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1000 results for “Burnt_Veggies”
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CHRYSALE: As for me, I’d prefer that, while peeling the veggies,
She misaligns a few subjects and verbs,
And repeats fifty times a low and vulgar word,
Than that she burns my meat or over-salts my stew.
I live on good soup, not on fine language.
[J’aime bien mieux, pour moi, qu’en épluchant ses herbes,
Elle accommode mal les noms avec les verbes,
Et redise cent fois un bas ou méchant mot,
Que de brûler ma viande ou saler trop mon pot.
Je vis de bonne soupe, et non de beau langage.]Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Les Femmes Savantes [The Learned Ladies], Act 2, sc. 7, (1692) [tr. Marks (2018)]More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/moliere/79299/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #moliere #cooking #cursing #eating #expertise #food #grammar #kitchen #language #survival #vocabulary #speaking
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I resisted the InstaPot craze for too long and now its growing on me. I make a lot of soups / stews / chillies and being able to set it and walk away and not spend 2+ hours stirring beans so they don't burn on the bottom is pretty dang nice. The "sauté" function for onions / garlic / celery / carrots etc is pretty nice as well. One less pan to clean and gets you the 'Je ne sais quoi' of sautéed veggies in the soup. #cooking #instapot
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CW: mention of food
I was so prepared to make a bright and hearty quinoa salad today. Except for the part where I wasn't all out of quinoa :neofox_laugh_sweat:
I also let my tea go cold and when I went to to microwave it, I found a different tea mug. The one I had "misplaced" earlier this morning had gone cold waiting for me too. I had actually almost put it in the fridge instead of the microwave and was so proud of myself for catching myself there 💀
I think my meds work less good around a #fullMoon. I did actually take them on time today.
Don't worry, I already figured out how I will use up the fresh veggies, and I didn't burn the quick feta roast I made a few minutes ago (at least not terribly).
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CW: mention of food
I was so prepared to make a bright and hearty quinoa salad today. Except for the part where I wasn't all out of quinoa :neofox_laugh_sweat:
I also let my tea go cold and when I went to to microwave it, I found a different tea mug. The one I had "misplaced" earlier this morning had gone cold waiting for me too. I had actually almost put it in the fridge instead of the microwave and was so proud of myself for catching myself there 💀
I think my meds work less good around a #fullMoon. I did actually take them on time today.
Don't worry, I already figured out how I will use up the fresh veggies, and I didn't burn the quick feta roast I made a few minutes ago (at least not terribly).
-
CW: mention of food
I was so prepared to make a bright and hearty quinoa salad today. Except for the part where I wasn't all out of quinoa :neofox_laugh_sweat:
I also let my tea go cold and when I went to to microwave it, I found a different tea mug. The one I had "misplaced" earlier this morning had gone cold waiting for me too. I had actually almost put it in the fridge instead of the microwave and was so proud of myself for catching myself there 💀
I think my meds work less good around a #fullMoon. I did actually take them on time today.
Don't worry, I already figured out how I will use up the fresh veggies, and I didn't burn the quick feta roast I made a few minutes ago (at least not terribly).
-
CW: mention of food
I was so prepared to make a bright and hearty quinoa salad today. Except for the part where I wasn't all out of quinoa :neofox_laugh_sweat:
I also let my tea go cold and when I went to to microwave it, I found a different tea mug. The one I had "misplaced" earlier this morning had gone cold waiting for me too. I had actually almost put it in the fridge instead of the microwave and was so proud of myself for catching myself there 💀
I think my meds work less good around a #fullMoon. I did actually take them on time today.
Don't worry, I already figured out how I will use up the fresh veggies, and I didn't burn the quick feta roast I made a few minutes ago (at least not terribly).
-
CW: mention of food
I was so prepared to make a bright and hearty quinoa salad today. Except for the part where I wasn't all out of quinoa :neofox_laugh_sweat:
I also let my tea go cold and when I went to to microwave it, I found a different tea mug. The one I had "misplaced" earlier this morning had gone cold waiting for me too. I had actually almost put it in the fridge instead of the microwave and was so proud of myself for catching myself there 💀
I think my meds work less good around a #fullMoon. I did actually take them on time today.
Don't worry, I already figured out how I will use up the fresh veggies, and I didn't burn the quick feta roast I made a few minutes ago (at least not terribly).
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Lotta good #pizza around me in the Upper West Side. Also a lot of just-okay pizza. Some bad pizza. There is a lot of pizza.
My point is, after a year and a half my go-to pizza order has become a veggie pie with extra spinach from Little Italy at Broadway & 92nd. I order about one each month. What with the MIT #MysteryHunt afoot, tonight was the night.
It is always slightly burnt, the crust blackened and the vegetables crisped. Perhaps perversely, this is how I like it. Very good. #NYC #UWS
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If you look hard enough, you can find conspiracy theories about pretty much anything you can imagine (and probaby quite a lot you cannot imagine as well, here’s looking at you lizard people!). While I am sure conspiracy theories have existed as long as humans have had society, with the coming of the internet they have really entered a golden age of semi-plausible nonsense.
While each conspiracy theory will be unique, there are often commonalities which run through them, and it is not uncommon for people holding beliefs in at least one conspiracy to believe in a range of ideas which merge into one overarching nefarious plot. In a fair number of New World Order-type conspiracies, one commonality is the idea of depopulation.
For reasons which have never quite been clear to me, in these belief systems the maleficent powers controlling the world are often looking to reduce the global population, whether by killing people off or reducing the birth rates. Why the powers-that-be would want fewer people while at the same time allegedly wanting us to work for them in perpetual slavery is not quite clear, but hey, who said a conspiracy theory had to have internal consistency?
You can probably guess from my tone that I do not buy into these conspiracies. As far as I am aware (…) I do not believe any conspiracy theory. But along with cults I am not a part of and other unexplained mysteries, I find them fascinating. I probably know more about flat earths, 9/11 truths and the illuminati than is healthy, but I keep coming back for more.
With this interest in mind, it is probably not unexpected that I take notice when I come across concepts and ideas even peripherally linked with conspiracy theories. Over the last couple of weeks I have been seeing just that on a range of YouTube channels I follow, and I am beginning to understand how someone could start to see conspiracy even if one is not there.
The most recent link in my newly developing conspiracy theory came from the channel Kurzgesagt (and no, I have no idea how it is pronounced). A week or so ago they released a video titled Why Korea is Dying Out which explored the falling birth rates of not just Korea, but the planet as a whole. With their own take on the topic, the basic thesis mimicked a few videos and articles I have see recently, namely birth rates are falling and this is a bad thing.
Those of you paying attention will have noticed this is in contrast to the typical conspiracy theory where they are actively trying to reduce the population of the Earth rather than worrying about falling birth rates. That is why I am seeing this as a new type of conspiracy theory; the Repopulation Theory.
Babies good, no babies bad
Ok, so I’m not being entirely serious with my repopulation idea and this is not a post promoting my new Conspiracy Theory. As I have said I am not conspiratorially minded, and I don’t think there is some sinister plot to get everyone to have more children (I’m just going to ignore the situation in the US since Roe v. Wade for the sake of my sanity and blood pressure). I don’t think Kurzgesagt is working for the man, whoever that might be, to condition us to accept bigger families.
No, what Kurzgesagt and others are doing is outlining a well recognised trend, trying to explain the trend, and at least in the case of Kurzgesagt providing reasons they think this is a bad thing.
We should probably start by considering what is happening with global fertility rates, because for this part of Kurzgesagt’s video they are spot on: fertility rates are low across much of the world, and even in areas where they are higher (Africa and the Middle East), they appear to be falling.
The total fertility rate is in essence the number of babies born on average to a woman*. The higher the rate, the more children each woman will have on average, and vice versa for lower fertility rates.
Alongside this, there is an idea of replacement rates. This is the value the average fertility rate needs to be to maintain the population (assuming death rates stay the same and migration does not happen, big assumptions I know). In more economically developed counties with typically low child mortality the replacement rate is 2.1 babies per woman, in areas where child mortality is high this can rise to 3.5. The global average is 2.3 (or sometimes given as 2.4, same as the mythical number of children in the average family). 2.3 babies per woman also just happens to be the global total fertility rate at the moment. In theory should this remain stable, we would see the global population stabilise (currently sitting around 8 billion). Personally, I think this would be a good thing (more on this later), but for the likes of Kurzgesagt and others talking about fertility rates, it is decidedly not.
The problem with old people
Arguments against a falling fertility rate (and stable or falling population) are typically economic in nature. Young people, by which I mean young adults (looking at you again USA…) are typically more economically active than old people. They are the ones with jobs, physically they are more capable of working, and they are the group most responsible for keeping the economy ticking.
With lower fertility rates, the demographics of a country (or the planet as a whole) begin to shift, with a larger percent of the population old and most likely economically inactive. Worse still, older people tend to need more resources spent on them in terms of healthcare and the like, so not only are they not working, but an economist would see them as costing the system as well.
If I am developing my new conspiracy theory, I would see videos and articles about falling birthrates as a push by a group of older rich people (the older you are on average the wealthier you are compared with young people) to see the birth rate go up so there are lots of young people to work while they relax and enjoy themselves. Of course I am not a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t believe this…
Fatalist natalist
I don’t buy the idea that the collective we needs to keep pumping out vast numbers of children to keep the economy rolling for all time. For one thing, his does not take into account the devastating impact on the environment 8billion mouths is having. At current rates we need 1.7 Earths worth of resources to just maintain living standards as they are, never mind improving standards for the world’s poor, and I am not about to start advocating for shooting off into space or mining other planets as a way to meet our needs. To be fair to Kurzgesagt, they do note the impact of population on Climate Change but dismiss population reduction as too little, too late to stop the worst of the impact on our planet.
While I am not advocating some horrific policy of killing people off to save the planet, having fewer children seems like a much less barbaric way of dealing with the impact of the population on the planet ecosystem.
For clarity, I am not an antinatalist. Having children and continuing the species is something I would encourage for anyone wanting to have a family. As I write this my own little squiggles is lying on top of me having a snooze. My thoughts are, as with most things in life, everything in moderation, zero, one or two children per couple (of course acknowledging twins and more can and will happen) seems just right and will see the population settle down nicely. Having a total global fertility rate sitting at or just below the replacement rate would be exactly where I would want it, and it will take some fairly convincing data and argument to change my mind.
Down with SSCCATAGAPP**
Even thought I am unlikely to agree with Kurzgesagt, let us for a moment assume they are correct and falling population is a categorically bad thing. If this is the case, what should we do about it? Once again, I have some thoughts (and not just “burn the whole system down and start again”. I have constructive thoughts…), and I might even throw in one or two about adapting society to a low birth future as well.
“You know this is the ladies bathroom, right?”
The joke in The Simpsons episode referenced above is that after a baby riot, townsfolk without children decide to enact rules to make Springfield less child friendly and more geared to adults. For anyone raising a child or children, you will know it would not be too hard for SSCCATAGAPP to achieve their goal. If we are serious in trying to get people to have more children, then enacting child- and family-friendly policies is a must.
Take the obvious parental leave. The wife and I were lucky in many ways to have periods of paid parental leave available to us, and being able to take the financial hit of the reduced salary for the wife (leave is paid, but not fully). Many people in the UK and across the world are not able to take sufficient leave to bond with and care for their child. If people are wanting to see birth rates going up, giving new families time together (let’s say a year per parent minimum) with pay (let’s say full, of course…) seems like a good first step.
And when parents do finally return to the workforce, making sure those precious children society wanted to be born are cared for in safe and affordable (did you notice the emphasis?) childcare should be top of the agenda. To get baby into a nursery near our house when she is one year old, we had to reserve a place 3months before she had even been born, and again while we will be able to cover the costs, when a majority of one partner’s take home pay is gone on nursery costs, you begin to wonder whether remaining in work is worth it.
It is not just the cost of things which need a cold hard look. Facilities for wee nippers can be lacking. One small example, finding a changing room I am able to access. Some places are fantastic with amazing facilities (hello John Lewis) but for many places the facilities are lacking, or worse, in the women’s toilets. Setting aside the sexist assumptions regarding childcare for now, on two occasions I have asked where the changing facilities are and been sheepishly told they are in the ladies but it is OK for me to pop in to use them. Let me tell you right now, it is not OK. I did not want to be there, I’m certain the women wanting to use the toilet did not want me there. About the only person who did not seem to mind was baby who babbled along oblivious to the social faux pas going on around her. If you want more people to have more babies, you need to not be surprised when some of those caring for said babies turn out to be men and provide facilities accordingly.
You’ve probably realised right now my suggestions are going to cost money, potentially a lot of money. If there is one thing our rich old people do not like to do is part with their money, so it looks like I won’t get my ideas off the starting block.
But look at it this way. More children is apparently an investment in our future economy. Without them society will fall apart and rich people might have to clean their own toilets and cook their own food. Anyone who has started a business or invested in the stock market will know, to get a return you first have to spend money. If children are an investment in the future economy, then rich people now will have to cough up to get the investment portfolio up and running.
🎶Working ten to four🎵
Above I focussed on the early years of a child’s life, my babba is only a few months old so it tends to be on my mind a lot. I am however reliably informed children continue being children for a few more years and need ongoing parental support potentially into their twenties and beyond. This support will take up a lot of time, and being at work tends to get in the way of that.
Flexible working seems like a small price to pay for all the extra sprogs the economy will get in the future. This should be on an individual level of course, be it reduced hours, condensed hours or a combination of the two. But flexibility in work should be available to everyone and not just because they have done their economic duty and had a child,
A couple of years ago I wrote about work patterns and mentioned briefly the increasingly popular 4-day week and 6-hour day. Since I wrote that post, the evidence in favour of a 4-day week has only continued to grow while the 6 m-hour day is not too far behind. If you take someone working the typical 40 hour week and shift them to a 6 hour/4 day contract, you free up a whole 16 hours in the week to spend caring for the little ones (or leisure activities, attending to personal wellbeing, chores etc. I’m sure you get the idea).
Given the evidence suggests productivity remains high (or even increases) when these changes have been tried, these pro-baby changes don’t even come with an upfront investment. The gods of economics get growth now, and presumably even more later when all the young ‘uns become big ‘uns
Which end of the shovel do you dig with?
In 2018, anthropologist and activist David Graeber published what I suspect is one of his most well known books Bullshit Jobs. In the book, he argues up to half of jobs today are essential pointless, existing for no reason other than to have people doing the jobs, and this is having a significant negative impact upon people’s wellbeing and society more broadly.
His conclusions are disputed, but even if we take a low estimate and say 1% of jobs are essentially pointless, then in a country like the UK with roughly 30 million workers, this would amount to 300,000 people completing jobs for no reason other than to be employed. If you take Graeber’s figure and 15 million people would be in pointless work.
Given the worries about the shrinking population, does it not then seem prudent to shift some of this people around to jobs which need to be filled. Begone with the financial speculators moving digits around on a page, hello care home workers feeding and caring for the ever growing numbers of old people.
How do you envisage this is going to happen you may well be asking. Again, short of burning the system to the ground, we could start appreciating and valuing those people working as carers, teachers, farm workers and waste collectors for the vital roles they perform. I have fairly regular contact with care staff in my job, and the turnover and burnout seems consistently high. When you pay peanuts for a physically and emotionally challenging job, this is not exactly unexpected. As with the shift to the four day week, this will cost money, but as we are investing in the future economy for the benefit of rich people, I am sure they can find a couple of quid down the back of the sofa to chip in now. Right?!
The solution to old people
My final suggestion (you’ll be pleased to read I am sure) is a more general idea to improve the lives of everyone regardless of the falling birth rate. That I think it will also help here is a bonus.
As I’ve mentioned above, one of the concerns regarding the changing demographics which come with low birth rates is more old people. Old people come with the double whammy of not working and thereby feeding the almighty economy, and also often costing a lot in the form of care and health costs.
I’m not about to propose old people should be expected to work longer to earn their keep. If anything I would like to see everyone given the opportunity of retiring earlier than people typically do to enjoy the autumn of their years. My final suggestion, my solution to old people if you will, is to do our best now to keep people fit and healthy, so when they get to old age they need fewer resources like health and care services, costing less money in the process and freeing up some of those precious and dwindling workers to do other useful things.
Clearly I am not about to make suggests to treat or cure every illness someone might experience in their life. Sadly medical science is not even close to being there just yet. Rather what I am suggesting (what anyone who cares about health and wellbeing should be suggesting) is a focus on modifiable lifestyle factors which can cause poor health. You probably know most of them already, things like diet, exercise, alcohol and smoking. With more of the second, less of the last two and changes to the first (particularly to a lower sugar, higher fibre diet with plenty of those fresh fruits and veggies) a sizeable chunk of later life ill health can be mitigated if not avoided all together.
To stick with the running theme, this is of course going to cost money, at least initially. Education programmes and access to exercise opportunities are not always readily available, but once again this is about investing now for big returns later. With a healthier population, productivity should be up with healthcare costs down (or at least I imagine an economist would say something along those lines), a win-win for the individual, society and those forward thinking investors who can now bask in the warm glow of their own satisfaction,
Ready, steady, breed…
You’ve probably sensed the sarcasm smeared throughout this post, and I’m sure some people think I am dismissing the concerns around population changes too readily without fully appreciating the challenges ahead. I can understand the arguments and the concerns, I just find myself unconvinced. Whether you worry about the falling birthrates, the climate emergency or both, simply expecting people to get busy in the bedroom without any changes to the way our society runs is unlikely to help either cause. The answers to complex issues like birthrates are not always as straightforward as I have presented here, but equally we do not need to be reinventing the wheel. All that is missing now is the political will to act, and I am sure that is just around the corner…
* I’m using the term woman here as that is the term used within the research. I appreciate not everyone who can have children identifies as a woman, and not everyone who identifies as a woman can have children. As much as it is not a perfect term, it is the one used consistently in the literature so I have stuck with it.
** Inevitably this is a Simpson’s reference. See Season 15, Ep 8: Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays.
https://twaddle.blog/2023/09/19/two-point-four-children/
#Antinatalism #Babies #cf2e2e #Conspiracies #ConspiracyTheory #Family #FertilityRates #Natalism #Population #TheEconomy
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If you look hard enough, you can find conspiracy theories about pretty much anything you can imagine (and probaby quite a lot you cannot imagine as well, here’s looking at you lizard people!). While I am sure conspiracy theories have existed as long as humans have had society, with the coming of the internet they have really entered a golden age of semi-plausible nonsense.
While each conspiracy theory will be unique, there are often commonalities which run through them, and it is not uncommon for people holding beliefs in at least one conspiracy to believe in a range of ideas which merge into one overarching nefarious plot. In a fair number of New World Order-type conspiracies, one commonality is the idea of depopulation.
For reasons which have never quite been clear to me, in these belief systems the maleficent powers controlling the world are often looking to reduce the global population, whether by killing people off or reducing the birth rates. Why the powers-that-be would want fewer people while at the same time allegedly wanting us to work for them in perpetual slavery is not quite clear, but hey, who said a conspiracy theory had to have internal consistency?
You can probably guess from my tone that I do not buy into these conspiracies. As far as I am aware (…) I do not believe any conspiracy theory. But along with cults I am not a part of and other unexplained mysteries, I find them fascinating. I probably know more about flat earths, 9/11 truths and the illuminati than is healthy, but I keep coming back for more.
