Demand Better

If you can’t cook, you should read and follow directions and learn some cooking skills.

If you did that and it still feels like you can’t cook and that everyone else must have some secret skill that you don’t, you still should try reading and following directions, but instead of just seeking out recipes, you should focus on finding guides that teach you how to: plan out all of your meals for a week, shop efficiently, use things up before they go bad, and just generally improve your time management and kitchen organization. These will probably be in different places – try blogs and self-help guides instead of cookbooks.

If you did all that and it still feels like you can’t cook, you’re probably just struggling to adapt recipes to the ingredients and constraints that you happen to have on any given day. Keep reading and following directions, but switch to sources that focus on flavor pairings and general techniques, such as The Flavor Bible or Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques or Salt Fat Acid Heat. If you really want to go deep, thumb through On Food and Cooking and read whatever sections catch your fancy.

Another cookbook in the vein of the above general "the theory of cooking" books is Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book.

Your local library is going to have cookbooks galore (since they can definitely be pricey brand new!)

Also if you live in the US, your local extension office may offer cooking classes/learn a meal type events anywhere in your state! Part of the job of the extension program under the USDA is directly related to this:

Extension works to translate science for practical applications.  Identify emerging research questions Find answers and encourage the application of science and technology to improve agricultural, economic, and social conditions Encourage healthy lifestyles Prepare youths for responsible adulthood Provide rapid response to disasters and emergencies 

You're not saying you think the actual act of cooking is difficult, or that you don't know how. You're saying that the budget restraints of planning meals is complex. Which it is.

But also, at the same time....many cookbooks which are about the sciences behind cooking and doing it without a recipe, or even doing it cheaply — extensively cover things like "what are pantry staples or things to buy in bulk" and "what are a bunch of different things you can do with chicken." Or whatever. Or leftovers (ex: The Everlasting Meal cookbook" by Tamar Adler, or say, "perfectly good food" by Margaret Li & Irene Li.)

And sometimes it's cos they have learnt 50 different individual recipes off by heart, but most of the time it's cos they're not just copying it, they actually understand it, and if you gave them any fridge they'd be able to make something nice from it.

And yeah if you're only following the paint by numbers recipes, then you probably need to follow entire cookbooks for organized meal planning/grocery shopping in order to make sure you minimize waste. Again, books exist which tell you how to do this with their recipes. That doesn't make you bad at being able to produce meals from a recipe (basic cooking as following instructions) and for many people that is all they ever need. That's not being unable to cook.

But if you want to learn the fundamentals of cooking/theory of cooking the same way you learn the fundamentals of art — so that it becomes easier and easier to make up a meal on the spot, then you do actually have to learn some of the science and concepts behind cooking, which again, people have published lots of books and free videos about and it is a skill that you can learn.

No one is magically born knowing how to look at a bunch of ingredients and create a meal. It's a skill that is developed. Also most people HAVE to repeat ingredients and parts of their meals. I hate to burst this bubble, but for most people you can pick TWO:

Cheap Bulk grocery shopping

everything is perfectly used up before it expires

No dishes/meals are ever repeated over the course of weeks

If you can’t cook, you should read and follow directions and learn some cooking skills.

If you did that and it still feels like you can’t cook and that everyone else must have some secret skill that you don’t, you still should try reading and following directions, but instead of just seeking out recipes, you should focus on finding guides that teach you how to: plan out all of your meals for a week, shop efficiently, use things up before they go bad, and just generally improve your time management and kitchen organization. These will probably be in different places – try blogs and self-help guides instead of cookbooks.

If you did all that and it still feels like you can’t cook, you’re probably just struggling to adapt recipes to the ingredients and constraints that you happen to have on any given day. Keep reading and following directions, but switch to sources that focus on flavor pairings and general techniques, such as The Flavor Bible or Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques or Salt Fat Acid Heat. If you really want to go deep, thumb through On Food and Cooking and read whatever sections catch your fancy.

Another cookbook in the vein of the above general "the theory of cooking" books is Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book.

Your local library is going to have cookbooks galore (since they can definitely be pricey brand new!)

Also if you live in the US, your local extension office may offer cooking classes/learn a meal type events anywhere in your state! Part of the job of the extension program under the USDA is directly related to this:

Extension works to translate science for practical applications.  Identify emerging research questions Find answers and encourage the application of science and technology to improve agricultural, economic, and social conditions Encourage healthy lifestyles Prepare youths for responsible adulthood Provide rapid response to disasters and emergencies 

You're not saying you think the actual act of cooking is difficult, or that you don't know how. You're saying that the budget restraints of planning meals is complex. Which it is.

But also, at the same time....many cookbooks which are about the sciences behind cooking and doing it without a recipe, or even doing it cheaply — extensively cover things like "what are pantry staples or things to buy in bulk" and "what are a bunch of different things you can do with chicken." Or whatever. Or leftovers (ex: The Everlasting Meal cookbook" by Tamar Adler, or say, "perfectly good food" by Margaret Li & Irene Li.)

