I Only Know That I Know Nothing

Almost every Christmas Carol starts with the same scene: Christmas Eve, the day before Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts. This is the same scene that the rest of the audience - including myself - is expecting to see

The house lights go out. The stage is dark

A boy is singing: “God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay…”

The sound of wind whistles through the dark of the theater.

“Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan’s power…”

The boy pauses. The wind picks up. Somewhere in the audience, a child sounds upset

“…When we had gone astray. Oh tidings…”

The boy’s voice fades away. The wind howls

A church bell rings

The stage lights come on. Fog is floating across the stage. A deacon, two gentlemen, and Scrooge stand in the fog like islands in a sea

Between them is a coffin

The wind howls. It makes the word, “Ebenezer,” in a voice that shakes the floor

The deacon says: “Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our departed Jacob Marley…”

“Ebenezer,” says the wind

Scrooge whips around at the sound. Fog coils around his feet

Nobody else on stage hears his name

“…We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth-”

“Earth,” says the wind

“-ashes to ashes-”

“Ashes,” says the wind

“-and dust to dust”

“Dust” says the wind

“In the certain hope of eternal life through our Lord Christ; who shall change-”

“Change” says the wind

“-our vile body-”

“Change” says the wind

“-that it may be like unto His glorious body-”

“Change” says the wind

A church bell rings. Children are crying in the audience

One by one, the parishioners exit the stage. Scrooge is left alone with the coffin

He says a few words - laughs at his mishearing voices on the wind - and turns to leave

A church bell rings

Scrooge pauses - and turns to look at the coffin

Lights flash. The coffin lid slams open, and the ghost of Jacob Marley, horrible, pale, and screeching, leaps out of the coffin, hands reaching out to Scrooge and howling - 

“SAVE YOURSELF!”

Lights flash and the stage goes dark. Children are screaming. Parents are screaming. I’m screaming

And while everyone's reaction is usually "haha they're so stupid lol!!" Let's not forget that this is one of the ways they transparently demonize addicts in order to keep the populace convinced that they are evil, horrible people that deserve to be locked up. They know that citizens will eventually start thinking "hey, they're really only hurting themselves, shouldn't they get help instead of being punished?" so in order to keep everyone comfortable with criminalizing drug addiction, they spread the idea that addicts have a secret agenda to turn EVERYONE into addicts, so they just *NEED* to keep them locked up.

"They're coming after our children! They're trying to turn our children into _____!" (Does that sound familiar?)

if you checked your fridge before, check it again with the new list, there are over 70 products being recalled!

this recall of boar's head products now includes old country branded products. some were also exported to the cayman islands, dominican republic, mexico, and panama.

please note, people have died from this outbreak, dozens of people have been hospitalized, and since listeria can take months to kick someone's ass after exposure and then a while to be investigated and recorded by the government, these numbers are expected to rise. you do not need to have eaten meat or poultry to be exposed to listeria from this outbreak, you could have just eaten food that has come in contact with it like in a kitchen, deli, restaurant, or anywhere else these meats were used to prepare food. listeria is a nasty fucker that loves to contaminate whatever it touches. there is more information on listeriosis and high-risk groups further down this post.

announced july 30th, 2024, current as of july 31st, 2024. this is not a complete copy/paste of the announcement or all relevant information, please check the links for more complete information and updates from the government.

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2024 – Boar's Head Provisions Co., Inc., a Jarratt, Va., establishment, is expanding its July 26, 2024, recall of deli meat products that may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The establishment is recalling approximately 7 million additional pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. Whole genome sequencing results show that a liverwurst sample collected by the Maryland Department of Health tested positive for the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes.

This expansion includes 71 products produced between May 10, 2024, and July 29, 2024, under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. These items include meat intended for slicing at retail delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products sold at retail locations. These products have “sell by” dates ranging from 29-JUL-2024 through 17-OCT-24. View full product list. View labels.