With this interest in mind, it is probably not unexpected that I take notice when I come across concepts and ideas even peripherally linked with conspiracy theories. Over the last couple of weeks I have been seeing just that on a range of YouTube channels I follow, and I am beginning to understand how someone could start to see conspiracy even if one is not there.
The most recent link in my newly developing conspiracy theory came from the channel Kurzgesagt (and no, I have no idea how it is pronounced). A week or so ago they released a video titled Why Korea is Dying Out which explored the falling birth rates of not just Korea, but the planet as a whole. With their own take on the topic, the basic thesis mimicked a few videos and articles I have see recently, namely birth rates are falling and this is a bad thing.
Those of you paying attention will have noticed this is in contrast to the typical conspiracy theory where they are actively trying to reduce the population of the Earth rather than worrying about falling birth rates. That is why I am seeing this as a new type of conspiracy theory; the Repopulation Theory.
Babies good, no babies bad
Ok, so I’m not being entirely serious with my repopulation idea and this is not a post promoting my new Conspiracy Theory. As I have said I am not conspiratorially minded, and I don’t think there is some sinister plot to get everyone to have more children (I’m just going to ignore the situation in the US since Roe v. Wade for the sake of my sanity and blood pressure). I don’t think Kurzgesagt is working for the man, whoever that might be, to condition us to accept bigger families.
No, what Kurzgesagt and others are doing is outlining a well recognised trend, trying to explain the trend, and at least in the case of Kurzgesagt providing reasons they think this is a bad thing.
We should probably start by considering what is happening with global fertility rates, because for this part of Kurzgesagt’s video they are spot on: fertility rates are low across much of the world, and even in areas where they are higher (Africa and the Middle East), they appear to be falling.
The total fertility rate is in essence the number of babies born on average to a woman*. The higher the rate, the more children each woman will have on average, and vice versa for lower fertility rates.
Alongside this, there is an idea of replacement rates. This is the value the average fertility rate needs to be to maintain the population (assuming death rates stay the same and migration does not happen, big assumptions I know). In more economically developed counties with typically low child mortality the replacement rate is 2.1 babies per woman, in areas where child mortality is high this can rise to 3.5. The global average is 2.3 (or sometimes given as 2.4, same as the mythical number of children in the average family). 2.3 babies per woman also just happens to be the global total fertility rate at the moment. In theory should this remain stable, we would see the global population stabilise (currently sitting around 8 billion). Personally, I think this would be a good thing (more on this later), but for the likes of Kurzgesagt and others talking about fertility rates, it is decidedly not.
The problem with old people
Arguments against a falling fertility rate (and stable or falling population) are typically economic in nature. Young people, by which I mean young adults (looking at you again USA…) are typically more economically active than old people. They are the ones with jobs, physically they are more capable of working, and they are the group most responsible for keeping the economy ticking.
With lower fertility rates, the demographics of a country (or the planet as a whole) begin to shift, with a larger percent of the population old and most likely economically inactive. Worse still, older people tend to need more resources spent on them in terms of healthcare and the like, so not only are they not working, but an economist would see them as costing the system as well.
If I am developing my new conspiracy theory, I would see videos and articles about falling birthrates as a push by a group of older rich people (the older you are on average the wealthier you are compared with young people) to see the birth rate go up so there are lots of young people to work while they relax and enjoy themselves. Of course I am not a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t believe this…
Fatalist natalist
I don’t buy the idea that the collective we needs to keep pumping out vast numbers of children to keep the economy rolling for all time. For one thing, his does not take into account the devastating impact on the environment 8billion mouths is having. At current rates we need 1.7 Earths worth of resources to just maintain living standards as they are, never mind improving standards for the world’s poor, and I am not about to start advocating for shooting off into space or mining other planets as a way to meet our needs. To be fair to Kurzgesagt, they do note the impact of population on Climate Change but dismiss population reduction as too little, too late to stop the worst of the impact on our planet.
While I am not advocating some horrific policy of killing people off to save the planet, having fewer children seems like a much less barbaric way of dealing with the impact of the population on the planet ecosystem.
For clarity, I am not an antinatalist. Having children and continuing the species is something I would encourage for anyone wanting to have a family. As I write this my own little squiggles is lying on top of me having a snooze. My thoughts are, as with most things in life, everything in moderation, zero, one or two children per couple (of course acknowledging twins and more can and will happen) seems just right and will see the population settle down nicely. Having a total global fertility rate sitting at or just below the replacement rate would be exactly where I would want it, and it will take some fairly convincing data and argument to change my mind.
Down with SSCCATAGAPP**
Even thought I am unlikely to agree with Kurzgesagt, let us for a moment assume they are correct and falling population is a categorically bad thing. If this is the case, what should we do about it? Once again, I have some thoughts (and not just “burn the whole system down and start again”. I have constructive thoughts…), and I might even throw in one or two about adapting society to a low birth future as well.
“You know this is the ladies bathroom, right?”
The joke in The Simpsons episode referenced above is that after a baby riot, townsfolk without children decide to enact rules to make Springfield less child friendly and more geared to adults. For anyone raising a child or children, you will know it would not be too hard for SSCCATAGAPP to achieve their goal. If we are serious in trying to get people to have more children, then enacting child- and family-friendly policies is a must.
Take the obvious parental leave. The wife and I were lucky in many ways to have periods of paid parental leave available to us, and being able to take the financial hit of the reduced salary for the wife (leave is paid, but not fully). Many people in the UK and across the world are not able to take sufficient leave to bond with and care for their child. If people are wanting to see birth rates going up, giving new families time together (let’s say a year per parent minimum) with pay (let’s say full, of course…) seems like a good first step.
And when parents do finally return to the workforce, making sure those precious children society wanted to be born are cared for in safe and affordable (did you notice the emphasis?) childcare should be top of the agenda. To get baby into a nursery near our house when she is one year old, we had to reserve a place 3months before she had even been born, and again while we will be able to cover the costs, when a majority of one partner’s take home pay is gone on nursery costs, you begin to wonder whether remaining in work is worth it.
It is not just the cost of things which need a cold hard look. Facilities for wee nippers can be lacking. One small example, finding a changing room I am able to access. Some places are fantastic with amazing facilities (hello John Lewis) but for many places the facilities are lacking, or worse, in the women’s toilets. Setting aside the sexist assumptions regarding childcare for now, on two occasions I have asked where the changing facilities are and been sheepishly told they are in the ladies but it is OK for me to pop in to use them. Let me tell you right now, it is not OK. I did not want to be there, I’m certain the women wanting to use the toilet did not want me there. About the only person who did not seem to mind was baby who babbled along oblivious to the social faux pas going on around her. If you want more people to have more babies, you need to not be surprised when some of those caring for said babies turn out to be men and provide facilities accordingly.
You’ve probably realised right now my suggestions are going to cost money, potentially a lot of money. If there is one thing our rich old people do not like to do is part with their money, so it looks like I won’t get my ideas off the starting block.
But look at it this way. More children is apparently an investment in our future economy. Without them society will fall apart and rich people might have to clean their own toilets and cook their own food. Anyone who has started a business or invested in the stock market will know, to get a return you first have to spend money. If children are an investment in the future economy, then rich people now will have to cough up to get the investment portfolio up and running.
🎶Working ten to four🎵
Above I focussed on the early years of a child’s life, my babba is only a few months old so it tends to be on my mind a lot. I am however reliably informed children continue being children for a few more years and need ongoing parental support potentially into their twenties and beyond. This support will take up a lot of time, and being at work tends to get in the way of that.
Flexible working seems like a small price to pay for all the extra sprogs the economy will get in the future. This should be on an individual level of course, be it reduced hours, condensed hours or a combination of the two. But flexibility in work should be available to everyone and not just because they have done their economic duty and had a child,
A couple of years ago I wrote about work patterns and mentioned briefly the increasingly popular 4-day week and 6-hour day. Since I wrote that post, the evidence in favour of a 4-day week has only continued to grow while the 6 m-hour day is not too far behind. If you take someone working the typical 40 hour week and shift them to a 6 hour/4 day contract, you free up a whole 16 hours in the week to spend caring for the little ones (or leisure activities, attending to personal wellbeing, chores etc. I’m sure you get the idea).
Given the evidence suggests productivity remains high (or even increases) when these changes have been tried, these pro-baby changes don’t even come with an upfront investment. The gods of economics get growth now, and presumably even more later when all the young ‘uns become big ‘uns
Which end of the shovel do you dig with?
In 2018, anthropologist and activist David Graeber published what I suspect is one of his most well known books Bullshit Jobs. In the book, he argues up to half of jobs today are essential pointless, existing for no reason other than to have people doing the jobs, and this is having a significant negative impact upon people’s wellbeing and society more broadly.
His conclusions are disputed, but even if we take a low estimate and say 1% of jobs are essentially pointless, then in a country like the UK with roughly 30 million workers, this would amount to 300,000 people completing jobs for no reason other than to be employed. If you take Graeber’s figure and 15 million people would be in pointless work.
Given the worries about the shrinking population, does it not then seem prudent to shift some of this people around to jobs which need to be filled. Begone with the financial speculators moving digits around on a page, hello care home workers feeding and caring for the ever growing numbers of old people.
How do you envisage this is going to happen you may well be asking. Again, short of burning the system to the ground, we could start appreciating and valuing those people working as carers, teachers, farm workers and waste collectors for the vital roles they perform. I have fairly regular contact with care staff in my job, and the turnover and burnout seems consistently high. When you pay peanuts for a physically and emotionally challenging job, this is not exactly unexpected. As with the shift to the four day week, this will cost money, but as we are investing in the future economy for the benefit of rich people, I am sure they can find a couple of quid down the back of the sofa to chip in now. Right?!
The solution to old people
My final suggestion (you’ll be pleased to read I am sure) is a more general idea to improve the lives of everyone regardless of the falling birth rate. That I think it will also help here is a bonus.
As I’ve mentioned above, one of the concerns regarding the changing demographics which come with low birth rates is more old people. Old people come with the double whammy of not working and thereby feeding the almighty economy, and also often costing a lot in the form of care and health costs.
I’m not about to propose old people should be expected to work longer to earn their keep. If anything I would like to see everyone given the opportunity of retiring earlier than people typically do to enjoy the autumn of their years. My final suggestion, my solution to old people if you will, is to do our best now to keep people fit and healthy, so when they get to old age they need fewer resources like health and care services, costing less money in the process and freeing up some of those precious and dwindling workers to do other useful things.
Clearly I am not about to make suggests to treat or cure every illness someone might experience in their life. Sadly medical science is not even close to being there just yet. Rather what I am suggesting (what anyone who cares about health and wellbeing should be suggesting) is a focus on modifiable lifestyle factors which can cause poor health. You probably know most of them already, things like diet, exercise, alcohol and smoking. With more of the second, less of the last two and changes to the first (particularly to a lower sugar, higher fibre diet with plenty of those fresh fruits and veggies) a sizeable chunk of later life ill health can be mitigated if not avoided all together.
To stick with the running theme, this is of course going to cost money, at least initially. Education programmes and access to exercise opportunities are not always readily available, but once again this is about investing now for big returns later. With a healthier population, productivity should be up with healthcare costs down (or at least I imagine an economist would say something along those lines), a win-win for the individual, society and those forward thinking investors who can now bask in the warm glow of their own satisfaction,
Ready, steady, breed…
You’ve probably sensed the sarcasm smeared throughout this post, and I’m sure some people think I am dismissing the concerns around population changes too readily without fully appreciating the challenges ahead. I can understand the arguments and the concerns, I just find myself unconvinced. Whether you worry about the falling birthrates, the climate emergency or both, simply expecting people to get busy in the bedroom without any changes to the way our society runs is unlikely to help either cause. The answers to complex issues like birthrates are not always as straightforward as I have presented here, but equally we do not need to be reinventing the wheel. All that is missing now is the political will to act, and I am sure that is just around the corner…
* I’m using the term woman here as that is the term used within the research. I appreciate not everyone who can have children identifies as a woman, and not everyone who identifies as a woman can have children. As much as it is not a perfect term, it is the one used consistently in the literature so I have stuck with it.
** Inevitably this is a Simpson’s reference. See Season 15, Ep 8: Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays.
https://twaddle.blog/2023/09/19/two-point-four-children/
#Antinatalism #Babies #cf2e2e #Conspiracies #ConspiracyTheory #Family #FertilityRates #Natalism #Population #TheEconomy
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If you look hard enough, you can find conspiracy theories about pretty much anything you can imagine (and probaby quite a lot you cannot imagine as well, here’s looking at you lizard people!). While I am sure conspiracy theories have existed as long as humans have had society, with the coming of the internet they have really entered a golden age of semi-plausible nonsense.
While each conspiracy theory will be unique, there are often commonalities which run through them, and it is not uncommon for people holding beliefs in at least one conspiracy to believe in a range of ideas which merge into one overarching nefarious plot. In a fair number of New World Order-type conspiracies, one commonality is the idea of depopulation.
For reasons which have never quite been clear to me, in these belief systems the maleficent powers controlling the world are often looking to reduce the global population, whether by killing people off or reducing the birth rates. Why the powers-that-be would want fewer people while at the same time allegedly wanting us to work for them in perpetual slavery is not quite clear, but hey, who said a conspiracy theory had to have internal consistency?
You can probably guess from my tone that I do not buy into these conspiracies. As far as I am aware (…) I do not believe any conspiracy theory. But along with cults I am not a part of and other unexplained mysteries, I find them fascinating. I probably know more about flat earths, 9/11 truths and the illuminati than is healthy, but I keep coming back for more.
With this interest in mind, it is probably not unexpected that I take notice when I come across concepts and ideas even peripherally linked with conspiracy theories. Over the last couple of weeks I have been seeing just that on a range of YouTube channels I follow, and I am beginning to understand how someone could start to see conspiracy even if one is not there.
The most recent link in my newly developing conspiracy theory came from the channel Kurzgesagt (and no, I have no idea how it is pronounced). A week or so ago they released a video titled Why Korea is Dying Out which explored the falling birth rates of not just Korea, but the planet as a whole. With their own take on the topic, the basic thesis mimicked a few videos and articles I have see recently, namely birth rates are falling and this is a bad thing.
Those of you paying attention will have noticed this is in contrast to the typical conspiracy theory where they are actively trying to reduce the population of the Earth rather than worrying about falling birth rates. That is why I am seeing this as a new type of conspiracy theory; the Repopulation Theory.
Babies good, no babies bad
Ok, so I’m not being entirely serious with my repopulation idea and this is not a post promoting my new Conspiracy Theory. As I have said I am not conspiratorially minded, and I don’t think there is some sinister plot to get everyone to have more children (I’m just going to ignore the situation in the US since Roe v. Wade for the sake of my sanity and blood pressure). I don’t think Kurzgesagt is working for the man, whoever that might be, to condition us to accept bigger families.
No, what Kurzgesagt and others are doing is outlining a well recognised trend, trying to explain the trend, and at least in the case of Kurzgesagt providing reasons they think this is a bad thing.
We should probably start by considering what is happening with global fertility rates, because for this part of Kurzgesagt’s video they are spot on: fertility rates are low across much of the world, and even in areas where they are higher (Africa and the Middle East), they appear to be falling.
The total fertility rate is in essence the number of babies born on average to a woman*. The higher the rate, the more children each woman will have on average, and vice versa for lower fertility rates.
Alongside this, there is an idea of replacement rates. This is the value the average fertility rate needs to be to maintain the population (assuming death rates stay the same and migration does not happen, big assumptions I know). In more economically developed counties with typically low child mortality the replacement rate is 2.1 babies per woman, in areas where child mortality is high this can rise to 3.5. The global average is 2.3 (or sometimes given as 2.4, same as the mythical number of children in the average family). 2.3 babies per woman also just happens to be the global total fertility rate at the moment. In theory should this remain stable, we would see the global population stabilise (currently sitting around 8 billion). Personally, I think this would be a good thing (more on this later), but for the likes of Kurzgesagt and others talking about fertility rates, it is decidedly not.
The problem with old people
Arguments against a falling fertility rate (and stable or falling population) are typically economic in nature. Young people, by which I mean young adults (looking at you again USA…) are typically more economically active than old people. They are the ones with jobs, physically they are more capable of working, and they are the group most responsible for keeping the economy ticking.
With lower fertility rates, the demographics of a country (or the planet as a whole) begin to shift, with a larger percent of the population old and most likely economically inactive. Worse still, older people tend to need more resources spent on them in terms of healthcare and the like, so not only are they not working, but an economist would see them as costing the system as well.
If I am developing my new conspiracy theory, I would see videos and articles about falling birthrates as a push by a group of older rich people (the older you are on average the wealthier you are compared with young people) to see the birth rate go up so there are lots of young people to work while they relax and enjoy themselves. Of course I am not a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t believe this…
Fatalist natalist
I don’t buy the idea that the collective we needs to keep pumping out vast numbers of children to keep the economy rolling for all time. For one thing, his does not take into account the devastating impact on the environment 8billion mouths is having. At current rates we need 1.7 Earths worth of resources to just maintain living standards as they are, never mind improving standards for the world’s poor, and I am not about to start advocating for shooting off into space or mining other planets as a way to meet our needs. To be fair to Kurzgesagt, they do note the impact of population on Climate Change but dismiss population reduction as too little, too late to stop the worst of the impact on our planet.
While I am not advocating some horrific policy of killing people off to save the planet, having fewer children seems like a much less barbaric way of dealing with the impact of the population on the planet ecosystem.
For clarity, I am not an antinatalist. Having children and continuing the species is something I would encourage for anyone wanting to have a family. As I write this my own little squiggles is lying on top of me having a snooze. My thoughts are, as with most things in life, everything in moderation, zero, one or two children per couple (of course acknowledging twins and more can and will happen) seems just right and will see the population settle down nicely. Having a total global fertility rate sitting at or just below the replacement rate would be exactly where I would want it, and it will take some fairly convincing data and argument to change my mind.
Down with SSCCATAGAPP**
Even thought I am unlikely to agree with Kurzgesagt, let us for a moment assume they are correct and falling population is a categorically bad thing. If this is the case, what should we do about it? Once again, I have some thoughts (and not just “burn the whole system down and start again”. I have constructive thoughts…), and I might even throw in one or two about adapting society to a low birth future as well.
“You know this is the ladies bathroom, right?”
The joke in The Simpsons episode referenced above is that after a baby riot, townsfolk without children decide to enact rules to make Springfield less child friendly and more geared to adults. For anyone raising a child or children, you will know it would not be too hard for SSCCATAGAPP to achieve their goal. If we are serious in trying to get people to have more children, then enacting child- and family-friendly policies is a must.
Take the obvious parental leave. The wife and I were lucky in many ways to have periods of paid parental leave available to us, and being able to take the financial hit of the reduced salary for the wife (leave is paid, but not fully). Many people in the UK and across the world are not able to take sufficient leave to bond with and care for their child. If people are wanting to see birth rates going up, giving new families time together (let’s say a year per parent minimum) with pay (let’s say full, of course…) seems like a good first step.
And when parents do finally return to the workforce, making sure those precious children society wanted to be born are cared for in safe and affordable (did you notice the emphasis?) childcare should be top of the agenda. To get baby into a nursery near our house when she is one year old, we had to reserve a place 3months before she had even been born, and again while we will be able to cover the costs, when a majority of one partner’s take home pay is gone on nursery costs, you begin to wonder whether remaining in work is worth it.
