Does anybody else have weird simulation/simulacra mainstays in their life in 2020?

@CaptAmehrican

/giphy THAT

@halfling Well kinda. Mr. Regular explains it better than I: Like a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

@GetClosure @halfling I get this, I think. U.S. car marketing seems to revel in it, like the creation of a false racing history for the re-intro of the Chrysler 300 (cars that existed in the 1960s only to demonstrate that they too could build something as sad as the Edsel) and the stories of the “Dodge brothers”. All simulacra to me, giving me that “do I really remember this existing or not?” feeling …

Other than making me want a Toyota FJ Cruiser… I don’t think the video helped me.

@GetClosure Are you related to @snapster? We can’t understand him either.

@GetClosure Reminds me of this headline from a couple of years ago.

@GetClosure @PooltoyWolf I think they call this “gaslighting.”

@OnionSoup Sour cream and butter are my go-to for “smashed” potatoes (half-assed peeled potatoes with lumps left in). I throw a few cloves of peeled garlic along with the potatoes into salted water, too. Full fat cream cheese works in a pinch, or even Costco’s Kirkland brand goat cheese.

I try to keep a low carb/keto lifestyle, but potatoes made like this are hard to resist. They check off all the fat/salt/starch/comfort food boxes for me. My son calls “food to feed his fat tooth.” Some people have a sweet tooth. That boy & I have a “fat tooth.”

On the rare occasions there are leftovers, the family says they reheat better, too.

@GetClosure I’m not sure if you can call it simulation food, but I’m pretty fond of making cheese sauce for vegetables, and a spicy queso dip using an adaptation of The Modernist’s version of cheese sauce

@moonhat didn’t wear a mask to the grocery store.

@GetClosure @LaVikinga I didn’t really consider butter a substitute for milk because I used it with milk before I discovered sour cream works better. Lol

Yeah, I put garlic in mine. Chives if on hand, and sometimes some parmesan cheese, not enough to make it taste overly cheesey, the intent is to be subtle. (I’d use a different cheese if going for overtly cheese flavour). Occasionally a pinch of paprika (again intending to be subtle).

I frequently experiment.

Strangest thing I’ve experimented with (and I only put a tiny pinch in) was garam masala… Everyone liked the garam masala potatoes… Although only one person at the table guessed that was the secret ingredient.

@GetClosure @LaVikinga @OnionSoup

I try to keep a low carb/keto lifestyle,

And yet you failed to mention excessive use of vegetarian imitation bacon as an ingredient.
/image imitation bacon bits

@mike808 I’ve not gone vegetarian, but I have stopped eating pork. Pigs are just too intelligent and emotional an animal for me to feel comfortable eating. Eating pigs feels like eating dogs to me. (Not that I’ve eaten a dog)

I have switched to Turkey bacon. No, it’s not as good as pork bacon, but it’s acceptable.

@OnionSoup Butter isn’t a substitute. It’s its own gloriousness. Wasabi is an interesting addition. It doesn’t take away from the potato flavor, just adds a spicy kick of heat.

@mike808 :::shudder::: That looks like pink aquarium gravel. Probably would taste the same. Soy doesn’t play nice with me.

There is no substitute for real bacon whether it’s pork, turkey, or beef versions, but that’s my opinion as a meat eater. Although, it probably won’t take me watching too many more cute Happy Family Piggy videos to push me away from eating pork.

@OnionSoup I’m not a vegetarian. I’m an omnitarian. However, when I have a reasonable option that doesn’t have meat, I’m perfectly fine with it. Although, I’m not going to pass up an Impossible burger with bacon just because of the bacon. I know that any plant-sourced substitution for animal meat is better for the environment. So while my contribution towards that goal may be small, it is still more than zero.

At some point, we (carnivores) are depriving other people of food and resources to produce small amounts of meat for a small number of people (globally). That the people that benefit from that arrangement happens to include me doesn’t make it any less wrong or selfish. And that I was born into the wealth of a 'Murica beef/pork/poultry/dairy loving culture doesn’t make it any more righteous either.

Recognizing privilege is the first step to stop unconsciously abusing that privilege and towards addressing the root inequities with conscience.

@mike808 here’s another prediction.

Future generations will judge us on our meat consumption just as we judge previous generations for the bad things they did.

100 years from now people will be pulling down statues of people that ate meat.

When viable alternatives become available that are just as good, there really will be no reason not to eat the alternatives. I already feel a little guilty at times about eating meat but not willing to go full vegitarian.

I think meat is slowly on the way out. It’s not sustainable with a large world population and people are beginning to think more about the animals and what they go through. Eventually it will be illegal to eat any meat that came from a living breathing animal.

My future great grand children will probably judge me as barbaric and they’ll probably be right (especially by the 22nd century standards).

Not quite ready to give up meat yet though.

@InnocuousFarmer Similarly, my job (SW engineer) is, at it’s most basic level, just arranging small charges of electricity on various levels of silicon substrate into patterns that are considered valuable/beneficial. Some patterns are more desirable than others (decided largely by consensus) and it is my job to refine the groups of charges into a more marketable state. I’m a bit wrangler.

@macromeh You build my pretend machines out of the other pretend machines. I blame you!

@moonhat is to blame!

@mike808 But does it really leave or is it just replaced by yet another level?

@macromeh @mike808 I hear you will still be able to watch it by entering the historical database while watching Altered Carbon in virtual immersion mode.

@macromeh Hah!

@Fuzzalini Try the TVP crumbles for tacos, if you cook at home.

@ThunderChicken I’ve had it twice. The first time was great. It was really hard to tell it apart from the regular whopper. The second time was in March, shortly after everything started shutting down. That time was not as successful. It didn’t taste as meaty. I don’t know if it was because they weren’t selling as many burgers and there wasn’t enough burger juices on the grill or what. (They cook them on the same grill as the regular whoppers.)

I’m sure I’ll eventually try it again. It’s just annoying that it costs more than the regular. I guess because they don’t get subsidies from the government, but it’s still basically veggies. Plus, it’s not any healthier than the regular. Ten calories less. Full of fat still.

@RiotDemon @ThunderChicken
It’s benefit is not that it is healthier for you personally. It is healthier for the environment and the survival of our species with 9 billion people and counting.

The benefit is that it didn’t take all of the water, nutrients, and resources that went into producing the meat in the burger patty, and it didn’t produce the pollution (cow farts are a significant source of methane, a greenhouse gas) and bio-waste byproducts of industrialized large scale meat production as we have here in 'Murica.

@RiotDemon @ThunderChicken
The impossible burgers are delicious, and I don’t miss the “real” thing in comparison. Also, BK rjns coupons and in their app all the time, so dont pay full price!

@mike808 @ThunderChicken we aren’t at 9 billion people yet. 7.8 billion last estimate.

Sorry, until they learn how to lab grow steaks, I’ll still eat meat. I don’t like burgers that much and I eat less meat than the average person. I’ll never be vegetarian, it’s not going to happen.

@RiotDemon @ThunderChicken
I don’t eat at BK often, but when I do, it is an Impossible Burger. Nothing wrong with eating meat. I love a perfect med-rare sous vide steak with a quick sear for some Maillard char. I dont eat those often either. Just saying when the opportunity presents itself, make the most of it. Like buying local doesn’t mean stop buying crap from Meh.