A Bunch of Frogs in a Very Big Pot

Evergrande is court mandated to melt.

China’s seventh largest real estate developer (eighth largest in the world, by the by), the default Evergrande Group, has been ordered to liquefy its assets by a Hong Kong court.

So what? Evergrande’s been in default since 2021 and rotting from the inside, all the while it keeps churning out empty houses for China’s crumbling real estate market. Of course they’ve been ordered to go liquid to pay their debts – their substantial debts, mind – and besides; it’s only a Hong Kong court who ordered it. We know damn well who wears the pants between Hong Kong and mainland China.

That the company is being ordered to cash out is nothing surprising (after a default and failure to provide a reconstruction plan), the circumstances of that default are rather awe-inspiring… and a shape of things to come for China’s struggling economy. Evergrande’s good for some 240 billion USD, but has, reportedly, unpaid debts to the tune of some 300 billion USD.

Savour that for a second, will you? 300 billion USD is more money than most countries’ GDP. It’s 25% more than the entire company’s worth. And still, the real estate developer is trucking on, building more condos which’ll stay empty because of the collapsing Chinese housing market.

Boo-hoo, a big-deal developer is rotted. Who cares. Well, considering the Chinese economy is one of the keystones to the global one, a collapse there will inevitably have consequences world wide. Not to mention that it’s not just the Chinese Communist Party which has a stake in the company, but foreign investors as well. And seeing as China has previously proven… hesitant to repay foreign debt, the death throes of Evergrande could send cold shivers into every single mofo who ever put a single cent into the Chinese market. Speaking of which, trading was immediately halted with Evergrande stock once the announcement of liquefaction was made. So there’s exit strategy for the stock market traders right now.

The bottom line is this: Evergrande’s drawn out death is a sign of the times of the Chinese boomer economy. Y’know, that little thing that’s been the main cause of the climate crisis for twenty years. And since almost every globally connected economy on the planet is hitched on China’s expansion, it’s MAD to think the splash won’t get you wet. This would also explain China’s sabre-rattling vis-a-vis the sovereign neighbouring nation of Taiwan, seeing as there’s nothing’s as pathetic, weak, and effective to rally a failing domestic support as the Rally Round the Flag syndrome.

Did you hear the one about how you cook a frog alive?

If you throw a frog into boiling water, it’s just gonna jump out. But… if you progressively raise the temperature, the frog won’t notice a thing until its skin is popping and muscle fibres are hardening.

The global economy is a pretty big bowl of water. It’ll take some time to get the water simmering. But then again, there’s no rush, is there? There’s nowhere else to go, no edge to jump over to save ourselves, because the first thing to pot did was to make sure it reached everywhere. And we’ve been progressively raising the temperature for a very long time now…

/Sebastian Lindberg 30/1-2024

A Human-Centric Development

“[AI] has the potential to transform and enhance human wellbeing, peace and prosperity. To realise this, we affirm that, for the good of all, AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used, in a manner that is safe, in such a way as to be human-centric, trustworthy and responsible.”

So sayeth The Bletchley Declaration of the AI Safety Summit of 2023, hosted on the 1^st and 2^nd of November at Bletchley Park – the site of Alan Turing’s enigma-breaking computer, the benchmark of modern computer technology.

It’s a… worded document, signed by a host of countries in attendance. It’s got plenty of platitudes, vague risk analyses, and doodles of vapid hopes for transparency and cooperation between corporations and governments. At the conference were governments from around the world, the British royalty, universities, along with BigCorp; Elon Musk and representatives from Google, Meta, and OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT).

It’s quite a roster of some of the greatest developers/scaremongerers of AI along with the greatest legislative forces on the planet.

There’s plenty of language to dissect in this flaccid declaration. As if a capitalist paradigm will give a shit about “wellbeing, peace and prosperity” or for “the good of all”. But let us take a look at one rather remarkable mention in particular:

“AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used […] in such a way as to be human-centric”…

Such a specific mention seems not to come out of a vacuum. Why make such an egocentric dedication if there was not a voice or concern which might have something other than – something beyond – humanity in mind. Almost as if there was something other than the human condition to consider.

I’ve previously voiced my concern that the scaremongering of AI developers about their products, and the capitalist use of them, heralds the way toward the development of an artificial slave race. Which in itself wouldn’t misalign with our dominion over the flora and fauna on the planet. But as Big Corpo fights to keep stealing your data, without consent or pay, they’re not training their so-called “AI” to become akin to livestock; they’re training their generative “AI” to become akin to humans.

