Peanuts, Yogurt, And The Shape Of The Middle Class

 

Peanuts, Yogurt, And The Shape Of The Middle Class

Date: February 7, 2026

One of the most shocking things I heard today is that ICE facilities are housing over 3,000 children under the age of twelve. I thought that was catastrophic. I never imagined that anyone would even attempt to incarcerate small children. At the same time, there is the constant breaking of the law in the name of what some people call a righteous cause. I cannot understand how intimidation and lawbreaking are supposed to fit into any idea of democracy.

I sometimes find myself wishing for the old middle class incentives to come back, even though they pushed a lot of people into poverty. At least those patterns were familiar. You went to look for a job, or you stood in line at the store, and you knew where you stood. Thinking back, I remember how ignorant I was as a young man, and even as a young boy. I remember how I once thought that Planned Parenthood was just about stopping population growth. I shook my head back then and told myself it was a good thing. In reality, it was always about responsibility and health, and I could never honestly say there was something wrong with it, even in the worst circumstances.

There was also that constant pressure where rich men were expected to succeed and poor men were expected to fail. That seems to be a major part of the MAGA white man reality, if you catch my drift. You weigh it out and tell yourself that maybe it is better than what came before. In the end, it should be about health and moving forward for both men and women. Still, there are a lot of strange ideas floating around about how Planned Parenthood fits into all of this. I do not really know why.

Maybe it goes back to stories I heard in junior high school. I remember hearing young Mexican boys speak in Spanish about how white people ate babies. It was that same kind of attitude, just on a higher and more political level. If you really get down to the realities of life, immigrants, and the idea of Planned Parenthood being negative, none of it makes much sense. I do not believe white people eat babies, and I never did. That kind of thinking is not reality.

Then there is the aggressive new attitude around independent health food stores. It is very noticeable that organic food costs more than food produced with chemicals. You can see it even with peanuts. There are peanuts with shells and peanuts without shells, and sometimes the ones that seem more natural cost more than the ordinary salted or unsalted ones. So there is organic and non-organic. Rich people can afford the more expensive food that is closer to natural and basic. They can afford the kitchens and the time to cook healthier meals and get more food value out of them.

I think about this and tell myself that I helped make this world. I worked in a health food store. I believed in that kind of living. I lived near the Zen Center and bought organic vegetables there. So how could people think the way they do about Planned Parenthood. In my own strange way, Planned Parenthood seems to parallel that same divide between those who can afford better options and those who cannot.

Sometimes it feels like people assume that, generally speaking, Americans do not really need Planned Parenthood because they are wealthy. The idea seems to be that they already have the facilities, the cleanliness, and the means to take care of everything. They can process their organic vegetables and buy their better peanuts. They can live without certain kinds of support because their lives are already comfortable and protected.

I am starting to understand the MAGA influence and why it is so powerful. It runs on the idea of eliminating certain drugs and certain kinds of care from society, including drugs that women use through Planned Parenthood. On top of that, there is the influence of the military and how it shapes people’s lives and expectations. I think about all of this while remembering my own past in health food stores and organic markets.

One memory that always comes back to me is from Garberville, California, when I worked nights in a health food store. The owner told me not to worry about turning off the freezer where the yogurt was kept and to just leave it on all night. I would work through the night, walking the floors, putting vegetables in place, and checking the yogurt for mold. The boss told me to help myself to the yogurt and to throw out the ones that had mold. One night I grabbed a yogurt and started eating it. Halfway through, I realized I was eating mold. I got sick for three weeks. It was the worst diarrhea I ever had in my life, and it came from “healthy” organic yogurt.

So when someone talks to me about how the middle class works and how it connects to the military, I think it works the same way as a lot of other things in this world. People join the military to get benefits. They want a newer house near the base and a new car or two, like my brothers did. They do not worry much about organic vegetables or Planned Parenthood because they have steady benefits and steady money. They are living right on the edge of their paycheck while supporting cars and a house, and they can still go to the base for food or other support.

If you are a middle class man taking the bus to work, like I once did, and saving for a car, the powers that shape your life feel very different. Even the idea of organic food feels different. You stand in the store looking at the peanut butter machine and choosing between organic and non-organic, and you do not see much difference. You tell yourself that maybe you will try the organic anyway.

In the end, I cannot help thinking that the MAGA movement is one of the most corrupt ways of thinking I have seen. It takes real, complicated human needs and turns them into slogans and punishments. It forgets about children, health, and basic dignity. And it forgets how thin the line really is between comfort and struggle in this country.