They Mean Nothing • And Yet They Are There

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

are we drawing the connection between worker safety and consumer safety & public health yet?

source on prison labor in the food system: https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/01/29/prisoners-in-the-us-are-part-of-a-hidden-workforce-linked-to-hundreds-of-popular-food-brands/

labor safety issues from 2025: https://ohsonline.com/articles/2025/11/25/osha-cites-taylor-farms-after-worker-dies-during-sanitation-process.aspx

from 2013: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/business/taylor-farms-big-food-supplier-grapples-with-frequent-recalls.html

they have plants from colorado to new jersey to florida to california. more than 12-13 years that i could easily find of there being issues with labor and safety for workers and consumers, and a significant portion of that time they were directly using prison labor.

I downloaded the PDF to my hard drive and I open it again whenever I'm feeling too suicidal to do much else, but not enough to start booking a ride to the hospital. And every time without fail I only go up to a few pages before backing off and choosing to live another day just because suicide suddenly seems even more unbearable than whatever the hell upset me in the first place.

All the book really does is [I'm pulling a summary from GoodReads here as, again, I've read no more than 5 pages] "discusses the social aspects of suicide, the right to die, anger, loneliness, depression, stress, hopelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, the consequences of a suicide attempt, and how to get help."

But it also starts with the author kindly asking the reader to complete the book before going through with anything, and for some reason I'm compelled to really just try to read it all before finalizing everything. Despite not yet completing it (hopefully never will) I think I can safely say it's saved my life at least a few times now.