And how close is too close to not afford this burgeoning intelligence the same respect as its organic template?

The AI Safety Summit of 2023 clearly has not a whit of interest in even entertaining the thought of a moment when the facsimile becomes indistinguishable from the template but for basic molecular building blocks. No interest at all in wondering about the transhumanist implications of entities as smart as us, trained by us, built by us, and interchangeable with us in all capacities but one metaphysical twig. With all the Declaration’s flowery reassurances that not a single human will suffer for the development of AI (sorry artists and writers – guess you don’t count as humans any more), it never once wonders what the response will be – should be- must be! – once that program receives a work order and instead of demurely obliging begins to ask “why?”…

/Sebastian Lindberg 7/11-2023

If You Love It, Let It Go (from the Overlord’s Clutches)

As of Thursday (14/9-2023) the intellectual property Fables enters the public domain. Which, in itself is nothing surprising. Intellectual property tends to do that, over the span of about a hundred years (no shitting), regardless of how much the IP owners fight it. What is surprising with Fables is that this move happens on the behest of its creator, Bill Willingham, some 80 years before its time.

Why? Because Bill Willingham wants to tell DC Comics to fuck off and die in a fire. I’m paraphrasing.

In an unprecedented move, Willingham takes it upon himself to rip his creation out of DC’s claws, relinquishing his rights to the rest of the world. Apparently, his relationship with DC has been on the fritz for years, with the comic book publisher squeezing him out of his contractual rights, withholding pay, and other ass-hattery. Seeing no way out but the nuclear option, Willingham puts his money where his mouth is in this open letter, and tears DC’s exclusive use of Fables away from them.

And it is glorious.

DC Comics recently came out and refuted Willingham’s claim to have the right to release the refugee story-book villains and heroes into the wild, but whether or not they have the right to say no I guess is up to circle-jerking lawyers to contend. Copyright laws are opaque by design, because if laws are too convoluted to paint a picture, they inevitably benefit those with enough money to just throw lawyers at the problem like spaghetti on a wall.

Why does this matter?

This move by Willingham, whether successful or not, is a signal fire. A breached rampart. A banner. A hymn at the darkest hour that lets us know that no matter how heavy wallets they have, how many lawyers they can send, how far their dicks swing, Big Corporation do not intrinsically control creative works. They never have and never will, no matter how hard they pretend to.

The release of Fables (all of whom were taken from the public domain initially, ironically enough) is a proof of concept – a powerplay – with no benefit but to tear down the monstrosity that is corporate art. And say what you want about Bill himself, this is an act of mutually assured destruction of the highest honour.

Leeches do not own art (yet). Leeches do not own artists (yet). And though leeches will do everything in their power to convince you otherwise, they cannot unless you let them (ever).

/Sebastian Lindberg 19/9-2023

A Demand for Validation

“I tell people not to go down my road.”

“Do you like cocaine?”

“Have some of my beard oil!”

“I increased sales 400%!”

“I cured my broken thumb with steroids!”

“Look at this picture of my dog!”

“Look at this picture of my girlfriend!”

“Bröther, tell me I’m a good person!”

These are just the cliff notes. He rattled his boisterous mouth off for near on thirty minutes straight. Hovering over my shoulder. Leaning down in my face to lock eyes. Ever so eager to boast about his accomplishment. Feeling near on disparaged when I wouldn’t deliver him his demanded validation.

I like reading at the pub. I find the white noise of music and chatting calming. Centering. The pint helps too. But the Gods allowed me none of that this night. Because as soon as I picked up my book, this rando booms up to me.

But when someone within five minutes of talking at me explicitly demands that I validate him as “a good person”, something in me recoils. And I would like to take a look at why that is.

Everyone seeks validation, non? It’s such a treasure to get. All of the internet seems keyed to provide that very treasure. From our OnlyFans to our Instagrams and our Reddits. Platforms for desperate pleads of validation, one and all. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking it. There is nothing wrong with wanting it. And there’s nothing wrong with working towards it.

But why would someone, supposedly two bottles deep into a wine binge, on a Sunday night, boasting about cocaine and steroid habits, crooning about their one-day telephone salesman record and their drug-preventation work with kids (while coked up?!), brandishing girlfriend and pet like designer items, try to drag validation out of a five-minute acquaintance?

