[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
[Videos]
Remix of ->
Video: Wikileaks – Reportage & Dokumentation [ard] – “Is he a criminal or a revolutionary? The film tells the story of the rise and fall of Julian Assange. Once a celebrated publicist and over the years decried as an eccentric, spy and rapist. The documentary shows a differentiated picture of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. For the first time in German television Assange’s fiancée gives an interview.”
Street Art & Glass by Simon Berger
[Music]
Isolation Theme (Thom Yorke Remix)
Jacob Collier – He Won’t Hold You (feat. Rapsody) (Video animated by David Bruson)
The Screenshots feat. LGoony – Träume
Negativland – Don’t Don’t Get Freaked Out
Public Enemy – Fight The Power 2000
[Podcasts]
#166 Country of Liars [reply all] – “This week, PJ looks into a theory circling the internet about who might be behind QAnon. The investigation takes him back to the beginning of the QAnon scam, and to the message board trolls who started it.”
David Graeber RIP
David Graeber – A Celebration Of His Life
Memorial Carnival [david graeber industries] – “This is an invitation to come together across the world for a memorial carnival in the spirit of the one and only, David Graeber, who just left us so suddenly and unexpectedly. The invitation emerges from his wife Nika and a handful of his friends.” There will also be an event in Bern, feel free to join. We meet on 11.10. at 11:10 at the grave of Bakunin, Bremgartenfriedhof, Bern. Bring a mask for carneval and a mask for Coronaprotection.
David Graeber Left Us a Parting Gift — His Thoughts on Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid” [truthout.org] – “His essay on Mutual Aid, intended as a foreword to Kropotkin’s great work, is probably the last essay that David wrote. We have decided to publish it and to make it available to everyone, in loving memory of our friend, comrade, and mentor.”
Remembering the many lives of our friend David Graeber [roar magazine] – “A collective tribute to our friend, colleague and comrade David Graeber, whose brilliant work and tireless organizing were like a spark for us all.”
David Graeber [charlie rose] – “Associate Professor of Anthropology at Yale and prominent anarchist, David Graeber, talks about his unique ideas about anthropology.”
What David Graeber Noticed [current affairs] – “Be nice to the reader is one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever heard. (Incidentally, how are you doing? Okay, I hope? Well you look good, at least.) What he means by that is that when you are writing, you should be thinking about the experience of the person reading the writing. Are they bored and confused? Have you made them feel stupid? Or have you made them feel smart and engaged and satisfied? I think what he means by this being an “extension of politics” is that “accessibility” in the writing sense is the same as “accessibility” in the general sense, meaning that your writing should be designed for the broadest possible range of people to read and understand. There is a common perception that this means your writing must be “simplistic” or “dumbed down,” but that shows that you view average people as incapable of grasping complex ideas.”
David Graeber, 1961–2020 [nybooks] – “The world threw a lot of personal pain our ways in those years. It changed around us, mostly for the worse. “For a very long time,” David wrote, “the intellectual consensus has been that we can no longer ask Great Questions. Increasingly, it’s looking like we have no other choice.” We shared it all with each other, every day, the good stuff too, of course. And the book kept us going, transcending everything, making us feel safe when the safety of home eluded us. It made us family. We didn’t want it to end, this unexpected journey.”
David Graeber on harmful jobs, odious debt, and fascists who believe in global warming [disenz] – “The planet is dying because so people like that can feel good about themselves. They are sucking up enormous resources building their giant towers and filling them with useless flunkies simply for ego-gratification. When I got accounts of bullshit jobs, I heard about endless examples of this sort of thing. Every corporation needs to have its own in-house magazine with high production values and regular feature articles profiling this or that high level manager. For what possible reason? No one reads these magazines!”
Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology [prickly paradigm press] – “Everywhere anarchism is on the upswing as a political philosophy—everywhere, that is, except the academy. Anarchists repeatedly appeal to anthropologists for ideas about how society might be reorganized on a more egalitarian, less alienating basis. Anthropologists, terrified of being accused of romanticism, respond with silence . . . . But what if they didn’t?” Free download now.
What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun? [baffler] – “The very fact that you felt compelled to try to beat me in an argument, and were so happy to be able to do so, shows that the premise you were arguing must be false. Since if even philosophers are motivated primarily by such pleasures, by the exercise of their highest powers simply for the sake of doing so, then surely this is a principle that exists on every level of nature—which is why I could spontaneously identify it, too, in fish.” An older, still great text by Graeber.
[Articles English]
Cars hit people 104 times at BLM protests since George Floyd’s death [democratandchronicle] – “This has become something of a meme in white supremacy circles. There’ll be a picture of a car driving into a crowd, and then there will be a humorous remark about it. It’s definitely part of the discourse”
Proud Boys Statement [fred perry] – “Despite its lineage, we have seen that the Black/Yellow/Yellow twin tipped shirt is taking on a new and very different meaning in North America as a result of its association with the Proud Boys. That association is something we must do our best to end. We therefore made the decision to stop selling the Black/Yellow/Yellow twin tipped shirt in the US from September 2019, and we will not sell it there or in Canada again until we’re satisfied that its association with the Proud Boys has ended.”
