Rainbow Runner

"Every single person who marched today is proof that we are not going anywhere, that our joy is louder than their hate, and that London Trans+ Pride will keep fighting, keep loving and keep growing until every trans person is safe, seen, and free," they added.

> ask the people if it's objects or gambling

> they don't understand

> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is objects and what is gambling

> they laugh and say "it's a good collectible sir"

> look up how to buy a collectible

Labubus are blind bags but they're also blind bags with some of the most insane dark patterns stacked on top. The online store for them has a thing where they tell you what you got the second you order it online so that you can immediately try again if you didn't get the thing you wanted.

leg so hot

hot hot leg

leg so hot u fry an eg

*touches ground*

We are talking about a true "Lettuce Monarchy." CEO Bruce Taylor is the grandson of Thomas Church, a mid-century "Lettuce King." This single family has controlled the U.S. packaged salad market for nearly a century through Taylor Farms & Fresh Express, operating a direct, tightly locked supply network with massive fast-food juggernauts like McDonald's & Chipotle. They use this corporate exclusivity to control exactly what agricultural data makes it to the public, shielding a multi-billion-dollar brand from legal accountability.

But behind that clean retail label is a massive history of exploitation, severe safety violations, & corporate cover-ups.

It starts with their "Permanent Temp Trick." The company uses third-party agencies like Slingshot Connections & Abel Mendoza, Inc. to keep assembly-line workers classified as "temporary" for up to 15 years, systematically denying them benefits, job security, & raises. When confronted with these massive federal civil rights violations, Bruce Taylor famously went on record defending this temp-agency pipeline, claiming those thousands of laborers have plenty of federal protections.

When they aren't exploiting the temp loophole, they are looking elsewhere. They’ve partnered with state transitional prison labor programs, notably in Arizona, to use incarcerated individuals to sort & pack salad kits for national grocery chains.

Even worse is how they treat the vulnerable workers they do hire. Between 2019 & 2023, two HR managers at their Automated Harvesting LLC subsidiary orchestrated a massive internal $3 Million Visa Fraud Scheme. The duo generated & cashed over 1,800 fraudulent checks totaling more than $3 million, intentionally stealing the identities of vulnerable Mexican migrant workers who had already returned home on expired visas. Following a deep district attorney investigation, both employees finally pleaded no contest to felony embezzlement in June 2026.

The disregard for human life inside their facilities is staggering. In late 2025, federal OSHA hit Taylor Farms New Jersey with a massive $1.12 million fatality fine after a worker was killed cleaning machinery. Inspectors uncovered 16 "willful & repeated" safety violations regarding hazardous machinery maintenance, proving that corporate leadership completely bypassed basic, legally mandated workplace safety protocols & intentionally neglected "lockout/tagout" rules—which cut power to heavy equipment during cleaning.

Then there is the Tracy, CA chemical spill cover-up at Taylor Farms Pacific. Plant managers tried to hide a toxic chlorine gas leak that hospitalized 20 people. Instead of evacuating, managers passed out cheap paper dust masks & ordered staff to keep working on the line. Workers had to bypass management entirely just to call 911.

When workers tried to unionize after that terrifying spill, management engaged in extreme retaliation to kill the effort. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had to step in after finding the branch illegally spied on workers, fired organizers, & hired high-priced anti-union consulting firms to threaten immigrant employees with ICE if they tried to unionize. Bruce Taylor publicly labeled the national Teamsters Union campaigns "frivolous" & claimed it was all a smear tactic.

The discrimination inside is deeply systemic. A massive federal civil rights lawsuit detailed that upper management deliberately forced African American employees into entirely separate break areas. Company leadership was caught systematically burying internal racism & discrimination complaints, leaving workers completely isolated until they finally banded together for a massive 70-page class-action lawsuit.

The public is kept completely in the dark about the dangers. Taylor Farms was tied to major multi-state E. coli outbreaks in 2025 where federal regulators at the FDA & CDC identified Taylor Farms romaine lettuce as the source—but actively hid the company's identity from the public.

How do they get away with it? Bruce Taylor acts as a political puppet master. He pours tens of thousands of dollars into highly calculated local political action committees—like the "Protect Salinas" PAC—to sway California city council elections. Local watchdog groups have flagged his financial contributions as direct attempts to capture local governments & block regulations on agricultural land use & labor.

On top of that, Taylor sits on heavily funded national agricultural boards & trade association PACs—like the Western Growers Association—to heavily lobby congress against strict federal worker-safety laws.

What a red flag actually means: something here is an indicator of a potential problem (but might be fine with a reasonable explanation)

What people have now decided it means: abuse

I've lost count of the number of times I've now had to read variants of "My partner takes all my money and gives me back an allowance because he says it's a man's job to control finances, but he's racking up gambling debts" being met with "Wow this man is a walking red flag" no Becky that is abuse. That is not an indicator. He is an abuser. Call the police. We have lost the concept of a proxy: a thing that indicates a more important thing. And it's relevant to this conversation because I'm actually going to go out on a limb here:

With the obvious exception of paedophilia, age gaps themselves aren't a problem at all - they are a proxy for the actual harmful phenomenon. Hea me out, let me explain

The reason we don't like age gaps is because of the implied power dynamic. If one partner, usually male, is older than other - particularly if the other is still quite young - the risk is that what we're seeing is a worldly wise predator who is exploiting the lack of life experience of a young beautiful woman by mentally abusing her until she's no longer young and pretty enough to satisfy, at which point he'll move on to the next. There have been enough examples of this in human history. It's unfortunately not an uncommon pattern. Genders can also be diverse in this scenario

We can't necessarily see that dynamic from the outside. But we CAN see an inherent element of it: the ages of the people involved. So age becomes a proxy for the abuse. And, hey, it's often correct.

But here's the thing: the ages themselves are not causing harm.

The power dynamic is. The abuse is.

Plenty of age gap relationships are loving, healthy and steadfast. Two people met and genuinely fell in love regardless of the outer packaging, and have a relationship with all the highs and lows and challenges and rewards as any more traditional pairing. This happens all the time

Is the age gap a red flag? Sure! It indicates a potential issue.

Is it inherently abusive? Absolutely fucking not.

OP is right - we need to stop focusing just on the numbers and twisting the facts to fit by infantilising the younger partners, and start focusing on the actual harms. The DiCaprio Pattern of only dating under 24s repeatedly is itself a proxy, too, actually - but a much stronger one than the simple presence of an age gap.

(Even so, in DiCaprio's case, until any of his former partners come forward and describe him as abusive, actually, even that is up in the air - my personal interpretation, given how strong a pattern it is, is that he's a loser who views women as trophies (consciously or not). If any have come forward and I don't know about it, of course, fair enough. But those women were adults capable of making their own decisions, even if they might later come to regret it. And regretting poor decisions is part of life! That's how it goes, particularly with relationships. As long as they weren't abused, there's no biggie. And just as he was looking for young-and-beautiful, there's no way they weren't, on some level, looking for rich-and-famous; it goes both ways.)

Also, another element of this: I think a lot of modern extreme puritan discourse on this is actually ironically down to the age of those taking part. Up until your late 20s, ten years is actually a huge span of time to you, because in your own life you were in a completely different developmental phase ten years ago (teenager), and a completely different phase again ten years before that (child). That skews your sense of what a ten-year gap means. Whereas once you're in your 30s and beyond, ten years is like. Yeah I was an adult ten years ago, and I still am now. That's two adults. Who cares.