[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, tweets … you name it]
[Videos]
Most Popular Social Networks 2003 – 2022
Health Communism w/ Beatrice Adler Bolton
The Pandemic Prison [bill of health] – “The pandemic prison is a harbinger, not an aberration, of the society that creates and maintains it. In September 2021, when one in 500 Americans had died of COVID-19, Alabama governor Kay Ivey pledged $400 million of federal pandemic relief money to fund new prison construction. Seven months later, on May 17, 2022, the United States officially surpassed one million COVID deaths. That news followed a racist massacre in Buffalo and a press conference where President Biden, flanked by police chiefs, urged cities to spend remaining federal COVID relief money on police” It is a scandal what happened in regards to COVID in the US prison system.
[Music]
MALONDA – Deutschungshoheit feat. Melane & Roger Rekless
[Podcasts]
What is the Fediverse? [vulnerable by design] – “Many people have moved from Twitter to Mastodon on over the past weeks. Looked at in isolation, it may just seem like a simple jump from one platform to the other. But if you look at the bigger picture. If you look at the colossal impact that a difference in network structure can have, then you realise: No, it is not just a shift in platform. If you do this … If all of us can make this work … It can be a back-to-the-true-roots-of-the-Internet revolution.” A nice tongue in cheek introduction to mastodon.
Shane Burley on Conspiracy Theories [live like the world is dying] – “Brooke and Casandra talk with Why We Fight author, Shane Burley about conspiracy theories, false consciousness amongst the right, how mythos get built to influence how people think, and how the root of a lot of conspiracy theories is anti-semitism.”
Why Most Plastic Ends Up As Trash In A Landfill [npr] – “The plastic industry has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the benefits of plastic, a product that, for the most part, was buried, was burned or, in some cases, wound up in the ocean. The problem has existed for decades. In all that time, less than 10 percent of plastic has ever been recycled.” Plastic is the oil industrys plan B. But did you know that there is no planet B? See what i did there?
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Pandemic Roundup: December 29, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: December 22, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: December 15, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: December 8, 2022
Pandemic Roundup: December 1, 2022
[The Must Read[s] This Month]
It’s Not Cool to Overreact: How Normalcy Bias Will Define Our Future [substack] – “Politicians and billionaires are going to exploit our biases to keep everyone believing that everything’s fine, even when it’s not. The more acute the dangers grow, the more pressure we’ll feel to act normal.” Normalcy bias does explain a lot of what is going on not only i regards to the pandemic but also climate change. (it could have been any of her posts, love this writer!)
Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things: Three Decades of Survival in the Desert of Social Media [substack] – “One awful man should not be able to destroy something the world created together, for good or ill. No, we didn’t create the code or rent the offices, but without the words we put together in those little boxes, Twitter is and was nothing. Humanity made that place, and it is all our best and our worst. One unimaginably rich man should not be able to take away the livelihoods of millions of people just paying the fucking rent—and if I see one more smug post telling people to just delete it and they’ll be better off, I’m going to turn into a fucking dragon and burn this place to the ground.” Also read Cory Doctorows thread above that adds some perspective and critique.
[Articles English]
Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal [jacobin] – “On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.” There are some valid points here.
Broken Courts, Big Lies and Genocide Rehearsal: A Review of 2022—And What We Can Expect From 2023 [religion dispatches] – “Democracy can never be taken for granted—especially not during a period of economic hardship, looming climate change, and a lingering pandemic. Remember: Fascism offers a seemingly easy solution for crises both real and imaginary. And we might be a mere crisis or two from fascists gaining ground in what already is a perilous situation for democracy. Solidarity, compassion, and knowledge will be needed—in 2023 perhaps more than ever.” Let’s face it, things are not looking great.
The New IgG4 Study Doesn’t Say What Anti-Vaxxers Think It Does | Jessica Wildfire [substack] – “These vaccines aren’t going to save us from Covid. More boosters probably won’t help, either. They can’t keep up with variants. Governments have dropped testing, and now it looks like they’re not even going to sequence new variants. These are disturbing developments. It’s the kind of stuff you’d expect from a dystopian horror novel. We’re being told to assess our own risks, but we’re being deprived of the knowledge and tools to do so.” The first headline for this was a bit alarmist, thankfully she changed it.
