this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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I totally understand it, and I get the appeal, but we should be honest with ourselves and admit that it's fucking dystopian. The product itself tastes terrible and it just further deepens the problem, if we all start using this product then the bosses can cut our lunch breaks even shorter.
The real solution to the problem you've identified is labor organizing, and I'd encourage you to consider unionizing - check out the IWW, it has great resources.
First let me say that I agree that society is becoming more dystopian every day. BUT I don't think some people enjoying not having to think about nutrition a sign of it.
From what I can tell, I'm the outlier. Everyone I've ever lived with wakes up and is hungry for breakfast. People love eating in the morning so much it's become it's own cuisine.
I also don't think it's dystopian for society to have standardized working hours. For most collaborative professions, it's way easier to get stuff done when you're working at the same time as your coworkers.
Eating food has historically been a communal activity where people get together, share a meal, talk about their troubles, have a laugh and a good time together. Our society is so individualistic and obsessed with maximizing productivity at the cost of everything else, so many of us now eat alone -- but this is a very modern development.
Even as recently as the 1970s there were automats in many communities - communal diners where working class people went to eat a very cheap meal and would hang out with other workers - they were social venues (third spaces) as well as serving to fill the role of nutrition.
The choice isn't between eating with people or not. It's between cooking food I'm not really craving or eating something quick. I wouldn't be eating breakfast with anyone at any point in history - either because I live alone or because I'd eat when I naturally got hungry which isn't the same time as everyone else
My atypical apetite is a result of biology, not society. My point is that the existence of a product that caters to people like me isn't dystopian in itself
I understand your point, what I am saying is that everyone should be able to walk to their nearest communal diner, any time of the day, and get a quick meal either for free or for very cheap, and either take that away with them or stay at the diner and eat with your neighbors. That's how food was consumed historically, a few members of the society would cook food for the others and share it communally. The fact that there is a market for this product is a sign that our society is deeply broken, because I'm sure if it came down to picking between a tasty homemade meal cooked by someone else and provided very cheaply, or buying some yucky expensive slop in a bottle/powder, you'd go for the meal, right?
Well no that's what I'm saying, I wouldn't go out of my way for the meal. Even if I didn't have a job. Getting my morning nutrition is a burden and on the weekend I get annoyed when I have to stop doing what I'm doing to make/get food
Fair enough, but I have to say, I think you'd be part of a very small minority, I'm autistic and I have a lot of sensory issues around food and despite all of that I still feel like eating a meal is one of life's few simple pleasures, but I understand, because I'm not really interested in sex, despite being in a small minority who feel that way. Look at the way that meal replacement products are marketed, it's very much targeting people who want to maximize productivity so they can spend more time working in front of their laptops. It's a fundamentally dystopian product, and I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on that