Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War by Brian Gallagher
Writing for The New York Times, Brian Gallagher explores the ways that fast food has prospered in recent years. Gallagher uses the release of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me as a starting point, working from the theory that the documentary’s attention-getting success (as well as other buzzy attacks on unhealthy, mass-produced food, such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation) once seemed to portend a dire future for McDonald’s and its kindred eating establishments. Instead, their arguably more dominant than ever in the culture, which is a fascinating, slightly perplexing turnaround. Even he lays out how it happened, Gallagher seems a little stunned by it, too.
Why a GOP governor’s pardon of a far-right murderer is so chilling by Eric Levitz
To anyone who’s been paying attention, it’s been obvious for years that the Republicans’ fiery embrace of “law and order” is really a determination to cruelly punish anyone they don’t personally like. Their unlikely standard bearer has simply made it more obvious given his brazen disregard for general ethics. Eric Levitz succinctly explains it: “the criminality of any given action is determined by its compatibility with his interests, not the law.” That extends to almost everyone else in his party these days, with elected officials in Florida and Texas duking it out to see who can be the most sociopathic in their cruelty. The Lone Star State retakes the lead this week with the governor’s pardon of a man who murdered a Black Lives Matter activist. Let’s quote Levitz again: “in Texas, you can commit murder without suffering the legal consequences of that crime, so long as your victim’s politics are loathed by the right and your case is championed by conservative media.” This article is published by Vox.
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It is amazing how some (not all, mind you) fast food has, well maybe not become cool, but acceptable again. An example: I went to an artsy presentation the other night and the artist talked about how they love getting a McDonalds cheeseburger and Diet Coke. At an artsy presentation! In Portland! Ten years ago no one I knew would admit going to McDonalds, and if they still liked it, they would attempt to obfuscate it. (“I go there because they have free wifi” is the fast food equivalent of “I read it for the articles.”) I’m guessing since everything’s cyclic, in ten or twenty years McDonalds will become embarrassing again.
As someone who hasn’t eaten meat in over a quarter century, the only fast food place I grudgingly like and will regularly eat at is Taco Bell. It’s probably because it reminds me of an era of my life when it was one of the few reliable options. Now that I live in a place with plentiful and decent (though not by California standards) Mexican, I don’t need Taco Bell as much as I used to, but it still fulfills a role of comfort food.
Because I was a kid in the nineteen-seventies, when McDonald’s perfected their evil genius for marketing to kids, I remain helplessly susceptible to the siren call of those arches. I mostly avoid the temptation, but I know it’s there.
I’m also sympathetic to your Taco Bell situation. I was a vegetarian for a stretch in the nineties that also corresponded to me juggling four different jobs. When I discovered that Taco Bell allowed you to substitute beans for meat on any menu item, it became my go-to when the “fast” part of fast food was especially critical as I hustled between gigs.
Oh, I was a kid in the eighties and had my share of Happy Meals, so I know their siren call. And my first full-time gig in the mid-nineties was across the parking lot from a McDonalds, so I ate there more than I should have. But since their menu is limited if you don’t eat meat, I haven’t been there in ages. I know that McDonalds has made a few half-hearted stabs at offering veggie burgers over the years, usually limited to a test market or two. At least Burger King, a chain that’s gone through more downs than ups over the years, now offers an Impossible Burger.
And now I hear that Morgan Spurlock just passed away, so the Fast Food Forever piece’s timing is prescient.
I did a double-take when I saw the news, specifically because of the story I linked to here. The timing for a story about how the culture has completely moved on from the lessons of his signature film is almost eerie.