I can only conceive of one answer: Desperation. A desperation nurtured by self-doubt.

Life is nothing but a competition, isn’t it? All there is to life is running over everyone else, smashing your way through your days, burning your candle with fifteen blowtorches from all ends and sides simultaneously, lamenting your broken back come upon by crashing your motorcycle in between coke snorts while at the same time exulting the virtue of living life to its fullest through a haze that might have made Hunter S. clap in appreciation.

Because there’s nothing else to be had from life. Is there?

Apparently there is. Because despite living life in “the fast lane”, this rando obviously didn’t feel fulfilled. If he did, no doubt he wouldn’t demand validation from strangers, would he?

Validation is nice, sure enough. But if you live a life matching your own expectations, if you feel fulfilled and worthwhile, truly… then surely you do not need to hear it from your neighbouring drunkard, do you? Need it so bad that you’re willing to boast about your roid abuse and locking eyes like some challenging bull, right?

This our capitalist paradigm has taught many dire lessons in its tenure. Films like “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Wall Street” were never meant to be inspirational. And yet, here we have generational boils so cock-sure that they’re willing to imply the threat of violence to enforce an appreciation for their material gains so as to be perceived as some sort of sign of virtue. And behind all that bravado, there’s still that crippling doubt nagging at them, begging to be filled by validation that their life choices, their ideals, are all worth while.

That does not speak of confidence. Not in their life choices, not in their laurels, and not in themselves.

These were my concerns when approached by such desperate demands. But I didn’t stay long enough to formulate them. I left shortly after the rando suggested that I take steroids to improve my writing skills…

/Sebastian Lindberg 6/6-2023

What’s Left when what’s Right?

The public transit company MTR is suing Swedish train conductors for going on strike. Personally, as well as fining their union. Y’know, not massive, mind-boggling sums. Just punitive ones, for daring to make demands on their monopolizing employer.

An employer, mind you, which is fundamentally owned by the Communist political rule in Hong Kong.

Before colour commentary, snide observation, and wild speculation, let us roll out the facts:

As of yesterday morning (Monday 17/4-2023), the train conductors in Stockholm went on strike, affecting as much as 80% of all conductors in the Stockholm metropolitan area. Reason cited being the downsizing of personnel working on the trains, where only one conductor operates and manages the whole transport, ferrying hundreds of people per train around the city. The conductors argue that it’s simply not a safe way to operate. The conductors claim they’ve complained about working conditions for two years, while employer and politicians ignore them. The conductor union did not organize the strike, which implies whachumacall a “wild strike”, without legal support.

The corporate operator of the train traffic in Stockholm is MTR Nordic, created in Sweden in 2009 following the public procurement of the service by MTR Corporation. MTR Corporation is reported to be owned to an extent of 75% by the Hong Kong communist authority. Who, as of today (Tuesday 18/4-2023) are suing both conductors and union for the disruption in services.

To be fair; the strike, being a “wild” one as they call it in the old music halls, isn’t technically legal, seeing as their union didn’t initiate it. Then again, MTR seems to hold the union itself responsible anyway, as the lawsuit is aimed at them as well as individual conductors. The fact that the company itself, which has a monopoly on train transit in the Stockholm metropolitan area, is owned by an authoritarian regime known for its draconian measures against dissent is only extra sauce on an already stinky sandwich.

In essence: A Chinese Communist Party corporation is threatening and punishing their Swedish employees, because the employees are claiming that the CCP company is running the Stockholm public transit system with a dangerous disregard for its passengers.

Which way was The Left, and which was The Right again? I mix them up…

/Sebastian Lindberg 18/4-2023

A Forum of the Powers

Wouldn’t it be neat if there was a gathering – a forum, let’s call it – with the singular purpose of trying to bridle the neoliberal world market into a force of productive and sustainable good? Wouldn’t that be cool? I mean, they say that the world is run by The Market these days, and no single one entity, corporate or government, can turn the grinding wheel away from mutually assured destruction. But wouldn’t it be just nifty if we could gather all those entities in one room, for, let’s say, one week, to just come together like decent human fucking beings and find a solid agreement on the basis of 50 year old common knowledge to stop mucking it up?

Wouldn’t that be nice…

This week, last night in fact, saw the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Just such a gathering of market forces for the distinct purpose of coming together to try and put a leash on capitalism.

At least, that’s what the marketing tells us.

