{"id":100102,"date":"2026-01-04T03:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=100102"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:36:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T02:36:04","slug":"you-will-eat-the-bugs-peasant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/01\/04\/you-will-eat-the-bugs-peasant\/","title":{"rendered":"“You will<\/em> eat the bugs, peasant!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the social media site formerly known as Twitter<\/em>, ESR<\/a> reacts to yet another “bugs are yummy, peons, you are going to eat them” post:<\/p>\n

Contemplating this picture, I had a realization about the people who want you to eat bugs. <\/p>\n

The fact that the bugs are disgusting to you is the whole point. Enlisting you as the principal enforcer of your oppression is the program. Fucking with your head is the actual goal, not just a tactic. <\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter whether or not Western prejudice against eating insects is irrational. In an alternate world where we routinely eat insects, the people who want you to eat the bugs would find some other kind of disgusting garbage and play to make you eat it. <\/p>\n

Because this isn’t sustainability or any of that bullshit. The degradation is the point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, even the powers-that-be can’t magically create economic conditions in which insect factories<\/a> earn profits:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the renewable frenzy of the early 2020s \u0178nsect<\/a> raised \u20ac600 million<\/a> to “Reinvent the food chain” and pioneer alternative foods that “respect the planet’s boundaries”. Some $200 million of their funding came from hapless taxpayers somewhere. But in record time, seemingly before it began, it has already gone. Bankrupted. And not because people don’t want to eat mealworms (which they don’t) but because there wasn’t much market in making animal feed either. It turns out that farm owners didn’t want to spend 2 to 10 times as much<\/a> on “sustainable” cattle fodder. So the company shifted focus to high end pet food, where besotted owners have money to spare, but that crashed too.<\/p>\n

h\/t Tom Nelson<\/a><\/p>\n