It is not just the cost of things which need a cold hard look. Facilities for wee nippers can be lacking. One small example, finding a changing room I am able to access. Some places are fantastic with amazing facilities (hello John Lewis) but for many places the facilities are lacking, or worse, in the women’s toilets. Setting aside the sexist assumptions regarding childcare for now, on two occasions I have asked where the changing facilities are and been sheepishly told they are in the ladies but it is OK for me to pop in to use them. Let me tell you right now, it is not OK. I did not want to be there, I’m certain the women wanting to use the toilet did not want me there. About the only person who did not seem to mind was baby who babbled along oblivious to the social faux pas going on around her. If you want more people to have more babies, you need to not be surprised when some of those caring for said babies turn out to be men and provide facilities accordingly.
You’ve probably realised right now my suggestions are going to cost money, potentially a lot of money. If there is one thing our rich old people do not like to do is part with their money, so it looks like I won’t get my ideas off the starting block.
But look at it this way. More children is apparently an investment in our future economy. Without them society will fall apart and rich people might have to clean their own toilets and cook their own food. Anyone who has started a business or invested in the stock market will know, to get a return you first have to spend money. If children are an investment in the future economy, then rich people now will have to cough up to get the investment portfolio up and running.
🎶Working ten to four🎵
Above I focussed on the early years of a child’s life, my babba is only a few months old so it tends to be on my mind a lot. I am however reliably informed children continue being children for a few more years and need ongoing parental support potentially into their twenties and beyond. This support will take up a lot of time, and being at work tends to get in the way of that.
Flexible working seems like a small price to pay for all the extra sprogs the economy will get in the future. This should be on an individual level of course, be it reduced hours, condensed hours or a combination of the two. But flexibility in work should be available to everyone and not just because they have done their economic duty and had a child,
A couple of years ago I wrote about work patterns and mentioned briefly the increasingly popular 4-day week and 6-hour day. Since I wrote that post, the evidence in favour of a 4-day week has only continued to grow while the 6 m-hour day is not too far behind. If you take someone working the typical 40 hour week and shift them to a 6 hour/4 day contract, you free up a whole 16 hours in the week to spend caring for the little ones (or leisure activities, attending to personal wellbeing, chores etc. I’m sure you get the idea).
Given the evidence suggests productivity remains high (or even increases) when these changes have been tried, these pro-baby changes don’t even come with an upfront investment. The gods of economics get growth now, and presumably even more later when all the young ‘uns become big ‘uns
Which end of the shovel do you dig with?
In 2018, anthropologist and activist David Graeber published what I suspect is one of his most well known books Bullshit Jobs. In the book, he argues up to half of jobs today are essential pointless, existing for no reason other than to have people doing the jobs, and this is having a significant negative impact upon people’s wellbeing and society more broadly.
His conclusions are disputed, but even if we take a low estimate and say 1% of jobs are essentially pointless, then in a country like the UK with roughly 30 million workers, this would amount to 300,000 people completing jobs for no reason other than to be employed. If you take Graeber’s figure and 15 million people would be in pointless work.
Given the worries about the shrinking population, does it not then seem prudent to shift some of this people around to jobs which need to be filled. Begone with the financial speculators moving digits around on a page, hello care home workers feeding and caring for the ever growing numbers of old people.
How do you envisage this is going to happen you may well be asking. Again, short of burning the system to the ground, we could start appreciating and valuing those people working as carers, teachers, farm workers and waste collectors for the vital roles they perform. I have fairly regular contact with care staff in my job, and the turnover and burnout seems consistently high. When you pay peanuts for a physically and emotionally challenging job, this is not exactly unexpected. As with the shift to the four day week, this will cost money, but as we are investing in the future economy for the benefit of rich people, I am sure they can find a couple of quid down the back of the sofa to chip in now. Right?!
The solution to old people
My final suggestion (you’ll be pleased to read I am sure) is a more general idea to improve the lives of everyone regardless of the falling birth rate. That I think it will also help here is a bonus.
As I’ve mentioned above, one of the concerns regarding the changing demographics which come with low birth rates is more old people. Old people come with the double whammy of not working and thereby feeding the almighty economy, and also often costing a lot in the form of care and health costs.
I’m not about to propose old people should be expected to work longer to earn their keep. If anything I would like to see everyone given the opportunity of retiring earlier than people typically do to enjoy the autumn of their years. My final suggestion, my solution to old people if you will, is to do our best now to keep people fit and healthy, so when they get to old age they need fewer resources like health and care services, costing less money in the process and freeing up some of those precious and dwindling workers to do other useful things.
Clearly I am not about to make suggests to treat or cure every illness someone might experience in their life. Sadly medical science is not even close to being there just yet. Rather what I am suggesting (what anyone who cares about health and wellbeing should be suggesting) is a focus on modifiable lifestyle factors which can cause poor health. You probably know most of them already, things like diet, exercise, alcohol and smoking. With more of the second, less of the last two and changes to the first (particularly to a lower sugar, higher fibre diet with plenty of those fresh fruits and veggies) a sizeable chunk of later life ill health can be mitigated if not avoided all together.
To stick with the running theme, this is of course going to cost money, at least initially. Education programmes and access to exercise opportunities are not always readily available, but once again this is about investing now for big returns later. With a healthier population, productivity should be up with healthcare costs down (or at least I imagine an economist would say something along those lines), a win-win for the individual, society and those forward thinking investors who can now bask in the warm glow of their own satisfaction,
Ready, steady, breed…
You’ve probably sensed the sarcasm smeared throughout this post, and I’m sure some people think I am dismissing the concerns around population changes too readily without fully appreciating the challenges ahead. I can understand the arguments and the concerns, I just find myself unconvinced. Whether you worry about the falling birthrates, the climate emergency or both, simply expecting people to get busy in the bedroom without any changes to the way our society runs is unlikely to help either cause. The answers to complex issues like birthrates are not always as straightforward as I have presented here, but equally we do not need to be reinventing the wheel. All that is missing now is the political will to act, and I am sure that is just around the corner…
* I’m using the term woman here as that is the term used within the research. I appreciate not everyone who can have children identifies as a woman, and not everyone who identifies as a woman can have children. As much as it is not a perfect term, it is the one used consistently in the literature so I have stuck with it.
** Inevitably this is a Simpson’s reference. See Season 15, Ep 8: Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays.
https://twaddle.blog/2023/09/19/two-point-four-children/
#Antinatalism #Babies #cf2e2e #Conspiracies #ConspiracyTheory #Family #FertilityRates #Natalism #Population #TheEconomy
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Craving a burst of freshness? 🥕🥑Our Raw Carrot Salad with Fruit and Avocado is a vibrant medley of flavors that'll tantalize your taste buds!
Click the link for the full recipe and get ready to impress your friends and family👉
https://proborsch.com/recipe/raw-carrot-salad-with-fruit-and-avocado#proborsch #salad #recipe #rawcarrot #carrot #avocado #tangerine #fruit #freshsalad #healthyfood #food #cook #cooking #foodie #foodies #fresh #yummy #tasty #chef #Ukraine #vegetarian #veggie #vegan #vegetable #summersalad
-
Craving a burst of freshness? 🥕🥑Our Raw Carrot Salad with Fruit and Avocado is a vibrant medley of flavors that'll tantalize your taste buds!
Click the link for the full recipe and get ready to impress your friends and family👉
https://proborsch.com/recipe/raw-carrot-salad-with-fruit-and-avocado#proborsch #salad #recipe #rawcarrot #carrot #avocado #tangerine #fruit #freshsalad #healthyfood #food #cook #cooking #foodie #foodies #fresh #yummy #tasty #chef #Ukraine #vegetarian #veggie #vegan #vegetable #summersalad
-
Craving a burst of freshness? 🥕🥑Our Raw Carrot Salad with Fruit and Avocado is a vibrant medley of flavors that'll tantalize your taste buds!
Click the link for the full recipe and get ready to impress your friends and family👉
https://proborsch.com/recipe/raw-carrot-salad-with-fruit-and-avocado#proborsch #salad #recipe #rawcarrot #carrot #avocado #tangerine #fruit #freshsalad #healthyfood #food #cook #cooking #foodie #foodies #fresh #yummy #tasty #chef #Ukraine #vegetarian #veggie #vegan #vegetable #summersalad
-
Craving a burst of freshness? 🥕🥑Our Raw Carrot Salad with Fruit and Avocado is a vibrant medley of flavors that'll tantalize your taste buds!
Click the link for the full recipe and get ready to impress your friends and family👉
https://proborsch.com/recipe/raw-carrot-salad-with-fruit-and-avocado#proborsch #salad #recipe #rawcarrot #carrot #avocado #tangerine #fruit #freshsalad #healthyfood #food #cook #cooking #foodie #foodies #fresh #yummy #tasty #chef #Ukraine #vegetarian #veggie #vegan #vegetable #summersalad
-
Craving a burst of freshness? 🥕🥑Our Raw Carrot Salad with Fruit and Avocado is a vibrant medley of flavors that'll tantalize your taste buds!
Click the link for the full recipe and get ready to impress your friends and family👉
https://proborsch.com/recipe/raw-carrot-salad-with-fruit-and-avocado#proborsch #salad #recipe #rawcarrot #carrot #avocado #tangerine #fruit #freshsalad #healthyfood #food #cook #cooking #foodie #foodies #fresh #yummy #tasty #chef #Ukraine #vegetarian #veggie #vegan #vegetable #summersalad
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Restaurant Review: The Smokaccia Laboratory - Phuket
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/restaurant-review-the-smokaccia-laboratory-phuket/You can't put a price on pure delight.
In Thailand you can get a perfectly decent Pad Thai and beer for a few hundred Baht. You can have an good pizza or freshly cooked burger for next to nothing. Food, in general, is cheap and cheerful. After a week of spring rolls and Tiger beer, we decided to treat ourselves to a fine-dining experience in the Michelin recognised Smokaccia Laboratory.
We opted for the nine-course(!) tasting menu - one regular and one vegan - with a pairing of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
Let's get the cost out the way first - we paid around ฿16,000 (£380) and it was easily the best meal we've had anywhere in the world. The quality of the food even exceeded Gauthier Soho and the service was beyond that offered by the Chef's Table at The Savoy.
I'd like to walk you through the experience, so you can get a feel for why you should spend a ridiculous sum of money on several tiny portions.
As we entered the restaurant for our 18:00 reservation, we were greeted by name. It's a small thing, but it immediately made us feel warmly welcomed. There's was no awkward pause as a maître d' looked us up in a list, just a confirmation of our booking and dietary requirements, then an invitation to sit in the lounge.
Would we like a glass of Prosecco or sparkling non-alcoholic cocktail while we waited? But of course!
We were then presented with a cigar box each. As we opened them, smoke gently wafted out filling our noses with a delightful scent. Nestled inside was a small amuse-bouche - a perfect cracker topped with caviar. My vegan alternative had veggie-friendly caviar and was exquisite.
The waiters and sommelier all introduced themselves to us as they explained the food and how the evening would proceed. We were given flannels which were freshly sprayed with a signature scent to accompany the next course - and then we were ushered to meet the chef.
Luca Mascolo is a warm, funny, and gregarious host. He was eager to explain the concept of the restaurant and why each dish was created. He was passionate about ensuring that we had an amazing time and that the vegan food was equal in quality to the meat and fish dishes. Our first experience with his culinary madness was the "Campari bomb" - it literally exploded in my mouth and sent flavours dancing around my tongue. It is the first food that has actually made me giggle with childish delight.
This was swiftly followed by a tasting of the chef's tomato reduction. A perfect liquid appetiser.
We were guided to our table - we opted for the kitchen counter. There are several regular tables, but it was much more fun to be sat watching the magic of creation. Open-plan dining is nothing new, but the staff were so calm and synchronised that it felt like a meditative exercise watching them work in perfect unison.
The Smokaccia is the chef's signature focaccia. A fist-sized ball of bread, hard on the outside and impossibly pillowy on the inside. A sourdough creation of genius and perfect for soaking up the various oils and sauces served with the dishes.
What can be said about "An unusual event with Bertha"? I don't want to spoil the surprise so I'll just say this - I've never had a meal which made me laugh so much. Every moment - even reading the description - was pure joy. Why bother serving food in bowls when a ceramic egg-shell is much more fun! Almost as fun was watching it being served to other tables and seeing their reactions.
The truffle crunch was a little bite of ecstasy. This wasn't drenched in 2,4-dithiapentane - it was a perfect shaving of real truffle. To complement, I had the zero-waste potato dish. What kind of a chef thinks up potato ice-cream with red onion caramel? Again, either the chef or waiter came over to personally explain the order in which the dishes should be eaten and all the ingredients which went in to its construction.
Nearly all the food comes from Thailand - with the exception of the balsamic vinegar and wine (both from Italy) - so the food-miles are negligible. The basil and eggplant honestly tasted like they'd been plucked fresh from the dirt not five-minutes previously.
The vegan "foie gras" was next. Traditional foie gras is neither ethical nor sustainable, so this is made with local vegetables in an attempt to recreate the flavour and texture. It is described as containing a "blood explosion" and, as my spoon pierced the pineapple-glass, a pop of bright red "blood" spurted out! Again, a incredible moment of both food science, whimsy, and surprise.
It isn't just that every mouthful is delicious; the dining experience is pure theatre and filled with moments that make you gasp with delight. Such as the "fois gras" being served on a misty "lake" filled with pebbles and flowers, and then being presented with a "fortune cookie" from the goose.
There was a choice of "main" course although - as with any fine dining experience - it was barely more than a few bites. But what a few bites! Writing this, it seems silly to be so in love with a carrot but I don't care! I loved every nibble of that carrot mixed with kombucha and wasabi leaf. I grinned like a lunatic when the kombu/soy caviar pearls burst on my tongue.
A morsel of the most intense melon sorbet topped with bunt radicchio was the perfect end to the meal. A simple and fun palate cleanser. Of course there were further surprises in store!
There was a choice of desserts and both were vegan! Liz and I decided to get one each. I'm fairly sure that the impossible pistachio ice-cream was my favourite, but the dark chocolate and hazelnut was so precisely targetted to my taste-buds that I'd have to try them both again to make sure.
I wish I could remember all the tea options. Liz had the Tom Kah and I went for the ginger and honey. A little moment of calm in an over-exciting evening. We watched the chefs prepare dishes for the now-bustling restaurant.
It is amazing how full you can feel after eating just a few bites over two-and-a-half hours. I suspect the 18 course menu would have been overwhelming. How we found room for the petit fours I can't possibly imagine.
I do know how I found room for the liquid nitrogen "cooked" coconut though - humans have a separate ice-cream stomach. That's just science. Also, I've never had fermented watermelon rind before and I can't understand how my life has been complete without it.
Chef Mascolo kept making sure that we were satisfied, he was happy to chat about the processes behind the food and why he is so keen to bring a high-quality dining experience to Phuket. His home-brewed limoncello was far removed from the thick and sickly syrup which is usually proffered at the end of an Italian meal. This was a thin, light, and highly spiced twist on the classic. A perfect end to a perfect meal.
Of course, the restaurant still had some surprises for us - including a rather touching "thank you" and a cute little gift-bag to send us on our way. We were exhausted from smiling and laughing so much. Every single bite made us incredibly happy. Fine dining can be a serious and solemn experience - this felt like being in the playground of a mad professor who just wants to have fun with your taste-buds and your heart.
I'm not saying that you should stop what you're doing right now, fly to Phuket, and have the best meal of your life. I'm merely saying that if you value inventive food, prepared by a team of experts with an obsessive eye for detail, presided over by a man who obviously values creating an inclusive and joyful experience - then you should reserve a table now.
The Smokaccia isn't merely a food laboratory - it is a happiness laboratory.
#restaurant #RestaurantReview #vegan #vegetarian -
I’ve Spent My Whole Life Refusing to Break, and It’s Slowly Breaking Everything I Love
8,993 words, 48 minutes read time.
They call me “the rock” at work.
At first, I thought it was a joke. Some intern started it during a brutal deadline last year. Half our team was losing it, one guy had a full-on meltdown in the stairwell, and I just… didn’t. I stayed late, knocked out my part, kept my voice even, answered questions, didn’t yell. Next day in standup, the intern goes, “Ask the rock, he never cracks,” and everyone laughed.
But it stuck.
Now my manager calls me that. “Put it on Matt’s plate, he’s a rock.” People say it like a compliment. Like it’s this badge of honor, being the guy who doesn’t flinch, doesn’t cry, doesn’t panic.
I pretended I didn’t like it. “C’mon, I’m just doing my job.” But I liked it. A lot. It felt like proof I’d finally escaped where I came from.
Growing up, the only thing worse than being poor in our neighborhood was being soft. I remember one time, I was probably eight or nine, playing basketball in the driveway, and I tripped. Scraped my knee so bad the skin just peeled back. I started crying, like loud ugly kid-crying—snot, hiccups, the works.
My dad walked out, looked at me, then at my knee, then back at me.
“You done?” he said.
“It hurts,” I blubbered.
He shook his head. “It’s a scrape, not a bullet. Stop crying, be a man.”
He went back inside. That phrase seared itself into my brain: Stop crying, be a man. I stopped crying. Not just that day. In general.
Whole life since then has been me trying to prove I listened.
So yeah, “the rock” fits.
What nobody at the office knows is I had to lock myself in a stall in the men’s room last week because my heart was racing so hard I thought I might pass out. I sat on the toilet lid, head in my hands, breathing like a woman in labor, trying not to make a sound because God forbid someone hears me having a panic attack.
Rocks don’t hyperventilate in bathroom stalls.
But that’s kind of my thing: feel something, shove it down, slap a lid on it, move on. I’m a professional at it now.
Church people call it “being strong.” Clinical people call it “emotional repression.” I just call it survival.
My wife, Emily, calls it “shutting down.” She says it calmly, like she’s reading a weather report, but her eyes get that glossy look that tells me I’m supposed to say something deep right there. I never do. I go for safe. Joke. Change the subject. Or pull the nuclear option: “I’m just tired, can we not do this right now?”
Which is basically our marriage in twelve words.
We’ve been married nine years. We have a seven-year-old daughter, Lily, who looks exactly like Emily except with my eyebrows, which feels unfair to her, but whatever. We met in college at some Christian campus thing I only went to because there were free burritos. She saw through most of my crap from day one, which I think is why I married her and also why I can’t stand her sometimes.
She’s a feeler. Like, professionally. She does counseling with teens at a nonprofit. She comes home wrecked from some kid’s story and wants to sit on the couch and process it for an hour. She cries at TV commercials. She said “I feel” more in the first month I knew her than my dad probably has in his entire life.
First time she cried in front of me, I freaked out internally. Panic, sirens, red lights. Externally, I was smooth. I put my arm around her, said all the right words. I didn’t know what I was doing, but she looked at me like I’d just parted the Red Sea. “I feel safe with you,” she said.
I should’ve told her then: “I don’t do feelings. I just do rescue.” But I liked being the safe guy. The rock.
Now, nine years in, that “safe” guy has turned into something else. A wall. A locked door. A black hole.
She sits at our kitchen table some Tuesday night, wine glass in hand, staring at me over a half-eaten plate of chicken and rice.
