[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
[Videos]
Singing Tiger Cub (probably because bored)
The Trial Of Nathan Robinson
TAPE WIZARD | DOCUMENTARY BY KILIAN VIDOUREK – “Since its release Tape Wizard has been played at the Bellingham Music Film Festival, Bolton International Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Mid America Film Festival, and The Notre Dame Student Film Festival to name a few.”
Cutest little girl loses her mind dancing to ZZ Top – Waiting for the bus should always be like this
[Music]
Barracuda (Heart cover) by Cybertronic Spree
Djano Djano – Waking Up Featured Artist: Charlotte Gainsbourg
Mary Anne Hobbs – Thom Yorke’s Guest Mix
‘How Dare You’ Pastor goes Heavy Metal! [Mark Driscoll remix]
[Podcasts]
None stood out, in fact I stopped listening to most podcasts, suddenly bored with the format and/or the specific podcasters. What’s next? And I know it ain’t clubhouse for me.
Nachtrag:
Genderforscherin Geier zu Identitätspolitik „Wir müssen anerkennen, dass es Verschiedenheit in der Gesellschaft gibt“ [dlf] – “Die Genderforscherin Andrea Geier kritisiert eine Gleichsetzung von linker und rechter Identitätspolitik. Dadurch, sowie durch Begriffe wie „Cancel Culture“, „kommen Positionen in den Raum, die so tun, als ob Rassismus und Rassismuskritik irgendwie dasselbe seien“, sagte Geier im Dlf.”
[Articles English]
India Targets Climate Activists With the Help of Big Tech | Naomi Klein [intercept] – “Tech giants like Google and Facebook appear to be aiding and abetting a vicious government campaign against Indian climate activists”
In Defense of Herbert Marcuse [jacobin] – “For journalist Matt Taibbi, Herbert Marcuse is a pseudo-intellectual at fault for much of what ails the contemporary left. But the real Marcuse was a serious thinker who remained committed to socialism and working-class struggle. In our moment of political defeat, his works like One-Dimensional Man are well worth revisiting.”
Facebook Manipulated the News You See to Appease Republicans, Insiders Say [mother jones] – “Facebook used its monopolistic power to boost and suppress specific publishers’ content—the essence of every Big Brother fear about the platforms, and something Facebook and other companies have been strenuously denying for years.”
Ian MacKaye Reveals ‘Woodstock’ Soundtrack Obsession in New Book [rolling stone] – “Fugazi and Minor Threat co-founder reveals the albums that influenced him most as a kid in writer Eric Spitznagel’s book Rock Stars on the Record: The Albums That Changed Their Lives”
Private equitys nursing home killing spree [pluralistic] – “The political leaders who told us the covid death-toll was better than it seemed because so many of those deaths were disposable seniors in care homes were simply acknowledging a tacit consensus: that it’s OK to kill old people for profit.”
Deathbed Confession: FBI and NYPD Responsible for Malcolm X Assassination [downwithtyranny] – “The new evidence comes by way of a deathbed confession by a former NYPD policeman who gave a letter to his family saying that he, the FBI and the NYPD were responsible for the assassination. His role, he claimed, was to make sure that Malcolm X’s security detail was previously arrested so that there would be no door security at the ballroom where the civil rights activist was speaking the night he was murdered.”
New Malcolm X assassination letter shows NYPD, FBI involvement, his family says [wapo] – “Family members of Malcolm X have revealed a letter written by a New York police officer that they say shows the NYPD and the FBI were behind the 1965 assassination of the famed Black leader.”
Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal | Naomi Klein [nyt] – “Small government is no match for a crisis born of the state’s twin addictions to market fixes and fossil fuels.”
It took a year, but Gwyneth Paltrow figured out how to exploit the pandemic [ars technica] – “Paltrow treats her long COVID with $8,600 hiking necklace, $112 mocktail glass.”
