America is officially uninhabitable this week. Airborne magma is raping my body every time I step outside of my air-conditioned apartment, and The Atlantic makes a convincing argument that the history of AC mirrors the history of modern America.
Huge slices of life used to be centered around the fact that our jerk planet gets too freaking hot for bearable human existence. People designed their houses with giant holes in the middle so they’d get a breeze; they straight up refused to live in many southern US states like Florida and Texas because of the unrelenting heat; and by the early 20th century, they were ready to accept a toxic chemical-spewing cooling units into their workplaces, hospitals, and eventually their homes.
Think about that decision: “I’d rather expose myself and my family to whatever the hell is in this machine than spend another minute feeling like I’m living in Satan’s butt.” And can you really blame them for it? [The Atlantic]