“You’re not here,” she says. “I mean, you’re physically here, but you’re not here.”
“I’m literally sitting right in front of you,” I say, stabbing a piece of chicken. “What do you want, a hologram?”
She doesn’t laugh. “Matt, I’m serious. I don’t know what you’re feeling. Ever. I don’t know when you’re scared. Or angry. Or sad. I can’t read you anymore. It’s like there’s this glass wall. I can see you, but I can’t reach you.”
I chew slowly to give myself time. Classic tactic. Delay, defuse, divert.
“I’m just tired,” I say. “Work’s a lot. Dad’s situation’s a lot. This is just… a season.”
Her jaw tightens at the word “season.” She hates Christian clichés, and I use them like shields.
“You said that last year,” she says. “And the year before. ‘It’s just a season.’ When does this season end, Matt? When you burn out? When we’re divorced? When Lily’s grown and doesn’t even bother to call you?”
“Wow,” I say, forcing a laugh. “Okay, that escalated.”
That’s another move: if I make her feel dramatic, I get to feel sane.
She takes a breath, looks down at the table. “I’m asking you to let me in,” she says, softer. “Talk to me. Tell me when you’re drowning instead of pretending you’re fine. You don’t have to be the rock, Matt. Not with me.”
There’s this moment where I actually feel it—the opening, the offer. Like a crack in the armor. I could tell her about the bathroom stall. About how sometimes at two in the morning my heart’s pounding like I’m on mile ten of a run and I can’t sleep, so I scroll my phone until my eyes burn. About the weird chest tightness that makes me think of my dad in the hospital, tubes and machines and beeping, and how I’m still that kid in the driveway trying not to cry.
I even start to say it. “Sometimes at work I—”
The words get stuck in my throat. There’s this primal shame that hits like a wave. If I say it out loud, it’s real. If she hears it, she’ll see I’m not a rock. I’m a scared dude in a grown man’s clothes with a half-charged iPhone and a Bible app he barely opens.
I clear my throat. “Sometimes at work I just need to, like, zone out, you know? Nothing crazy. I just power through.”
She watches me. She knows I pulled up right before the truth. I can see it in her eyes, that flash of disappointment before she buries it. She nods like she’s trying to accept the crumbs.
“Maybe we should go to counseling,” she says.
And there it is. The one word I refuse to let into my story.
“We’re not that bad,” I say, way too fast. “Counseling’s for people who are… like… actually falling apart. We’re just in a stressful patch. Money’s tight, work’s nuts, your job is heavy, my dad almost died. We don’t need to pay someone a hundred and fifty bucks an hour to tell us what we already know.”
“That’s not what counseling is,” she says.
I shrug. “You’re a counselor, obviously you’re pro-counseling. But I—what would I even say? ‘Hi, I’m Matt, things are fine, my wife just wants me to cry more’?”
She closes her eyes like my words physically hurt. “This isn’t about crying,” she says. “This is about you. Letting. Me. See. You.”
“I married you, didn’t I?” I say. “You see me. This is me.”
That’s the line I always throw out when I want to shut the conversation down—“This is just who I am.” It sounds like honesty, like self-awareness, but really it’s defense. A way of saying, “I’m not changing.”
She stares at me for a long time. Then she gets up, takes her plate to the sink without another word.
I tell myself she’s being emotional. That she’ll calm down. That it’s not that bad. That I’m not that bad.
That night, after she goes to bed, I sit on the couch with my laptop. I tell myself I’m going to do a little work, get ahead of tomorrow. Ten minutes in, I’m already opening a second browser window.
It’s funny how my brain knows the path without thinking. A couple keystrokes, a few clicks, and there it is: curated, pixel-perfect nakedness. I scroll, numb. That’s really what it is. Not lust so much as anesthesia. My own private pharmacy.
I justify it. I’m not sleeping with anyone else. I’m not on Tinder. I’m not at a bar hitting on girls who call me “sir.” This is safe. It’s victimless. It’s just… stress relief. And if I ever tried to talk to Emily about how I actually feel, I’d probably scare her. This way, I take care of it myself.
Self-sufficiency, right? That’s what being a man is. Handle your own crap.
I close the laptop an hour later feeling gross, but the guilt is dull. Familiar. Easy to ignore. I tiptoe into the bedroom. She’s already turned away from my side, curled in a C-shape near the edge. I slide into bed, careful not to touch her too much, in case she wants space. Or in case she doesn’t, because if she turns toward me, I might have to be present.
In the dark, my phone buzzes on the nightstand. I check it. It’s Marcus.
You good, man?
Marcus is my one semi-real friend from church. Taller than me, quieter. Used to be a cop, now does security at a hospital. He’s the kind of guy who actually listens when you talk. Like, fully. It’s unnerving.
He’s the only one who’s ever looked me in the eye and asked, “How’s your heart?” without smirking. I laughed when he said it the first time. “Bro, what are we, in a Nicholas Sparks movie?” He smiled, but he didn’t take it back.
I stare at his text for a second. My thumb hovers over the keyboard.
I’m fine, just tired, I type.
I delete “just tired.” It sounds weak. I send: I’m good. Busy with work. You?
The truth would be: I’m not sleeping, my wife wants to send me to counseling like I’m broken, I spent an hour watching porn to avoid feeling anything, and my chest hurts more days than not. Also sometimes I want to just drive until I run out of gas and start over somewhere no one knows I’m supposed to be “the rock.”
He replies: Same. Let’s grab lunch this week. Been thinking about you.
Cool, I send. Let me know when.
I set my phone down and roll onto my back, staring at the ceiling in the dark. Some random verse I half-remember from a sermon floats through my brain: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”
I snort quietly. I’m not brokenhearted. I’m just busy.
Work does not care about your feelings. My manager, Jeff, cares about deliverables and client satisfaction scores and how many hours the team can bill without triggering HR. There’s a massive software deployment next month. If we nail it, it’s big for the company. If we blow it, we lose a multi-million-dollar client. No pressure.
We shuffle into the conference room for yet another war room meeting. Screens everywhere, coffee cups, people with that glazed “I’ve been on Zoom for 12 hours” look in their eyes.
Jeff slaps my back. “How’s my rock?” he says, grinning.
“Ready to roll,” I say.
“Good, because if this thing slips again, I’m gonna have to start sacrificing junior devs to the client gods.”
Everyone laughs. I do too, even as that familiar tightness creeps into my chest. I tell myself it’s just caffeine. I’ve had three coffees and a Red Bull. Anyone’s heart would pound.
Halfway through the meeting, someone mentions layoffs. Not directly, but hints. “If this doesn’t go well, upper management’s gonna be asking hard questions.” Translation: people will get cut. People like me. People like the guy who had a meltdown in the stairwell last year and mysteriously “transitioned to new opportunities” two months later.
Rocks don’t get laid off. Weak links do. If I crack, I’m a liability.
My phone buzzes. It’s a text from my mom: Dad had another episode. Doctors want to run more tests. Can you come by tonight?
I swallow, staring at the message.
You okay? Jeff says, noticing my face.
“Yeah,” I say quickly. “Family stuff. I’m good.”
I tuck it away. Mental note: hospital. Later. After being the rock at work, I get to be the rock for my mom. Then maybe, if I have any energy left, I’ll toss Emily a pebble and call it connection.
During a break, I slip into the men’s room. I splash water on my face. As I look up, my reflection stares back at me. Thirty-six, a little more gray at the temples than I’d like, dark circles under my eyes. But my expression is neutral. Controlled. Rock-solid. You’d never know that inside, there’s this constant hum of static.
My chest tightens again. The room tilts for a second. I grab the edge of the sink.
Not now. Not here.
I duck into a stall before anyone walks in, sit on the lid, elbows on my knees, hands over my face. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. I count my breaths. I feel ridiculous, a grown man hiding in a toilet cubicle trying not to pass out.
Somewhere behind the stall door I hear my dad’s voice: Stop crying, be a man.
“I’m not crying,” I mutter. “I’m breathing.”
Same thing, really. Trying to keep the dam from breaking.
I think, briefly, of all the verses I’ve heard about not being afraid. “Do not be anxious about anything.” “Fear not.” “The Lord is my rock.” It’s funny how I’ve basically replaced God with my own chest. My own calm face. Like, I’m my own Lord and rock. That’s not how I’d say it out loud, but that’s how I live.
After work, I swing by the hospital. Dad’s sitting up in bed, watching some game show with the sound off, wires stuck to his chest. Mom’s in the chair by the window, hands folded, Bible open but unread on her lap.
“Hey,” I say, stepping in. “How’s the party?”
Dad grunts. “Food sucks.”
“That’s how you know it’s a real hospital,” I say. “If they start serving steak, you should worry.”
He smirks. Mom gives me a tired smile. I do the thing I always do in hard rooms: crack jokes, keep it light, distract from the elephant.
“How you feeling?” I ask, even though I can read the chart as well as he can.
“Old,” he says. “Doctors say it’s not as bad as last time. Just gotta ‘take it easy.’ Whatever that means.”
“You gonna listen?” I ask.
He snorts. We both know he won’t. Men in my family don’t “take it easy.” We work until something breaks, then we duct tape it and keep going.
Mom looks at me like she wants to say something spiritual. She’s the only one in our family who does feelings out loud, but years married to my dad trained her to make them small.
“Been praying Psalm 34,” she says softly. “You know that one, honey? ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’”
She says it like it’s comfort, a warm blanket. I hear it like an accusation. Brokenhearted? Crushed? That’s not allowed. Not for men like us. We’re not brokenhearted, we’re just… busy. Tired. Overworked. Slightly malfunctioning machines.
“I like the one about ‘those who don’t work don’t eat,’” Dad says. “Keeps you honest.”
I laugh, grateful for the deflection.
Mom sighs. “Your father,” she says, half-affection, half-frustration.
On the drive home, the verse keeps replaying in my head. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” If that’s true, then what does that mean for me? Because most days, God feels about as close as the moon. Beautiful, in theory. Useless, in practice.
Maybe the problem is I’m not brokenhearted enough. Or maybe that’s just another way to blame myself for something I don’t understand.
Thursday night is men’s group. I go mostly because it looks good. A married Christian dad who skips men’s group raises eyebrows. A married Christian dad who shows up, brings chips, cracks jokes, and nods thoughtfully during prayer requests gets approved.
We meet in the church basement, twelve guys in folding chairs in a sad circle under fluorescent lights that make everyone look tired and slightly dead. There’s the usual spread: chips, store-brand cookies, a veggie tray no one touches, and a big pot of coffee because apparently we’re all eighty.
Our leader, Dan, is a big guy with a beard that makes him look like a gentle lumberjack. He opens in prayer, then reads a short passage.
“Tonight,” he says, “I thought we’d just… be honest. No study guide. No video. Just us, talking about what’s real.”
That sentence alone makes my skin itch.
He reads Psalm 34:18. Of course. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
I feel it in my chest, right where the anxiety sits. The words are like a hand hovering over a bruise.
Dan looks around. “Who here would say they feel brokenhearted right now?” he asks. “Crushed in spirit? Not in theory. Right now.”
One guy laughs nervously. A couple shift in their chairs. I take a sip of coffee to buy time. No way I’m raising my hand. Brokenhearted is for widowers and addicts and cancer patients. Not white-collar project managers with upgraded iPhones and a leased SUV.
To my left, Jason clears his throat. He’s usually one of the louder guys, all stories about sports and his glory days playing college ball. Tonight, he looks smaller.
“I, uh…” He stares at the floor. His voice cracks. “My wife left last month. Took the kids. I haven’t told anyone ’cause… I’m embarrassed, I guess. I feel like I failed. I’ve been using porn for years. Said I’d stop a hundred times. Didn’t. She found stuff on my phone and just… had enough.”
The room goes quiet. My stomach twists. I keep my face still.
He keeps talking, words spilling now. “I always thought I had it under control, you know? Like, it was my thing. My stress relief. Better than cheating. That’s what I told myself. But she said it was cheating. She said I was choosing pixels over her. I don’t even… I don’t know how to live in my own skin right now. I feel… crushed. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Tears slide down his face. Full-grown man, shoulders shaking, crying in a church basement under bad lighting. Every alarm in my body goes off. Run. Joke. Change the subject.
Instead, something weird happens. Dan gets up, walks over, puts a hand on his shoulder. Another guy kneels and starts praying softly, nothing fancy, just, “God, be close. Help him.” No one mocks. No one rolls their eyes. A couple other guys are wiping their faces too.
I feel this pressure rising in my throat. It scares me more than any panic attack.
This could be you, a voice in my head whispers. You could talk. You could tell them about the stall, the late nights, the way your wife looks at you like a stranger. You could say you’re not okay. You could stop playing the rock.
I picture it for a second. Me, opening my mouth, saying, “Guys, I’m not fine. I’m addicted to being okay. And to porn. And to people thinking I have it together. My wife wants to leave and it’s mostly my fault.” I imagine their faces, their hands on my shoulder, the prayers. I imagine God feeling near instead of abstract.
My heart starts hammering. My palms sweat. My knee bounces.
Dan looks around. “Anybody else?” he says gently. “You don’t have to share. But if you want to, this is a safe place.”
Everyone’s eyes are suddenly the most interesting thing in the room. Shoelaces. Coffee cups. The scuffed tile. No one wants to be next.
I clear my throat.
“I mean…” I say, forcing a smirk. “My biggest sin is I eat too many carbs. So, uh, pray for me, guys.”
A few chuckle. The tension breaks a little. Dan gives me a half-smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
Inside, I want to punch myself. That was my out. My shot. I could have been honest. Instead, I threw a joke at the most honest moment I’ve seen in years like a grenade.
The rest of the night passes in a blur of surface-level shares. Work stress. Kids. “I should read my Bible more.” I mumble something about being busy. When we close in prayer, I mumble a safe Christian phrase: “God, thank you that you’re strong when we’re weak.” It sounds holy. It’s a lie coming from my mouth.
After group, as we’re heading to our cars, Marcus falls into step beside me.
“You okay?” he asks.
“I’m good,” I say automatically. “That was… heavy, huh?”
He studies me. “Yeah. But good heavy.” He pauses. “You sure you’re okay? You were twitchy during prayer.”
“Twitchy?” I scoff. “Bro, I had too much coffee. That’s all.”
He doesn’t push. “If you ever want to talk,” he says, “for real… I’m here. No judgment. None of us are as put-together as we look. You know that, right?”
I shrug, unlock my car. “I’m fine, man. Seriously. Just tired.”
That night, Emily’s on the couch when I get home, laptop closed, TV off. That’s never a good sign.
“How was group?” she asks.
“Good,” I say, dropping my keys in the bowl. “You know. Guys. Bibles. Bad coffee.”
“Did you share anything?” she asks.
I bristle. “What is this, a report card?”
She folds her hands. “I just… you’ve been off. For a while. I was hoping you’d talk to someone.”
“Talked to God,” I say. “That counts, right?”
She does that slow blink that means she’s trying not to explode. “You know what I mean.”
I do. I ignore it. I sit in the chair across from her instead of next to her on the couch. It’s a distance of three feet that feels like thirty miles.
She takes a breath. “I called a counselor,” she says.
Something in me snaps. “You what?”
“I called a counselor,” she repeats, voice shaking slightly but steady. “For us. For our marriage. Her name is—”
“We don’t need—”
“—Sarah Stevens,” she says, talking over me, which she almost never does. “She’s highly recommended. She has experience with couples where one partner is emotionally unavailable.”
“Emotionally unavailable,” I repeat, like it’s a slur.
“That’s what you are, Matt,” she says, and now the tears are in her eyes. “You’re unavailable. I’m married to a ghost. You show up physically, you pay bills, you fix things when they break, but you don’t let me see you. I feel like I’m begging you to be my husband.”
My defenses go up so fast I’m dizzy. “That’s not fair,” I say. “I go to work every day. I come home. I spend time with Lily. I go to church. I go to your family stuff even when I don’t want to. I provide. I don’t cheat. I don’t hit you. I don’t drink myself stupid. I’m doing everything I’m supposed to do and somehow it’s not enough because I don’t sit around talking about my feelings?”
“You don’t talk about anything real,” she says. “Do you know how alone I feel? I would almost rather you scream at me than stay like this. At least then I’d know there’s something in there.”
“That’s insane,” I say, standing up. “You’d rather I scream at you?”
“I’d rather you be honest,” she fires back.
I pace. “Fine. Here’s honest: I don’t want to sit in a room with some stranger and have you list all the ways I suck while she nods and takes notes.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m not doing it,” I say. “I’m not broken. We’re not broken. We’re just stressed.”
“And I’m telling you we are broken,” she says, standing now too, voice rising. “We are so broken, Matt. I’m drowning over here. I lie awake next to you at night and I feel like a widow before I’m even forty.”
The widow line hits harder than I want to admit. My mom in that hospital chair, Bible open, eyes tired. Is that Emily’s future?
I can’t go there. Too much. Shut it down.
“This is drama,” I say, dismissive. “You’re making it worse than it is.”
Her mouth falls open. “Drama,” she repeats. “Okay.”
She walks past me, into the bedroom. I hear drawers opening, the squeak of the closet door. A minute later she comes out with a duffel bag. She starts throwing clothes in it. T-shirts, jeans, underwear, random stuff. No method, just motion.
“What are you doing?” I ask, stomach dropping.
“Going to my sister’s,” she says. “For a while.”
“You’re leaving,” I say, like I can’t process the words.
“I’m not filing for divorce,” she says. “Yet. I’m giving you space. And I’m giving myself a chance to remember what it’s like to breathe.”
“Emily, come on,” I say, moving toward her. “You’re overreacting.”
She stops packing, looks up at me, and laughs. It’s a bitter sound I’ve never heard from her before.
“You keep saying that,” she says. “Anytime I tell you I’m hurting, I’m ‘overreacting.’ Anytime I say we need help, you say I’m ‘making it worse than it is.’ I’m done gaslighting myself into thinking I’m crazy. This is real, Matt. I’m leaving because you already have. You left a long time ago. You’re just… physically present.”
“That’s not fair,” I repeat, because I don’t have any other words.
She zips the bag. “I’m giving you one more chance,” she says, voice trembling. “You call that counselor. You set up an appointment. You show me with actions, not words, that you’re willing to be vulnerable. To let me in. To let anyone in. If you don’t… I don’t know if there’s anything left to save.”
She walks past me, bag over her shoulder. She stops at Lily’s door, pushes it open. Our daughter’s asleep, sprawled sideways, stuffed unicorn under one arm. Emily kisses her forehead, whispers something I can’t hear.
“I’ll bring her back Sunday night,” she says quietly when she returns. “You can have the weekend to… think.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I ask, hating how small my voice sounds.
She meets my eyes. “Stop pretending you’re okay,” she says. “That’d be a start.”
The front door closes behind her. The house is dead quiet.
I stand in the middle of the living room, staring at the door like it might swing back open and she’ll say, “Kidding!” But it doesn’t. She doesn’t.
Instead of collapsing, I do what I always do: I make a list. Dishes. Laundry. Trash. Budget. I straighten the cushions on the couch, because God forbid a pillow be crooked while my marriage implodes.
Later that night, I get a text from Marcus.
Heard Emily and Lily are staying with her sister. You want company?
My heart stutters. News travels fast in church circles.
I stare at the screen. I picture Marcus on my couch, looking at me with those annoyingly kind eyes, asking questions I don’t want to answer. What are you afraid of? How are you really? When did you start disappearing?
