Notes from the edge of civilization: Mar. 9, 2025
Prison food fight gets spicy; X-rated AI chatbots; and seed oils in the hot seat.
The US prison food industry is a multi-billion-dollar grift (hello, DOGE?). Corporations like Aramark and Trinity Services rake in taxpayer dollars to serve meals — if that’s what you call them — that make school lunches look like fine dining.
As the Marshall Project recently revealed, the prison industrial complex runs a simple gambit: serve food barely fit for human consumption, drive prisoners to pay for processed junk food at the overpriced commissary (which they also own), and profit from a cycle of forced hunger. It’s a grotesque racket most people never hear about.
During a budget hearing last week, New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer suggested the solution to prison poison is to start serving farm-to-table meals at Rikers Island.
[Brewer] had a cow when officials tried to explain that detainees and staff are already offered “plant-based meals.”
“I don’t want plant-based! I want fresh fruits and vegetables!” she roared.
“I want local produce and local meat for people in custody.”
Her proposal was met with predictable outrage. Councilwoman Vickie Paladino wasn’t having it:
“I think the guy who set the woman on fire on the subway is at Rikers right now,” added Paladino, referring to Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the illegal migrant who allegedly carried out the fatal arson attack in December on an F train in Coney Island.
“We are going to worry about farm-to-table food and making sure they get fed? This is ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, back in reality, prisoners aren’t demanding farm-fresh arugula — they’d settle for food that doesn’t come with a side of maggots.
The fact that feeding prisoners has become a growth industry in the United States ($3.2 billion in 2022 according to the Marshall Project, and forecasted to keep growing) tells you everything about how modern systems function. Suffering is the point, profit is extracted from misery, and no one in power actually wants to fix the glaring issues.
Food as a weapon for control isn’t a ‘bug’ in the system. It’s the system working exactly as it was intended. It’s sickening, but it’s also reality; America’s food system is broken and prisons are the tip of the spear.
Elon Musk keeps sounding off about the risks of declining birth rates, despite his best efforts to ‘Ghengis Khan’ the situation. Meanwhile his company, X, just launched an AI that might single-handedly cause population collapse.
Grok 3’s ‘Sexy Mode’ gives you 24/7 access to a flirty AI girlfriend who never argues, never gets tired, and always tells you exactly what you want to hear — all for the low, low price of a subscription to X. If it sounds strangely dystopian to you, congratulations — you’re still paying attention.
We’re staring into the vortex of a massive cultural shift. AI has already crept into every facet of life, replacing jobs (even more to come on that front) and now, intimate partners. People are already using apps like Replika and Eva AI as substitutes for human relationships.
When the line between simulation and reality gets this blurry, collapse is already happening. Real human connection is being phased out, replaced, and commodified. Why bother with the messiness of human emotion when an AI strokes your ego with perfect efficiency? Why work through social awkwardness when a chatbot is programmed to find you irresistible even in your worst moments? The trend is clear: as loneliness skyrockets and social skills wither, AI is moving in to take over the emotional labor that people no longer want — or know how — to engage in.
Musk knows exactly what he’s doing. Grok’s ‘Sexy Mode’ is more than a product — it’s a distraction for the myriad basement dwellers who hail him as their high priest. While people are getting hot and bothered over their AI seductress, Grok is also making headlines for quietly censoring sources that criticize Musk and Trump. The so-called “maximally truth-seeking AI” conveniently shuts down discussion when it is politically inconvenient for its creator. So much for the free speech warrior.
The question isn’t whether Grok’s sexy mode is ridiculous — we know it is. The bigger issue is what happens when simulated intimacy becomes the default, or the preferred state. When people would rather pay for the illusion of connection than build real human bonds — what does that say about where we’re headed as a species and society?
If this is the future, humanity isn’t being replaced — we are actively choosing to make ourselves irrelevant.
According to the Associated Press, the scientific establishment is “baffled” again. Turns out, it doesn’t take much!
The same experts who once assured us margarine was healthier than butter, sugar was fine as long as you exercised, low-fat processed foods would save our hearts, and two weeks would flatten the curve, now can’t figure out why people might be skeptical of chemically extracted, industrially refined oils.
AP’s framing here is textbook propaganda: dismiss critics as “influencers” and “wellness gurus,” emphasize that seed oils have been around for decades (as if longevity equals health), and throw in a cherry-picked study from a corporate-funded institution to reassure the masses. Meanwhile, completely ignore the explosion of chronic diseases that just so happened to coincide with the rise of seed oils in the American diet.
As the article acknowledges, food scientists admit seed oil consumption has skyrocketed — but, conveniently, they blame it on fried and ultra-processed foods, which now make up nearly three-quarters of the US food supply. Sure, those foods are loaded with refined grains, added sugars, and sodium, but we’re supposed to believe seed oils are just innocent bystanders in this public health crisis. Nothing to see here, folks.
Enter RFK Jr., the newly minted Secretary of Health, who’s supposedly doing the unthinkable: questioning Big Food’s sacred soybeans. He’s calling for a return to traditional fats like butter and beef tallow, and Politico reports he’s set to meet with executives from General Mills, PepsiCo, and other processed food giants this week.
Whether this meeting leads to real change is another story. As of Friday, Politico says attendees hadn’t even agreed on an agenda. And let’s not forget USDA Chief of Staff Kailee Tkacz Buller — formerly the top lobbyist for the edible oil industry — is now conveniently positioned to oversee food policy. It’s like putting the Marlboro Man in charge of lung health.
So, will this be the moment when seed oils finally get the scrutiny they deserve? Or is it just another carefully managed PR stunt where food corporations pretend to “listen” while keeping the machine running in the background?
Either way, watching the establishment squirm is worth the price of admission.
Did you catch these stories on Collapse Life this week?
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One of the reasons "seed oils" are so damaging is that they've been developed almost solely for profit with no regard for health. GMO soy, corn and wheat is bad enough, but it's compounded by spraying with glyphosate as a desiccant and herbicide, also extremely toxic and carcinogenic. They are easily oxidized PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acid) causing free radicals and mitochondrial disfunction. They are taken up in the cellular membranes where they persist and are difficult to remove, often taking years. Saturated fats like butter and coconut oil are way cleaner and don't readily oxidize like PUFAs but the industry has tried to protect their profits by demonizing healthy fats and foods in general. This is why Kennedy is facing a mountain of resistance in this even though the science is there to back up his claims. Seed oils are far cheaper to make and have been adopted by the food industry on a massive scale so Kennedy is upsetting a huge apple cart, in a perfect storm of economic turmoil, propaganda and greed