An Institution, A Person, A Spirit | Peter Gelderloos [substack] – “I realize how most of the people who have dedicated their lives to the building of an anarchist movement have disappointed me, some gravely, while the people who have brought an anarchist praxis to some aspect of real life and survival have inspired me the most. In the worst moments, they’ve even kept me alive.” I feel you, Peter, i feel you. I would even extend my disappointment to the radical left at large, even beyond anarchists.
Apocalypse No! Pseudo-Archaeology, Ancient Tech-Lords, and Ordinary People. [the nation] – “Public reception of The Dawn of Everything, which entered the New York Times bestseller list just below Will Smith’s autobiography, not to mention the private responses I receive almost daily from readers, suggests to me that pseudo-archaeologists—and perhaps also a good number of real archaeologists, not to mention Netflix—may have severely underestimated the person in the street.” You tell them, David.
The Year the Pandemic “Ended” (Part 1) [the new inquiry] – “Since Biden’s statement in September, many have challenged his assertion, and many more have wondered how it is possible that the pandemic can be “over” in the face of the overwhelming figures above. As we have written previously, the answer to this lies in something we have been calling, along with our collaborators on Death Panel, the sociological production of the end of the pandemic.” Parts 2 + 3. What a fantastic job, that shows how the powers that be proceeded in manufacturing consent that the pandemic is over (it’s not, but). Wish someone would do this for Switzerland. You can also listen to the podcast this was based on.
Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance [ap] – “In the pandemic’s bewildering early days, millions worldwide believed government officials who said they needed confidential data for new tech tools that could help stop coronavirus’ spread. In return, governments got a firehose of individuals’ private health details, photographs that captured their facial measurements and their home addresses.” This was predictable. Thankfully in Switzerland they found a safer solution for the corona app.
Inside Italy’s Crackdown on Humanitarian Rescue [intercept] – “The documents show how Italian anti-mafia prosecutors went to great lengths to dig up dirt on humanitarian rescue organizations and their crews. Authorities listened in on the legally protected conversations of journalists and lawyers and hired a company to remotely hack at least two mobile phones using powerful surveillance software. The court documents also show how officials from Italy’s Interior Ministry used these investigations as a tool for leverage over humanitarian organizations.” Well researched article on a nightmare of a situation.
You Can’t Pay Your Rent with Praise and Applause. There’s a Term for That. [substack] – “That’s vocational awe at work. In Bullshit Jobs, [anthropologist] David Graber theorizes that more than a third of jobs in corporate America have no point. They contribute nothing. They exist to keep people busy, and to justify exorbitant salaries. Like you, my bosses spend the vast majority of their time in long meetings, coming up with ways to manage and regulate everyone else, and how to save money. You know what they do with the money they save? They reward themselves with bonuses.” Fuck capitalism.
The Pleasures and Pain of Carolee Schneemann’s Body Politics [hyperallergic] – “Nakedness is a key trope throughout Schneemann’s oeuvre. She frequently appears nude in her performances and photographs, for which she has been both praised and criticized by feminist commentators. Through her art she repeatedly asserts her right to do what she wants with her own body and to display it openly without shame or inhibition. Some feminist peers, however, argued that her work was narcissistic and problematically replicated standard Euro-American conventions of beauty under the masculine gaze by displaying her young, white, slim body. She responded that she was concerned with whether she could be “both an image and an image maker”; by making marks on or with her own body, she challenged the positioning of women as passive subjects. She once wrote: “I do not ‘show’ my naked body! I AM BEING MY BODY.”” Rad.
The Death of an Artist Podcast Failed Ana Mendieta [hyperallergic] – “Helen Molesworth’s true-crime sensation marginalizes the artist’s life and legacy.” One of the worst podcasts on one of my favorite artists. Okay, to be fair: I did learn some things, but her conclusion was so both sides and lame that it spoiled everything for me.
