[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
[Videos]
Massive Attack X Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
The Tape | Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine
Sacha Baron Cohen Rips Facebook and Other Social Media Giants
A Message From The Future ||: The Years Of Repair
[Music]
MC Frontalot – This Is Not A Drill
Ossama – Baptême du Zbeul
Manuel Stahlberger / Bit-Tuner – Dureringe
Roland 808303.studio – Online 808 and 303 generator tool.
[Podcasts]
How to Be Depressed [know your enemy] – “Topics discussed include: Matt’s review of George Scialabba’s memoir about depression; how left and right understand moral desert; and the struggle to build a society based on human frailty, our vulnerability to bad luck and bad breaks, and how much we need each other.”
[Articles English]
Against ‘The Family’ | by Laurie Penny [.medium.] – “Conservatives have declared war on abortion. That’s not about ‘protecting the family’ – it’s about controlling women.”
Grand Illusions | Pankaj Mishra [nybooks] – “It’s time to abandon the intellectual narcissism of cold war Western liberalism.”
On The Limits of Identity Politics [igd] – “The theories of identity politics suit us in understanding the hegemonic racial hierarchy and identity, but to make the error of allowing them to essentialize us and define us in our totality simply reinforces power, by denying new constructions and formations of identity and solidarity through struggle. We must begin to judge one another based on what we do, and not solely on who we are perceived to be. If we believe in radical social change we must also believe individuals are capable of radical change as well. To recognize that the actions taken in the streets in the last few months have already fundamentally changed the people who participated in the uprising. What is required of us now is the ability to make those changes legible to ourselves by opening up our understandings of who the participants are in this struggle for collective liberation.”
Airborne transmission of Covid-19: A room, a bar and a class: how the coronavirus is spread through the air [el pais] – “The risk of contagion is highest in indoor spaces but can be reduced by applying all available measures to combat infection via aerosols. Here is an overview of the likelihood of infection in three everyday scenarios, based on the safety measures used and the length of exposure.”
How an Aversion to Masks Stems From ‘Toxic Masculinity’ [nyt] – “There has been a very dominant strain of men who clearly feel that wearing a mask would so expose their vulnerability that they would rather risk death from the virus.” ~ Anand Giridharadas”
Climate Science Denial Network Behind Great Barrington Declaration [byline times] – “The ‘think-tank’ behind the Great Barrington Declaration is part-funded by right-wing American billionaire Charles Koch”
Assessing the Global Climate in September 2020 [ncei.noaa.gov] – “The September 2020 global land and ocean surface temperature was the highest for September in the 141-year record at 1.75°F (0.97°C) above the 20th-century average of 59.0°F (15.0°C). This value surpassed the now second-highest September temperature that took place in 2015 and 2016 by 0.04°F (0.02°C).”
QAnon Conspiracy Theories Are Driving Families Apart [teen vogue] – “Teens talk about watching their parents go down the QAnon rabbit hole.”
Preparing for Electoral Unrest and a Right-Wing Power Grab | Peter Gelderloos [crimethinc] – “This is a global movement; many more amazing moments of struggle and community lie before us. At this juncture, two opposed strategies for the continuation of capitalism are battling for the right to determine our future. The whole world is watching. When the time comes, we will all be in the streets.”
FAQs on Protecting Yourself from Aerosol Transmission [google docs]
Naomi Klein on How to Rebuild From the Disaster of Neoliberalism [jacobin] – “Longtime leftist writer and activist Naomi Klein discusses her work from No Logo to On Fire, connecting the fight against climate change to the fight for good jobs, and how COVID-19 is showing the utter failure of the neoliberal model.”
The Truth about “The Truth about Today’s Anarchists” [crimethinc] – “Yesterday, Farah Stockman from the New York Times editorial board published an article claiming to be “The Truth About Today’s Anarchists.” It draws on the work of an amateur conspiracy theorist, a poorly researched report from a nonprofit including a former Republican state attorney general and a former NYPD chief, a couple interviews with politicians and reformers, decontextualized and misleading references to two of our own publications, and regurgitated right-wing talking points to argue that violent anarchists are somehow controlling the ongoing countrywide protests but don’t care about Black lives.”
The Five Real Conspiracies You Need to Know About [patterns of meaning] – “One of the most harmful results of these bogus conspiracy theories is that they help deflect people’s attention from the real conspiracies that are systematically damaging billions of people around the world, destroying the living Earth, and—if left unchecked—may drive our entire civilization to collapse. These are the conspiracies everyone needs to know about. Unlike the QAnon and Plandemic nonsense, they are real.”
We Shouldn’t Have to Work So Damn Much [jacobin] – “We’re working longer hours than in decades. But we don’t have to. We deserve a more democratic economy in which we have the free time to develop our talents, hang out with friends and family, and do whatever else we please.”
