this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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[–] Infynis@midwest.social 174 points 10 months ago (6 children)

I think the implication of the last panel is supposed to be that the apple seller can't stop everyone, but if this was really an accurate satire, he'd chop down every tree, sue everyone that picked the apples, and then go back to selling his giant flavorless GMO apples for $5 a piece

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 81 points 10 months ago (4 children)

The hell of it is, some people would still be happy to buy his apples. Look, I ain't got time or health insurance to be fucking around climbing an apple tree, here's some cash, apples pls. But that's not good enough for the investors, who want guaranteed 5% growth every quarter, so now we've got to pour kerosene on the extra apples and force people to go hungry.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You've read The Vines of Wrath.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's The Grapes of Being A Bit Miffed actually

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 9 points 10 months ago

Much better than the sequel, The Apricots of Annoyance.

The porn Adaptation, Plums of Pleasure, is a banger though, pun intended.

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[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

He would fence off the trees, and lobby his local government to require permits for picking apples, permits that have an issuing limit that somehow coincides with the number of apple stands he has. Picking apples without a permit would result in a fine of $10,000, or a year in jail.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

the apple seller can’t stop everyone

I bet the Once-ler wouldn't have that attitude.

[–] Assman@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

MFer needs a super-axe-hacker. Then he could whack down four apple trees in one smacker.

[–] Cicraft@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

If you haven't done so already I'd recommend listening to the scrapped movie song "biggering" which was cancelled because it scared illumination

[–] lud@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why does it matter if an apple is modified or not?

Modifying plants for better yields, less water usage, higher resistance to pests, better taste, and so on. Seems like a great idea in my mind.

Either way this comic is bad. It's stupidly easy to just plant an apple tree in your back/front yard, if you have one. Apples aren't that picky about where they want to be planted.

They should have gone for a better analogy if they are trying to say something.

[–] Infynis@midwest.social 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Why does it matter if an apple is modified or not?

In general, I am not opposed to GMOs. All those benefits would be great. But in practice, companies aren't modifying the product to be better for the consumer, they're modifying it to sell better, and cost less to produce. That basically means bigger, and less diverse, which actually ends up making them less resistant to pests and disease

[–] porcariasagrada@slrpnk.net 23 points 10 months ago

the problem isn't gmo. the problem is the profit motivation that will invite disaster.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago

Wait until you learn that we've been genetically modifying our food via selective breeding for as long as we've had agriculture.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 2 points 10 months ago

And staying "fresh" longer etc.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Originally I thought the joke was that after chopping down the one tree, eventually he had a shitload of trees grow (from the fallen apples), but guess not.

[–] modifier@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

but if this was really an accurate satire, he'd chop down every tree, sue everyone that picked the apples, and then go back to selling his giant flavorless GMO apples for $5 a piece

Only if he couldn't figure out a way to rent apples to customers.

[–] 100_percent_a_bot@lemmy.world 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm not 14 years old enough to get this

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 months ago

Me neither. Though I think it’s “something, something, something, capitalism sucks.”

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 30 points 10 months ago (6 children)

I feel like this is a metaphor, I'm just not sure for what yet.

[–] discusseded@programming.dev 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago

What's the bottled-water equivalent of chopping down a single apple tree in a forest of apple trees though?

[–] UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

The apples represent feet pics. It's a tough market so the businessman only wants his feet pics to be sold in a sea of feet pics on the internet.

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[–] rivvvver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 10 months ago (7 children)
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[–] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hell yeah, this is the free gifts of nature in a nutshell.

[...] the “free gift of Nature to capital.” Capitalist exploitation and accumulation, as Marx explains, ultimately depend on capital’s usurping of nature’s gifts for itself, thereby monopolizing the means of production and wealth in its entirety

Probably better sources, but this is the first best one I found.

[–] Lev_Astov@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So... farming is a free gift from nature?

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No, natural capital is - soil particularly.

[–] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

This person is correct. Land and the natural process of nature are free gifts.

[–] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

Close. Farming is labour, which is what gives economic value to the free gifts. The capitalists skim excess value from this process in the form of wage theft and other fuckery.

I'm simplifying, but yeah.

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 17 points 10 months ago

There's so much wrong about this picture. But let's start from the obvious: that man shouldn't be able to afford a suit.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The main question around this comic that makes it hard for me to derive a message is, who planted/cared for/owns the apple trees?

I’m reminded of a speech from Gus in Better Call Saul, where technically a tree from his homeland was wild, but he was the one that made the effort to water and care for it before a critter started stealing from it.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I wouldn't follow ethics in business advice from a meth dealer explaining why he killed a wild animal.

[–] charonn0@startrek.website 7 points 10 months ago

Right? It's obviously an orchard, not a forest, and obviously the apples are one of the popular commercial cultivars rather than some wild natural variant.

[–] Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

This comic makes so little sense it's underflowed back to funny for me.

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 7 points 10 months ago

I suppose he was already grumpy because he was the only one who'd forgot about Dress Like Homer Simpson Or Peter Griffin Day at the orchard.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My experience is that apple trees aren't that thick.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago

Your apple mom is though, heyoo

[–] snugglebutt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

She sells sea shells down by the sea shore

[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

But the value of these shells will fall

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