Years ago, back on twitter, I remember the writer George Monbiot talking about an automatic stirring device as an example of how materialist society was obsessed with creating useless things for no good reason.

I'd bought one of those robot stirrers for my Dad. He loved making sauces for everything, but in his last years, illness meant he couldn't just stand over a stove stirring constantly. It was hugely beneficial for him.

I absolutely hate how prevalent is the idea that the wants and needs of disabled people always have to be the first thing to be sacrificed. And it does always seem to be labour-saving devices and produce that are seen as the problem; nobody ever objects to washing machines, presumably because they help non-disabled people too.

We love conservatism, that's why.

Conservatism won.

It hits the button in our brain that makes us feel better for being better at some things, but lied it's way into appearing not morally decadent while doing it.

There is only conservative politics today. You have hard conservatism, soft conservatism and conservatism with sexual & reproductive rights.

Yeah, I had a similar attitude towards "needlessly" electric kitchen tools such as electric pepper grinders and electric knives.
Then I injured my hand trying to take the lid off my pepper grinder to refill it, and, being diabetic, it took months to heal.
I got myself an electric pepper grinder.
Didn't want the same injury to happen again.

Things which might be "lazy" to able-bodied folks, can make a big difference to those less able - even for something as trivial as pepper.

When one reaches a certain AGE or ABILITY.. THERE IS GREAT NEED for things ready made or smaller or as seen in others eyes ..
Those in NEED have become INVISIBLE .. because people do NOT want to admit it could be themselves one day ...

SHAME ON THEM ...

there’s a similar thing with Christmas stuff in shops in September or whenever. I don’t get annoyed now after someone pointed out that some people really need to plan ahead and buy a little each week to be able afford Christmas.

Plus, I do like a mince pie.

I will complain about the music though!

This is something I learned about a long time ago too...e.g. the "slap-chop" advert.

Pre-cut stuff is always more expensive, just another cost for disabled people to pay...

Yeah I can attest to this, though I still manage so far, for how long anyone's guess.

See for me with MS I can get uncontrollable shakes at times, left side of body is more affected/weaker, I'm left handed, cut left handed, so as you might imagine, a knife is a dangerous and deadly tool, and when you shake uncontrollably the knife then does random chopping motions, it's then I pull back remove other hand, I could easily take out multiple fingers quite quickly.

So what do I do, well, I rest the tip of the knife on board - stability, and slowly cut in down strokes/method, that way because I'm pressing down all the time the knife does not leap around hunting for my fingers.

Yes AND no.

If you can avoid it, you should.

If you can't, there should be no shame.

Some days we can cope fine here. Some days we can't.

There are good reasons to buy them. Accessibility is chief among them. Lack of time is another (thanks, pointless underpaid jobs)

But they also cause considerable waste and tend to go off much faster. And often cost more (disability tax)

Here, as we have become more disabled, we have had to buy them more often.

OTOH, we have helped a friend who couldnt Cook to get off ready meals (similar issue, amplified by addictive ingredients)

As usual, there is always nuance.

I knew before I looked at your profile that I'd probably see some variant of autistic identity.

I used to think that my propensity for seeing someone else's perspective was because I was weak; that's what society seemed to think. Then I learned better, and thought it was probably because I'm a scientist, trained to adapt to new information. Only lately (I'm 56) have I begun to suspect that I might be autistic, and that neurotypical people might be deficient in this matter.

I've become convinced there is actually no such thing as "lazy", at least not as the word means.

I got dinged for being lazy when I got a robot vacuum. I asked the person why using a regular vacuum cleaner *wasn't* "lazy" when beating rugs was an option.

"Lazy" just means "that's not what I do".

Sometimes "lazy" means "you found a more efficient way and I resent it".

i had this same ignorant judgement despite needing pre-cut for various reasons including it would help me #ReduceFoodWaste

Thank you so much for sharing all of this including the perspective about the 'hard work is good for us' mentality we, the non-rich, are fed pre-cut and pre-chewed.

It seems more expensive to get pre-cut at least in our area - another #DisabilityTax

🙏🏾✌🏾🖖🏾

Got another one for you. Buffets? The single least accessible means of providing food to a large number of people.

