There’s probably also a difference in the variety within each dish and the effect it has. “Eating the same thing” is probably better if you eat granola with dark chocolate, cashews, blueberries, and spinach topped with almond milk and banana for breakfast versus a banana for breakfast. The nutrient profile is still always the same and that’s not great, but at least the former has different nutrient profiles within it.
Everything about Loblaws just screams “lol fuck you”, because they’re everywhere and there’s nothing you can do about it and they know it. They’re a bit like Putin - he knows he’s lying, and he knows you know, but he does it anyway with a huge grin on his face as if to mock you. They’re even worse than telecom.
I’ve actually gotten into niche stores like bakeries. I’m not the stop and smell the roses type, but there’s nothing like a good loaf of bread. I’m also streamlining my diet, so that helps a lot because you can get the same “whole foods” virtually anywhere and you don’t need a thousand fancy packaged branded foods.
I’m not a dietitian either, but I am followed by one, and their recommendation for me specifically was to try it and report back with a list of what I ate and whether the Master Plan ™ stuck. The lack of variation isn’t ideal, but in my case, as per their rationale, the potential benefits outweigh the downsides because I tend to default to junk food when my culinary life gets too complicated (she isn’t wrong). Granted though, I don’t plan to eat the same thing daily, so for someone who’s literally on repeat every single day or who already has a very healthy diet, I imagine the recommendation would likely change.
One subset is actually really smart, book smart even, but just doesn’t have a personality that aligns with the format of the education system. Those people tend to do really well in a different environment where they have more intrinsic motivation to succeed. For example, I know someone who didn’t do well in school even though he had the ability to because he just didn’t really see any reward, so he had no motivation. He went into finance and got through uni and his first few job with flying colors, because there was a reward at the end of the tunnel to pursue.
The other subset just doesn’t do well with any sort of “bookish” stuff - math, sciences, finance, engineering, etc. just don’t really fly. A lot of them I find feel a bit lost because they feel pressure to find a passion or orient themselves around a career when they just don’t have anything that sparks an interest. I find that those people tend to do well when they pursue “active” jobs that don’t feel like school. A person I know in this category struggled with school throughout his life, but was really good at working with people and interacting on that emotional plane. He went into social services and now works as a crisis counsellor. Most of the “schooling” was basically just situational training, and the job itself is so intuitive to him. Honestly if he didn’t have bills to pay I swear he’d do that job for free. Other people in this category are ok with a job just feeling like work, so any high paying trade tends to work well because they can go to work, do their hours, and then enjoy life.
The doc “Ivory Tower” really got me interested in alternatives to traditional higher education, i.e. the kind that will get you the same income without $100000000000000000000000000000 in debt compounding at a rate of 100% daily. Fuck colleges man, honestly.
I’m sure everyone has had at least a couple of cases. For me it was when a bank employee performed a cash advance, which I have never, ever consented to in my life, and then claimed I had given her permission to do it. Read: she fucked up and blamed it on me. I requested the contact info of her supervisor, who had the audacity to suggest that it wasn’t a large sum of money and I should essentially suck it up. That branch manager got an earful and a half and a phone call from the competition bureau (which was great, because it usually takes multiple complaints for them to take action).
Now this is the Karen-y part. Whenever a company that I’m a regular customer of does something morally wrong (as opposed to a mistake or a less than competent employee), I boycott them until, in my estimation, I’ve cost them 100x the sum of the initial disputed amount (I have substitute actions for cases that don’t have a clear dollar value). In this case I cancelled my credit products with them. My boycott is set to expire (i.e. reach the 100x mark) in February of 2024. The rationale behind this is that if 1% of consumers do it, it’ll no longer be worth it for them to continue the practice, and it gives you a satisfying end goal. You can’t boycott every company that wrongs you indefinitely - I only have a handful on my permanent blacklist - but I can make my peace with it if I know I’ve comfortably done my part.
No, it’s not just the taxes, though that’s obviously a component of it. A quick google search will lead you to find that they are obligated by law to directly contribute to Russia’s military efforts by registering its draft-eligible staff, turning over information relevant to the war, assisting in the delivery of military equipment, and providing physical infrastructure, among other things.
Ukrainian or not, this isn’t just “oh well you’re kind of indirectly supporting the war by funding the government”. It is a very direct form of involvement.
Frankly that’s an excuse, and a lazy one at that. Ethical products are widely available outside of the US, and I say this as a digital nomad who has lived on three continents and lived in the US for less than a year in total. If the inconvenience is unbearable for you then that’s your prerogative, but don’t try to justify it by saying things that simply aren’t true and thereby discouraging others.
These are pretty common products. There are tons of ethical alternatives, in fact personal care items are among the easiest and cheapest products to find ethical alternatives for and a good starting point if you want to develop more ethical consumption habits. You don’t need to make your own soap in order to avoid sponsoring genocide.
You’re definitely right on the cyclic thing - you can get a lot of stuff for free or close to it. It always used to blow my mind that parents would pay actual money for baby clothes. Like… there are SO many second hand ones out there, and they’re going to grow out of it in a month.