The internet grows faster than I can read it. There’s a new site where people can build lists, and their community manager just sent me a link to one he thought you’d all like. Was it the list of top 10 reasons to go vegan?
No. It was the 13 most violent things that’ve happened at a McDonald’s. I’ve never been happier to process a “hey, here’s a link on our site you might like” email. OK, I wasn’t happy about the violence, but for someone to pick a relevant link? Gold.
The list is pretty epic, but what blows me away is that there’s video of every incident. Allow me to hike my pants up to my armpits for a moment and discuss the old days of vegan newsgathering, where one could easily spend 3 hours in the search for one good story to talk about. In the year 2010, it appears you could run a VP-like site entirely off of what’s on YouTube.
Now, please note that one item of violence is missing from the list, and that’s the bazillion animals that have become McNuggets or Big Macs. Oddly, it’s hard to find video of that still (though that too might be changing…)
I can’t quite figure out if the level of violence inside the McDonald’s chain is a factor of the sheer number of outlets they have (which could also mean that they’ve got an increased chance of being the site of the Second Coming, which would be something, all right!), or if it’s the kind of place that simply draws this kind of thing, in which case I think we’re moving beyond the “it’s a sucky place to work, but what’cha gonna do” phase to “oh wow, all of your workers need to be placed in a protection program while we close things down” kind of space.
And let’s assume this is the progression we’re seeing. Eric Schlosser made a good case in Fast Food Nation that slaughterhouse workers are stuck in perhaps the worst job in the food industry, second only to the animals themselves, and neither group can escape. Perhaps this chain of misery is extending to the front line service workers now, and I fear that it’s going to continue, virus-like, through the remainder of the food delivery chain.
I mean, really, when you’re in the business of marketing murder at low low everyday prices, is this kind of thing that unexpected?
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