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Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

startupandrew.com

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Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something worth a million of these types of comments would be a single comment finding a topic nobody could make such a comment on. These things pretty much boil down to "don't celebrate because nothing is pure good".

Whereas your response pretty much boils down to "don't worry about physical reality, just lap up the self-promoting feels of the megaconsuming 1%"

Should we just hate everything because there are poor people? Should we all live in perpetual state of guilt? A perfect world doesn’t exist, that doesn’t mean we should tear down everything and degrade everyone’s quality of life just so it’s equally bad for everyone. If 20% are happy and everyone else is miserable, it seems ridiculous to aspire to making 100% miserable out of some virtue-signaling desire for pure equality. If I avoid pineapple, it will make zero difference because whatever the next bad thing is will also be bad. Eventually we all live in caves and die at age 30, but at least nobody was unequal right?

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#23

(Pineapple Day founder here :-P) Thanks for the love HN! Don't forget to set that calendar reminder for yourself for next June 27th! (and set to repeat annually, of course)!

I think this holiday would be an excellent candidate for Mondayization - it's unfortunate it lands on a Saturday next year https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mondayize#English

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#24
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas your response pretty much boils down to "don't worry about physical reality, just lap up the self-promoting feels of the megaconsuming 1%"

Should we just hate everything because there are poor people? Should we all live in perpetual state of guilt? A perfect world doesn’t exist, that doesn’t mean we should tear down everything and degrade everyone’s quality of life just so it’s equally bad for everyone. If 20% are happy and everyone else is miserable, it seems ridiculous to aspire to making 100% miserable out of some virtue-signaling desire for pure equ…

I mean, society is likely going to collapse within the next 50 years due to destroying the environment. This isn't just a feel-good, virtue-signaling issue, there are actual reasons to want to not harm the environment. Like you say, though, whatever the next bad thing is will also be bad, so it's very hard to actually make a difference.

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#25

pineapples are pretty ecologically destructive, workers are treated horribly, mondo pesticides, etc. it's an unfortunate thing to celebrate without raising awareness of this side of the story. https://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/exploring-green/the-sour-sid...

Is there an agricultural industry of which you approve that treats field hands well, etc?

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#26

Thanks for encouraging consumption of tropical fruit that needs to be shipped on diesel around the world while growing it results in rainforest loss?

And you type this on a computer shipped from China.

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas your response pretty much boils down to "don't worry about physical reality, just lap up the self-promoting feels of the megaconsuming 1%"

Should we just hate everything because there are poor people? Should we all live in perpetual state of guilt? A perfect world doesn’t exist, that doesn’t mean we should tear down everything and degrade everyone’s quality of life just so it’s equally bad for everyone. If 20% are happy and everyone else is miserable, it seems ridiculous to aspire to making 100% miserable out of some virtue-signaling desire for pure equ…

Wow. Such manichaeanism. Highlighting the extremes of inequality reached in just a few societies (notably the US, Brazil, etc) at some periods (notably the 1920s and now) is synonymous with 'hating everything', 'perpetual guilt', 'tearing everything down', 'living in caves', 'dying at 30'. No recognition of the huge range of differences between real societies, today and throughout history. No recognition of the ecological (ie. real physical world) collapses happening right now. Just a waving of around of abstract ahistorical ideological gestures.

This is exactly what I would expect to hear any from any religious fundamentalist in response to criticisms of their fixed and final ideology. No wonder we are where we are.

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#29
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something worth a million of these types of comments would be a single comment finding a topic nobody could make such a comment on. These things pretty much boil down to "don't celebrate because nothing is pure good".

Maybe there's a compromise. Enjoy what you have, but recognize that externalities do exist rather than trying to hide from them.

Who's hiding from pineapple externalities in this scenario?

Re: Pineapple Day: How I Started a Global Holiday

#30

pineapples are pretty ecologically destructive, workers are treated horribly, mondo pesticides, etc. it's an unfortunate thing to celebrate without raising awareness of this side of the story. https://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/exploring-green/the-sour-sid...

Is there an agricultural industry of which you approve that treats field hands well, etc?

small farmer's cooperatives growing corn and beans were at least sustainable, but we all know how the game plan goes:

- US BigCorp (Dole mostly) starts throwing around cash to extremely poor and vulnerable populations (specifically Nicaraguan immigrants and traditional farmers in Costa Rica, where most pineapples consumed in US/EU come from); farmers get wide eyed and accept

- farmers cooperatives lose members and land, meaning value adds for things previously e.g. insurance for crop failures become unaffordable; cooperatives wane in power and shrivel up

- vicious cycle ensues: opportunities dwindle unless you're willing to be poisoned, exploited etc. at the local Dole plantation. or grow near/in Nicaragua where your stuff just gets confiscated on the way back in.

it's regrettable that my post was interpreted in the light of negative nancy style, everything is bad so no big deal, or what have you.

the increased demand for pineapples - again, consumed almost exclusively outside of Costa Rica - has had demonstrable negative impacts on Costa Rican farmers, its environment, and so forth. and, as you might have guessed, a principally US corporation makes most of the profits.

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