Cap’n Crunch

The NYT’s Lisa Miller writes: “Not to brag, but I have stellar ‘crunchy’ bona fides. I was raised on wheat bread, limited television and camping vacations, and at 17 went off to Oberlin College, that notorious incubator of crunchy achievers. I am deeply familiar with old-school crunchy in all of its hues: the lumpy hand-knit sweaters, the unkempt hair.” … Well, I grew up in Northern California, arguably Crunchy HQ, where my mom made me sprinkle wheat germ on my already horribly healthy breakfast cereal, and I regularly buy my organic produce at a store called Berkeley Bowl. So I too know the type. But these days, being crunchy isn’t limited to particular regions. And in a twist few saw coming, it’s not even limited to a particular political party. In fact, these days, it’s more associated with the right leaning MAHA crowd and their leader RFK Jr, than it is with Berkeley liberals. Lisa Miller in NYT (Gift Article): How the Right Claimed Crunchy. “Stephanie Kowalski published an online quiz on her parenting blog ‘Crunchy Moms.’ ‘You might be a crunchy mom if….’ it said, and the list that followed included crunchy classics such as co-sleeping, self-weaning, cloth diapers, seitan, a preference for menstrual sponges — and a refusal of childhood vaccines. Kowalski loved the diversity of the ‘crunchy’ spaces back then. ‘I felt we were very different in our backgrounds, but had that common goal of wanting to do things natural.’ Kowalski made her own laundry soap and promoted breast milk, applied topically, as a treatment for pink eye.” (You know what, you can have the topical breast milk applications and the homemade soap. I’ll take the Pop Tarts and the Doritos. And the vaccines.)

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