Teaser Image April 2020

This! April 20206 min read

[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]

an image or two from my Tumblr
an image or two from my Tumblr
an image or two from my Tumblr


[Videos]

This is not a conspiracy – is finally finished. I have been a supporter of this project, but I completely forgot the first episodes.

Primera Linea in Chile

Trouble #24 – Organize: For Autonomy & Mutual Aid [sub.media] – “These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. ”

Albert Camus – The Plague

How This Guy Balances Impossible Rock Structures


[Music]

Girl butchers Killing in the name of

Milck – Gold

Sweet Home Alabama played with objects found in the house


[Podcasts]

Grounded with Louis Theroux [bbc] – “Louis speaks to writer and documentary-maker Jon Ronson, who is grounded in upstate New York. They discuss their professional rivalry, inhabiting similar worlds and how Jon is handling the lockdown”

Das Coronavirus-Update mit Christian Drosten [ndr] – Simply the best podcast in regards to the coronavirus.


[Articles English]

The Agitprop of the Pandemic [crimethinc] – Posters, Stickers, and Graffiti from around the World

Germany’s Covid-19 expert: ‘For many, I’m the evil guy crippling the economy’ [the guardian] – “In Germany, people see that the hospitals are not overwhelmed, and they don’t understand why their shops have to shut. They only look at what’s happening here, not at the situation in, say, New York or Spain. This is the prevention paradox, and for many Germans I’m the evil guy who is crippling the economy. I get death threats, which I pass on to the police. More worrying to me are the other emails, the ones from people who say they have three kids and they’re worried about the future. It’s not my fault, but those ones keep me awake at night.”

Why Jordan Peterson Is Always Wrong [jacobin] – “Jordan Peterson is one of the most famous public intellectuals in the world. But his pronouncements in favor of capitalism and hierarchy collapse at the slightest bit of scrutiny.”

Due to COVID-19: Documenting the signs of the pandemic – “During the coronavirus pandemic, daily life has come to a sudden standstill and businesses have had to respond. Signs on storefronts announce operational changes but these messages are also brimming over with solidarity, shared responsibility, and cautious optimism. This project attempts to document the temporary signs that have gone up across our communities.”

Name that song – it’s the perfect time to learn to identify birds [the guardian] – “Now there’s no traffic noise to drown out their sounds, it’s a perfect time to learn how to distinguish birds by their songs”

Productivity Is Not Working | Laurie Penny [wired] – “There is nothing counterrevolutionary about keeping busy. But right now, we have a finite opportunity to rethink how we value ourselves, to re-examine our metric for measuring the worth of human lives. Right now, the entire species is trying to work out how to live in the same house without killing each other—and that may well turn out to be the work that matters most.”

The Authoritarian Trade-Off [reallife] – “Exchanging privacy rights for public health is a false compromise”

Global Climate Report – March 2020 [ncdc] – “Averaged as a whole, the global land and ocean surface temperature for March 2020 was 1.16°C (2.09°F) above the 20th century average of 12.7°C (54.9°F) and the second highest in the 141-year record. Only March 2016 was warmer at 1.31°C (2.36°F).”

This Is Not the Apocalypse You Were Looking For | Laurie Penny [wired] – “My job will be the same as yours and everyone else’s: to be kind, to stay calm, and to take care of whoever happens to need taking care of in my immediate vicinity. We have been living for many, many years in what Gramsci called a time of monsters, where “the old is dying and the new cannot be born.” The new is now being induced in a hurry, because after this, nothing is going back to normal. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and everything does feel fine—not fine like chill, but fine like china, like glass, like thread. Everything feels so fine, and so fragile, and so shockingly worth saving.”

Coronavirus Spells the End of the Neoliberal Era. What’s Next? | Jeremy Lent [patterns of meaning] – “If we can change the basis of our global civilization from one that is wealth-affirming to one that is life-affirming, then we have a chance to create a flourishing future for humanity and the living Earth.”


[Articles German/French]

Miteinander, am besten ohne Staat [woz] – “In der Coronawelt entstehen solidarische Hilfsstrukturen für die Schwächsten. Ist das der Weg zu einer herrschaftsfreien Gesellschaft?”

Christian Drosten im Interview – Gesundheit [sz] – “Mit der Corona-Krise wurde der Virologe Christian Drosten zu einem Popstar der Wissenschaft. Eine befremdliche Erfahrung für ihn.”

Les “impressions dissonantes” de Geoffroy de Lagasnerie sur la crise en cours [les inrocks] – “La droitisation des sociétés qui s’accélérait avant l’épidémie ne s’est pas arrêtée comme par magie il y a quelques semaines : ce processus est toujours en cours. Il s’accroît même : nos manières de nous rapporter à ce qui arrive marquent un triomphe des valeurs qui la définissent : dolorisme, familialisme, naturalisme, intolérance aux petites déviances, nationalisme…. Aujourd’hui, l’épidémie est effrayante parce que, en plus des dommages physiques qu’elle provoque, tout indique qu’elle nous entraîne vers l’émergence d’une gouvernementalité qui détruit la vie à travers des formes de cannibalisme moral, d’antimodernisme, et de soumission nationaliste.”


[Older articles, still great]

A history of subversive remix video before YouTube: Thirty political video mashups made between World War II and 2005 – “The politically oriented mashup video subgenre has its roots in the rich and diverse history of left-leaning, often deeply antiauthoritarian, creative traditions. These transformative works, by their very nature, are suspicious of and challenge political, corporate, media, and social power structures. They focus on a wide array of issues, including race, gender, sexuality, and economics, in addition to more overtly political topics of government, public policy, and warfare.”

At the Epicenter of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Humanitarian Crises in Italy: Changing Perspectives on Preparation and Mitigation [catalyst.nejm.org] – “In a Bergamo hospital deeply strained by the Covid-19 pandemic, exhausted clinicians reflect on how to prepare for the next outbreak.” This is from March, Italian doctors asking for decent ambulant palliative community care.

Gmac Cash – Coronavirus


R.I.P.

All the unnecessary deaths in the US and the world over


[If you care to receive more regular updates, please follow my diigo (via rss), for all of my saved links, or my zettelkasten (rss), twitter for an edited choice of them]


Header Photo: Cold Bath

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