Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
Vegan products are the wild west of ‘wackaging’ (Amelia Tait / Financial Times)
I’m in the supermarket and a line of stand-up comedians are calling me to attention in the alternative milk aisle. “Drink to avoid Fear Of Missing Oat,” jibes one carton. Another provocatively demands that I “slurp, gulp, guzzle”. A few rows over, the meatless meats fancy a chat. “Hello,” says a packet of not-bacon. “Just FYI, you might not tell the difference between THIS product and bacon. Pretttttay cool.” Some plant-based lardons are keen to talk about “our buddy Mr Piggy”. A packet of smoked tempeh boasts “flavour as smouldering as a secret agent walking seductively out of the sea”.
“They need us. We don’t need them:” The fall of Twitter is making the trolls and grifters desperate (Amanda Marcotte / Salon)
One can see the sheen of desperation in the world of self-identified conservatives who make a living by “triggering” the liberals. The usual dose of outrage bait isn’t working as well any longer, so the right-wingers are escalating the provocations. Tucker Carlson, for example, gave a glow-up interview with manosphere “influencer” Andrew Tate, who is being held in Romania on charges of sex trafficking and rape. Daily Wire anti-trans provocateur Matt Walsh is selling plushies of himself clad only in a diaper, which he encourages people to give to children. Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, on the other hand, made a nearly hour-long video tantrum about “Barbie,” complete with setting the dolls on fire. The clawing need to get attention from progressives seems to be driving these engagement farmers a little nuts, as they up the weird-and-evil ante, hoping to get those precious clicks and plays.
Is making people happy for a living the best job in the world? (Billy Connolly / BBC Maestro)
@bbcmaestro Is making people happy for a living the best job in the world? Sir #BillyConnolly says it is 🙌 #StandUpComedy #BBCMaestro #Comedy #comedytiktok ♬ original sound – BBC Maestro
If you have any suggestions for future words to feature, contact us on our socials or at editor@globalcomment.com
Image: Magda Ehlers