What Anarchists Say About NYC’s ‘Anarchist Jurisdiction’ Designation [curbed] – “In an actual anarchist New York, “all New Yorkers will be as involved in building and caring for our city as they want to be, from block associations to councils for local food production or promoting racial justice,” wrote the MACC Information & Outreach Project. “We will embrace transformative justice and collectively determined community agreements over punishment, policing, or locking people in cages. The land of the five boroughs will be collectively nurtured and called upon to restore our health and our communities instead of sold, owned, rented, or polluted upon.””
When the pandemic quieted San Francisco, these birds could hear each other sing [nationalgeographic] – “As urban bustle ground to a halt this spring, white-crowned sparrow songs improved surprisingly fast, a new study says.”
A Demonstrator’s Guide to Responding to Gunshot Wounds [crimethinc] – “What Everyone Should Know” It so fucking sucks, but apparently this is the new reality in the so-called USA. Civil war incoming.
Neo-Nazis Are Using Eco-Fascism to Recruit Young People [vice] – “As the effects of climate change are intensifying, ecology is “playing a bigger role in fascist ideology across the board.”
Carbon emissions of richest 1 percent more than double the emissions of the poorest half of humanity [oxfam international] – “The richest one percent of the world’s population are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who made up the poorest half of humanity during a critical 25-year period of unprecedented emissions growth.”
The Overwhelming Racism Of COVID Coverage | by Indi Samarajiva [.medium] – “This is just racism, and western coverage is almost all like this. They attribute agency to rich/white nations like Germany or New Zealand but luck to anyone poorer or dark. And it’s just not true. Poorer nations have done better than the rich because they had robust public health responses. Because they worked together. Because they reacted early. These are all lessons worth learning, but the west is unable to learn them because they’re simply too racist to see. For once this racism isn’t killing us in the dirty south. We’re living. This time it’s killing you.”
So You’re Still Being Publicly Shamed [jacobin] – “The Right wants you to believe that a coddled, overly sensitive left is propping up cancel culture. But punitive, hyper-surveillant ways of interacting online are built into the structure of privately owned social media companies, and they’re practiced across the political spectrum. The Left must insist on a better way. […] And where right-wing culture warriors can only endlessly denounce this culture of hair-trigger denunciation, the Left can provide real solutions. If social media platforms were taken into public ownership, the profit incentives to always look for ways to make them more addictive would disappear, and we could make collective, democratic decisions about what those platforms should look like that take into account our common good. If we rebuild the labor movement and put an end to the semifeudal power of bosses in most American workplaces, “doxing” would lose at least part of its sting. And far fewer people will misdirect their political energies into scolding strangers on the internet if we build a powerful and appealing movement to change the real world.”
The Last-Ditch Talking Point on Climate Change [current affairs] – “Climate change denialists will never run out of talking points. You know the phrase “It’s hard to get someone to understand something when their job depends on their not understanding it”? Well, people like Carlson and Shellenberger could probably find themselves burning alive and they’d still be insisting the environmental “alarmists” were wrong. Of course, as the effects of climate change become ever more apparent, the talking points will become ever more absurd. Trump is now blaming exploding trees; his supporters are blaming Antifa arsonists. Whatever story they need to come up with to avoid rethinking their viewpoint, they will insist upon as Scientific Fact. All we can do is endeavor to expose how the trickery works, and help people to avoid being misled by these increasingly desperate forms of denial.”
Whistleblower: There Were Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Facility [law & crime] – “Multiple women came forward to tell Project South about what they perceived to be the inordinate rate at which women in ICDC were subjected to hysterectomies – a surgical operation in which all or part of the uterus is removed. Additionally, many of the immigrant women who underwent the procedure were reportedly “confused” when asked to explain why they had the surgery, with one detainee likening their treatment to prisoners in concentration camps.”
QAnon is a Nazi Cult, Rebranded [justsecurity] – “QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Global White Supremacist Terror: Halle – “As a collective of international artists and researchers (and in collaboration with the web platform host, NSU-Watch), we have come together to visually describe both the offline and online activities of the shooter in Halle from the start of his attack to his final arrest on 9 October 2019 — and chronologize other separate, but connected, instances of far-right violence in cities like Oslo, Christchurch, Poway, El Paso, and Hanau over the last several years.”
Global Climate Report – August 2020 [ncdc.noaa] – “Averaged as a whole, the August 2020 global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.94°C (1.69°F) above average and the second highest August temperature since global records began in 1880. Only August 2016 was warmer with a temperature departure from average of +0.98°C (+1.76°F). The 10 warmest Augusts have all occurred since 1998; however, the five warmest Augusts have occurred since 2015.”