I type: Nah man, we’re fine. Just needed some space. Couples fight, you know.
I delete “we’re fine” because even I can’t make my thumbs lie that hard. I send: Just needed some space. All good.
He replies immediately. You sure? I can be there in 15.
I put the phone face down on the coffee table. I pace. I pick it up again.
Come, I type. I delete it.
I’m not sure what I’m more afraid of: him seeing the stack of dirty dishes and empty wrappers that prove I’m not as together as I act, or him seeing through whatever story I spin and calling me on it.
I finally send: I’m good bro. Exhausted. Rain check?
Three dots appear, disappear. Finally: Okay. I’m here if you need me. For real.
I toss the phone onto the couch like it burned me. I grab my laptop instead.
By 1 a.m., the house is dark, the only light the blue glow of my screen. Pop-up after pop-up, tab after tab. My brain is buzzing, my body’s numb. I tell myself it’s better than thinking. Better than feeling. Better than sitting in the silence and hearing my own excuses bounce off the walls.
When I finally crash into bed, the sheets on her side are still warm from when she packed.
The next morning, Lily’s empty room hits me harder than I want to admit. Her bed is made (Emily’s doing), stuffed animals lined up, tiny socks in the hamper. I stand in the doorway, an intruder in my own house.
I go to work like nothing happened. Because that’s what you do. You compartmentalize. You put on the rock mask. You get stuff done.
My performance drops, though. It’s subtle at first. I miss a detail here, forget an email there. Nothing huge. But in this job, death comes by a thousand paper cuts.
A junior dev, Sarah, points out a flaw in my plan in front of the team. Normally, I’d thank her, adjust. Today, raw and sleep-deprived, I snap.
“Maybe if you’d read the full spec before chiming in, you’d understand why we did it this way,” I say, harsher than I mean to.
The room goes quiet. She shrinks back, face flushing. Jeff raises an eyebrow at me.
“Let’s take this offline,” he says.
After the meeting, he pulls me into his office.
“You good?” he asks.
“I’m fine,” I say automatically.
He leans back, folds his arms. “Look, I don’t need to know your personal business. But you bit Sarah’s head off in there. That’s not like you.”
“Sorry,” I say. “Just… a lot going on at home.”
“Take a day,” he says. “Or a few. Whatever you need. This project’s important, but not as important as you not burning out.”
The irony of my boss telling me not to burn out while I’m actively burning out isn’t lost on me.
“I’m good,” I repeat. “I just need to focus.”
He studies me for a second. “You know,” he says slowly, “you don’t always have to be the rock.”
I actually laugh. “You started that, remember?”
He smiles. “Yeah. Turns out sometimes rocks crack. Just… don’t wait until you blow up to tell someone you’re drowning, okay?”
Everyone keeps using the same metaphors. Drowning. Burning out. Breaking. I keep dodging them like bullets in a video game. If I just keep moving, they can’t hit me.
Days blur. Emily and I text logistics about Lily. Pickup times, homework, dentist appointments. Nothing real. It’s like running a small business together instead of a marriage.
One Friday, I’m supposed to pick up Lily at four for her school’s little talent show thing. She’s been practicing a silly dance for weeks, making me watch it every night I had the energy to pretend I was watching. “You’re coming, right, Daddy?” she asked. “You promise?” I promised.
Friday afternoon, I’m sitting at my desk, headphones in, trying to yank my brain through a spreadsheet, when a familiar tightness clamps my chest. I take a breath. Another. It doesn’t let up. My vision goes a little fuzzy at the edges.
I check the clock. 3:50. If I leave now, I can make it.
I tell myself: Just one more email. Just fix this one thing. Then go.
I look up again and it’s 4:27.
“Crap,” I say aloud, ripping my headphones off. I grab my bag, half-run to the elevator, curse at the slow doors, sprint to my car.
On the drive, my phone buzzes with texts. I don’t check them. I don’t want to see.
I pull into the school lot at 4:58, heart pounding. I jog toward the auditorium. It’s emptying. Parents filing out, kids with glitter on their faces and handmade certificates.
Emily stands near the doors with Lily. Lily’s in a sparkly shirt, hair in two lopsided pigtails, holding a crumpled ribbon. Her eyes are red. When she sees me, her face does this thing—lights up, then falters, like she’s trying to decide whether to be happy or mad.
“Hey!” I say, forcing cheer. “I’m so sorry, traffic was—”
“Traffic?” Emily says, voice flat. “Show started at four.”
“I know, I just—work ran late and—”
“You promised,” Lily says quietly. That hurts way worse than Emily’s tone.
“I know, bug,” I say, kneeling. “I’m sorry. How’d it go?”
“Fine,” she says, shrugging, looking at her shoes. The word is a knife. It’s my own word coming back to kill me. I’m fine. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.
“Mom filmed it,” she adds. “You can watch it later.”
It’s an offer. A consolation prize. I hate myself for being the kind of dad who has to watch his daughter’s life on a screen because he can’t show up when it counts.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’d love to.”
Emily just looks at me. No lecture. Somehow, that’s worse.
On the drive back to my place, Lily hums a bit of her song in the backseat. I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles go white. I want to cry. The feeling is so foreign it scares me. I swallow it. It goes down like a rock.
That night, after I drop Lily back at her aunt’s, I sit in my dark living room alone. The quiet isn’t peaceful. It’s accusatory.
On the coffee table, my Bible sits under a pile of mail. I don’t remember the last time I opened it for me, not for a group or to find a verse to toss at someone else.
I push the mail aside, flip it open randomly. It lands in Psalms. My eyes fall on familiar words like they’re highlighted just for me:
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
No escape this time. No sermon. No small group. Just me and a sentence that won’t shut up.
I stare at the page until the letters blur. Something in my chest finally gives. Not a big cinematic break, just a tiny hairline crack.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Fine. I’m… not okay.”
The words feel like ripping duct tape off my soul. My throat burns. My eyes sting. My body, not used to this, fights it. But my arms suddenly feel too heavy to hold up. I slide off the couch onto my knees without meaning to, Bible still open on the cushion.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I mutter. “I don’t know how to be… brokenhearted. Or whatever. I don’t know how to…” I wave a hand vaguely, like God needs me to pantomime emotions.
Tears spill over. Real ones. First time in… I honestly can’t remember. Maybe when Lily was born. Maybe before that.
It feels… ridiculous. A grown man, kneeling by his IKEA couch, crying into old carpet. I half-expect lightning to strike or a worship band to appear in my hallway. Instead, it’s just me and my ragged breathing and an almost-tangible sense that something—Someone—is near.
For a second, I actually feel it. Like a warm weight on my shoulders. An invisible Presence sitting in the mess with me. Not fixing it. Just… close. The verse slams into my chest again: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
Maybe this is what they mean. Maybe all the sermons and testimonies and emotional people with their arms raised weren’t just making it up. Maybe God actually shows up in the raw places. Not the polished, rehearsed testimonies, but the ugly middle.
“Okay,” I whisper again. “I’m scared. Is that what you want me to say? I’m scared my dad’s gonna die and I won’t know how to grieve. I’m scared my wife’s never coming back. I’m scared I’ve already ruined my daughter’s life. I’m scared if people see how weak I am they’ll lose respect for me. I’m scared you’re not actually here and I’m just talking to my furniture.”
It all comes out in a rush. Confession, sort of. Not the respectable kind you share in group. The embarrassing kind.
For about thirty seconds, it feels like the safest place in the world.
Then, just as quickly, another voice kicks in. Not literal, not demonic, just… me. The old script.
Stop crying, be a man.
Crying won’t fix your marriage. Emotions won’t get you a raise. Vulnerability won’t put food on the table. You’re kneeling on a stained carpet, talking to someone you can’t see, while your actual life is on fire. Get up. Be practical. Make a plan. God helps those who help themselves. (Which, by the way, isn’t in the Bible, but I quote it like it is.)
I scrub my face with my hands, annoyed at the dampness. The Presence I felt a moment ago suddenly feels distant again. Or maybe I just pushed it away.
“Yeah, okay,” I say out loud, like I’m closing a meeting. “That was… something.”
I stand up, legs stiff. The room looks the same. Couch. TV. Empty picture hooks where our family photo used to hang before Emily took it. No angels. No burning bush. Just my stupid, beating heart and the hum of the fridge.
My phone buzzes on the table. It’s a notification from some Bible app I downloaded months ago and never use: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. – Psalm 147:3”
The timing is creepy. Or perfect. Or both.
I hover over the notification, feel the temptation to sink back down, to lean in, to actually let myself be wounded in front of God. To admit that I’m not just “off” or “tired” but actually… broken.
Instead, I swipe the notification away.
“I don’t have time to fall apart,” I mutter.
I open a browser and type the same old sites into the search bar. The algorithm knows me well. It feeds me what I want: distraction. Control. A world where nakedness is scripted and no one expects anything from me.
Later, in bed, I stare at the ceiling and tell myself I’ll call the counselor tomorrow. Or the day after. Or after this project. Or after Dad’s next appointment. Or after Emily gives me another ultimatum. There will always be a better time to be honest than now.
Months pass.
The project at work launches. It’s not a disaster, but it’s not the triumph it could’ve been. My performance review is “meets expectations” with a few pointed notes about “needing to delegate better” and “watching interpersonal tone under stress.” Translation: You’re slipping, man.
I don’t get fired. I also don’t get the promotion I’d been quietly gunning for. Jeff gives the lead on the next big project to Sarah—the junior dev I snapped at.
“She’s showed a lot of initiative,” he tells me in his office. “And you, honestly… you seem like you’ve got a lot on your plate. Thought this might be a good time for you to take a step back, catch your breath.”
Step back. Catch my breath. It’s like there’s this conspiracy in the universe to get me to stop pretending I’m okay.
I nod, say the right things. “Totally understand. Happy for her.” Inside, I feel humiliated. Replaced. Useless.
I don’t tell Emily. We barely talk beyond logistics anyway. The counselor’s number is still on a sticky note on my fridge. I move it occasionally when I wipe the counters. I’ve memorized the digits without ever dialing.
Lily spends every other weekend with me. We do what I think dads are supposed to do. We go to the park. We get ice cream. We watch movies. I make sure she’s buckled in right and that she brushes her teeth. I tell myself that’s enough. That love is mostly showing up and making sure they don’t die.
But sometimes, when she’s coloring at the table or building something with Legos on the floor, she’ll look up and just… watch me. Like she’s trying to figure out something she doesn’t have the words for yet.
One Sunday, as I’m dropping her back at her aunt’s place, she hugs me tighter than usual.
“Daddy?” she says into my shirt.
“Yeah, bug?”
“Are you sad?”
The question catches me off guard. I pull back, look at her small face. Her eyes are big, searching.
“Why do you ask?” I say.
“You look sad,” she says simply. “And Mommy looks sad. And Aunt Claire says it’s okay to be sad. But you always say you’re fine.”
The word stings again. Fine. My mask.
“I’m okay,” I say automatically.
She tilts her head. “It’s okay if you’re sad,” she says. “I won’t be scared.”
I should say it. Right there. To my seven-year-old. “Yeah, I’m sad. I miss you when you’re not here. I miss Mommy. I’m scared I messed up.” That would be vulnerability. Not oversharing, just honesty.
Instead, I pat her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, kiddo,” I say. “That’s my job. To worry about you. You just be a kid, okay?”
She nods slowly, like she’s filing away data for later. “Okay,” she says. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say, and it’s the one thing I’m absolutely sure of.
After she runs inside, I sit in my car and grip the steering wheel. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, staring down at a body of water that might save me or drown me. The jump is admitting weakness. The cliff is made of all the years I spent being told that men don’t cry, don’t talk, don’t crack.
I don’t jump.
Instead, I drive to church.
It’s easier to go when I don’t have Emily giving me side-eye during worship because I’m scrolling my phone under the seat. I can just show up, say hi to people, drink bad coffee, sing words I barely think about, nod through another sermon about some aspect of the Christian life I’m supposedly living.
Today, though, the pastor does something different. He doesn’t preach. He brings a guy up to share his story.
The guy is in his forties, shaved head, tattoos, looks like he could bench-press me. He takes the mic, clears his throat.
“I used to think being a man meant never showing weakness,” he says. My spine goes rigid. “My dad was old-school. ‘Quit crying, tough it out,’ that kind of thing. I brought that into my marriage, my friendships, even my faith. I believed in Jesus, but I didn’t actually trust Him with anything that made me look bad. Or weak.”
People chuckle. I don’t.
He talks about an affair. About losing his job. About almost losing his kids. Then he talks about the night he finally broke down on his kitchen floor, sobbing, telling God he was done pretending. How Psalm 34:18 popped into his head—“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted”—and how, for the first time, he actually felt it.
“I thought vulnerability would make me lose respect,” he says. “But hiding was what was killing me. My secrets hardened my heart. I was a shell. It wasn’t until I got honest—with God, with my wife, with some guys from this church—that anything changed.”
The sanctuary is dead quiet. People are leaning in. A couple of visibly tough dudes are wiping their eyes. I sit there, arms crossed, jaw clenched.
He keeps going. “I still struggle with pride. I still want to put on the strong face. But I’ve tasted what it’s like to let people see the cracks. And I’ve tasted what it’s like to have God meet me there, not when I’ve got it together but when I’m a mess. And I’ll tell you this: there’s more life in that than in all the years I spent playing the rock.”
Somewhere deep inside, something in me is nodding. Yes. That. Do that. Say something. Move.
I don’t.
After service, people swarm him. Thank you for sharing. That was powerful. I walk past, give a noncommittal nod. Inside, I’m seething. Not at him. At myself. At the distance between what I know is true and what I’m willing to live.
In the parking lot, my phone buzzes. Marcus again.
How are you really?
There’s that word. Really.
I stand in the cold air, thumb hovering.
I’m falling apart but pretending I’m not, I type. I delete it.
I’m tired, I type. Delete.
I settle on: I’m good. God’s got me.
Even my lies are wrapped in Christianese.
I don’t hit send yet. I stare at the blinking cursor. Beside me, a guy straps his toddler into a car seat, kisses his wife, laughs at something she says. Normal. Messy. Human.
The phrase from the testimony loops in my head: Hiding was what was killing me. My secrets hardened my heart.
I feel my own heart. Not metaphorically. Literally. My chest. It feels… hard. Numb. Like it should hurt more than it does.
Do I want God that close? Close to the brokenhearted sounds nice until you realize it means you have to admit you’re brokenhearted. Not over business, not over some abstract injustice. Over your own life. Your own choices. Your own refusal to be weak.
I could tell Marcus. Right now. I could say, “I’m not okay. Can we talk?” He’d answer. He’d show up. I know he would.
Instead, I backspace my half-typed message.
I send him a thumbs-up emoji.
That’s my spiritual state in one tiny yellow hand.
I get in my car, close the door, and the world goes quiet again. Just me, the dashboard, the buzz of the engine.
I think about Psalm 34:18. I think about my mom in that hospital chair, whispering it over my dad. I think about Emily at the kitchen table, begging me to let her in. I think about Lily asking if I’m sad and promising she wouldn’t be scared.
I think about the night on my knees by the couch, the fleeting sense that God was actually, tangibly near when I finally let something crack.
And I think about how fast I slammed that door shut.
That’s the thing no one tells you about vulnerability. You can get a glimpse of it, taste it for thirty seconds, and still decide you’d rather be alone in a locked room than risk anyone seeing you naked in your soul.
So that’s where I am.
In the car. In the locked room. Playing the part I’ve played my whole life.
The rock.
From the outside, I still look solid. Steady job. Decent clothes. Church attendance. A few Bible verses I can quote if needed. A daughter who still hugs me. A wife who hasn’t technically divorced me… yet.
Inside, I know the truth.
I’m not a rock. I’m a man-shaped shell built around a frightened kid who learned early that tears equal weakness and weakness equals rejection. I never unlearned it. I baptized it, gave it Bible verses, dressed it up in productivity and moral respectability.
Maybe one day I’ll break for real. Call the counselor. Call Marcus. Call out to God and not shut Him down when He shows up. Maybe I’ll finally let someone see how much I’m not okay and discover that maybe—just maybe—weakness isn’t the end of my story but the door to something like real strength.
But today?
Today I turn the key in the ignition, watch my reflection in the rearview mirror as I back out. My face is calm. Controlled. Unreadable.
Ask anyone who sees me drive away how I’m doing, and they’ll say the same thing.
He’s good. He’s strong. He’s the rock.
They’d be half right.
The other half?
The rock is crumbling. And I’m the only one who can hear it.
Author’s Note
I wrote this story because “I’m fine” has become one of the most dangerous lies men tell.
Not because everything has to turn into a group-therapy overshare, but because a lot of us have learned that being a man means one thing above all: don’t crack. Don’t cry. Don’t need. Don’t ask for help. Just keep performing—at work, at home, at church—and hope nobody notices how much of it is duct tape and denial.
Matt is fictional, but the patterns are not. The late-night anxiety. The quiet porn habit as a pressure valve. The marriage that looks stable from the outside but is running on fumes. The way “being strong” becomes a way to avoid being known. I didn’t want to write a neat testimony with a bow at the end. I wanted to sit in that awful in-between space where a man knows he’s not okay and still chooses to keep hiding.
If you picked up on the tension around Psalm 34:18—“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”—that was intentional. The verse is there like a constant background noise in Matt’s life. He hears it from his mom, at church, in group, on his Bible app. The problem isn’t that God is silent; it’s that Matt refuses to be the kind of man that verse is written for: brokenhearted, crushed, honest.
Underneath all the details, this story is about fear of vulnerability:
- Fear of losing respect if you admit weakness
- Fear of not knowing what to do with your own emotions if you stop stuffing them
- Fear that if you open up to God or other men, you’ll be met with judgment or awkward silence instead of real presence
The tragedy for Matt isn’t a dramatic car crash or public scandal. It’s the slow erosion of his soul and relationships because he clings to the image of “the rock” more than he clings to God or the people who actually love him. He gets glimpses of another way—a raw confession at men’s group, a quiet moment on the carpet where he finally lets himself cry, a daughter asking if he’s sad—and he still pulls back. That’s the haunting part. Nothing changes… and yet everything is slowly falling apart.
If this story resonated with you at all, even uncomfortably, that’s kind of the point. Not to shame you, not to diagnose you, and definitely not to tell you what you “have to” do. Just to hold up a mirror of what it actually looks like when hiding becomes a lifestyle.
Some men crash hard and obvious. Others, like Matt, just slowly harden. Their job title still works. Their faith still has all the right words. Their family still posts decent photos. But the inside is hollow. And the thing about hollowness is that it echoes. It haunts.
The core idea behind this whole series is simple and costly: Vulnerability is not an optional add-on to the Christian life or to healthy masculinity. It’s the doorway. To real brotherhood. To actual intimacy in marriage. To a faith that’s more than performance. To experiencing the God who is “close to the brokenhearted,” not to the perfectly put-together.
What you do with that is up to you. This story doesn’t end with Matt calling the counselor or breaking down in front of Marcus or sprinting back to Emily with a grand apology. It stops where a lot of men actually are: still in the car, still saying “I’m good,” still sending a thumbs-up emoji instead of telling the truth.
