No, not flavored coffee. PSLs. Different things. It’s like saying “pork sandwiches” when someone brings up the McRib. It’s not that simple. Food has a cultural component tied to its manufacture and identification. And, similar to the McRib, Starbucks style PSLs are food that probably shouldn’t exist and which only does as a byproduct of market capitalism. They’re the Lacanian ‘object a’ - an empty, manufactured falseness. We don’t desire the thing itself, but the thing whose absence it symbolizes. What you’re really consuming when you drink a PSL or a McRib is its innate mechanical predictability.
No, not flavored coffee. PSLs. Different things. It’s like saying “pork sandwiches” when someone brings up the McRib. It’s not that simple. Food has a cultural component tied to its manufacture and identification. And, similar to the McRib, Starbucks style PSLs are food that probably shouldn’t exist and which only does as a byproduct of market capitalism. They’re the Lacanian ‘object a’ - an empty, manufactured falseness. We don’t desire the thing itself, but the thing whose absence it symbolizes. What you’re really consuming when you drink a PSL or a McRib is its innate mechanical predictability.