It’s Not A Political Problem, It’s A Propaganda Problem: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix [caitlin johnstone] – “The mass media do not exist to tell you the truth about the world, they exist to manufacture consent for the agendas of the ruling class. Any time you’re clapping along with their Most Important Story of the Day you are helping your rulers and overlooking more important stories.”
How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel [current affairs] – “You say the wrong thing, you lose your position. No second chances. You will be tarred as an anti-Semite and your job will disappear overnight. This is one key reason why Israel continues to get away with horrific crimes. To speak honestly and frankly about the facts risks bringing swift censorship. Human rights violations continue with impunity. And when Israeli snipers target Palestinian children, the Guardian is complicit.”
Neil Gaiman on the Great Kathy Acker [literary hub] – “When we die, we stop being linear and become holograms: no longer points on a line, we are complete and all times are one to us. Kathy Acker is all the Kathies she ever was now: the baby whose father left her mother when she was pregnant, the woman whose mother committed suicide, the young sex worker, the literary activist, the middle-aged teacher, the woman who, at 50, died in room 101 in a Tijuana alternative cancer clinic. ”
The Anarchists versus the Plague : Malatesta and the Cholera Epidemic of 1884 [crimethinc] – “In 1884, cholera tore through Italy, claiming thousands of lives. Despite a three-year prison sentence hanging over his head, Errico Malatesta joined other revolutionary anarchists on a daring mission to Naples—the heart of the epidemic—to treat those suffering from the disease. In so doing, he and his comrades demonstrated an alternative to coercive state policies that remains relevant today in the age of COVID-19.”
Sprite Randomizer by old_flick – Graphic creature generator.
Global Climate Report – January 2021 [ncdc.noaa.gov] – “The January 2021 global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.80°C (1.44°F) above the 20th century average and ranked as the seventh warmest January in the 142-year global records. January 2021 also marked the 45th consecutive January and the 433rd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.”
Adam Curtis: Social media is a scam [idler] – “The internet is all sorts of things. The real problem is that we’ve grown up in a period of high individualism and, in a period of high individualism, the one thing you don’t notice is power. You’re supposed to be an empowered individual yourself. What’s disappeared out of the language is power.”
‘Fuck Your Feelings’ Never Applies to White Men | Laurie Penny – “The logic of abuse has ordered our lives for so long, it must not be allowed to rule our politics any longer. That’s a novel idea, isn’t it? The notion that anyone might have a political priority more pressing than mollifying white male feelings is still shocking. Most of us, after all, have been raised to pay attention to the emotions of white men, to attempt to manage their moods because not doing so might be dangerous. You can see how people who happen to be white and male might come away with the impression that their inner lives were more important than everyone else’s. You can see how those people might eventually elevate their every pang of prejudice and sentiment to the status of unassailable fact.”
Variants v. Vaccines | Tomas Pueyo [substack] – “In the race between the variants and the vaccines, the variants are the hare and the vaccines are the tortoise. We all know that, in the end, the vaccines will win. Like the tortoise. By this summer, in developed countries, vaccination rates will likely range between 50% and 80%. Since there will also be some herd immunity, and summer means outdoors in the Northern hemisphere, it’s likely that the pandemic will die down some time during the summer.”
20 Photos of Trans Elders Who Have Survived [advocate] – “To Survive on This Shore” by Jess T. Dugan provides a nuanced view into the struggles and joys of growing older as a transgender person and offers a poignant reflection on what it means to live authentically despite seemingly insurmountable odds.”
Why Are Some Organic Farmers Turning to Reactionary Politics? [the farm worker bulletin] – “We shouldn’t assume that the farmers’ market is a bastion of progressivism.”
Virologist Christian Drosten: “I Am Quite Apprehensive about What Might Otherwise Happen in Spring and Summer” [der spiegel] – “In an interview with Christian Drosten, the German virologist looks back on the mistakes he has made in the coronavirus pandemic – and ahead to the dangers that the pandemic still has in store for us. ”
Cambridge Analytica Psychologist Advising Global COVID-19 Disinformation Network Linked to Nigel Farage and Conservative Party [byline times] – “The former lead psychologist of Cambridge Analytica – the notorious digital analytics firm which disseminated fake news on behalf of the Brexit and Donald Trump election campaigns – is advising some of the leading pandemic disinformation platforms in Britain and is connected to COVID-19 conspiracy theory groups in the US, South Africa and elsewhere, Byline Times can reveal.”