If anything in you recognized yourself in that final scene, don’t rush past it. Sit with the discomfort. Ask yourself, honestly, where you’re playing “the rock” and what it’s costing you. And if you decide to talk to God, or to a friend, or to a counselor about it—that’s your story. Not Matt’s. And it doesn’t have to end the way his does.
Call to Action
If this story struck a chord, don’t just scroll on. Join the brotherhood—men learning to build, not borrow, their strength. Subscribe for more stories like this, drop a comment about where you’re growing, or reach out and tell me what you’re working toward. Let’s grow together.
D. Bryan King
Sources
- Psalm 34:18 – The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
- John 11:33-35 – Jesus wept
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 – Power made perfect in weakness
- James 5:16 – Confess your sins to each other
- APA – Men and Mental Health: Why Men Are Less Likely to Seek Help
- APA Monitor – The Crisis in Masculinity and Emotional Expression
- Masculinity and Help-Seeking: Implications for Depression and Suicide Risk (PubMed)
- Gottman Institute – How Emotional Withdrawal Destroys Relationships
- Pornography Use and Relationship Satisfaction (NCBI)
- Psychology Today – Why Vulnerability Is Essential for Healthy Relationships
- BibleProject – The Bible and Emotions
- Desiring God – The Power of Admitting Weakness
- The Gospel Coalition – Real Men Cry
- Barna – Masculinity, Identity, and the Church
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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Get ready British Columbia, the provincial election is on October 19, and it’s going to be a wild one.
If you only want to know who to vote for, you can skip to the end.
How We Got Here
British Columbia’s last election was in 2020, when the BC NDP won a strong majority government with 57 seats. The once mighty BC Liberals were reduced to 28 seats, and the Greens managed to hang on to 2. The BC Conservatives weren’t a factor, getting only 1.9% of the vote.
In 2022 there were a bunch of changes that set things in motion for the crazy election we’re having now.
- The BC Liberals picked Kevin Falcon as their new leader.
- John Rustad got kicked out of the BC Liberals for denying climate change.
- The NDP choose David Eby as their leader and our new Premier.
- Kevin Falcon rebranded the Liberals to BC United to reflect their centre-right ideology.
- John Rustad joined the BC Conservative Party and became their leader and only MLA.
At this point, we were headed for a classic Eby (NDP) vs Falcon (United formerly Liberal) showdown. But in an epic collapse (read more about it here), Kevin Falcon destroyed his own party just before the election started. A few weeks ago, he suspended the BC United campaign, leaving his candidates stranded without a party (apparently the leader has the sole power to sign nomination papers and when he refused the party wasn’t able to field any candidates).
The Parties
Now the election is a fight between the BC NDP (led by David Eby) and the BC Conservatives (led by John Rustad), and the outcome is a coin toss (if the polls can be trusted).
BC NDP – In power since 2017, the NDP are traditionally the party of workers with a strong focus on health care and education. They’re probably best known for their moves to make BC more affordable – getting rid of MSP premiums, lowering ICBC car insurance rates, and bringing in $10/day daycare.
Since David Eby took over 2 years ago, there has been a huge focus on housing, which I’ll get into more below.
BC United (Formerly BC Liberal) – Not officially on the ballot after Kevin Falcon unilaterally withdrew them from the election, but there are 17 independents running who were formerly party candidates, including notable names like Mike Bernier (Peace River South) and Coarlee Oakes (North Cariboo) who are former cabinet ministers first elected in 2013.
The party was known as the “free-enterprise coalition” and focused on lower taxes and big economic development projects (like LNG plants and the Site C dam). They balanced that with moderate social policies, including a high minimum wage, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education in schools, and Canada’s first carbon tax.
Conservative Party of BC – They are the real wildcard in this election. They’ve managed to ride the popularity of the federal Conservative Party and the confusion around who BC United is to become the main opposition, even though they’ve never elected a single MLA in BC in my lifetime (the last time they won a seat was 1975!).
The party is weird mix of rejects from the BC Liberals and weirdos too extreme to ever have been welcome in the BC Liberals. A lot of their candidates were chosen while they were still on the fringes of politics, so it’s not too surprising (although still alarming) to see conspiracy theorists of all sorts. Conservative candidates share beliefs such as chemtrail mind control, Bill Gates implanting microchips in vaccines, the government controlling the weather, climate change is a hoax, 5G is a genocidal weapon, LGBTQ+ are brainwashing youth, and great replacement theory. One BC Conservative candidate is even convinced that the COVID vaccine gives people VAIDS (an invented AIDS-like disease).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqI5kZjsiU
And it’s not just a handful of wacky candidates, it’s most of them including the leader John Rustad himself, who was kicked out of BC Liberal party for denying climate change was real. He’s said all kinds of crazy things over the past few years, including a conspiracy about forcing people to eat bugs and talking about holding Nuremberg 2.0 trials to jail healthcare officials who administered vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic (he tried to walk that back – see below). This is the kind of thing that is popular on twitter and parts of the MAGA movement in the USA. It’s sad to see it become mainstream in BC.
BC Green Party – I don’t expect the Green Party to win a single seat this election. Their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the mind-boggling decision to move to a Victoria riding held by an NDP cabinet minister. Their only other MLA, Adam Olsen, isn’t running for re-election.
If the PR referendum had passed, they might be consistent junior partner in government. Sadly it failed, and in our first-past-the-post voting system a vote for the Greens just helps the Conservatives. Kevin Falcon blew up his party to prevent vote splitting on the right, but it still exists on the left.
The Issues
But enough about the parties. What about the issues? My biggest concerns at the provincial level are housing, climate change, and health care.
I started writing an analysis comparing the platforms of each party but realized I was wasting my time. The Conservative platform is very thin and there are so many inconsistencies between what they have written down publicly and what their candidates have said. Rustad, and the other former BC Liberals who defected, are now running against the policies they brought in when they were last in power – like SOGI and the carbon tax. It’s hard to trust them.
That said, if you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison, the good journalists at CBC have put one together.
Housing
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/6091453605
I don’t think many people would dispute that housing costs too much in BC. Affordability was bad when I moved here in 2006 and it’s only gotten worse since then. There have been some attempts to make things better, but the real hard changes we need have been blocked by NIMBYs who don’t want change and homeowners who are afraid their investment might lose value.
Since Eby became leader of the NDP, the government has taken some of the most impactful actions to tackle the housing crisis that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world (and I like to nerd out on housing policy). For the first time in my lifetime, I’m optimistic that my daughter will be able to own a home in BC when she grows up (if the changes aren’t undone by a new government).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJFn20hzccI
The NDP has gone after toxic demand (limiting speculators, foreign buyers, and AirBnB) and made it easier to build new housing (with increased density near transit stations and zoning changes province-wide that legalize missing middle densities). They’ve also tackled the nerdy parts of housing policy with simpler permitting, building code changes that allow single staircase buildings, and new prefab housing options. Most of these changes will take 5-10 years to really make an impact (construction takes time), but some have already started working – the AirBnB ban has dropped rents by $110/month on average. That’s huge!
https://youtu.be/iRdwXQb7CfM?si=-36cFBkuSFXzHOzU
The Conservatives would undo a lot of the changes. The zoning changes that allow 3-4 story, missing-middle buildings across most of the province, would be the first to go. Transit-oriented development, renter protections, and the AirBnB bad are also likely to get scrapped.
Worse still, the Conservative’s signature promise – The Rustad Rebate – gives every homeowner a tax rebate if they have mortgage payments. That is taking $3.5 billion dollars in tax revenue and lighting it on fire to fuel the housing market. It benefits the wealthiest the most and will only drive housing prices higher. It’s insane.
Climate Change and Transportation
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/53785702253
The NDP have a mixed record on the environment, climate change, and transportation. They initially opposed the carbon tax when it was introduced in 2008 and have refused to defend it as pressure has mounted federally. One of the first things they did when elected was to remove tolls on Metro Vancouver bridges – that saved commuters thousands of dollars, but it encouraged more people to drive.
On the positive side, BC has the most electric vehicles (EVs) in Canada, thanks to government subsidies and one of the best charging networks in North America. Our clean energy advantage is now powering a clean transportation system.
The NDP has been good for cyclists too. They modernized the Motor Vehicle Act to include minimum passing distances. Last year, BC had a hugely successful rebate that encouraged thousands of people to buy an e-bike. And although it’s a tiny fraction of the highway budget, they’ve helped build bike lanes with $150 million for infrastructure improvements in the past 2 years.
The Conservatives are climate skeptics, so it’s not surprising that their plan for climate change is “Make it Worse!” They want more people to throw away plastic, drive gasoline vehicles, and burn natural gas. Not only would they slow down the transition away from fossil fuels, they would actively work to encourage people to burn more of it, going so far as to promise new natural gas power plants will get built.
Health Care
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/37937566175
It’s no secret the pandemic hit our healthcare system hard. Our nurses, doctors, and paramedics have been under a lot of pressure. The NDP made recent improvements to family care in BC, but there is still a long way to go. I’ve lived most of my life in Vancouver without a family doctor because I couldn’t find one, but a year ago we finally found a primary physician for our whole family. And she’s awesome. That’s because of changes the NDP made to allow nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers and billing changes that have brought more family doctors in. There is more work to do, but BC has seen a 20% increase in family doctors and 300,000 more people with a primary care provider – that is huge progress.
The NDP have a lot of ideas on how to keep making improvements, but the one I want to highlight is “Axe the Fax.” Having worked on healthcare software for a few years, I know how much of a problem unreliable faxed referrals between doctors offices are. This is the kind of unsexy but important change that our healthcare system needs. Any party can promise to make things better, but it’s the little changes like this that actually do it.
The most likely outcome under a Conservative government is funding cuts (to fund the Rustad Rebate) and a war against doctors and nurses (driven by people who think vaccines cause VAIDS). When that inevitably leads to bad patient outcomes, they’ll use it as an excuse to increase privatization for those wealthy enough to afford it. Go ahead and read their healthcare ideas. They are promising shorter waits, not by making things better here, but by sending people to Alberta for treatment. To be clear, Alberta has its own healthcare problems and can’t handle a bunch of out-of-province patients.
Who You Should Vote For
This is the easiest recommendation I’ve ever given. The BC NDP have been doing a great job and they deserve to be reelected.
BC United gave up before the election started, which is a shame because they were the only other party with a governing track record. If you were a former supporter, I would encourage you to vote for the NDP this election and give the Conservatives some time to develop sensible policies and find sane candidates.
The BC Conservatives are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who would turn the province into a dumpster fire if elected. I’m truly worried about where we are headed if they win.
The BC Greens have steadily faded away and can only hope to split the vote in a handful of ridings to the Conservative benefit. If you are a Green supporter, I’d urge you to look at the NDP candidate in your riding and decide if they’ll be better for the environment than the Conservative.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041660396/
There was an all-candidates forum held at our school for all the nearby ridings. There were 5 NDP candidates, 2 Greens, and a Communist who showed up to talk to voters. Not a single Conservative candidate made an appearance. I live in an NDP stronghold, but even in areas where the Conservatives have a good chance of winning, like Langley, they are skipping debates. I guess it’s easier to lie to voters and keep your crazy beliefs hidden when you can avoid talking in public.
So the decision for me is extra obvious, I’ll be voting for my NDP candidate, Joan Phillip. I got to talk to her at the candidate forum and liked what I heard – she spoke compassionately about making positive changes for people in BC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041983509
More broadly, I really appreciate how quietly competent the current NDP government is. They do the hard work of governing day in and out. No tantrums blaming other levels of government. No scapegoating of immigrants or minorities.
For everyone who made it this far, I’d like you to do as many of these as possible.
- Make a voting plan. Figure out when and where you’re going to vote and put a reminder in your calendar. Advance voting starts on October 10.
- Talk to 3 friends and convince them to vote.
- Donate to a political party or volunteer your time.
We’ll find out in 2 weeks if we reelect a competent government or let chaos reign. The polls are forecasting a frighteningly close race, so there is a good chance your vote will matter.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/10/06/bc-election-2024-who-should-i-vote-for/
#bc #BCConservative #bcElection #BCGreen #BCLiberals #bcNdp #BCUnited #bcpoli #conservative #election #ndp
-
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/52985252739
Get ready British Columbia, the provincial election is on October 19, and it’s going to be a wild one.
If you only want to know who to vote for, you can skip to the end.
How We Got Here
British Columbia’s last election was in 2020, when the BC NDP won a strong majority government with 57 seats. The once mighty BC Liberals were reduced to 28 seats, and the Greens managed to hang on to 2. The BC Conservatives weren’t a factor, getting only 1.9% of the vote.
In 2022 there were a bunch of changes that set things in motion for the crazy election we’re having now.
- The BC Liberals picked Kevin Falcon as their new leader.
- John Rustad got kicked out of the BC Liberals for denying climate change.
- The NDP choose David Eby as their leader and our new Premier.
- Kevin Falcon rebranded the Liberals to BC United to reflect their centre-right ideology.
- John Rustad joined the BC Conservative Party and became their leader and only MLA.
At this point, we were headed for a classic Eby (NDP) vs Falcon (United formerly Liberal) showdown. But in an epic collapse (read more about it here), Kevin Falcon destroyed his own party just before the election started. A few weeks ago, he suspended the BC United campaign, leaving his candidates stranded without a party (apparently the leader has the sole power to sign nomination papers and when he refused the party wasn’t able to field any candidates).
The Parties
Now the election is a fight between the BC NDP (led by David Eby) and the BC Conservatives (led by John Rustad), and the outcome is a coin toss (if the polls can be trusted).
BC NDP – In power since 2017, the NDP are traditionally the party of workers with a strong focus on health care and education. They’re probably best known for their moves to make BC more affordable – getting rid of MSP premiums, lowering ICBC car insurance rates, and bringing in $10/day daycare.
Since David Eby took over 2 years ago, there has been a huge focus on housing, which I’ll get into more below.
BC United (Formerly BC Liberal) – Not officially on the ballot after Kevin Falcon unilaterally withdrew them from the election, but there are 17 independents running who were formerly party candidates, including notable names like Mike Bernier (Peace River South) and Coarlee Oakes (North Cariboo) who are former cabinet ministers first elected in 2013.
The party was known as the “free-enterprise coalition” and focused on lower taxes and big economic development projects (like LNG plants and the Site C dam). They balanced that with moderate social policies, including a high minimum wage, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education in schools, and Canada’s first carbon tax.
Conservative Party of BC – They are the real wildcard in this election. They’ve managed to ride the popularity of the federal Conservative Party and the confusion around who BC United is to become the main opposition, even though they’ve never elected a single MLA in BC in my lifetime (the last time they won a seat was 1975!).
The party is weird mix of rejects from the BC Liberals and weirdos too extreme to ever have been welcome in the BC Liberals. A lot of their candidates were chosen while they were still on the fringes of politics, so it’s not too surprising (although still alarming) to see conspiracy theorists of all sorts. Conservative candidates share beliefs such as chemtrail mind control, Bill Gates implanting microchips in vaccines, the government controlling the weather, climate change is a hoax, 5G is a genocidal weapon, LGBTQ+ are brainwashing youth, and great replacement theory. One BC Conservative candidate is even convinced that the COVID vaccine gives people VAIDS (an invented AIDS-like disease).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqI5kZjsiU
And it’s not just a handful of wacky candidates, it’s most of them including the leader John Rustad himself, who was kicked out of BC Liberal party for denying climate change was real. He’s said all kinds of crazy things over the past few years, including a conspiracy about forcing people to eat bugs and talking about holding Nuremberg 2.0 trials to jail healthcare officials who administered vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic (he tried to walk that back – see below). This is the kind of thing that is popular on twitter and parts of the MAGA movement in the USA. It’s sad to see it become mainstream in BC.
BC Green Party – I don’t expect the Green Party to win a single seat this election. Their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the mind-boggling decision to move to a Victoria riding held by an NDP cabinet minister. Their only other MLA, Adam Olsen, isn’t running for re-election.
If the PR referendum had passed, they might be consistent junior partner in government. Sadly it failed, and in our first-past-the-post voting system a vote for the Greens just helps the Conservatives. Kevin Falcon blew up his party to prevent vote splitting on the right, but it still exists on the left.
The Issues
But enough about the parties. What about the issues? My biggest concerns at the provincial level are housing, climate change, and health care.
I started writing an analysis comparing the platforms of each party but realized I was wasting my time. The Conservative platform is very thin and there are so many inconsistencies between what they have written down publicly and what their candidates have said. Rustad, and the other former BC Liberals who defected, are now running against the policies they brought in when they were last in power – like SOGI and the carbon tax. It’s hard to trust them.
That said, if you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison, the good journalists at CBC have put one together.
Housing
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/6091453605
I don’t think many people would dispute that housing costs too much in BC. Affordability was bad when I moved here in 2006 and it’s only gotten worse since then. There have been some attempts to make things better, but the real hard changes we need have been blocked by NIMBYs who don’t want change and homeowners who are afraid their investment might lose value.
Since Eby became leader of the NDP, the government has taken some of the most impactful actions to tackle the housing crisis that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world (and I like to nerd out on housing policy). For the first time in my lifetime, I’m optimistic that my daughter will be able to own a home in BC when she grows up (if the changes aren’t undone by a new government).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJFn20hzccI
The NDP has gone after toxic demand (limiting speculators, foreign buyers, and AirBnB) and made it easier to build new housing (with increased density near transit stations and zoning changes province-wide that legalize missing middle densities). They’ve also tackled the nerdy parts of housing policy with simpler permitting, building code changes that allow single staircase buildings, and new prefab housing options. Most of these changes will take 5-10 years to really make an impact (construction takes time), but some have already started working – the AirBnB ban has dropped rents by $110/month on average. That’s huge!
https://youtu.be/iRdwXQb7CfM?si=-36cFBkuSFXzHOzU
The Conservatives would undo a lot of the changes. The zoning changes that allow 3-4 story, missing-middle buildings across most of the province, would be the first to go. Transit-oriented development, renter protections, and the AirBnB bad are also likely to get scrapped.
Worse still, the Conservative’s signature promise – The Rustad Rebate – gives every homeowner a tax rebate if they have mortgage payments. That is taking $3.5 billion dollars in tax revenue and lighting it on fire to fuel the housing market. It benefits the wealthiest the most and will only drive housing prices higher. It’s insane.
Climate Change and Transportation
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/53785702253
The NDP have a mixed record on the environment, climate change, and transportation. They initially opposed the carbon tax when it was introduced in 2008 and have refused to defend it as pressure has mounted federally. One of the first things they did when elected was to remove tolls on Metro Vancouver bridges – that saved commuters thousands of dollars, but it encouraged more people to drive.
On the positive side, BC has the most electric vehicles (EVs) in Canada, thanks to government subsidies and one of the best charging networks in North America. Our clean energy advantage is now powering a clean transportation system.
The NDP has been good for cyclists too. They modernized the Motor Vehicle Act to include minimum passing distances. Last year, BC had a hugely successful rebate that encouraged thousands of people to buy an e-bike. And although it’s a tiny fraction of the highway budget, they’ve helped build bike lanes with $150 million for infrastructure improvements in the past 2 years.
The Conservatives are climate skeptics, so it’s not surprising that their plan for climate change is “Make it Worse!” They want more people to throw away plastic, drive gasoline vehicles, and burn natural gas. Not only would they slow down the transition away from fossil fuels, they would actively work to encourage people to burn more of it, going so far as to promise new natural gas power plants will get built.
