[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
[Videos]
Eminem Responds To Rudy Giuliani
Critical Race Theory: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
[Music]
The Book of Boba Fett Theme – Cello Cover
The Seinfeld Theme Mixed With A Hit Song From Every Year Seinfeld Was On TV
[Podcasts]
Have Feminists Been Too Quick To Embrace Criminal Punishment? [current affairs podcast] – “Prof. Aya Gruber teaches criminal law at the University of Colorado Law School. Her book The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration makes the case that many feminists have been too quick to push for more severe criminal punishments for crimes against women, and have as a result ended up legitimizing or even contributing to the expansion of mass incarceration. Prof. Gruber makes a strong argument against “carceral feminism,” claiming that it sees “putting offenders in prison” as the solution to harms women face, but that this remedy at best only imperfectly guarantees justice, and at worst reproduces cruel racist state violence.” This is good, but could expand more into transformative justice.
Special Episode: Joe Rogan ‘Sorry, not Sorry’ [decoding the gurus] – “Joe’s certainly on the charm offensive and he’s already won plaudits from the heterodox for doing the right thing but are these really deserved? And how well does what Joe says hold up when you look at it critically? We do what few will bother and compare & contrast how Joe describes what he does vs. what he actually does and says in his content. And we find a few discrepancies that seem worth mentioning.” Also check out the other podcasts covering Rogan, lengthy but worth it.
[Twitter Threads]
The covid vaccine picture is awfully confusing. The current vaccines are doing a great job of preventing serious illness (at least, for people who are boosted), but they're not nearly so effective at preventing infection and transmission. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ehKqiMM94W
— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) February 4, 2022
[The Must Reads (And Watch) This Month]
Is “Cancel Culture” Really a Threat To America? Mr. Hobbes I am in love with you.
Ikea’s Race for the Last of Europe’s Old-Growth Forest [new republic] – “Old-growth forests absorb 70 percent more carbon than logged and replanted trees, making them the most effective carbon-capture method on the planet; by the time a single beech tree reaches 150 years of age, it will have absorbed nine tons of CO2, the equivalent of 35,000 miles driven by car, its sequestration rate accelerating as it ages.” And at the heart of it all … Ikea!? Who coulda guessed.
Pandemics disable people — the history lesson that policymakers ignore [nature] – “Influenza, polio and more have shown that infections can change lives even decades later. Why the complacency over possible long-term effects of COVID-19?” The hidden cost of the pandemic.
[Pandemic Roundup by Violet Blue]
While Switzerland seems to somehow have decided that the pandemic is over and/or that everyone should get infected in order to build a highly hypothetical and frankly improbable herd immunity, violet blue inclusive weekly roundups will keep you informed what is actually going on and tell you what’s what. If you can spare a few dollars to support violet, please do.
Pandemic Roundup: February 24, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: February 17, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: February 10, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: February 3, 2022
[Articles English]
N.O. Bonzo Interviewed on Full Stop [pm.press] – “Mutual aid is actually this really impossibly simple concept. It’s just a choice to assist other people or to cooperate instead of destructively seeking personal advantage. It can sometimes involve personal sacrifice or risk, but it’s something that happens between equals, rather than from the top down, and it is about offering support and collaboration rather than imposing something you think is better. Charity, by contrast, is something that happens top down, usually in a rather patronizing way, and it doesn’t have the possibility of nurturing an egalitarian relationship. Mutual aid can be, say, a graffiti artist tagging “this pole won’t support your weight” to warn someone of structural danger, or someone jumping in a river as someone struggles against drowning.”
I’m a one-way masker. What strategy will give me optimal protection? [npr] – “Lots of people are giving up masks in public places — maybe they think the pandemic is over, maybe they’re putting their faith in vaccines, maybe they’re just tired of masking. But I still want to mask up when I’m around others — omicron is out there, infections can happen if you’re vaccinated. Is one-way masking — wearing a mask — helpful in any way?” It fucking sucks, but still wearing a mask is still smarter than eugenic fatalism.
Russian Anarchists on the Invasion of Ukraine [crimethinc] – “Therefore, we urge everyone who reads this, who is not unfeeling—to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people (not the state!!!) and support their struggle for freedom against Putin’s tyranny.”
Resurrecting the old Wordle for procrastinators [leancrew] – “If you like to play Wordle, want to avoid the inevitable New York Times paywall, but forgot to download the original HTML and JavaScript files before the switchover, you can still get them from the Internet Archive. But there are a couple of tricks you’ll need to know if you want to get things running and preserve your playing history.” Geeky shit.
66 years ago, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous tried LSD — and ignited a controversy still raging today [inverse] – “More than 40 years ago, Wilson learned what many in the scientific community are only beginning to understand: Mind-altering drugs are not always antithetical to sobriety. Instead, psychedelics may be a means to achieve and maintain recovery from addiction.” Yeah. Watch Fantastic Fungi if you haven’t already. Please don’t delay as long as we have.
One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown [medicalexpress] – “One in three young people say their mental health and wellbeing improved during COVID-19 lockdown measures, with potential contributing factors including feeling less lonely, avoiding bullying and getting more sleep and exercise, according to researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.” Which figures, introverts and shy people can thrive.
Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints [nyt] – “Using machine learning, separate teams of computer scientists identified the same two men as likely authors of messages that fueled the viral movement.” The dude we suspected it is.
How Long Covid Exhausts the Body [nyt] – “Millions of people continue to suffer from exhaustion, cognitive problems and other long-lasting symptoms after a coronavirus infection. The exact causes of the illness, known as long Covid, are not known. But new research offers clues, describing the toll the illness takes on the body and why it can be so debilitating.” Good thing, stuck behind a pay wall. wtf. Kill yer paywalls, doofus.