With “Immunity Debt,” Democrats are Having their Ivermectin Moment [substack] – “It’s time to take post-COVID immune deficiency seriously and in turn, to accept that a “new normal” would mean high-quality ventiliation everywhere, indefinitely working from home, and universal high-quality masking, for starters. This is not a disease we can live with- certainly not the way we are living with it. “Old normal” cosplay will never bring 2019 back, but it will kill and maim many more children before we are done with it.” Liberals killed masks and protective mitigation measures.
‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes [nyt] – “I still long to have no phone at all,” she said. “My parents are so addicted. My mom got on Twitter, and I’ve seen it tear her apart. But I guess I also like it, because I get to feel a little superior to them.” I do smell privilege, but it’s interesting.
It’s Going Down Suspended from Twitter as Billionaire Elon Musk Fulfills Far-Right Agenda [igd] – “Today, It’s Going Down (IGD), along with several other news and journalist accounts, was permanently suspended without warning or justification by billionaire owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. In the past several weeks, Musk has suspended anarchist, left-wing, and anti-fascist accounts known for reporting on both the far-Right and on Musk himself. In some cases, Musk has targeted accounts at the explicit request of Alt-Right trolls, many of whom Musk regularly consults and responds to. Now, following Musk’s viral humiliation in San Francisco, he seems determined to silence anyone who criticizes him.” Same question as above, how, JUST HOW, can people still contribute to twatter?
November 2022 Global Climate Report [ncei] – “The November 2022 global surface temperature departure was the ninth highest for November in the 143-year record at 0.76°C (1.37°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F). Despite ranking among the ten warmest Novembers on record, this November was the coolest November since 2014. November 2022 marked the 46th consecutive November and the 455th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.” Puh.
Artistic Freedom Reaches “Lowest Point” in Years, Human Rights Advocates Warn [hyperallergic] – “Rising traditionalism, conservatism, and populism have resulted in major discrimination against women and the LGBTQIA+ artistic community.” These are indicators, guys.
Punk—Dangerous Utopia [crimethinc] – “Revisiting the Relationship between Punk and Anarchism” Anarcho punk for life!
Dreaming of Anarchist Infrastructure for COVID-Careful, Full Lives | Cindy Milstein [substack] – “By winter 3, so much anarchistic infrastructure for COVID and other collective care could have been built, in defiance of the “normal” that’s isolating and killing too many of us.
Let’s do better.” So sad, but this is the truth.
Why is the business press outreporting the left on COVID? [substack] – “The reality is that we know enough to know that letting this virus continually rip through the population is an insane gamble with plenty to indicate that we’ve already lost our bet.”
How Capitalism Worms Its Way Into Every Aspect of Our Lives [jacobin]
“if you take an expanded view of capitalism, you realize that we can’t understand how the narrow economy functions if we don’t look at the ways in which it relies on inputs from the system of care or social reproduction, from the system of nature, and from the various political systems. The economy doesn’t work without those things. And my proposal is that instead of interpreting capitalism as an economic system, we should see it as the name for something much bigger.”
Noam Chomsky: “We’re on the Road to a Form of Neofascism” [truthout] – “The term “class war” is by now insufficient. It’s true that the masters of the economy and their servants in the political system have been engaged in a particularly savage form of class war for the past 40 years, but the targets go beyond the usual victims, now extending even to the perpetrators themselves. As the class war intensifies, the basic logic of capitalism manifests itself with brutal clarity: We have to maximize profit and power even though we know we are racing to suicide by destroying the environment that sustains life, not sparing ourselves and our families.” It’s a suicide cult, baby.
Julius Evola’s reactionary revolt against the modern world [verso] – “While political right often evinces a desire for the status quo, there is an alternative form of far-right politics that offers its devotees a vision of a radically different world, however repellent that may be. One of leading lights of this movement is the once-obscure Italian philosopher Julius Evola. What does the increasing popularity of his mystical vision of national renewal among sections of the contemporary far-right tell us?” Evola has sadly inspired not only the far right.
thread on crunchy alt-right [nitter] – “All the way back in the 1970s and ’80s, white power women (in the Klan, skinhead groups, Christian Identity churches, and beyond) were interested in a bunch of things you might think of as crunchy: These include organic farming, macrobiotic diet, paganism, avoiding fluoride, traditional midwifery” This was an interesting thread on twitter, let’s hope nitter ain’t over capacity.