And sometimes it's cos they have learnt 50 different individual recipes off by heart, but most of the time it's cos they're not just copying it, they actually understand it, and if you gave them any fridge they'd be able to make something nice from it.

If you can’t cook, you should read and follow directions and learn some cooking skills.

If you did that and it still feels like you can’t cook and that everyone else must have some secret skill that you don’t, you still should try reading and following directions, but instead of just seeking out recipes, you should focus on finding guides that teach you how to: plan out all of your meals for a week, shop efficiently, use things up before they go bad, and just generally improve your time management and kitchen organization. These will probably be in different places – try blogs and self-help guides instead of cookbooks.

If you did all that and it still feels like you can’t cook, you’re probably just struggling to adapt recipes to the ingredients and constraints that you happen to have on any given day. Keep reading and following directions, but switch to sources that focus on flavor pairings and general techniques, such as The Flavor Bible or Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques or Salt Fat Acid Heat. If you really want to go deep, thumb through On Food and Cooking and read whatever sections catch your fancy.

Another cookbook in the vein of the above general "the theory of cooking" books is Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book.

Your local library is going to have cookbooks galore (since they can definitely be pricey brand new!)

Also if you live in the US, your local extension office may offer cooking classes/learn a meal type events anywhere in your state! Part of the job of the extension program under the USDA is directly related to this:

Extension works to translate science for practical applications.  Identify emerging research questions Find answers and encourage the application of science and technology to improve agricultural, economic, and social conditions Encourage healthy lifestyles Prepare youths for responsible adulthood Provide rapid response to disasters and emergencies 

In a tragic accident the Pentagon confirmed was currently under internal investigation, 340 million Americans were killed Tuesday in the course of a botched military training exercise.

According to top generals, the mishap occurred at Fort Bliss Army base in Texas, where members of the 1st Armored Division participating in a live training exercise repeatedly missed a practice target and unwittingly inflicted massive casualties on U.S. citizens downrange in all directions. The affected towns and cities were reportedly struck by fire from small arms, artillery, M1 Abrams tanks, and Apache helicopters, as well as thousands of long-range missiles, with nearly all victims ultimately succumbing to their wounds.

You can throw a stone and hit 10 people who will be able to recount the lack of freedom they had in childhood and how miserable it made them, and will also demand that children take up even less space in public and have no freedom whatsoever. They will not do the same for their current age group.

Also there has been (in US politics in particular) quite an alarming ageing trend in politicians. I would expect most politicians to be around 50. I would expect almost no politicians to be under 30. But it is worrying for there to be more politicians who are over 70 than under 40. It is worrying because of cognitive decline. But it is more worrying in the same way that it is worrying that there are so few female politicians.

If you take your average boomer, they have a property that has exploded in value because of conscious deliberate policy decisions to make housing scarce. Having a house worth a lot represents a safety net for them. In a worst case scenario they can always sell their house and that will give them enough money to be comfortable in an expensive nursing home until they die, taking frequent holidays. They also have significantly more savings and if they do work they work in a job they have been in for long enough, that they are not likely to experience an increase in workload regardless of what happens in the company overall.

This means younger people cannot afford houses. So they cannot have any safety net. Younger people have to work themselves to death to have the kind of security that boomers treated as a stepping stone when they grew up. It also means they are less concerned about workers rights, because more rights means less exploitation, means lower profit margins, means a weaker stock market. And a 70 year old politician is more likely to care about the voters they are friends with who have the same concerns they do, (savings in stocks and house value going up) than the concerns of voters they have less in common with (workers rights, fair pay, and cost of houses decreasing). And what do you know, this is exactly what we are seeing.

The counter-argument: Not having UBI is in the interests of those in power who want to do anything to the people they are in power over in order to remain in power.

Women are told to be quiet and look pretty and be submissive and obedient. Men are told to be powerful and strong and assertive and dominant.

All of those things are possible to do in a way that makes the world better, but if you do them badly you will terrorise the people around you.

When someone is raised to think their entire value comes from being those things, then even when they realise they are doing those things badly, the only way they will try and do anything else is by upending their entire value system and rewriting their view of the world. Many people just can't do that.

Any film featuring the US military is paid for by the US military. They have the final word on what comes out. These films are recruitment tools. Same applies to TV shows, and doubtless many will soon be showing up.

Do not be fooled by these films and shows. They are designed to bring in new recruits. When these are released, there is a surge in new people enlisting in the military. These recruits swiftly discover they were fed bullshit, but now they're stuck due to a contract. Going AWOL, away without leave, is desertion. You will be caught and put on trial for desertion, and they are not light with the sentencing.

Please, for the love of fuck, do not enlist with the military. You are cannon fodder. They do not care about you.

Recruiters are told to lie. To do whatever it fucking takes to enlist new people. Do not fucking fall for it.

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