The Shitthropocene
patagonia.com
patagonia.com
During the pandemic, I bought two more pairs of TNF pants (my first since the 90's). Different styles, but within weeks each had developed holes in the pockets, then other weird problems. I hung onto them for a couple years because they were still new and I hate throwing stuff away, but I stopped wearing them because they sucked, then finally, I tossed them. All of the pants from 30 years ago are still going strong.
I'm reminded about what Scott Bessent, the new Treasury Secretary, said earlier this month: Cheap goods are not part of the American Dream [0]. In the US we love our big houses and we fill them up with crap. When the crap overflows it just gets stored in our big garages were we also put our oversized cars. [1]
How we got here today is just the result of the post-WW2 world-order. Global trade was designed to make cheap stuff. While labor rates skyrocketed. So you make more money but you can surround yourself with status symbols and things that supposedly make you more comfortable.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/treasury-secretary-bessent-s...
Last I checked a lot of their clothes were full of forever chemicals and processed plastics but maybe they've made progress.
https://www.insidehook.com/gear/patagonia-major-microplastic...
Most people didn't regularly consume red meat before industrialization. However, once we made it "cheap", the everyman could eat steak for dinner every night! Same goes for all kinds of goods, especially plastic.
It's wild how many things changed around the turn of that century, for the worse, but we accept all these things as just the way things are and should be. Like, seriously, widespread use of toilet paper is just over a century old. That's not that long for something most people probably assume has just always been that way.
Sorry if this is a bit off topic. It's just something that boggles my mind; how close we are yet so far away from our past.
The difference in manufacturing between a $100 and $500 jacket is like 20-30 bucks of material and labour. Patagonia boxer and dollar store boxer like $2. Occasionally you have products like $4 costco wool socks with same performance as $40 darn toughs.
Reality is US can fill their big houses with cheap, none crap, but brand extraction,market segmentation etc.
Pump up the jam, pump it up, while your feet are stomping...
"plastic microfibers are us"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/patagonias-poly-hypocrisy-blend...
Just say no to neologisms that incorporate the word shit.
And why say no to a word that almost perfectly describes the phenomenon? My only complaint is that it should be "shittocene".
“We’re affecting the world, and part of it is that our products have become terrible so they produce more waste”
I just think our society is descending into ubiquitous poor taste fast enough without such words rattling around in our brains. But I'm old-fashioned; I had similar reactions to "The Dead Kennedys", "The Butthole Surfers", and "The Vagina Monologues".
The actual phenomena that require serious discussion like lack of market protection, lack or consumer protection, lack of contractual protection all have serious names that allow for the discussion. So the bad name isn't an impediment to anything important.