Cory Doctorow Wants You to Know What Computers Can and Can’t Do [the new yorker] – “A conversation about the “mediocre monopolists” of Big Tech, the weirdness of crypto, and the real lessons of science fiction.” Cory saying Cory things, but nice interview.
Let ChatGPT Convert You To Socialism [current affairs] – “The AI text-generator is both terrifyingly good and comically limited. But one thing it excels at is helping us think more clearly about politics.” I would prefer to be converted to Anarchist Collectivism.
This isn’t specifically about you. It’s about us. [substack] – “I told specific people that this was worse than most of us thought it was. I used language that I thought should have been alarming. It wasn’t, apparently. I got back the usual pablum – “I just need to live my life”. “I don’t have room for this stuff in my head right now”. I tried to explain that repeated infection would just make whatever you’re trying to prioritize, harder. I emphasized that I had science to back up what I was saying. I worried that something was already wrong with their brains. Now I hide, because how do you continue a relationship with someone when you TOLD THEM what was going to happen to themselves and their kids, and they ignored you?” Exactly my problem. How could i trust people again?
Prison COVID Policies Fell Short. Incarcerated Activists Fight for Their Lives. [truthout] – “Incarcerated organizers are still in fight mode against lethal COVID policies.” This amounts to a crime against humanity.
Whose Tweets? Our Streets : A New Poster and Zine for an Offline Media Offensive [crimethinc] – “Last week, Elon Musk personally banned us from Twitter at the request of a far-right troll. Musk is not introducing “free speech” onto Twitter; he is systematically suppressing the voices of those who oppose fascism while welcoming the most notorious Nazis back onto the platform. In response, we invite you to make the streets of your community speak out with a new poster about capitalists like Elon Musk and Donald Trump. If there’s one medium that billionaires will never control, it’s wheatpaste.” Case in point. Leave Twitter! Now!
Elon Musk’s New Direction for Twitter: Not “Free Speech,” but Banning the Left while Welcoming Fascists [igd] – “Andy Ngo has made a professional career out of fear-mongering about anti-fascists as a way to make a profit in today’s polarized political environment,” recounts Leigh Young of CrimethInc. “He has a financial incentive to spread falsehoods.” Andy Ngo of all fucking people.
I’m Tired … [outside the circle] – “I’m tired of how it feels when I see a swastika or Nazi or other fascist symbols. I’m tired of the disconnect too many non-Jewish anarchists and antifascists have fallen into these past few years of not seeing symbols like the swastika or words like “Nazi” as having anything to do with us Jews and antisemitism—as somehow only meaning “fascism”—and how it must feel for us to see and hear and experience those increasingly commonplace markers.” Full solidarity.
the stories we tell. | Raechel Anne Jolie [substack] – “But the crux of this piece is invested in dispelling what Peter Kropotkin first coined in 1902 as a “mutual aid”-rooted natural world. And, more importantly, it is ignoring that the belief in a symbiotic plant and animal world is something that has been suggested by indigenous communities for centuries. I am frustrated by both the absence of Kropotkin and indigenous wisdom (and others, like Lynn Margulis), as well as the implications of those absences.” My kind of spirituality or whatchumacallit.
[Articles German/French]
Desinformation: Wie die Fanboys von Elon Musk versuchen, Mastodon zu diskreditieren [netzpolitik.org] – “Ein irreführender Blogartikel über Mastodon geht derzeit bei Elon Musks Fanboys und in rechten Kreisen viral – zuletzt auch in einer Publikation des Ex-Bild-Chefredakteurs Julian Reichelt. Es handelt sich um Desinformation mit einer Art Mastodon-Pizzagate, die sich perfekt in die Verschwörungsideologie von QAnon einreiht.” It puzzles me how people can still contribute to twitter after all this dog whisteling to the ultra right.