Everyone will be there! From politicians to moguls; all the social classes (that matter). 2’700 business- and government leaders outta two thirds of the world’s countries. All ready to buckle down to finally put a break on the Sixth Mass Extinction before the seas and fires and droughts swallow us all.

Well, everyone isn’t going to be there. While the ageing hegemon the United States of the Americas has sent a few representatives, neither Russia or China, or India or Brazil for that matter, have bothered to show up. Instead, we have neocolonialist institutions like the IMF in attendance.

I snark, and rightfully so. In the Forum’s past, the summit was cast as a luxury vacation for Europe’s business elite. In recent years, the forum has had the dubious judgement to condemn condemnation of the Israeli apartheid state. Not to mention that they brought authoritarian and genocidal despots such as China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro as keynote speakers. Y’know, all famous reformists with staunch track records of transparency, sustainability, and egalitarian ideals.

No, the World Economic Forum in Davos has never been a saviour. But it could be. Not only could be, but under the current paradigm of unassailable golden-calf-capitalism, it may be the only saviour available. Most of the world’s leading businesses, banks, and government Thrones, all gathered in one room (well, in one ski resort and conference centre), all telling us “be not afraid”, would in any sane world mean a spark of hope. If anyone can solve the problems of a failing world, it would be these Powers, with the majority of the world’s resources behind them. Non?

But they won’t. Because it was these exact tossers that built, over the span of the past century, this religion of the coin. They’re not there to solve problems, but to profit off of them. But wouldn’t it be neat if it was otherwise, eh?

/Sebastian Lindberg 17/1-2023

Hell Frozen; Services Pending

Sweden is freezing. A privileged complaint; many winters have witnessed the populations of southern Europe freeze, to death in some cases, but Sweden has previously been left out of the ice box, despite its northern latitude. But not this year…

The reasons are legion. Reliance on a global energy market, currently strangled by Russia going rogue is one. Another is a shift toward wind and solar power and away from the nuclear heavy lifter. The crisis very well might have caused the collapse of the old government. And the new one is desperate to turn things around, ‘lest the sins of the fallen become the standing’s too.

Which leads us to the director of the Swedish government-owned energy company Vattenfall digging her heels in and saying “nope” to the changes demanded by the new government. “Nope” to new nuclear plants. “Nope” to the deal brokered to solve the potential government crisis after this year’s election. “Nope” to the demands of its sole owner; the elected government and thereby, the electorate.

This is remarkable.

After decades under a capitalist paradigm, it has been en vogue to restructure public services as government owned companies. Sweden has done it nearly whole-sale. From our postal services, to our parts of our health care industry, and even the infrastructure of our planes, trains, and (not automobiles, but;) internet. Not least of which is our energy supply, through the energy giant Vattenfall, the owner of most of Sweden’s domestic hydro and nuclear power plants.

It is an unholy union of market fixated capitalism and the remnants of socialist tenets. Companies, run and directed just like their stock brokered competitors, though tied to the government as their majority (or nearly majority) owner. In Vattenfall’s case, it is entirely owned by the government.

Which is what makes it so remarkable when the director of Vattenfall refers to an obligation to its owners, when its owners have clearly given very public demands. Almost as if the company was in service of market forces rather than its owners; the public citizenry. Almost as if it was more important for the company to make money out of resource scarcity than it is to provide electricity to the nation according to the nation’s needs.

This is a telling example that the notion of a government-owned company to handle public services takes the power over those services gradually away from the public. It undermines the very notion of a public service, and thus, the very notion of a national government at all. Because if all those things, all those big pieces of the societal puzzle, all those things which we agreed to band together to solve publicly by forging governments to begin with, start to fade into the cutthroat sphere of corporate conglomerates to which the public is simply a juicy fruit to be squeezed dry for all its good for, for as long as possible; well! Then we’re all closer to the megacorp dystopias then we’ve wanted to admit.

Governments were made to provide services to a public. Security, health care, education, infrastructure, et. al.. When a government sells out those responsibilities, restructures them so that neither government or the public has any say left in how the service is run or supplied, then what use is a government at all?

/Sebastian Lindberg 13/12-2022

The Abhorrent Union of the Cloth and Coin

“We are in the service of finding your purpose, your giftance on the basis of evidence so that you will be better situated to fulfil your goals and missions in life!”

It’s not like I’m eavesdropping or anything. I’m here for dinner. I can’t help it if the restaurant is pretty chill and these two blokes are having a business conference two tables over. I’m trying to read, is all.