The lasting misery of coronavirus long-haulers [nature] – “Months after infection with SARS-CoV-2, some people are still battling crushing fatigue, lung damage and other symptoms of ‘long COVID’.”
COVID-19 Storms: Bradykinin In, Cytokine Out? [medpage today] – “Papers poke holes in cytokine storm as gene expression study offers a new theory”
Why does the right keep pretending the left runs Britain? | Lea Ypi [the guardian] – “The culture war against “Marxism” does exactly what the original cultural Marxists warned that it would. It ensures that, having secured political power, and concentrated economic resources to the detriment of the many, the right can continue to ensure that capitalists remain unchallenged.”
Central Park Bird Watcher Christian Cooper Writes DC Comics Graphic Novel: It’s Now Free Online [open culture] – “We not only give the bare bones details of how they died, but also a little bit about them, because they were people. They weren’t just want happened to them. I hope young people (are) inspired to keep the focus where it needs to be, which is on those we have lost and how we keep from losing more.”
As an anxious internet nerd, my relationships are thriving during lockdown | Laurie Penny [the guardian] – “Since lockdown began, I’ve moved three times, lost jobs and been separated from my family – but my online community hasn’t changed”
The Photograph as Contemporary Art [wmmna] – “Photography is by far my favourite art form. It can be easy and immediate. And it can hide multiple layers of meaning and references. Photography also gives visibility to people, practices and places that mainstream visual media fails to notice.”
[Articles German/French]
Le féminisme comme hologramme [lundi.am] – “Twerker avec les vivants plutôt que moisir avec les cadavres”
«Die Schweiz sendet ein fatales Signal in die Welt hinaus» [republik] – “Die Schweiz signalisiert anderen Staaten – und das dürfen Sie auf gar keinen Fall unterschätzen, den Umstand, dass dieses Signal aus der Schweiz kommt –, dass breite, vage, unpräzise und interpretierbare Definitionen von Terrorismus zulässig und statthaft sind. Und das ist extrem gefährlich. Denn die Geschichte zeigt, dass dies den Boden legt für Autoritarismus.”
Interview „Iuventa“ – „Die Diskursverschiebung gegen Seenotrettung hat Menschenleben gekostet“ [netzpolitik] – “Crew-Mitgliedern drohen Gefängnis und horrende Geldstrafen: Wer Menschen aus dem Meer rettet, wird überwacht und rechtlich verfolgt. Im Interview sprechen wir mit Hendrik Simon über politische Hürden für Seenotretter, über die Diskursverschiebung und die Schuld der europäischen Regierungen daran und über eine neue Webseite zum Fall des Schiffes „Iuventa“.”
Intransparenz – Die fragwürdigen Spenden-Tricks der Anti-Corona-Bewegung [netzpolitik] – “Bei den Protesten gegen die Corona-Maßnahmen geht es um viel Geld. Doch Recherchen von netzpolitik.org zeigen, dass häufig nicht klar ist, wo Spenden wirklich landen. Prominente Akteure werben für eine Firma, die auf einem Konto im Ausland Millionenbeträge sammeln will. Vor allem ein Name taucht immer wieder auf.”
Ein aktuelles Interview mit Franco “Bifo” Berardi [untergrund-blättle] – “Übersetzte Texte von Franco “Bifo” Berardi waren ja schon mehrmals in den Pandemie Kriegstagebüchern von Sebastian Lotzer zu lesen”
Sie haben noch etwas zu sagen [faz] – “Nur ist das Aufbegehren der deklassierten Intellektuellen eine Geste, die zum Scheitern verurteilt ist. Sie schleppen den Geist der Reaktion weiter, aber ihre Revolte ist in historischer Betrachtung ein Reflex des gesellschaftlichen Fortschritts. Es sollen nicht mehr nur wenige das Sagen haben: Das ist die Regel des Spiels. Das Donnergrollen des großprofessoralen oder regietheatralischen Ressentiments ist die Hintergrundmelodie der jüngsten Phase der Modernisierung.”
Die letzte Satirikerin [woz] – “Erst Opfer der «Cancel Culture», jetzt omnipräsent: Die Kabarettistin Lisa Eckhart wird als mutige Querdenkerin herumgereicht. Warum bloss? ”
[Older articles, still great]
Judging the Judges [current affairs] – “The solution may not be clear, but what is apparent is that judges are more concerned with law than justice and that they have far too much power to ruin peoples’ lives. Ideally, no one would actually be able to authorize your ouster from your home or the prolonged caging of human beings—so to the extent that we can limit that, we ought to. Beyond that we must strive to make the system and the people within it more just and reduce our dependence on that system for justice and morality in the first place.”
Murray Bookchin on ecological fascism
Murray Bookchin on the origin of the word Libertarian
R.I.P.
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Header Photo: Instagram