My perspective, as a cane-user: I am already one-handed. So immediately, I have the problem: how do I hold my plate, while also filling my plate? Rarely is there room on the buffet for a plate to be set down. Almost no one ever thinks to offer assistance to people who have disabilities in using the buffet.

Before I even get to the plate, of course, I have the problem of how they bring people to line up. If, as is often the case, they call it table by table, then I am almost certainly, by random chance, going to end up in a long line waiting to access the buffet. Standing is painful to me, even more so than walking.

So I'm exhausted and sore. I arrive at the buffet. I get a plate and cutlery, which somehow I manage to carry in one hand. I have to balance the plate on my cane-arm while trying to pile food on it with my non-dominant hand.

Moving down the buffet, I come to the dessert tables! Hurrah! Only the only way to get a dessert is to have...another plate!

So I get no dessert, because I don't have a free hand to get it with.

And that's just one person's disability. Wheelchair user? Reaching those bowls up high on the table is going to be hard. Visually impaired? How do you know what you're putting on your plate? What if there's something in it you're allergic to? Gonna read the card maybe?

Missing an upper limb? See above re: being effectively one-handed. Palsied hands? Good luck. And so on, and so on, and so on.

And yet, over and over, I go to conferences, ostensibly social justice-focused affairs, and *every time* they pick the cheapest option, and make no effort to accommodate people for whom the cheap option is the no-food option.

#Disability #DisabilityPrideMonth

The other group this helps is the ones that never learnt how to prep vegetables and fruits.

If this "laziness" reduces the barrier to fresh produce, I am all for it.

yeah, can honestly say this sort of stuff makes cooking a lot easier for me

I’m autistic and thus have chronic fatigue + executive functioning issues…plus I work full-time! so pre-cut/peeled vegetables and meal prep tools make a *huge* difference during the times I’m able to cook from scratch

This.Thank you.

I worked at a music venue where the late Vic Chesnutt had to be carried up flights of stairs in his wheelchair.

Back in those days, nobody seemed to understand that a ramp would help abled performers.

Gear has wheels for reasons too.

Pre-cut vegetables at the store? I look at them and think "Wow! Convenient!

but not likely to stay fresh for long."

I was at the market one morning, and I was buying a plate of pre-cut Persian cucumbers. My mother had died the week before, about nine months after my father had died, and all I wanted to eat was French fries and ice cream. This was my attempt at eating something healthy, which I usually like and do but just wasn't feeling it recently.

The woman behind me kind of jokingly said to me that I was cheating by buying those. I just ignored her, without the spoons to even explain.

pre-cut veg is for someone who works a day job and then still has to get dinner on at a reasonable hour.

600g kipfiletblokjes (chicken breast cut up)
250g soepgronten ("soup vegetables", carrot, celery, leek, a few other things, shredded)
250g Pappardelle (fresh wide pasta noodles)
1 jar of concentrated boullion, plus three more jars of water.
Olive oil for sauteeing
Spice to taste

Season blokjes as you will.
Sautee blokjes in oil in bottom of big soup pot until all outsides have colour. Add boullion, water, veg, cook according to directions on veg package (usu 12 min-ish). Add fresh noodles 5 min before veg should be done.

Bam! Chicken soup, all fresh ingredients except the stock, no chopping, 20 minutes, and if you deal with the recyclables while the soup boils, your kitchen is clean except for pot, spoon, and ladle, and whatever you're serving/storing it in.

That's my fastest recipe, but I've got goodly handful of others that depend on the Dutch penchant for ready-to-cook, pre-chopped fresh ingredients, everything from aardappelen (taters any way you can think of'em, sliced, chunked, pureed even) to zalm (salmon filets anywhere from a single portion to a whole side)... it's extremely *practical* is what it is, and I double-dawg-dare anyone with a day job and no live-in staff to come try it and then argue with me...

(oh, and speaking of sliced bread - the Dutch have half-loaves. They don't tend to use much in the way of preservatives, so it's _good bread_, but it doesn't stay fresh for long... instead of one whole, I'll get two halves, chuck one in the freezer... I lose a lot less bread that way, and even _white bread_ smells and tastes like BREAD and not this Wonder pasteurised processed "bread" food product meal... ptui... and did I mention the good stuff is cheap as chips?)