The products subject to recall were distributed to retail locations nationwide and some were exported to the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama. The products shipped to retailers bear establishment number “EST. 12612” or “P-12612” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the product labels.

most people exposed to listeria will not experience a serious infection. but listeriosis, the illness caused by listeria, can become pretty bad and can take weeks to show symptoms after exposure. listeriosis can cause lifelong disability or death. for people who are pregnant, listeriosis can cause stillbirths, miscarriages, premature births, and life-threatening infections in newborns.

say you ate a bad deli meat sandwich a week ago, or any food that may have come into contact with these deli meats, and you theoretically got exposed to listeria with an immune system not strong enough to fight it off. it could be weeks or even months before listeriosis starts affecting you. consider writing down what you ate, and where, and when, just in case you need to tell this to a medical provider in the future. if you do develop listeriosis, it may become difficult to remember these details later.

if your hypothetical sandwich (or whatever you ate involving the recalled products) had been thoroughly cooked, it may have killed off the listeria. listeria is killed with heat, which is why deli meats are suseptible to listeria contamination.

this is a type of contamination so serious and easily spread that entire delis are going to be shut down to be thoroughly cleaned. if you had these products in your kitchen, even if you cooked them before eating, the united states food safety and inspection service recommends deep cleaning your fridge to stay safe. consider what else may have come into contact with the contaminated food.

as a reminder, having previously been infected by covid-19 is one of the many things that can cause a weakened immune system, and many people with weakened immune systems do not know they have weakened immune systems until they get infected with something serious. you can temporarily have a weakened immune system just from a lot of stress or not getting enough sleep, so make sure you get plenty of rest if you are concerned. good quality rest makes the immune system stronger.

Consumption of food contaminated with L. monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects people who are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or with weakened immune systems. Less commonly, persons outside these risk groups are affected.

Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. An invasive infection spreads beyond the gastrointestinal tract. In people who are pregnant, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections can occur in older adults and persons with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. Persons in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the health care provider about eating the contaminated food. (rune note: emphasis mine)

FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators and in retail deli cases. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them and retailers are urged not to sell these products with the referenced sell by dates. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. Consumers who have purchased these products are also urged to clean refrigerators thoroughly to prevent the risk of cross-contamination.

FSIS recommends retail delis clean and sanitize all food and non-food surfaces and discard any open meats and cheeses in the deli. Retailers may refer to FSIS’ guideline, Best Practices Guidance for Controlling Listeria monocytogenes in Retail Delicatessens, for information on steps to prevent certain ready-to-eat foods that are prepared or sliced in retail delis and consumed in the home, such as deli meats and deli salads, from becoming contaminated with L. monocytogenes.

the wikipedia page for listeriosis notes: “Listeriosis may cause mild, self-limiting gastroenteritis and fever in anyone.” and “People who were previously healthy but were exposed to a very large dose of Listeria can develop a noninvasive illness in which the bacteria do not spread into their bloodstream or other body sites. Symptoms can include diarrhea and fever.”

and here is the united states center for disease control page on this outbreak.

as of the time this post is going up, the CDC page has not yet been updated with the latest recall information, and reflects the previous, smaller recall.

list of all affected product names under the cut. check the product information list for more information on each product and where they were exported, and here is what the labels look like.

this list is long.

do not risk this. do not mess with listeria. do not eat these recalled foods!

Like I once had a person make a "comment" about Black people, sweeping generalization right, and when I went "dude what the fuck" they straight up said, with Sarcasm, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were Black."

And like. I GET it. I understand from a privileged perspective why you THINK I'm being an oversensitive SJW looking for excuses to be mad- it's because you don't think what you're saying is hurting anyone.

And it doesn't, not on it's own, not when you say it alone in an empty room with nobody listening, but it's indicative of a deeper problem!

And as someone who probably cares about you a little, I'm telling you gently that if you aren't willing to realize and address that deeper problem, then you aren't the kind of person I'm going to spend time around anymore! Because there's a difference between being raised in a prejudiced society and naturally inheriting those prejudices, and actively choosing not to improve yourself beyond them.

A little kid shoves someone down an escalator and you can treat it as an important chance to learn critical thinking, Empathy, and consideration, and impulse control

Holy shit that's it, thats totally the feeling with other white people- it's like they're revoking your 'white' card

Like being white is being in this big exclusive club where you can say whatever the hell you want about anyone 'outside' cosequence-free, and as long as you keep your mouth shut you can ride the wave to the top, but they kick you out if you threaten that secrecy

Like "Oh, so I can't use slurs around you? I guess you might as well be one of them"

It's the fear of confronting your racist boss, because you may lose your position

The anxiety about speaking up at a family event, as you might be treated as the oversensitive narc

The overwhelming pressure to just humor your awful neighbor until he goes away on his own, to keep future interactions civil

It's fear of being treated like the demographic they're discriminating against already