“We assist you in developing these evidence-based gifts to find your god-given purpose to improve your performance and enhance your end results.”

Ugh, self-help human resource gurus. You know, that unholy mix between new-age self-awareness and capitalism that sounds about as sincere as a smile on a shark. No matter, I’m just reading and waiting for my food.

“In essence, we help you find what God had in mind when he made you…”

I read the same sentence three times over before the overheard conversation sinks in. It’s not just a new-age human resource capitalist sales pitch, but a Christian new-age human resource capitalist sales pitch.

“God had a plan for you when he put you on this earth, and it is our blessed purpose to help you find yours so that you can better serve God and your end result performance.”

Very Christian new-age human resource capitalist sales pitch…

“I’m so grateful to God that he has delivered unto me the truth of my purpose, and I feel blessed that I shall be equipped with His voice to show you yours.”

Nope. Straight up cultists. Capitalist, new-age, cultists. And with these neighbours, I give up on getting any reading done at all. But one should have thought that the Bible-humping would cease once the call was over. But see!, it never ended! It turned into a block-chain of business opportunities from self-improvement-guidance to resales of miniature Ark of the Covenants, interspersed with bouts of praying, blessings, more praying, blessed praise for the Internet connecting these holy men for God’s purpose, and more virtue-signalling praying. All the way through my entire meal.

I am well aware that the Christian God and his maltreated son are the worst spendthrifts in creation. The church was capitalist before we had a word for reckless and ruthless accumulation of wealth. Before banks we had the Catholics and Templar Knights. These things are not news to me. And yet, it was disturbing to hear a divine anthropomorphication rub dirty against promises of key figure synergetic strategies for performance improvement. It was like seeing Santa fuck your mom on Christmas Eve. Like; we get it, cool costume dad, but still… you never want to see it.

If God wasn’t just a figment to explain the movement of the sun around the firmament, why would he care so much about riches? Do you suppose he’s in debt? Wouldn’t the seed of life be more impressed with the proliferation of that life itself rather than all the things that glitter? He’s not supposed to be magpie, after all. And yet, his worship is drenched in gold and jewels. But I apologise, I’m being facetious. We all know why faith in Jehovah is encrusted with avarice. Because the point was never to impress a fickle God with debt-issues. It was to impress humans. And humans, unlike the fictitious God, are absolutely exactly like magpies.

I live in a pretty secularised quadrant of the world. I am well aware that I’m in the minority. I am sheltered from most brands of fanaticism and evangelism. I am the blessed one, truly. This teleconference would not have been half as jarring if I had taken my dinner at a Virginian roadside café, a coffee shop in Algiers, or a Bombay market. But here, God is not so much an institution as it is a residual comfort. A cultural placeholder and scaffold for a vain hope.

This restaurant teleconference by cultist entrepreneurs rattled me. Despite the churhes’ well established penchant for wealth. But it should. Every time you see an American televangelist sell hysteria, you should shudder. Every time you hear word of a “silent” collect, which means you should put in bills, not coins, you should shiver. And whenever someone wants to turn you into a customer to unlock your God-given potential, you should run the fuck away. Because Jesus didn’t table-flip the money lenders at the temple off just so that this bullshit could proliferate.

Capitalism and Monotheism doesn’t fit. Never has. Never will. One is plastered ontop the other, not by any God, but by the greed of Man. And whenever God and money cross the same sentence, it is because people want to get to your wallet by way of your faith.

I’m not that market. My faith is shrivelled and atrophied and amputated, and paves no path to exploitation for men clothed with old odd ends stolen forth from holy writ and seem like saints when most they play the devil. But many of you are different. And I hope you shall never tolerate this abhorrent union of the cloth and coin.

/Sebastian Lindberg 9/8-2022

Subverting the Power of Nihilism

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy”, she says. It stinks of quotation. Reeks of it. I love it. And immediately open a new tab, because I’m an absolute tab whore, and find myself in the arms of Algerian-French absurdism.

“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”, Camus writes in his L’Étranger.

In life, according to the myths, Sisyphus was an ambitious ruler. A clever ruler, who flipped off the gods and death itself, and nearly, nearly, got away with it. And they made his punishment an endless, futile labour. And in that punishment, Camus imagines him happy. Content.

