Welcome, And Whatnot

Frank | Level 29 | Spell-Sword A very excited nihilist

[crown-prince-dumbass]

The sexiest thing about HEMA is that you can forget someone’s face and name, but then you fence them and you suddenly are like “I know this person” and you realized you fenced each other 2.5 years ago

[pangur-and-grim]

it is weird that celiac stuff has become part of the 'culture war'. because it's literally just a medical thing.... I get super anemic unless I cut a certain protein out of my diet, because it bulldozes the villi in my intestines. but if I post about it, right-wingers send me gore images. I guess you can't expect shitty people to be logical, but I've even heard lefty people make fun of gluten stuff, and it's like why are you mad about this??? why are you pissed off that I'm eating bread that doesn't taste as good so that I can have blood in my body? it's so morally neutral.

[ms-demeanor]

I'm sorry, I know you weren't actually looking for an explanation but I always have a rant about this locked and loaded.

As far as I can tell the reasons that this happens are:

The interpretation of disability accommodation as wokeness - a lot of the same people who are shitty about food limitations are also shitty about sign language interpreters and ramp requirements (also building regulations relating to the latter) because they view any accommodation as capitulation to a group they think should "suck it up and deal with it" (quietly exist without named or obvious accommodations). The conversations around peanut-free or milk-free classrooms to accommodate children with allergies are similarly unhinged and possibly more horrifying.

Conflating specialty diets as a result of proximity in the popular consciousness - you're a lot more likely to see something described as "vegan + gluten free" or to see vegan/vegetarian/g-free options grouped on menus than you are to see keto/vegan/gfree options so the "lefty" animal-free diets get grouped with gluten-free (it's also interesting that there are right-wing diets, and I wonder how many of these people remember when you used to be able to find "atkins-friendly" symbols on casual dining restaurant menus)

Gluten free diets became a fad fifteen years ago; tons of people read "Wheat Belly" and stopped eating wheat as a weight loss hack and when they went back to eating wheat because it's actually pretty difficult to get around a major staple grain they didn't experience any negative consequences; people saw this and basically think that it's a trend, that people are faking medically necessary diets as part of a fad. When questioned about this they always go "but, I mean, it's okay if you REALLY need to skip the wheat because you have a condition but most people are doing it because it's popular" when g-free diets haven't been a major trend for quite a while now. TO BE QUITE FAIR, I think that things like "Gluten Aware" cookies and beer and such, which contain a little gluten but not NO gluten contribute to this perception (these have annoyed me forever for two reasons: 1. They make people without celiac think that a little gluten is fine for people with celiac, which it is not; 2. fucking commit, companies. *I* want the cookies and beer and it's deeply annoying that these business will go to the lengths to create products with minimal gluten but won't actually make g-free foods - this is often because of the risk of cross contamination, they won't claim to make g-free things because they won't work with a dedicated g-free facility)

Anyway, in conclusion: it sucks, I'm sorry.

The fun flipside of this is that I've seen people who are more right wing become aggressively pro regulation and pro accommodation when they or their family members have to suddenly take on the individual burden of making up for a society that doesn't include them by default.

[ms-demeanor]

US specific:

Is your ham made with vinegar? Does your ham have the generic word "spices" on the ingredient list? Does your ham include "smoke flavoring"? Does your ham include caramel coloring?

Because malt vinegar has gluten in it. "Spices" may include wheat products in a mix. Smoke flavoring may be made with barley flour. Caramel coloring may be made with wheat or barley syrup.

If the label says "gluten free" that means that the "spices," caramel coloring, vinegar, and smoke flavor are certified to contain 20ppm or less of gluten.

If the ham is cured in any way, it may include gluten. If the ham was marinated, it probably includes gluten. If the ham was prepared in a facility that processes wheat in any way, it might be cross contaminated with gluten.

There's a company out there called "Gluten Free Water" that makes water in plastic bottles, poking fun at the idea that too many things have a gluten free label. I fucking hate that company. Because that company is functionally saying "lol, people are so sensitive and over the top about this, let's be a little silly and laugh about how crazy people can be with their 'gluten free' nonsense."

Did you know that there are sustainable food containers and straws that contain wheat? And that you don't have to label them? There are definitely people with celiac who have been sickened by biodegradable plastic straws in their "obviously water is gluten free there's no risk here" water.

