Etymology

orphan-crushing machine

Today it means: A notional machine representing a system or state of affairs that obviously facilitates suffering but is not acknowledged or examined, or for which no alternative is considered. Full definition →

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The story

Referencing a Twitter post by @pookleblinky on September 25, 2020: Every heartwarming human interest story in america is like "he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine" and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you'd need to pay to prevent it from being used.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.