Health Care
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/37937566175
It’s no secret the pandemic hit our healthcare system hard. Our nurses, doctors, and paramedics have been under a lot of pressure. The NDP made recent improvements to family care in BC, but there is still a long way to go. I’ve lived most of my life in Vancouver without a family doctor because I couldn’t find one, but a year ago we finally found a primary physician for our whole family. And she’s awesome. That’s because of changes the NDP made to allow nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers and billing changes that have brought more family doctors in. There is more work to do, but BC has seen a 20% increase in family doctors and 300,000 more people with a primary care provider – that is huge progress.
The NDP have a lot of ideas on how to keep making improvements, but the one I want to highlight is “Axe the Fax.” Having worked on healthcare software for a few years, I know how much of a problem unreliable faxed referrals between doctors offices are. This is the kind of unsexy but important change that our healthcare system needs. Any party can promise to make things better, but it’s the little changes like this that actually do it.
The most likely outcome under a Conservative government is funding cuts (to fund the Rustad Rebate) and a war against doctors and nurses (driven by people who think vaccines cause VAIDS). When that inevitably leads to bad patient outcomes, they’ll use it as an excuse to increase privatization for those wealthy enough to afford it. Go ahead and read their healthcare ideas. They are promising shorter waits, not by making things better here, but by sending people to Alberta for treatment. To be clear, Alberta has its own healthcare problems and can’t handle a bunch of out-of-province patients.
Who You Should Vote For
This is the easiest recommendation I’ve ever given. The BC NDP have been doing a great job and they deserve to be reelected.
BC United gave up before the election started, which is a shame because they were the only other party with a governing track record. If you were a former supporter, I would encourage you to vote for the NDP this election and give the Conservatives some time to develop sensible policies and find sane candidates.
The BC Conservatives are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who would turn the province into a dumpster fire if elected. I’m truly worried about where we are headed if they win.
The BC Greens have steadily faded away and can only hope to split the vote in a handful of ridings to the Conservative benefit. If you are a Green supporter, I’d urge you to look at the NDP candidate in your riding and decide if they’ll be better for the environment than the Conservative.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041660396/
There was an all-candidates forum held at our school for all the nearby ridings. There were 5 NDP candidates, 2 Greens, and a Communist who showed up to talk to voters. Not a single Conservative candidate made an appearance. I live in an NDP stronghold, but even in areas where the Conservatives have a good chance of winning, like Langley, they are skipping debates. I guess it’s easier to lie to voters and keep your crazy beliefs hidden when you can avoid talking in public.
So the decision for me is extra obvious, I’ll be voting for my NDP candidate, Joan Phillip. I got to talk to her at the candidate forum and liked what I heard – she spoke compassionately about making positive changes for people in BC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041983509
More broadly, I really appreciate how quietly competent the current NDP government is. They do the hard work of governing day in and out. No tantrums blaming other levels of government. No scapegoating of immigrants or minorities.
For everyone who made it this far, I’d like you to do as many of these as possible.
- Make a voting plan. Figure out when and where you’re going to vote and put a reminder in your calendar. Advance voting starts on October 10.
- Talk to 3 friends and convince them to vote.
- Donate to a political party or volunteer your time.
We’ll find out in 2 weeks if we reelect a competent government or let chaos reign. The polls are forecasting a frighteningly close race, so there is a good chance your vote will matter.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/10/06/bc-election-2024-who-should-i-vote-for/
#bc #BCConservative #bcElection #BCGreen #BCLiberals #bcNdp #BCUnited #bcpoli #conservative #election #ndp
-
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/52985252739
Get ready British Columbia, the provincial election is on October 19, and it’s going to be a wild one.
If you only want to know who to vote for, you can skip to the end.
How We Got Here
British Columbia’s last election was in 2020, when the BC NDP won a strong majority government with 57 seats. The once mighty BC Liberals were reduced to 28 seats, and the Greens managed to hang on to 2. The BC Conservatives weren’t a factor, getting only 1.9% of the vote.
In 2022 there were a bunch of changes that set things in motion for the crazy election we’re having now.
- The BC Liberals picked Kevin Falcon as their new leader.
- John Rustad got kicked out of the BC Liberals for denying climate change.
- The NDP choose David Eby as their leader and our new Premier.
- Kevin Falcon rebranded the Liberals to BC United to reflect their centre-right ideology.
- John Rustad joined the BC Conservative Party and became their leader and only MLA.
At this point, we were headed for a classic Eby (NDP) vs Falcon (United formerly Liberal) showdown. But in an epic collapse (read more about it here), Kevin Falcon destroyed his own party just before the election started. A few weeks ago, he suspended the BC United campaign, leaving his candidates stranded without a party (apparently the leader has the sole power to sign nomination papers and when he refused the party wasn’t able to field any candidates).
The Parties
Now the election is a fight between the BC NDP (led by David Eby) and the BC Conservatives (led by John Rustad), and the outcome is a coin toss (if the polls can be trusted).
BC NDP – In power since 2017, the NDP are traditionally the party of workers with a strong focus on health care and education. They’re probably best known for their moves to make BC more affordable – getting rid of MSP premiums, lowering ICBC car insurance rates, and bringing in $10/day daycare.
Since David Eby took over 2 years ago, there has been a huge focus on housing, which I’ll get into more below.
BC United (Formerly BC Liberal) – Not officially on the ballot after Kevin Falcon unilaterally withdrew them from the election, but there are 17 independents running who were formerly party candidates, including notable names like Mike Bernier (Peace River South) and Coarlee Oakes (North Cariboo) who are former cabinet ministers first elected in 2013.
The party was known as the “free-enterprise coalition” and focused on lower taxes and big economic development projects (like LNG plants and the Site C dam). They balanced that with moderate social policies, including a high minimum wage, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education in schools, and Canada’s first carbon tax.
Conservative Party of BC – They are the real wildcard in this election. They’ve managed to ride the popularity of the federal Conservative Party and the confusion around who BC United is to become the main opposition, even though they’ve never elected a single MLA in BC in my lifetime (the last time they won a seat was 1975!).
The party is weird mix of rejects from the BC Liberals and weirdos too extreme to ever have been welcome in the BC Liberals. A lot of their candidates were chosen while they were still on the fringes of politics, so it’s not too surprising (although still alarming) to see conspiracy theorists of all sorts. Conservative candidates share beliefs such as chemtrail mind control, Bill Gates implanting microchips in vaccines, the government controlling the weather, climate change is a hoax, 5G is a genocidal weapon, LGBTQ+ are brainwashing youth, and great replacement theory. One BC Conservative candidate is even convinced that the COVID vaccine gives people VAIDS (an invented AIDS-like disease).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqI5kZjsiU
And it’s not just a handful of wacky candidates, it’s most of them including the leader John Rustad himself, who was kicked out of BC Liberal party for denying climate change was real. He’s said all kinds of crazy things over the past few years, including a conspiracy about forcing people to eat bugs and talking about holding Nuremberg 2.0 trials to jail healthcare officials who administered vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic (he tried to walk that back – see below). This is the kind of thing that is popular on twitter and parts of the MAGA movement in the USA. It’s sad to see it become mainstream in BC.
BC Green Party – I don’t expect the Green Party to win a single seat this election. Their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the mind-boggling decision to move to a Victoria riding held by an NDP cabinet minister. Their only other MLA, Adam Olsen, isn’t running for re-election.
If the PR referendum had passed, they might be consistent junior partner in government. Sadly it failed, and in our first-past-the-post voting system a vote for the Greens just helps the Conservatives. Kevin Falcon blew up his party to prevent vote splitting on the right, but it still exists on the left.
The Issues
But enough about the parties. What about the issues? My biggest concerns at the provincial level are housing, climate change, and health care.
I started writing an analysis comparing the platforms of each party but realized I was wasting my time. The Conservative platform is very thin and there are so many inconsistencies between what they have written down publicly and what their candidates have said. Rustad, and the other former BC Liberals who defected, are now running against the policies they brought in when they were last in power – like SOGI and the carbon tax. It’s hard to trust them.
That said, if you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison, the good journalists at CBC have put one together.
Housing
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/6091453605
I don’t think many people would dispute that housing costs too much in BC. Affordability was bad when I moved here in 2006 and it’s only gotten worse since then. There have been some attempts to make things better, but the real hard changes we need have been blocked by NIMBYs who don’t want change and homeowners who are afraid their investment might lose value.
Since Eby became leader of the NDP, the government has taken some of the most impactful actions to tackle the housing crisis that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world (and I like to nerd out on housing policy). For the first time in my lifetime, I’m optimistic that my daughter will be able to own a home in BC when she grows up (if the changes aren’t undone by a new government).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJFn20hzccI
The NDP has gone after toxic demand (limiting speculators, foreign buyers, and AirBnB) and made it easier to build new housing (with increased density near transit stations and zoning changes province-wide that legalize missing middle densities). They’ve also tackled the nerdy parts of housing policy with simpler permitting, building code changes that allow single staircase buildings, and new prefab housing options. Most of these changes will take 5-10 years to really make an impact (construction takes time), but some have already started working – the AirBnB ban has dropped rents by $110/month on average. That’s huge!
https://youtu.be/iRdwXQb7CfM?si=-36cFBkuSFXzHOzU
The Conservatives would undo a lot of the changes. The zoning changes that allow 3-4 story, missing-middle buildings across most of the province, would be the first to go. Transit-oriented development, renter protections, and the AirBnB bad are also likely to get scrapped.
Worse still, the Conservative’s signature promise – The Rustad Rebate – gives every homeowner a tax rebate if they have mortgage payments. That is taking $3.5 billion dollars in tax revenue and lighting it on fire to fuel the housing market. It benefits the wealthiest the most and will only drive housing prices higher. It’s insane.
Climate Change and Transportation
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/53785702253
The NDP have a mixed record on the environment, climate change, and transportation. They initially opposed the carbon tax when it was introduced in 2008 and have refused to defend it as pressure has mounted federally. One of the first things they did when elected was to remove tolls on Metro Vancouver bridges – that saved commuters thousands of dollars, but it encouraged more people to drive.
On the positive side, BC has the most electric vehicles (EVs) in Canada, thanks to government subsidies and one of the best charging networks in North America. Our clean energy advantage is now powering a clean transportation system.
The NDP has been good for cyclists too. They modernized the Motor Vehicle Act to include minimum passing distances. Last year, BC had a hugely successful rebate that encouraged thousands of people to buy an e-bike. And although it’s a tiny fraction of the highway budget, they’ve helped build bike lanes with $150 million for infrastructure improvements in the past 2 years.
The Conservatives are climate skeptics, so it’s not surprising that their plan for climate change is “Make it Worse!” They want more people to throw away plastic, drive gasoline vehicles, and burn natural gas. Not only would they slow down the transition away from fossil fuels, they would actively work to encourage people to burn more of it, going so far as to promise new natural gas power plants will get built.
Health Care
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/37937566175
It’s no secret the pandemic hit our healthcare system hard. Our nurses, doctors, and paramedics have been under a lot of pressure. The NDP made recent improvements to family care in BC, but there is still a long way to go. I’ve lived most of my life in Vancouver without a family doctor because I couldn’t find one, but a year ago we finally found a primary physician for our whole family. And she’s awesome. That’s because of changes the NDP made to allow nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers and billing changes that have brought more family doctors in. There is more work to do, but BC has seen a 20% increase in family doctors and 300,000 more people with a primary care provider – that is huge progress.
The NDP have a lot of ideas on how to keep making improvements, but the one I want to highlight is “Axe the Fax.” Having worked on healthcare software for a few years, I know how much of a problem unreliable faxed referrals between doctors offices are. This is the kind of unsexy but important change that our healthcare system needs. Any party can promise to make things better, but it’s the little changes like this that actually do it.
The most likely outcome under a Conservative government is funding cuts (to fund the Rustad Rebate) and a war against doctors and nurses (driven by people who think vaccines cause VAIDS). When that inevitably leads to bad patient outcomes, they’ll use it as an excuse to increase privatization for those wealthy enough to afford it. Go ahead and read their healthcare ideas. They are promising shorter waits, not by making things better here, but by sending people to Alberta for treatment. To be clear, Alberta has its own healthcare problems and can’t handle a bunch of out-of-province patients.
Who You Should Vote For
This is the easiest recommendation I’ve ever given. The BC NDP have been doing a great job and they deserve to be reelected.
BC United gave up before the election started, which is a shame because they were the only other party with a governing track record. If you were a former supporter, I would encourage you to vote for the NDP this election and give the Conservatives some time to develop sensible policies and find sane candidates.
The BC Conservatives are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who would turn the province into a dumpster fire if elected. I’m truly worried about where we are headed if they win.
The BC Greens have steadily faded away and can only hope to split the vote in a handful of ridings to the Conservative benefit. If you are a Green supporter, I’d urge you to look at the NDP candidate in your riding and decide if they’ll be better for the environment than the Conservative.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041660396/
There was an all-candidates forum held at our school for all the nearby ridings. There were 5 NDP candidates, 2 Greens, and a Communist who showed up to talk to voters. Not a single Conservative candidate made an appearance. I live in an NDP stronghold, but even in areas where the Conservatives have a good chance of winning, like Langley, they are skipping debates. I guess it’s easier to lie to voters and keep your crazy beliefs hidden when you can avoid talking in public.
So the decision for me is extra obvious, I’ll be voting for my NDP candidate, Joan Phillip. I got to talk to her at the candidate forum and liked what I heard – she spoke compassionately about making positive changes for people in BC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041983509
More broadly, I really appreciate how quietly competent the current NDP government is. They do the hard work of governing day in and out. No tantrums blaming other levels of government. No scapegoating of immigrants or minorities.
For everyone who made it this far, I’d like you to do as many of these as possible.
- Make a voting plan. Figure out when and where you’re going to vote and put a reminder in your calendar. Advance voting starts on October 10.
- Talk to 3 friends and convince them to vote.
- Donate to a political party or volunteer your time.
We’ll find out in 2 weeks if we reelect a competent government or let chaos reign. The polls are forecasting a frighteningly close race, so there is a good chance your vote will matter.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/10/06/bc-election-2024-who-should-i-vote-for/
#bc #BCConservative #bcElection #BCGreen #BCLiberals #bcNdp #BCUnited #bcpoli #conservative #election #ndp
-
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/52985252739
Get ready British Columbia, the provincial election is on October 19, and it’s going to be a wild one.
If you only want to know who to vote for, you can skip to the end.
How We Got Here
British Columbia’s last election was in 2020, when the BC NDP won a strong majority government with 57 seats. The once mighty BC Liberals were reduced to 28 seats, and the Greens managed to hang on to 2. The BC Conservatives weren’t a factor, getting only 1.9% of the vote.
In 2022 there were a bunch of changes that set things in motion for the crazy election we’re having now.
- The BC Liberals picked Kevin Falcon as their new leader.
- John Rustad got kicked out of the BC Liberals for denying climate change.
- The NDP choose David Eby as their leader and our new Premier.
- Kevin Falcon rebranded the Liberals to BC United to reflect their centre-right ideology.
- John Rustad joined the BC Conservative Party and became their leader and only MLA.
At this point, we were headed for a classic Eby (NDP) vs Falcon (United formerly Liberal) showdown. But in an epic collapse (read more about it here), Kevin Falcon destroyed his own party just before the election started. A few weeks ago, he suspended the BC United campaign, leaving his candidates stranded without a party (apparently the leader has the sole power to sign nomination papers and when he refused the party wasn’t able to field any candidates).
The Parties
Now the election is a fight between the BC NDP (led by David Eby) and the BC Conservatives (led by John Rustad), and the outcome is a coin toss (if the polls can be trusted).
BC NDP – In power since 2017, the NDP are traditionally the party of workers with a strong focus on health care and education. They’re probably best known for their moves to make BC more affordable – getting rid of MSP premiums, lowering ICBC car insurance rates, and bringing in $10/day daycare.
Since David Eby took over 2 years ago, there has been a huge focus on housing, which I’ll get into more below.
BC United (Formerly BC Liberal) – Not officially on the ballot after Kevin Falcon unilaterally withdrew them from the election, but there are 17 independents running who were formerly party candidates, including notable names like Mike Bernier (Peace River South) and Coarlee Oakes (North Cariboo) who are former cabinet ministers first elected in 2013.
The party was known as the “free-enterprise coalition” and focused on lower taxes and big economic development projects (like LNG plants and the Site C dam). They balanced that with moderate social policies, including a high minimum wage, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education in schools, and Canada’s first carbon tax.
Conservative Party of BC – They are the real wildcard in this election. They’ve managed to ride the popularity of the federal Conservative Party and the confusion around who BC United is to become the main opposition, even though they’ve never elected a single MLA in BC in my lifetime (the last time they won a seat was 1975!).
The party is weird mix of rejects from the BC Liberals and weirdos too extreme to ever have been welcome in the BC Liberals. A lot of their candidates were chosen while they were still on the fringes of politics, so it’s not too surprising (although still alarming) to see conspiracy theorists of all sorts. Conservative candidates share beliefs such as chemtrail mind control, Bill Gates implanting microchips in vaccines, the government controlling the weather, climate change is a hoax, 5G is a genocidal weapon, LGBTQ+ are brainwashing youth, and great replacement theory. One BC Conservative candidate is even convinced that the COVID vaccine gives people VAIDS (an invented AIDS-like disease).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqI5kZjsiU
And it’s not just a handful of wacky candidates, it’s most of them including the leader John Rustad himself, who was kicked out of BC Liberal party for denying climate change was real. He’s said all kinds of crazy things over the past few years, including a conspiracy about forcing people to eat bugs and talking about holding Nuremberg 2.0 trials to jail healthcare officials who administered vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic (he tried to walk that back – see below). This is the kind of thing that is popular on twitter and parts of the MAGA movement in the USA. It’s sad to see it become mainstream in BC.
BC Green Party – I don’t expect the Green Party to win a single seat this election. Their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the mind-boggling decision to move to a Victoria riding held by an NDP cabinet minister. Their only other MLA, Adam Olsen, isn’t running for re-election.
If the PR referendum had passed, they might be consistent junior partner in government. Sadly it failed, and in our first-past-the-post voting system a vote for the Greens just helps the Conservatives. Kevin Falcon blew up his party to prevent vote splitting on the right, but it still exists on the left.
The Issues
But enough about the parties. What about the issues? My biggest concerns at the provincial level are housing, climate change, and health care.
I started writing an analysis comparing the platforms of each party but realized I was wasting my time. The Conservative platform is very thin and there are so many inconsistencies between what they have written down publicly and what their candidates have said. Rustad, and the other former BC Liberals who defected, are now running against the policies they brought in when they were last in power – like SOGI and the carbon tax. It’s hard to trust them.
That said, if you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison, the good journalists at CBC have put one together.
Housing
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/6091453605
I don’t think many people would dispute that housing costs too much in BC. Affordability was bad when I moved here in 2006 and it’s only gotten worse since then. There have been some attempts to make things better, but the real hard changes we need have been blocked by NIMBYs who don’t want change and homeowners who are afraid their investment might lose value.