Anarchism on Film, From the Paris Commune to Emma Goldman [hyperallergic] – “Anthology Film Archives delves into the oft-misunderstood political philosophy in a new online screening series.”
The Bauhaus Chess Set Where the Form of the Pieces Artfully Show Their Function (1922) [open democracy] – “The form of a chess piece, in other words, doesn’t follow its function — and under certain sets of aesthetic principles, there could be few greater crimes. Leave it to a member of the Bauhaus, the art school and movement that aimed to unify not just form and function but art, craft, and design — to bring them all into line.”
Guerrilla Girls Canceled Phaidon Book Deal Over Ties to Leon Black, Jeffrey Epstein Associate [hyperallergic] – “The activist group renewed its calls for Black’s resignation from the MoMA board and shared that it canceled the deal after realizing the art publisher is owned by Black. ”
[Articles German/French]
Humor ist ein Mittel, um zu verführen [fluter] – “Eine Theorie besagt, dass „psychologisch Konservative“ Reize vermeiden, die neu und komplex sind, und Redundanz, also das Vertraute und Einfache, bevorzugen. Diese Personen mögen Witze, die nach einer einfachen Schablone funktionieren.”
Weg mit dem Skalpell, her mit dem Hammer [woz] – “Der Black-Lives-Matter-Ableger in Rochester will mehr sein als bloss von Emotionen getrieben – und stellt klare Forderungen. Unterwegs mit vier Aktivistinnen, die sich mit ihren radikalen Aktionen auch innerhalb der Bewegung nicht nur FreundInnen machen.”
Egerkinger Eiferer [woz] – “Fragwürdige Preise, parlamentarische Vorstösse und eidgenössische Initiativen: Seit Jahren kämpft das Egerkinger Komitee gegen die vermeintliche «Islamisierung» der Schweiz – und macht antimuslimischen Rassismus damit salonfähig.”
Bruno Latour – La fuite planante sans atterrissage [lundi.am] – “Bruno Latour a manqué la révolution opéraïste (qui n’est certainement pas son « horizon »), révolution (post-moderne si l’on veut) qui implique qu’il faut toujours penser le conflit, l’antagonisme AVANT (avant toute éthique qui ne serait pas éthique du conflit, éthique politique).”
FRONTEX FILES – “Gemeinsam mit den Rechercheurinnen Luisa Izuzquiza, Margarida Silva and Myriam Douo sowie der NGO „Frag den Staat“ hat das ZDF Magazin Royale 142 Dokumente von 16 Industry-Meetings, die Frontex zwischen 2017 und 2019 veranstaltet hat, ausgewertet. Darunter Programme, Teilnehmer*innenlisten, Powerpoint-Präsentationen und Werbekataloge.”
Corona und die Machtlosigkeit: Die geistig-moralischen Wände der Pandemie [der spiegel] – “Die Pandemie dauert schon ein Jahr. In den immer gleichen Debatten streiten die immer gleichen Experten über die immer gleichen Fragen. Träge Routine hat Einzug gehalten und mit ihr die große Gereiztheit.”
[Older articles, still great]
Dengue Dengue Dengue – Guarida (Feat. Sara Van) (apparently this video is age restricted for some reason)
Adam Curtis – BUGGER [bbc] – “The recent revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden were fascinating. But they – and all the reactions to them – had one enormous assumption at their heart.
That the spies know what they are doing.
It is a belief that has been central to much of the journalism about spying and spies over the past fifty years. That the anonymous figures in the intelligence world have a dark omniscience. That they know what’s going on in ways that we don’t.”
R.I.P.
Daft Punk (well, they split up, but many commented it with R.I.P)
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Header Photo: on Tumblr