"It's over-labeled so it looks trendy" just means you don't know how foods are made or what foods contain gluten. Gluten is ridiculously common in foods in general, and also in packaged meats.

Your ham has to say gluten free because it distinguishes it from the hams that do contain gluten, which is a fucking lot of them. And you're annoyed that your ham has to say gluten free and I'm annoyed that I'm standing in the grocery store calling a ham company to figure out where they source their caramel coloring so I can figure out if the damned ham is safe to eat.

"lol, oats don't have wheat in them, are people so stupid that they have to be told what is and isn't wheat? why does this oatmeal have a gluten free label?" Cross contamination; gluten free oats are not grown near wheat and are not processed in facilities that process wheat.

"lol, rice doesn't have wheat in it, why is this rice labeled gluten free, all rice is gluten free" Cross contamination; the rice isn't processed on equipment that processes wheat.

"lol why does this turkey breast say gluten free, it's just fucking turkey" read the ingredients on your "just" turkey, lots of packaged meat is packed in broth, some of which contains modified food starch, which may contain wheat.

"lol why are these strawberries labeled gluten free? they're fucking strawberries" WAX, BUDDY. SOME FRUITS ARE COATED IN PRESERVATIVE WAX FILMS BY THE MANUFACTURER AND SOME OF THOSE FUCKING FILMS CONTAIN GLUTEN.

I think that part of the reason that people are so irritated by g-free labels is because it exposes them to just how vast and alienating their food systems are.

"Ham should just be meat from a pig, maybe with sugar and salt; what on earth is happening that there might be wheat in that process? Nothing in that process should involve wheat." And then you might have to think about it for a second, might have to wonder what "sugar" and "salt" mean when someone is producing a million hams to be delivered thousands of miles away. It's not just sugar and salt; it's preservatives and nitrates and batch cooking and getting corn syrup instead of sugar and getting smoke flavoring instead of smoking the ham and turning your "whole food" into all the ingredients that make up the ingredients that make up the ingredients.

A "gluten free" label says "you can eat this" to somebody with celiac disease, who has already pounded their skull against the shittiness of the medical system and the food system.

But to someone who doesn't have to worry that their food is going to disable them, a "gluten free" sticker on ham takes a known quantity and turns their sandwich into a hyperobject that contains animal agriculture and industrial additive production and shipping pollution and the ongoing assault on regulation.

If it doesn't have the label, you can just eat your lunch. If it does have the label, you are haunted by the specter of RFK junior imploding the FDA.

Turns out that everyone in the US with celiac is already constantly haunted by the possible implosion of the FDA because food regulation is an up-close and personal part of our daily lives that most people would rather not think about.

[lastoneout]

Gluten free food is also for people like me who have wheat allergies and that's why it's so frustrating that so many gluten free options will use oat flour or now even de-glutenized wheat flour and just not say they do because well actually, it's only for people with celiac, so surely it's fine to put the wheat or oats or rye or barley back in, just so long as you make sure to remove the gluten!

Gluten free chips ahoy and oreos? Oat flour. Canyon Bakehouse, the only gluten free bread brand that actually resembles bread? Oat flour. And then if I do find truly wheat free food it's also vegan or low carb/salt/fat/calories/ect. and it's genuinely not even worth eating. I'm already on the verge of starvation constantly because even gluten free food isn't safe for me to eat half the time, them removing all the nutrients just means that people like me get to eat health food garbage, if we can eat at all. Even gluten free food isn't always safe, and so if you thought people with celiac were limited in their options people with wheat allergies are just straight up fucked.

It's REALLY fucking important for food makers to actually label what the fuck they put in their food because sometimes people have weird allergies that they need accommodated, and it really sucks to be treated like I'm taking part in a fad diet when I'm just trying to EAT at all and half the time the food labeled as being for me isn't even safe for me to eat.

[ms-demeanor]

Various brands of salt use anti-caking agents that may contain gluten or may be a cross contamination risk.

[ms-demeanor]

Worth noting that I'm also allergic to corn and sesame and have a non-celiac wheat allergy so I'm playing this game on expert difficulty - there are some folks in the notes who are talking about being lifelong g-free and not knowing some of this stuff and the reason I know all of this stuff is because wheat is in a ton of stuff but corn is in *everything* and if something is corn and wheat free there's a good chance it's got sesame in it.

