public, and it certainly predates the move to bluetooth, but I do think lockdowns changed people's behaviour.
What I forgot to mention, is how people not understanding my situation is really aggravating.
I don't get out much, because doing so requires just too much energy. Travelling there, travelling home, the thing I go do itself, it all adds up. Every time I have to weigh whether I have the energy for it (mostly not), or whether it's worth the crash and its aftermath (mostly also not). But that's somehow really hard to understand for others.
Another amazing, insightful article. Just a note--cobalt is mined in the Congo, not Sudan! Sudan is currently embroiled in a power struggle between two autocrats who are attempting to hijack the recent revolution. The DRC has been effectively ruled for years by paramilitary gangs who exploit and displace people in order to mine cobalt.
PS the amount of navigation and logging in and clicking in and out i had to do to post this comment is such a case in point...
Shit!! thank you for correcting the brain fart, I will edit that now.
Have you read Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman? Came out recently and talks about these same ideas along different veins. Highly recommend! Thank you for all you do.
i have got to read this book!! It seems like he's a kindred spirit for sure.
I have been lamenting about all this for years, too. I try to not think about it much because I easily slide into a dangerous hopelessness nowadays. I'm existentially exhausted.
I wonder about your take on "capitalism" vs. "consumerism." Whenever I talk about things like this, I talk about capitalism, but my partner usually corrects me and says that what I really mean is "consumerism." I know that if he were to read this article, he would say, "when Dr. Price says 'capitalism,' he *means* 'consumerism.'"
This is far more of a systemic issue caused by decisions made on the manufacturer and designer side of things (and due to a lack of adequate social resources) than it is a fault of individual consumer behavior. Consumerism is a bit of a liberal distraction from criticisms of capitalism, I wonder why your partner is so hellbent on asserting that so many problems have their origins there.
I think it's because of the idea that, theoretically, capitalism is possible without consumerism. Honestly, I don't spend much time thinking about it because I'm tired and I would rather think about other things, and I just leave it as just one of those things where he and I are different (like how we each pronounce "gif" differently).
Personally, I can't really see how capitalism is possible without inherent consumerism.
Thank you for taking the time to respond! I appreciate it.
I think of consumerism as a cultural tool of capitalism -- capitalism alienates us from other people and from the fruits of our labor, then it offers up consumerism to fill the hole left behind. In that sense, consumerism is not the root issue -- and focusing only or primarily on consumerism draws our focus toward individual people being too greedy or attached to their possessions, and that's not really the problem that needs addressing in a primary way. If we addressed the ills of capitalism, much of the psychological bent toward consumerism would slowly go away. That's my perspective on it anyway.
I had never thought about the issue in this way! My phone is 7 years old so I can still use it with old-fashioned plug-in headphones. I love bluetooth headphones for the noise-cancelling option, but I'm onto my second pair (the first was replaced under guarantee) that has stopped working. And I always worry about one of the ear buds landing in the toilet or disappearing behind the couch. I was planning to get a new phone as the battery struggles a lot these days, but perhaps I'll try to hang on a bit longer as presumably no new model has a headphone jack. Maybe getting the battery replaced is the way to go.
Never thought about why so many people suddenly started doing this. This is such a good explanation. I just assumed people didn't care. But maybe they simply don't have Bluetooth headsets. Which is understandable because they are more expensive and I dont think everybody can afford them. Whereas with the old ones you could get reasonable sound for a reasonable prize.
I was just really annoyed by people doing this because I had to listen to music louder than I would wish to and still hear these Fragmentes sounds.
Thank you for writing. On days like today I need to read what you write to remember there's a reason I'm feeling how I do and a reason to get up and change some shit.