[Articles German/French]
Welcome to Dystopia | Jessica Jurassica [rckstr] – “Unter Dystopien habe ich mir immer so Black-Mirror-Szenerien vorgestellt. Aber eigentlich ist das, was gerade abgeht, eine der furchteinflössendsten Dystopien, die ich mir vorstellen kann. Und zwar nicht das Virus an sich, sondern die gesellschaftlichen Implikationen einer Pandemie im Spätkapitalismus. Die Abwälzung der Krise auf das untere Drittel, während die Reichsten nach wie vor profitieren. Berufsverbote für Kulturschaffende, die sich mit grösster Anstrengung staatliche Unterstützung erkämpfen müssen, während sich ihre Zukunftsperspektiven in Luft auflösen und gleichzeitig ohne Zögern ein paar Milliarden für ein Flugunternehmen hingeblättert werden. Einschränkungen aller Aspekte des Lebens ausser Lohnarbeit und Konsum materieller, oft kaum existenzieller Güter. Dass sich samstags in der Innenstadt die Menschen dicht an dicht mit Einkäufen die Zeit vertreiben, während die gesamte Kultur gecancelt ist.”
Trump Catch Machine [lundi.am] – “Si l’on reprend les éléments de la démonstration de Barthes, il est possible de soutenir l’idée selon laquelle Trump réunit en une seule personne les deux combattants qui s’affrontent sur un ring de catch : celui qui est présumé défaire le « défaut de pénalité » et celui supposé recevoir de plein fouet cette dernière ; le maître des « compensations » et le réceptacle de la vengeance souveraine ; le « justicier » et le « salaud » ; en définitive, l’image sublimée de Trump d’un côté, sa réalité effective de l’autre. Cet individu « imprévisible », « instable », « asocial » bien qu’au sommet de l’État, c’est ce que Michel Foucault nomme un « monstre politique ».”
«Vielen reicht es nicht, ein paar Hakenkreuze per Whatsapp rumzuschicken» [republik] – “Sie schlagen zu, verschicken Hitlergrüsse in Chatgruppen und horten Munition für den Umsturz: Hat Deutschland ein Polizeiproblem? Ja, findet Oliver von Dobrowolski. Er ist Kriminalhauptkommissar in Berlin, Antifaschist – und schreckt nicht vor Kritik an seinem Berufsstand zurück.”
Eva Horn über Verschwörungstheorien: „Die Wirklichkeit zerbröselt“ [berliner-zeitung] – “Corona gibt es nicht, Testen ist Blödsinn und die Pandemie erfunden – Verschwörungstheorien stehen hoch im Kurs. Das Problem: Sie kommen von scheinbar seriösen Wissenschaftlern.”
Isolation um jeden Preis [megafon] – “Während die Klimabewegung den Bundesplatz besetzt, demonstrieren in Bern zum wiederholten Male Geflüchtete gegen ihre Isolation am Rand der Gesellschaft. Die Polizei geht mit Härte gegen die friedliche Kundgebung vor. Nun muss sie sich in mindestens acht Fällen dem Vorwurf der Übergriffigkeit stellen. Das Megafon hat die Geschehnisse dokumentiert – und der Polizei Fragen gestellt.”
Maga durch Meta [philosophie magazin] – “Ist die Unterscheidung zwischen wahr und falsch erst einmal eingeebnet, lässt sich, […] eine Art von Meta-Kommunikation etablieren, bei der das Gesagte überhaupt keine Darstellung von Sachverhalten mehr ist, sondern es vielmehr um die permanente Kommunikation von Zusatzbotschaften geht, also nicht um die Beschreibung eines Ist-Zustands, sondern um die Formulierung eines Handlungsprogramms für die Zukunft.”
“Unsere Regierung verhält sich psychopathisch” [das lamm] – “Dorothee Wilhelm ist Psychotherapeutin und leistet unterstützende Arbeit in Moria. Im Interview mit das Lamm spricht sie über die Vorgänge nach dem Brand, Self-Care inmitten der Dystopie – und erzählt, dass sie die Brandstiftung versteht.”
[Older articles, still great]
Sick Woman Theory [mask magazine] – “Because, once we are all ill and confined to the bed, sharing our stories of therapies and comforts, forming support groups, bearing witness to each other’s tales of trauma, prioritizing the care and love of our sick, pained, expensive, sensitive, fantastic bodies, and there is no one left to go to work, perhaps then, finally, capitalism will screech to its much-needed, long-overdue, and motherfucking glorious halt.”
Coronavirus and Chronopolitics [n+1] – “The young are trying to save the old, as well as themselves; the old are trying to kill the young, as well as themselves. […] But the old and the young need each other now: we need the solidarity they have withheld from us, they need our active participation as workers and caretakers. And now for the first time the immediate question of our survival depends upon resolving the antagonisms that have separated us and joining together against the regime of capital accumulation that has brought us to this precipice.”
R.I.P.
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Header Photo: Descriptive