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agonyaunt2021-04-06 01:16 pm
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2021-04-06 01:16 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Prudence: Today in Environmentalism
aka today in ableism.
Q. Straws: I have a weird medical condition that causes dental issues. I have almost zero tooth enamel and my teeth are incredibly sensitive. I’ve been advised by multiple doctors and dentists to always drink through a straw to lessen the amount of whatever I’m drinking rushing against my teeth.
Part of my city has banned plastic straws, so it’s been difficult. I have reusable ones but they’re not the easiest or most convenient to use. My friends are very passionate about the environment (and so am I). Every time they see me use a straw, they make a negative comment about it. The worst offender is one of my childhood friends, who is also a co-worker. I’ve explained my medical condition but no one cares. One person even said I should just “get dentures already” so I can stop “killing the environment.” I’m honestly a little tired of talking about my straw use. How can I get them all to shut up about it?
A: I’m so sorry! How maddening and disproportionate. I wonder if your friends bring the same energy to the inadequacies of, say, the Paris Agreement, or the major contributors to carbon emissions as they do to a single person’s medically-indicated reusable straws. I’m a little amused at the idea that someone thinks dentures (often made of acrylic and requiring ongoing monitoring and care from one’s dentist—think of all the little plastic cups and bibs that will run into!) are going to single-handedly save the environment, and more than a little horrified that the doctor-advised solution of using straws is considered ridiculous, but removing all of the otherwise-healthy teeth in your head is a reasonable alternative.
I realize bringing that up in this context might make you come across as defensive, but it seems telling that your friends’ primary interest in combating climate change comes from a desire to monitor, judge, and restrict something that accommodates your disability. (If that particular word doesn’t suit you, let’s stick with “medically necessary”—something that enables you to do what they’re able to do without intervention, which is to drink liquids without pain.) That’s the point to stress here, I think—”saving the environment” is going to come from collective action on a massive scale, not from harassing individual people with sensitive teeth into stripping the rest of their enamel away.
Q. Straws: I have a weird medical condition that causes dental issues. I have almost zero tooth enamel and my teeth are incredibly sensitive. I’ve been advised by multiple doctors and dentists to always drink through a straw to lessen the amount of whatever I’m drinking rushing against my teeth.
Part of my city has banned plastic straws, so it’s been difficult. I have reusable ones but they’re not the easiest or most convenient to use. My friends are very passionate about the environment (and so am I). Every time they see me use a straw, they make a negative comment about it. The worst offender is one of my childhood friends, who is also a co-worker. I’ve explained my medical condition but no one cares. One person even said I should just “get dentures already” so I can stop “killing the environment.” I’m honestly a little tired of talking about my straw use. How can I get them all to shut up about it?
A: I’m so sorry! How maddening and disproportionate. I wonder if your friends bring the same energy to the inadequacies of, say, the Paris Agreement, or the major contributors to carbon emissions as they do to a single person’s medically-indicated reusable straws. I’m a little amused at the idea that someone thinks dentures (often made of acrylic and requiring ongoing monitoring and care from one’s dentist—think of all the little plastic cups and bibs that will run into!) are going to single-handedly save the environment, and more than a little horrified that the doctor-advised solution of using straws is considered ridiculous, but removing all of the otherwise-healthy teeth in your head is a reasonable alternative.
I realize bringing that up in this context might make you come across as defensive, but it seems telling that your friends’ primary interest in combating climate change comes from a desire to monitor, judge, and restrict something that accommodates your disability. (If that particular word doesn’t suit you, let’s stick with “medically necessary”—something that enables you to do what they’re able to do without intervention, which is to drink liquids without pain.) That’s the point to stress here, I think—”saving the environment” is going to come from collective action on a massive scale, not from harassing individual people with sensitive teeth into stripping the rest of their enamel away.
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Anyway, if LW's friends are unable to learn, LW needs new friends. "Look, y'all, do you think the hospital should stop using disposable saline bags and syringes? If yes, bye, we're done. And if no, then can understand the concept of medical necessity, but for some reason you don't want to apply it to me. Think about that."
Anyway I've had this exact fight because when I'm out of the house I also need plastic straws (restaurant glasses are too heavy.) Just not with my friends, because my friends aren't terrible. I've had the fight with co-workers, though.
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I suppose there's a slim possibility her friends are mostly stupid and not malicious and she just needs a better way to explain medical necessity and shoot down the fallacy behind this type of particularly stupid environmentalist strategy... but even in that case they're still pretty awful if they've continued to badger LW after any sort of explanation at all.
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Well if they're going to die they might as well hurry up and do it, and so decrease the surplus population, don't'cha know.
growls
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I'm all for reusable straws, just like I'm all for reusable plates and silverware, but hassling your friends isn't the way. Also: they're kinda a small drop in the big pond that is corporate pollution.
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Edit: I should say, that they went moldy if they didn’t go through the dishwasher.
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To be clear, if you don't want 'em, don't get 'em. But I just have not had that problem you name.
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It looks like you can get them for cheap from the usual suspects without buying the straws themselves, if you already have straws and just want to clean them.
Note: This should be obvious, but just in case - I'm not sure they clean "wacky straws", the ones with weird shapes and squiggles. I've never tried it and don't intend to!
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