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Plastik

I have a piece of plastic in my mouth. I have had it for many years now. It's there so my mouth and face don't shrink and my teeth stay out of eachothers' way. This shrinking happens to most people nowadays, it's a result of the modern diet and lifestyle. People eat softer foods, chew less, breathe through their mouths. We take less time to eat, it's more effective to injest nutrients through softer foods - and for what? So that we can have more time to work our stupid little jobs? Is that why I have to wear this expensive little plastic thing?

People breathe through their mouths because nasal breathing is hard, it becomes harder through our shrinking faces, all the places the air is supposed to go through are getting tighter. Capitalism is literally choking humanity, people are getting worse every day through the lifestyle prepetuated by the modern world, all the "innovation", all the work in the world is turned evil.

Sometimes I feel powerless, like the ground I stand on is shrinking. Evil is winning, every day people die while others argue that they shouldn't be considered people. People try to twist whatever power they have to more power. People feel sad, people feel lonely, their brains tricked by screens because some powerful people are trying to expand their power.

There is something called "Screen apnea" people stop breathing while working or engaging with screens, maybe you noticed it yourself once. Screens today are like our second world, maybe our main one, average screentime is only ever increasing, children are raised by screens, teens are dependend on them, adults have barely enogh energy to be entertained by one after a long day of screen-work. They are like the black rider of our time, everyone under their thumb: "Three hours on Youtube, six hours on Tiktok; but do not skip the ad or cookies"

I believe they are the worst invention of capitalism - it's embodiment - specifically phones. Everything about a phone is terrible, the invention might have been without bad intentions, a useful device that's easy to pick up and learn, but the modern phone is like a cancer, no ability to create meaningfully - outside of producing "content" for social media giants - but massive ability to consume, even a toddler can use one and the internet has created a real tunnel that makes it easier to go on social media than not. Products that can capture a "customer" for most of their day, amazing incentive from capitalism but unarguably terrible for the human race in every aspect, another show of the systems limitations, it's like we are slaves to Twitter, YouTube, Instagram: Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, the list of drawbacks to phones is longer than I could care to write out, possibly because I don't have the attention span, the most disgusting little pieces of plastic.

And we all - all the people know but nothing seems to change, like we're not able to move, restrained by our plasticity, not able to stop consuming, not able to put that little plastic thing away, not able to breathe, there is no nice hopeful closing here, my little plastic blobs are still pressing against my gums, the metal straps are still poking into my mouths soft flesh and I am still looking at a screen. There is nothing I can do, I resist in all the small ways: don't carry a phone, don't use social media, block ads when I use the internet, vote for parties with actualy policy, minimize waste, actually have a life outside the realm of capital. But you can't get people to adopt these things: "I need it for work!", "All my friends are there!", "That seems like a hassle.", "Don't talk about politics, I just get sad thinking about it!", "I'm doing my best!", "I don't have time." and you can't blame them, there is so much to do and think about already.

A Heimlich manouver for our current world seems impossible, no one has a reason to do it, capitalism is making people AB test their button designs for retention, not solve climate change, it feels like there is no future, like any next generation will suffer more than the last. All you and I can do is what we think is right and what we have to, all we can do is wait and clean the little plastic blobs that keep our teeth straight.