[purpleisdebeste]

I’m sorry Orpheus i was too harsh on you…

[purpleisdebeste]

i was in the physics lab today and we were working with lasers, so the Lab Freaks (legal name) were being very careful to stress that we Do Not Turn Around or Look Behind Us because we’ll get extremely blinded by the power of high strength lasers

and i’m not gonna lie it was actually extremely hard to resist turning around. i misjudged orpheus it turns out this isnt extremely easy actually

[purpleisdebeste]

okay i’ll be honest i 100% looked back at the lasers. actually multiple separate lasers multiple different times. they were pretty

and i didnt get blinded. so clearly lab safety isnt real and you should always risk it cus taking risks is awesome #gambling

but uh. my ass is NOT making it out of the underworld 🔥🔥🔥

[overnightshipping]

[nat-20s]

As an adult I think me and all my friends should all have matching schedules and work like 20 hours a week and also everyone lives within 15 minutes of each other why is that so much to ask

[notallmensheviks]

legendary scamming right here

[eggnogtoast]

trying to bed a knight like: *unbuttons your jupon* *unbuckles your cuirass* *unbuckles your gorget* *takes off your hauberk* *stops to catch my breath* *unbuttons your gambeson* *takes off your shirt*

[fairycosmos]

you have GOT to get over god abandoning you when you were 2 like its not even uncommon

[oldmanpusspuss]

I can't watch a television show until a demon possesses me and compels me to do it

[seraphrain]

nobody coughs up blood dramatically into their handkerchiefs anymore

[transmechanicus]

Tuberculosis vaccines - Wikipedia

[valtsv]

feeling pretty dissociative and alienated from personhood rn if any bad bitches want to exploit me as a living weapon

[dogpuppy]

[jame7t]

meows at you loud as fuck. meows at you loud as fuck again

[ocqueen]

Greatswords are actually the superior bladed combat weapon because in addition to the Sheer Aura they're very good at doing the top thing I want when confronted by someone with another pointy stick, which is to keep them as far the fuck away from me as possible.

[ms-demeanor]

You have no idea how much I love bibliographies.

One of my favorite things ever is reading up on a subject that isn't my area of expertise and rooting around in the bibliographies of a stack of papers to reverse engineer the contemporary consensus.

The best thing about keeping up my one community college class per academic year habit is ongoing access to research databases through my school library.

[ms-demeanor]

Easy mode is doing this with literary criticism btw. Become fluent in an author's work by speedrunning several decades of academic bickering in an afternoon. It's fun.

[ms-demeanor]

Hard mode is anything having to do with protein structures.

[ms-demeanor]

They greebled my molecules and they're doing chemistry about it and that's none of my business.

[goatsgomoo]

don't worry about structure, all you need for chemistry is the formula

[ms-demeanor]

Sulfur is getting fucking ratioed.

[ampervadasz]

I kill you

[thornsilver]

Unmute for full effect.

[alexaloraetheris]

This is literally how movies introduce the most badass monster that's gonna wreck the protagonist's entire week.

[hollyevolving]

The sudden stare

[naamahdarling]

iD: A mesh sided cat carrier sits on a car seat. It is impossible to see inside but SOMETHING is in there, tearing at the mesh with all its might. We can see claws, hear the sounds of zippers jingling and the insistent ripping and plucking. After several seconds, the large eyes of a black cat become visible behind the mesh, followed by an anticlimactic, normal-volume meow.

The comedic timing is excellent.

[the-forcemascinator]

telling the knight that if he truly were a stoic of that bygone Roman era, he would train in the nude and let me watch pleaseee

[thundergrace]

If you live in Detroit, it is strongly recommended that you don't breathe.

[missanniewhimsy]

As someone in WI, this whole region is awful so please be careful friends! (7/16/2026)

[nyantara]

Please put on your N95s. The same ones used for covid will filter particulate pollution. I lived in a city with yearly winter pollution levels like this. If you can pay for it, you might as well get an indoor air filter to sleep in.

[garbage-empress]

If you can't afford a proper air purifier or can't find one in stock, these are sometimes cheaper to build:

Corsi–Rosenthal Box - Wikipedia

Make sure you get the best rated furnace filters you can. If getting all those is too expensive, even one of those furnace filters taped tightly to a box fan (to force the air through the filters so it doesn't come in through the cracks) can help pretty substantially in a small room.