Since Eby became leader of the NDP, the government has taken some of the most impactful actions to tackle the housing crisis that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world (and I like to nerd out on housing policy). For the first time in my lifetime, I’m optimistic that my daughter will be able to own a home in BC when she grows up (if the changes aren’t undone by a new government).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJFn20hzccI
The NDP has gone after toxic demand (limiting speculators, foreign buyers, and AirBnB) and made it easier to build new housing (with increased density near transit stations and zoning changes province-wide that legalize missing middle densities). They’ve also tackled the nerdy parts of housing policy with simpler permitting, building code changes that allow single staircase buildings, and new prefab housing options. Most of these changes will take 5-10 years to really make an impact (construction takes time), but some have already started working – the AirBnB ban has dropped rents by $110/month on average. That’s huge!
https://youtu.be/iRdwXQb7CfM?si=-36cFBkuSFXzHOzU
The Conservatives would undo a lot of the changes. The zoning changes that allow 3-4 story, missing-middle buildings across most of the province, would be the first to go. Transit-oriented development, renter protections, and the AirBnB bad are also likely to get scrapped.
Worse still, the Conservative’s signature promise – The Rustad Rebate – gives every homeowner a tax rebate if they have mortgage payments. That is taking $3.5 billion dollars in tax revenue and lighting it on fire to fuel the housing market. It benefits the wealthiest the most and will only drive housing prices higher. It’s insane.
Climate Change and Transportation
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/53785702253
The NDP have a mixed record on the environment, climate change, and transportation. They initially opposed the carbon tax when it was introduced in 2008 and have refused to defend it as pressure has mounted federally. One of the first things they did when elected was to remove tolls on Metro Vancouver bridges – that saved commuters thousands of dollars, but it encouraged more people to drive.
On the positive side, BC has the most electric vehicles (EVs) in Canada, thanks to government subsidies and one of the best charging networks in North America. Our clean energy advantage is now powering a clean transportation system.
The NDP has been good for cyclists too. They modernized the Motor Vehicle Act to include minimum passing distances. Last year, BC had a hugely successful rebate that encouraged thousands of people to buy an e-bike. And although it’s a tiny fraction of the highway budget, they’ve helped build bike lanes with $150 million for infrastructure improvements in the past 2 years.
The Conservatives are climate skeptics, so it’s not surprising that their plan for climate change is “Make it Worse!” They want more people to throw away plastic, drive gasoline vehicles, and burn natural gas. Not only would they slow down the transition away from fossil fuels, they would actively work to encourage people to burn more of it, going so far as to promise new natural gas power plants will get built.
Health Care
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/37937566175
It’s no secret the pandemic hit our healthcare system hard. Our nurses, doctors, and paramedics have been under a lot of pressure. The NDP made recent improvements to family care in BC, but there is still a long way to go. I’ve lived most of my life in Vancouver without a family doctor because I couldn’t find one, but a year ago we finally found a primary physician for our whole family. And she’s awesome. That’s because of changes the NDP made to allow nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers and billing changes that have brought more family doctors in. There is more work to do, but BC has seen a 20% increase in family doctors and 300,000 more people with a primary care provider – that is huge progress.
The NDP have a lot of ideas on how to keep making improvements, but the one I want to highlight is “Axe the Fax.” Having worked on healthcare software for a few years, I know how much of a problem unreliable faxed referrals between doctors offices are. This is the kind of unsexy but important change that our healthcare system needs. Any party can promise to make things better, but it’s the little changes like this that actually do it.
The most likely outcome under a Conservative government is funding cuts (to fund the Rustad Rebate) and a war against doctors and nurses (driven by people who think vaccines cause VAIDS). When that inevitably leads to bad patient outcomes, they’ll use it as an excuse to increase privatization for those wealthy enough to afford it. Go ahead and read their healthcare ideas. They are promising shorter waits, not by making things better here, but by sending people to Alberta for treatment. To be clear, Alberta has its own healthcare problems and can’t handle a bunch of out-of-province patients.
Who You Should Vote For
This is the easiest recommendation I’ve ever given. The BC NDP have been doing a great job and they deserve to be reelected.
BC United gave up before the election started, which is a shame because they were the only other party with a governing track record. If you were a former supporter, I would encourage you to vote for the NDP this election and give the Conservatives some time to develop sensible policies and find sane candidates.
The BC Conservatives are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who would turn the province into a dumpster fire if elected. I’m truly worried about where we are headed if they win.
The BC Greens have steadily faded away and can only hope to split the vote in a handful of ridings to the Conservative benefit. If you are a Green supporter, I’d urge you to look at the NDP candidate in your riding and decide if they’ll be better for the environment than the Conservative.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041660396/
There was an all-candidates forum held at our school for all the nearby ridings. There were 5 NDP candidates, 2 Greens, and a Communist who showed up to talk to voters. Not a single Conservative candidate made an appearance. I live in an NDP stronghold, but even in areas where the Conservatives have a good chance of winning, like Langley, they are skipping debates. I guess it’s easier to lie to voters and keep your crazy beliefs hidden when you can avoid talking in public.
So the decision for me is extra obvious, I’ll be voting for my NDP candidate, Joan Phillip. I got to talk to her at the candidate forum and liked what I heard – she spoke compassionately about making positive changes for people in BC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041983509
More broadly, I really appreciate how quietly competent the current NDP government is. They do the hard work of governing day in and out. No tantrums blaming other levels of government. No scapegoating of immigrants or minorities.
For everyone who made it this far, I’d like you to do as many of these as possible.
- Make a voting plan. Figure out when and where you’re going to vote and put a reminder in your calendar. Advance voting starts on October 10.
- Talk to 3 friends and convince them to vote.
- Donate to a political party or volunteer your time.
We’ll find out in 2 weeks if we reelect a competent government or let chaos reign. The polls are forecasting a frighteningly close race, so there is a good chance your vote will matter.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/10/06/bc-election-2024-who-should-i-vote-for/
#bc #BCConservative #bcElection #BCGreen #BCLiberals #bcNdp #BCUnited #bcpoli #conservative #election #ndp
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https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/52985252739
Get ready British Columbia, the provincial election is on October 19, and it’s going to be a wild one.
If you only want to know who to vote for, you can skip to the end.
How We Got Here
British Columbia’s last election was in 2020, when the BC NDP won a strong majority government with 57 seats. The once mighty BC Liberals were reduced to 28 seats, and the Greens managed to hang on to 2. The BC Conservatives weren’t a factor, getting only 1.9% of the vote.
In 2022 there were a bunch of changes that set things in motion for the crazy election we’re having now.
- The BC Liberals picked Kevin Falcon as their new leader.
- John Rustad got kicked out of the BC Liberals for denying climate change.
- The NDP choose David Eby as their leader and our new Premier.
- Kevin Falcon rebranded the Liberals to BC United to reflect their centre-right ideology.
- John Rustad joined the BC Conservative Party and became their leader and only MLA.
At this point, we were headed for a classic Eby (NDP) vs Falcon (United formerly Liberal) showdown. But in an epic collapse (read more about it here), Kevin Falcon destroyed his own party just before the election started. A few weeks ago, he suspended the BC United campaign, leaving his candidates stranded without a party (apparently the leader has the sole power to sign nomination papers and when he refused the party wasn’t able to field any candidates).
The Parties
Now the election is a fight between the BC NDP (led by David Eby) and the BC Conservatives (led by John Rustad), and the outcome is a coin toss (if the polls can be trusted).
BC NDP – In power since 2017, the NDP are traditionally the party of workers with a strong focus on health care and education. They’re probably best known for their moves to make BC more affordable – getting rid of MSP premiums, lowering ICBC car insurance rates, and bringing in $10/day daycare.
Since David Eby took over 2 years ago, there has been a huge focus on housing, which I’ll get into more below.
BC United (Formerly BC Liberal) – Not officially on the ballot after Kevin Falcon unilaterally withdrew them from the election, but there are 17 independents running who were formerly party candidates, including notable names like Mike Bernier (Peace River South) and Coarlee Oakes (North Cariboo) who are former cabinet ministers first elected in 2013.
The party was known as the “free-enterprise coalition” and focused on lower taxes and big economic development projects (like LNG plants and the Site C dam). They balanced that with moderate social policies, including a high minimum wage, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education in schools, and Canada’s first carbon tax.
Conservative Party of BC – They are the real wildcard in this election. They’ve managed to ride the popularity of the federal Conservative Party and the confusion around who BC United is to become the main opposition, even though they’ve never elected a single MLA in BC in my lifetime (the last time they won a seat was 1975!).
The party is weird mix of rejects from the BC Liberals and weirdos too extreme to ever have been welcome in the BC Liberals. A lot of their candidates were chosen while they were still on the fringes of politics, so it’s not too surprising (although still alarming) to see conspiracy theorists of all sorts. Conservative candidates share beliefs such as chemtrail mind control, Bill Gates implanting microchips in vaccines, the government controlling the weather, climate change is a hoax, 5G is a genocidal weapon, LGBTQ+ are brainwashing youth, and great replacement theory. One BC Conservative candidate is even convinced that the COVID vaccine gives people VAIDS (an invented AIDS-like disease).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqI5kZjsiU
And it’s not just a handful of wacky candidates, it’s most of them including the leader John Rustad himself, who was kicked out of BC Liberal party for denying climate change was real. He’s said all kinds of crazy things over the past few years, including a conspiracy about forcing people to eat bugs and talking about holding Nuremberg 2.0 trials to jail healthcare officials who administered vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic (he tried to walk that back – see below). This is the kind of thing that is popular on twitter and parts of the MAGA movement in the USA. It’s sad to see it become mainstream in BC.
BC Green Party – I don’t expect the Green Party to win a single seat this election. Their leader, Sonia Furstenau, made the mind-boggling decision to move to a Victoria riding held by an NDP cabinet minister. Their only other MLA, Adam Olsen, isn’t running for re-election.
If the PR referendum had passed, they might be consistent junior partner in government. Sadly it failed, and in our first-past-the-post voting system a vote for the Greens just helps the Conservatives. Kevin Falcon blew up his party to prevent vote splitting on the right, but it still exists on the left.
The Issues
But enough about the parties. What about the issues? My biggest concerns at the provincial level are housing, climate change, and health care.
I started writing an analysis comparing the platforms of each party but realized I was wasting my time. The Conservative platform is very thin and there are so many inconsistencies between what they have written down publicly and what their candidates have said. Rustad, and the other former BC Liberals who defected, are now running against the policies they brought in when they were last in power – like SOGI and the carbon tax. It’s hard to trust them.
That said, if you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison, the good journalists at CBC have put one together.
Housing
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/6091453605
I don’t think many people would dispute that housing costs too much in BC. Affordability was bad when I moved here in 2006 and it’s only gotten worse since then. There have been some attempts to make things better, but the real hard changes we need have been blocked by NIMBYs who don’t want change and homeowners who are afraid their investment might lose value.
Since Eby became leader of the NDP, the government has taken some of the most impactful actions to tackle the housing crisis that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world (and I like to nerd out on housing policy). For the first time in my lifetime, I’m optimistic that my daughter will be able to own a home in BC when she grows up (if the changes aren’t undone by a new government).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJFn20hzccI
The NDP has gone after toxic demand (limiting speculators, foreign buyers, and AirBnB) and made it easier to build new housing (with increased density near transit stations and zoning changes province-wide that legalize missing middle densities). They’ve also tackled the nerdy parts of housing policy with simpler permitting, building code changes that allow single staircase buildings, and new prefab housing options. Most of these changes will take 5-10 years to really make an impact (construction takes time), but some have already started working – the AirBnB ban has dropped rents by $110/month on average. That’s huge!
https://youtu.be/iRdwXQb7CfM?si=-36cFBkuSFXzHOzU
The Conservatives would undo a lot of the changes. The zoning changes that allow 3-4 story, missing-middle buildings across most of the province, would be the first to go. Transit-oriented development, renter protections, and the AirBnB bad are also likely to get scrapped.
Worse still, the Conservative’s signature promise – The Rustad Rebate – gives every homeowner a tax rebate if they have mortgage payments. That is taking $3.5 billion dollars in tax revenue and lighting it on fire to fuel the housing market. It benefits the wealthiest the most and will only drive housing prices higher. It’s insane.
Climate Change and Transportation
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/53785702253
The NDP have a mixed record on the environment, climate change, and transportation. They initially opposed the carbon tax when it was introduced in 2008 and have refused to defend it as pressure has mounted federally. One of the first things they did when elected was to remove tolls on Metro Vancouver bridges – that saved commuters thousands of dollars, but it encouraged more people to drive.
On the positive side, BC has the most electric vehicles (EVs) in Canada, thanks to government subsidies and one of the best charging networks in North America. Our clean energy advantage is now powering a clean transportation system.
The NDP has been good for cyclists too. They modernized the Motor Vehicle Act to include minimum passing distances. Last year, BC had a hugely successful rebate that encouraged thousands of people to buy an e-bike. And although it’s a tiny fraction of the highway budget, they’ve helped build bike lanes with $150 million for infrastructure improvements in the past 2 years.
The Conservatives are climate skeptics, so it’s not surprising that their plan for climate change is “Make it Worse!” They want more people to throw away plastic, drive gasoline vehicles, and burn natural gas. Not only would they slow down the transition away from fossil fuels, they would actively work to encourage people to burn more of it, going so far as to promise new natural gas power plants will get built.
Health Care
https://flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/37937566175
It’s no secret the pandemic hit our healthcare system hard. Our nurses, doctors, and paramedics have been under a lot of pressure. The NDP made recent improvements to family care in BC, but there is still a long way to go. I’ve lived most of my life in Vancouver without a family doctor because I couldn’t find one, but a year ago we finally found a primary physician for our whole family. And she’s awesome. That’s because of changes the NDP made to allow nurse practitioners to act as primary care providers and billing changes that have brought more family doctors in. There is more work to do, but BC has seen a 20% increase in family doctors and 300,000 more people with a primary care provider – that is huge progress.
The NDP have a lot of ideas on how to keep making improvements, but the one I want to highlight is “Axe the Fax.” Having worked on healthcare software for a few years, I know how much of a problem unreliable faxed referrals between doctors offices are. This is the kind of unsexy but important change that our healthcare system needs. Any party can promise to make things better, but it’s the little changes like this that actually do it.
The most likely outcome under a Conservative government is funding cuts (to fund the Rustad Rebate) and a war against doctors and nurses (driven by people who think vaccines cause VAIDS). When that inevitably leads to bad patient outcomes, they’ll use it as an excuse to increase privatization for those wealthy enough to afford it. Go ahead and read their healthcare ideas. They are promising shorter waits, not by making things better here, but by sending people to Alberta for treatment. To be clear, Alberta has its own healthcare problems and can’t handle a bunch of out-of-province patients.
Who You Should Vote For
This is the easiest recommendation I’ve ever given. The BC NDP have been doing a great job and they deserve to be reelected.
BC United gave up before the election started, which is a shame because they were the only other party with a governing track record. If you were a former supporter, I would encourage you to vote for the NDP this election and give the Conservatives some time to develop sensible policies and find sane candidates.
The BC Conservatives are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who would turn the province into a dumpster fire if elected. I’m truly worried about where we are headed if they win.
The BC Greens have steadily faded away and can only hope to split the vote in a handful of ridings to the Conservative benefit. If you are a Green supporter, I’d urge you to look at the NDP candidate in your riding and decide if they’ll be better for the environment than the Conservative.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041660396/
There was an all-candidates forum held at our school for all the nearby ridings. There were 5 NDP candidates, 2 Greens, and a Communist who showed up to talk to voters. Not a single Conservative candidate made an appearance. I live in an NDP stronghold, but even in areas where the Conservatives have a good chance of winning, like Langley, they are skipping debates. I guess it’s easier to lie to voters and keep your crazy beliefs hidden when you can avoid talking in public.
So the decision for me is extra obvious, I’ll be voting for my NDP candidate, Joan Phillip. I got to talk to her at the candidate forum and liked what I heard – she spoke compassionately about making positive changes for people in BC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/canadianveggie/54041983509
More broadly, I really appreciate how quietly competent the current NDP government is. They do the hard work of governing day in and out. No tantrums blaming other levels of government. No scapegoating of immigrants or minorities.
For everyone who made it this far, I’d like you to do as many of these as possible.
- Make a voting plan. Figure out when and where you’re going to vote and put a reminder in your calendar. Advance voting starts on October 10.
- Talk to 3 friends and convince them to vote.
- Donate to a political party or volunteer your time.
We’ll find out in 2 weeks if we reelect a competent government or let chaos reign. The polls are forecasting a frighteningly close race, so there is a good chance your vote will matter.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/10/06/bc-election-2024-who-should-i-vote-for/
#bc #BCConservative #bcElection #BCGreen #BCLiberals #bcNdp #BCUnited #bcpoli #conservative #election #ndp
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Burnt Ends with Fable Pulled Shitake Mushrooms https://www.diningandcooking.com/2656172/burnt-ends-with-fable-pulled-shitake-mushrooms/ #Vegan #VeganRecipes
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BURNT LODGE (Nova Zelanda) presenta nou Split: "Anchors Plunged Off Helluland" #BurntLodge #MelodicBlackMetal #Abril2026 #NovaZelanda #NouSplit #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
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BURNT LODGE (Nova Zelanda) presenta nou Split: "Anchors Plunged Off Helluland" #BurntLodge #MelodicBlackMetal #Abril2026 #NovaZelanda #NouSplit #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
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Burnt rice? Under-cooked meals? Not anymore 😌🍚
The Sanford SF1160RC Automatic Rice Cooker gives you fluffy, perfectly cooked rice every single time no guesswork needed.Set it & Enjoy it !
#buyorhire #sanfordappliances #ricecookerlife #homeupgrade #cookeasy #kitchenhacks
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Burnt highlights and bricks
There’s a common view that blowing out or burning highlights is a bad practice. There are times when a lack of detail in areas of a photo due to burnt highlights is problematic if the details in those areas are integral to the feel and story the photo communicates. There are also times when it doesn’t matter at all. For example, is it really vital to be able to see the filament in a light bulb? And forget about any detail in a bright light source like the sun – that’s not going to happen without special expensive filters.
Sunset glow on wood chairs and bricks – Finepix S200 EXRConsider the above photo. To reveal some of the detail on the leftmost chair, I bumped up the exposure a touch and allowed more light to hit the sensor. Doing this also burnt the highlights on the edge of some of the bricks. The tradeoff was worth it because it was more important to reveal detail on the chair than to preserve the texture on those small sections of the bricks. The other benefit is that the slightly overexposed highlights also communicate the glow of the sun at the time.
#digitalCamera #photoEditing #Photography -
Burnt highlights and bricks
There’s a common view that blowing out or burning highlights is a bad practice. There are times when a lack of detail in areas of a photo due to burnt highlights is problematic if the details in those areas are integral to the feel and story the photo communicates. There are also times when it doesn’t matter at all. For example, is it really vital to be able to see the filament in a light bulb? And forget about any detail in a bright light source like the sun – that’s not going to happen without special expensive filters.
Sunset glow on wood chairs and bricks – Finepix S200 EXRConsider the above photo. To reveal some of the detail on the leftmost chair, I bumped up the exposure a touch and allowed more light to hit the sensor. Doing this also burnt the highlights on the edge of some of the bricks. The tradeoff was worth it because it was more important to reveal detail on the chair than to preserve the texture on those small sections of the bricks. The other benefit is that the slightly overexposed highlights also communicate the glow of the sun at the time.
#digitalCamera #photoEditing #Photography