So, as far as I can see, the meme “summoning my pizza slaves with a bourgeois app” has achieved legendary status on Hexbear, mostly as a form of satire, to make fun of it. That’s the full version I could find:
“I do self-criticism constantly because I’m trapped in a Maoist cult where comrades (white terrorists) criticize me mercilessly for having a fascist credit card (VISA Silver Signature Rewards). They won’t let me order vegan pizza anymore because the phone is fascist and “summoning my pizza slaves with a bourgeois app” is “bad vibes”
Now, I find myself in a country where these delivery apps have arrived relatively “recently”, sparking a vast social and political uprising. Workers are indeed treated extremely poorly, with NO job security, and they operate in a legal grey area (like, they are de facto employees, but they are treated as auto-entrepreneurs… neoliberal dream to destroy workers’ rights).
Adding to this, the working conditions can be quite perilous. In my city, traffic is notoriously chaotic, and cycling is dangerous. But not potentially dangerous, bodies-on-the-street-every-month dangerous. While we do have a well-established public transportation system, the city’s bike infrastructure is still quite underdeveloped, and cars dominate the roadways.
I’m aware that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and yadda yadda. However, I find this particular form of consumption especially horrible. This is a highly walkable city with a wide range of food options readily available, making it unnecessary to rely on food delivery apps. And it really does feels like “summoning my pizza slaves with a bourgeois app". Mostly racialized workers, working dangerously in grey areas of law.
Have you normalized food delivery in your lifestyle? How do you deal with it? How do you navigate these ethical concerns?
Food delivery seems like a lose-lose-lose situation
Its terrible for workers, expensive for consumers, and doesnt even make restaurants money
my shoes were probably made by prison labor, but i need shoes and i can’t afford fancier ones.
i don’t need instant treat delivery, nor can i afford it, but if i could, i still wouldn’t use it.
It’s important not to fall into lifestylism at the expense of more radical action. Consumerism or consumptive ethics is the false consciousness that dominates western society, tricking us into filtering all our problems through our perspectives as individual consumers, tricking us into thinking we can make a difference by mildly altering our individual consumption. Additionally, if that lifestylism makes us more insular or less approachable, it weakens our ability to directly speak to the masses.
That’s not to say all consumption is fine, that we should stop caring about things. It’s that we have to recognize where this effect isn’t serving us, to understand if and when there might be tensions at play between different values and resources and time.
It’s honestly one of the reasons I like the meme: “bad vibes” is the best way I can describe delivery, as well as a lot of types of consumption. But like, I’m not gonna make an issue of it when the coworkers I’m trying to organize try to get food delivered. It’s not a cardinal sin and doing so would undermine something much more important.
For context, I’ve worked as a delivery driver for doorfash and uber, so I know the experience, at least for the places I’ve lived. It’s not great work, deceptively underpaid and manipulative. The main reason I don’t personally order delivery is because it’s so fuckin expensive for such shit food. But on the rare occasions I do it’s only if I can tip enough to make it a fair wage.
If you’re concerned about the working conditions, the best course of action would be to talk to drivers and help them organize. It makes very little difference in my day to day life as a driver whether any given person decides ordering delivery is unethical.
Direct action gets the goods, as they say.
GOOD post
The comrades (white terrorists) are right. I’ve never used any of these apps, but then again I mainly cook for myself anyway. Last year, the biggest food delivery company here was sold to DoorDash and I got to read so much
about what a great success the company was while mostly ignoring the conditions of the workers, sorry, entrepreneurs.deleted by creator
in the situation you describe, i would not order pizza even if i could afford it, that crosses the line from “no ethical consumption” into “fuck the workers! i want my treats!!” territory
Pizza places, at least in the US, have delivered for a long time, to the point where even 20 years ago it would be weird if they didn’t have employees doing deliveries. It long predates services like Uber Eats and Door dash, although those may have taken over delivery or inserted themselves as middlemen in the ordering process.
That said, from what I’ve heard pizza delivery is a bad job that pays pretty much nothing other than tips, so maybe it’s always been bad.
Pizza delivery was honestly a great job if you had a shitty old Toyota you could work on yourself, was reliable and got good gas mileage.
Me and the guy who drove the 80s CR-X were crushing it. Literal shoeboxes full of cash, untaxed and untracable. Sushi comped. Whatever the fuck we wanted to do on our days off. The people with car payments on a new Chevy that needed a new transmission at 60,000 miles, or the people who god forbid drove actual TRUCKS all over the city to deliver a pizza… not so good. They were miserable and for good reason. The tires alone - which you will be going through - cost EASILY 4x as much on any newer car than some old hatchback on 14s. If you don’t change your own oil, well first of all this job probably isn’t for you, but it’ll cost you easily an extra $30-40 a month for the increased oil capacity of a larger engine.
I reckon I spent an easy $10 a day on gas, making 40mpg. You double or triple that, you’re talking up to $900 a month on gas… It gets out of hand super quickly. High MPG is probably your #1 key to success or failure in driving for a living.
I think 90% of the Lyft/Uber trap is that you basically have to have a $10,000+ car (probably $15,000+ these days) to even get in on it. Destroying THAT car is a lot different from some old shitbox that’s maybe worth $1,500, and if it comes down to it you can get a new engine or a transmission for that much anyway.
If my fat ass can get around with no car, no bike, a broken foot, and completely refrain from using these apps… Unless you are completely bedridden, I’m sure you can reduce your use of them by at least 90% too.
Or order pizza or Chinese from a restaurant like a normal person.
It’s like people saying “I literally can’t live my life without Amazon.” Yes the fuck you can. The first time I’ve used Amazon in three years was to get the medical brace for my leg because it was the only place that could get it to me overnight, and I live in a major city. I -actually- didn’t have any other options, and it was an -actual- emergency.
Harden the fuck up a little bit. There’s no ethical consumption… but do you have to pick the worst form, every time?
Harden the fuck up a little bit.
dork rhetoric