Canada’s Trucker Protests Are Proof That Pandemic Culture Wars Can’t Defeat Far-Right Populists [jacobin] – “The uncomfortable reality is that even fake, astroturfed populism can mobilize real popular support. Far-right politics do not exist in a vacuum or arrive suddenly like a random weather event. They flourish in conditions of economic hardship and social alienation and are often aggravated by the cynical behavior of traditional political elites eager to distract from their own failures.” Meh.
“Gay propaganda” law keeps Sims 4 wedding expansion out of Russia [ars technica] – “Holding back Cam and Dom’s story meant compromising the values we live by.” Russia homophobia begets silly outcome.
In a Georgia Elementary School, a Gay Rights Artwork Was Taken Down And Compared To a Nazi Symbol [hyperallergic] – “In a leaked audio, the principal said that “children are going home and asking questions to parents who are…not ready to have that conversation at this age.”” Oh come the fuck on.
Twitter, the Intimacy Machine [the raven magazine] – “At some unexpected moment, the other part of Twitter’s mechanisms will kick in. The platform makes it easy for any user to rip something out of context and activate the pleasures of another kind of intimate connection—the gratifications of shared outrage, the intimacy of collective dunking. Twitter incentivizes its users to take trust falls, and then it rewards other users for blocking the catch. Twitter is a technology finely tuned to call forth, and then crush, intimacy.” Yeh. But, and please don’t laugh, it still can be a force for good.
It’s Undeniable: Israel Is an Apartheid State [jacobin] – “A new Amnesty International report terms Israel an apartheid state. Israel’s defenders have replied by smearing the authors — but there’s no denying that this is a state built on the systematic brutalization of Palestinians.” What else is there to call it?
Global Climate Report – January 2022 [ncdc.noaa.gov] – “The global surface temperature for January 2022 was 0.89°C (1.60°F) above the 20th century average and the sixth highest for January since global records began in 1880. The last eight Januarys (2015–2022) rank among the 10 warmest Januarys on record. January 2022 also marked the 46th consecutive January and the 445th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above average.” It’s still happening.
[Articles German/French]
La vie en plastique: une anthropologie des déchets avec Mikaëla Le Meur
Die Wut dreht sich im Kreis [der freitag] – “Aus Bauern sollten damals Lohnarbeiter werden, heute werden diese zu Dienstleistern und Datenproduzenten – oder zu nichts. Das Kapital hat sich von der Ausbeutung der Ware Arbeitskraft weitgehend emanzipiert und nullt, ohne den Umweg über die Produktion realer Dinge zu gehen, tautologisch vor sich hin. Geldströme zischen um die Erde. Das Finanzkapital ist der Fetisch, die vor sich hin nullende Null, die Marx als logischen Endpunkt der Verselbstständigung des Wertes begriffen hat. Die Menschen sind gehalten, das ihnen zur Verfügung stehende Geld auszugeben, Serien zu gucken, über ihre Smartphones zu wischen und dabei Daten zu hinterlassen, das ist alles. Das vage Gefühl der Überflüssigkeit ist der Kern der um sich greifenden Indifferenz. Die aus dieser Indifferenz rührende Leidenschaft ist der Hass – ohne Gegenstand und ohne Bindung an ein Objekt. Bindungslosigkeit ist die sozialpsychologische Signatur des Zeitalters. „Wenn die Gewalt aus der Unterdrückung aufsteigt, dann der Hass aus der Entleerung“, sagte Jean Baudrillard.” Anger is an energy. But without the Lydon image.
Wer sind “wir”? [das lamm] – “Ein „wir“ gibt es nicht. Es gibt die vermeintliche Mehrheit und es gibt die „anderen“. Auf welche Personengruppen wir als Gesellschaft Rücksicht nehmen, sagt einiges über unser Verständnis von Demokratie und Menschenwürde aus und wird in einer Pandemie nochmals verschärft. Dass in der Schweiz relativ schnell Menschenleben gegen den Erhalt der Wirtschaft aufgerechnet wurden, ist im Prinzip faschistisch: Dieser Überlegung liegt zugrunde, dass das Leben von den einen mehr wert ist als das von den anderen. Plötzlich war es salonfähig, zu sagen: „Es sterben ja vor allem die Alten und die Kranken, die wären vielleicht sowieso gestorben.“ Es ist also kein Wunder, dass diejenigen, die am lautesten gegen die Massnahmen schimpften, oft auch keine Probleme mit Äusserungen und Einstellungen dieser Art haben. Das hat sich vor allem in den letzten Wochen gezeigt: An Coronagegner:innen-Demos liefen Nazis ganz offen und zuvorderst mit.” I am one to feel excluded from this new “we”.
Ah, ja, genau das! [ak] – “Das deutsche Feuilleton verehrt Michel Houellebecq als genialen Versteher und Hellseher – vielleicht, weil es selbst so wenig checkt” He sucks, but I might still secretly read his new novel, of course illegally downloaded, to have a peak into the cynical right wing mindset, that he portrays like no other.
[Older articles, still great]
Peter Thiel and David Graeber Debate Technology’s Future [nyt] – “I find it interesting that Peter and I agree very strongly about 20 percent of everything, and probably disagree just as strongly on the other 80 percent,” Mr. Graeber said in an interview before the debate. “But the stuff we do agree on is the stuff no one else agrees with us about.”” Report about the time when David Graeber debated Peter Thiel. Not Davids proudest moment, maybe.
R.I.P.
Mark Lanegan:
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Header Photo: Just some view.