Am I ever happy to see a year end. Not that I like getting older, my ass hurts from the pounding 2022 and 2023 gave me. I get a wonderful gift in the mail. As with all garments, I wash them before wearing them. I just don’t trust manufacturers anymore. I throw everything in the washer, start it, I and go about my business. A few hours later, I forgot I had put them in there. Wait, what? What the fuck are these error codes? Mother fuck…. Wait, why won’t you unlock the door? Pull the plug and wait a few minutes. I plug it back in, and the door is still locked. Seriously? How the fuck am I supposed to get my clothes out?

I won’t bore you with all of the details and troubleshooting. I had to take the top of the washer apart in order to unlock the door from the inside. The error code indicates an issue with the motor controller board. I thought I could find the part and replace it. Well… yes, and no. A new board is more expensive than a new washer. This washer is only eight years old, maybe. Today, I hand washed a load of laundry, and I ordered a new washing machine. I didn’t get an expensive one this time. Fuck that! Appliances used to last. Shit, there are refrigerators that are 70 years old and still functioning. They weren’t energy-efficient, but they lasted forever.

So, I’m thinking… where is the cost-benefit analysis? Look, I can totally understand having an appliance that sucks as little energy as possible and still gets the job done. The issue is, these appliances are much more fragile than their old-school counterparts. How much energy does it take to produce a new washing machine? How much energy did I save with this “high efficiency” model? Does it at least equal out? I don’t know.

All we have to do is look at the electric car. I remember seeing an episode of Top Gear many years ago when the Toyota Prius first came out. They told a driver of a BMW M3 to stay behind the Prius on the track, but don’t pass it. They told the Prius driver to drive like a Prius driver – a fast asshole who thinks they are saving the planet, so they can drive fast. In the end, the BMW used less fuel than the Prius. Okay, that’s a hybrid car. Electric cars don’t use gasoline. We’re told we all need to use electric cars to stomp out fossil fuels, but they don’t tell us that most electric cars are charged by electricity created from fossil fuels. Oops…

That small issue aside, what about the batteries? Mining the rare-earth metals is expensive and requires a ton of fossil fuels. Those big dozers and rock trucks don’t run on rainbows and unicorn farts. Nope! They run on fossil fuels. Some studies have shown that the damage to the environment from mining for these minerals and creating these electric cars than keeping a fifteen-year-old SUV on the road. I can see arguments for either case, but pushing people to get rid of a perfectly good vehicle just to buy another one that is electric shows some logical issues.

Like it or not, vehicles that run on fossil fuels have a bunch of waste. Maybe you can recycle the steel and some of the components, but not everything. New cars have a lot of electronics. Only an idiot would think that everything gets recycled as it should. Shit, recycling in itself is a farce! Who do a lot of recyclers sell their shit to? China? A lot of things that were supposed to be recycled end up in the ocean, dumped by those who found it cheaper to dump it than actually recycle it.

Here’s the moral of the story. People are only out for themselves and their best interest. If someone is pushing for a certain technology, product, or idea, they have a vested interest in it. They will probably profit from it financially. They purposely make it damn near impossible to find. News articles are disappearing. Facts are only told that support a product. The facts that show the other side are hidden, destroyed. Look, I love technology. I’m in the damn field, making a living from it, but I see the bullshit companies spew. I’d love to be able to afford a Cybertruck. I personally think Elon Musk is our only chance at saving humanity. He was the inspiration behind Carl Mosk in my books.

The people who want to profit from all of these changes being shoved down our throats are hoping we’ll just comply and not think critically about their position. One of the main themes of my books is that no matter how advanced a society is, they will always be susceptible to corruption. In fact, corruption will find its way into even the most advanced and resolute societies. No one is immune.

Appliances do not last as long for several reasons. Corporations don’t make money if their products last forever. Governments can’t collect taxes from corporations that don’t make money. Oftentimes, these corporations and governments are secretly working together to line their pockets. Being super efficient means that the reliability will suffer. Why? Tolerances. To be super efficient, tolerances have to have the tiniest of margins. This means when something is outside of those margins, the fucker breaks. They purposely make the replacement parts difficult to find or expensive to incentivize you into buying a new model. Remember inkjet printers? $50 for a new printer or $70 for new ink.

Just like 2023, it’s all a bunch of bullshit. They are making society dumber and dumber so we fall for it easier and easier. Why think about anything when we can just watch the next video on social media and get that dopamine release?

Fuck! I was all over the place on this one. Fuck it! I don’t care. This post can represent my 2023, a hot fuckin mess that I’m glad is over with.