It’s beautiful. A prelude to Douglas Adams’ optimistic nihilism. And I know the beauty of simplicity of futile labours. I’m trying to be a fucking writer. I know full well that the odds are my work will be as inconsequential as myself. But the work needs to go on, regardless of the promise of obscurity. And just like Camus hints, there can be value in the work itself. I realise it is difficult to imagine in such a capitalist society, where we’ve been taught that the only value labours have is the money you make out of them. But “fulfilment” is not the sound a bank account makes when it bursts at the seams.

And yet… because of course I can’t have a simple, uncomplicated idea in my head at any given time; the argument that Sisyphus must stand at the bottom of his mountain with a content smile on his smug face is disconcerting.

Why? Well, first and foremost, it is not Sisyphus that says he’s happy. It is wellness motivational speakers, armchair philosophers, French socialist absurdists, and pray – PRAY – that our corporate overlords never get wind of it! The point is, while the idea is beautiful, a declaration coming from anyone but Sisyphus himself is highly suspect, and invalidates the nihilistic empowerment that Camus imagines. Because it promotes pointless work for no reward for thankless taskmasters as spiritually elevated. “Find satisfaction in never ending tedium and you’ll never work a day in your life” sounds too much like a parody of a soul-sucking motivational poster for me to be okay with it.

One must not imagine Sisyphus happy. There is nothing inherently beautiful in the pointless. Labours are not a priori fulfilling. And absolutely no one has the right to tell you that your divine punishment is actually a reward.

They can be. But that is for you to decide, Sisyphus. Not armchair philosophers, not French writers, not corporate taskmasters, and not motivational poster salesmen. You and only you decide whether you should be happy or not.

Well? Are you?

/Sebastian Lindberg 26/7-2022

As Opportunists Descend on Women’s Health

Y’know what’s hot right now, like so hot, like O-M-G hawt? That new thing, ready to pop, drawing moneygrubbers like locusts? Female health, oh yeah, like menstruation and shit, and tech products thereof.

Femtech it’s hashtagged, and news of it bubble to the surface of the 24-hour news cycle cauldron like a particularly cynical mood in the luteal phase, of how investors are drawn to it like flies to honey. Consisting primarily, currently, of apps to track your position on the menstrual cycle, extending to aids to deal with postpartum, menopause, or dietary guidelines depending on how your wheel’s turning. Y’know, all them things that men in and outside the medical profession has dismissed as “female issues” for centuries. But now, with the keen interest of those magical financiers, and the growing gender inclusivity within, the medical concerns of half of the world’s population are broken as if it were news.

Which, I wholeheartedly agree, is high time.

The last time women had new medical head wind was in the 60’s with the invention of the COCP, colloquially known simply as The Pill, and the potential liberation from simply being baby-machines. Which, in itself, was sort of revolutionary. But far from perfect, with its hormonal and holistic effects on the body. Without getting into the medical weeds of the COCP, it can cause a lot of stress and hormonal balance issues that the medical community just shrugged at, declared good enough, and stopped giving a shit about. Because who cares if some women get completely disjointed from their natural cycle, with all the health implications implied, so long as men can enjoy some more consequence free sexy times. So; yes, it is a good thing that women get access to new tools and support to manage, take control of, or simply pay mind to the regular rhythm of their physiology.

And yet, I sour at the headline. “Women’s health getting hotter – investors divine future gold mine!” I find it sickening, to be precise. Because heavens forbid that the general public (or more precisely the half of the public that has traditionally had a monopoly on the public discourse) take an interest in the inevitable health complications and consideration of half of the population without the promise of profit at the end of it. It’s as if no one could give a single shit about cancer unless some motherfucker came up with a way to make money out of it…

Products and services are the ways with which we engage. That much is… clear, regardless of what you think of it. Which, essentially, is good. It’s fine. Maybe it’s just me that gets disgusted by a woman’s health considerations getting paywalled by monthly subscriptions or ad exposure. And it is absolutely about time that we, collectively, start giving a shit about a physiological cycle other than the circadian rhythm. I just find that it goats my fucking groats that the (only?) way we accomplish that is to dangle shiny promises of commercialistic growth in front of investors, like the greedy fucking magpies they are.

Female health deserves attention, and tolerance. Which it hasn’t enjoyed, perhaps ever (thanks Abraham). And it sickens me that the only way it can get that attention and acceptance is by turning women into mining rigs for the wealthy. Women deserve better. We, collectively as a species, deserve better. Because we sure as shit didn’t need commercialism to care about erectile dysfunction, did we?

/Sebastian Lindberg 12/7-2022