“Der Bodenangriff könnte jederzeit beginnen” [daslamm] – “Der türkische Staat nutzt alles, was möglich ist, für seine eigenen Interessen. Es ist kein Zufall, dass die Angriffe während der Fussballweltmeisterschaft und der iranischen Unruhen stattfinden. So sind die Chancen natürlich kleiner, dass darüber berichtet wird. Wir erwarten deshalb auch, dass die Anschläge weitergehen und intensiver werden. Denn die Türkei will die ökologische, demokratische und frauenzentrierte Revolution, die hier stattfindet, zerstören.” An interview with an activist from Switzerland who lives in Rojava.
Diesseits von Gut und Böse: Gar nicht lustig [woz] – “Der Griff in den Schritt, einst rituell gepflegt von Michael Jackson, wurde anlässlich der Fussball-WM wieder zum Thema – diesmal griff sich der Schweizer Spieler Granit Xhaka dorthin. Hier erregte das kein grosses Aufsehen: Ein bisschen ordinär sei es, halt typisch Granit, der könne einfach nicht anders, wenn ihn Serben provozieren.” Sigh. Comment on this [paywalled] article:
«Ich habe Tausende Drohungen erhalten, aus ganz Europa» [sonntagszeitung] – “Zana Avdiu, bekannteste Feministin des Kosovo, missbilligte Granit Xhakas Griff in den Schritt während des Spiels Schweiz gegen Serbien. Daraufhin wurde sie von dessen Vater live am Fernsehen bedroht – und braucht seither Polizeischutz.”
Rassismus ist keine «verbale Entgleisung» [baba news] – “Beim Match Schweiz gegen Serbien kochten in beiden Lagern die Emotionen. Dabei kamen nationalistische Botschaften und obszöne Gesten zum Zug, auch wurden rassistische Aussagen gemacht. Diese müssen als solche benannt werden – auch im Fussball.” But enough about football. I hated the worldcup and even more how i tried to boycott it but just couldn’t because it was simply everyfuckingwhere.
Rechtsextremismus: Die Schwiegersohn-Neonazis [woz] – “Die Junge Tat versucht ihre Themen in die Mitte der Gesellschaft zu tragen. Woher die Gruppe kommt, wie sie sich verorten lässt, wer die Köpfe dahinter sind.” Wunschschwiegersohn Nazis.
Weihnachten gleich Genuss gleich Fleisch [daslamm] – “Im Advent pusht die Fleischbranche ihre Weihnachtsrezepte. Mit dabei sind steuerfinanzierte Lobbys. Kolumnist Nico Müller hat sich ihre Menüvorschläge angesehen – und ist entsetzt.” Even the milk lobby pushing meat recipes. Dude.
Überwachung mit «Safe City»: Es gibt keinen Ort, um sich zu verstecken [woz] – “Ob in Ghana, Serbien oder Ecuador: Das vernetzte Kamerasystem des chinesischen Techkonzerns Huawei kontrolliert Städte auf der ganzen Welt. Ermöglicht es den Regierungen bald eine lückenlose Überwachung inklusive Gesichtserkennung?” Grrr.
[Older articles, still great]
Honest Government Ad | The Supreme Court
Shots in the Dark with David Godlis
Super Position | David Graeber [thenewinquiry] – “Any power capable of creating a system of law cannot itself be bound by them. So law has to come from somewhere else. In the Middle Ages, the solution was simple: the legal order was created, either directly or indirectly, by God. God, as the Old Testament makes abundantly clear, is not bound by laws or even any recognizable system of morality, which only stands to reason: if you created morality, you can’t, by definition, be bound by it. The English, American, and French revolutions changed all that when they created the notion of popular sovereignty—declaring that the power once held by kings is now held by an entity called “the people.”” I just love how David Graeber builds up an argument, wish i could do this at least a little bit.
The Medical System Should Have Been Prepared for Long COVID [vice] – “And when physicians have run all the tests, consulted all of their medical knowledge, and still can’t tell what’s going on? Instead of jumping from “we can’t see it on the tests” to “it’s all in your head,” there must be more emphasis on the importance—the duty—of saying “I don’t know.”” It should have been.
R.I.P.
Terry Hall
Angelo Badalamenti
Maxi Jazz
Vivienne Westwood
Pele
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Header Photo: Beautiful skyline from a few days ago