Downer

The “downer cattle” travesty (the practice of abusing sick cows to force them to stand and thus be deemed healthy enough for human consumption by inspectors) has jumped species. These ill cattle, after a rotten life spent penned up among hundreds of others, fed crap to fatten them up until they can barely stand, and pumped full of steroids and antibiotics and god knows what else, are left obese, catatonic and half-dead by the time they’re due for slaughter; next stop: your digestive tract:

…the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover video that showed plant workers using forklifts to roll cows unable to walk and poking them with electric prods, allegedly to move them to the slaughter box.

It’s unclear which species first exhibited the traits characterizing downer cattle: cows or humans (homo americanus, especially).

Humans are also fed crap, whether via fast food slop-troughs or genetically modified “food” that can lack labeling and is subjected to less rigorous testing, if it’s tested at all. GM food prevalence is on the rise.

Humans are drinking low concentrations of poison every day. Chlorine and fluoride, common additives to municipal drinking water, have been linked to health effects ranging from brain defects to bone cancer.

Humans are regularly injected with viruses and chemicals of dubious safety. Vaccines and the use of mercury-containing thimerosol as a preservative for vaccines have been convincingly linked to autism and other conditions.

Humans are deluged daily by a sea of electro-magnetic waves from cell phones and cell phone towers, the possible side-effects of which studies are just beginning to explore.

What inspired me to write this was my noticing of the ever-intensifying marketing of energy drinks and supplements, after even ubiquitous Starbucks began to prove insufficient to keep the herd ambulatory enough. Next it was Red Bull, then Rockstar and a glut of similar drinks. Now we have 5-Hour Energy, for when you need your energy in a more concentrated form than an 8 ounce can. Militaries are experimenting with ways to keep soldiers awake for days at a time; I pray to Dog that they don’t find something that can later be sold to the public.

Longer hours, greater productivity and less pay has been the trend of the last few decades, and this trend continues apace. The average homo americanus wakes up in the dark and lies down in the dark. Endless hours wedged in a crate, pardon me, a cubicle, staring at a screen. Hooked into the company system to pour out code and data like cattle pump out milk. As this routine becomes more rigorous and less sustainable, outside substances become more necessary just to keep the animal functioning. And functioning why? To produce for those higher up the food chain and hopefully at the same time scratch together enough to live. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, humans seek more pharmaceuticals in an attempt to reverse the process. They have to: humans are in great supply and cubicles are becoming ever fewer.