[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
Reichsbürger – Innenansichten einer extremistischen Bewegung [arte] – “Sie bekämpfen den Staat, möchten alte Reiche neu entstehen lassen oder fordern Autonomie. Reichsbürger sind eine stark wachsende, verfassungsfeindliche Bewegung mit Schwerpunkt in Deutschland. ARTE dokumentiert ihre Organisationsform und Aktivitäten. Sie gründen eigene Betriebe und machen sich auf, Gegengesellschaften zu etablieren, in denen eigene Gesetze gelten.”
Black Anarchist Futures – 2023 Summer Intensive Course
Hacks and leaks, then and now [media.ccc.de] – “A discussion with Jeremy Hammond and Gabriella Coleman on the evolution of digital resistance, from direct action hacking to whistleblowing. How can hacktivists synergize with street activism to enact revolution? Can the lulz beat back the techno-fascist dystopia and their infosec enablers? We’ll present strategies to strengthen decentralized networks, challenge government repression, and practice international solidarity.”
[Music]
Mégadef – Anarcho Balade (Ft. Plume De Mouton)
“Eeeeeh les riches
arretez d’vouloir etre riche
y’a pleins d’trucs dans la vie
à faire quand on est pas riche
comme écrire des rimes riches
qui ri i iment en riche
entre gens pas riches
qui veulent pas d’venir riches” Album bellow 👇
Eartheater – Pure Smile Snake Venom (Official Video)
The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973-2023)
Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f (Official Video)
[Podcasts]
Becker & Pfeiffer. #021: Keine Zustimmung – “Alles andere als erfreulich sind die Nachwehen der WM in Australien und Neuseeland. Wie wenig der sportliche Erfolg der spanischen Spielerinnen im Fokus steht, ist ein Lehrstück darüber, wie patriarchale Machtstrukturen in den Fußball der Frauen hineinwirken. Wir arbeiten für euch die Affären im spanischen Verband rund um Luis Rubiales auf, vergessen aber auch nicht, die Frauen für ihre Erfolge zu feiern.”
Episode 5: Crisis of Masculinity – “Moira leads Adrian through the endless discourse about the “crisis of masculinity” — where it comes from, what has motivated it in the past, and why we’re having it again. Together, the two of them take a long tour de dudes: from Silicon Valley to Mike Pence’s bedroom, from the Old West to Jordan Peterson’s couch. What is the unique state of emergency that men find themselves in? Is it real? And why is it — once again — supposed to be feminism’s fault?”
Rocket-Launching Billionaires Promise a New Pie in the Sky [truthout] – “it’s not enough to dismiss the ideas of people like Musk as being outlandish or absurd. Of course they’re absurd. Musk’s claim that he is going to create a self-sustaining colony on Mars is utter nonsense, but it is not enough to simply know or assert that. The world we inhabit has been carved up and ravaged by people who leveraged ideas that were, in my opinion, no less absurd. Stories have power. The hopes that we offer people, in bleak times, have power. We have to understand the appeal of space as humanity’s last recourse, in these times of catastrophe and crisis, and we have to build movement narratives in opposition to that storytelling”
AI Won’t Overthrow Us, But It Will Optimize the Capitalist Death Machine [truthout] – “Rather than being an apocalyptic technology, AI is more aptly characterized as a form of supercharged bureaucracy that ramps up everyday cruelties, such as those in our systems of welfare. In general … AI doesn’t lead to a new dystopia ruled over by machines but an intensification of existing misery through speculative tendencies that echo those of finance capital. These tendencies are given a particular cutting edge by the way AI operates with and through race. AI is a form of computation that inherits concepts developed under colonialism and reproduces them as a form of race science. This is the payload of real AI under the status quo.”
Refusing Ableism In The End Times | Estelle Ellison – “Our liberatory efforts mean nothing so long as we are willing to compromise our values on critical issues fascism makes no secret of weaponizing against us. Ableism can’t end a legacy of eugenics any more than transphobia can secure trans people a life worth living. Our aspirations towards abolition and the liberation of Black people mean nothing so long as we tolerate reactionary, inaccessible, and apologist methods of increasing our numbers in supposed opposition to anti-Blackness. During this fascist period, every compromise we make with oppressive dynamics and systems will be swiftly leveraged against us.”
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Since the governments have abandoned us, it is up to us to keep reading about this insidious disease. Best source:
Pandemic Roundup: August 31, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: August 24, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: August 17, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: August 10, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: August 3, 2023
[The Must Read[s] This Month]
Naomi Klein on following her ‘doppelganger’ down the conspiracy rabbit hole – and why millions of people have entered an alternative political reality | Naomi Klein [the guardian] – “The reshaping of politics that is one of Covid’s primary legacies is far bigger than Wolf and Bannon, of course. The hallucinatory period when the pandemic melded with economic upheavals and climate disasters accelerated all manner of strange-bedfellow coalitions, manifesting in large protests first against lockdowns and then against any sensible health measure that would have helped make the lockdowns unnecessary.” Of course i hesitate to rave about a Naomi Klein book or article, since she has gone liberal, but this is an awesome and very timely research.
The Beautiful Idea [archive] – “my first comic, The Beautiful Idea, is done and printed <3
I honestly couldn’t be happier with how it came out. This was a deeply emotional piece to make and I hope others find something of value and connection in it.” This is so beautiful. Thanks Bonzo.
Hospitals are killing patients because they don’t feel like doing infection control [substack] – “We don’t stop hand washing because norovirus cases are down. We don’t stop wearing gloves because HIV cases are down. As a doctor, if you’re arguing that you should be able to expose patients to COVID because infection control annoys you, you should not be a doctor. Find a new career. I bet you’d love denying insurance claims. I bet you’d be a natural.” People get thrown under the bus because the economy. Fuck capitalism.
For millions like me with long covid, the pandemic isn’t over [wapo] – “Despite the crystal-clear science on the damage covid-19 does to our bodies, medical settings have dropped mask requirements, so patients now gamble their health to receive care. Those of us who are high-risk or immunocompromised, or who just don’t want to roll the dice on death and misery, have not only been left behind — we’re being actively mocked and pathologized. I’ve personally been ridiculed, heckled and coughed on for wearing my N95. Acquaintances who were understanding in the beginning are now irritated, even offended. One demanded: How long are you going to do this? As if trying to avoid covid was an attack on her, rather than an attempt to keep myself from sliding further into an abyss that threatens to swallow my family.” Fuck everyone who spreads this disease.
Cindy Milstein [full stop] – “As an older anarchist, as every year goes by, I am struck by how hard it is to stay an anarchist for the long haul, allowing us to stay engaged and in relationship to anarchism for the whole of our lives. There are many reasons for this, but especially in times like the present ones, when it is difficult to see any sort of promise or potentiality, I wanted us to remember—myself and readers of Try Anarchism for Life—that we are the carriers of life-giving ways of being in this world. And that anarchism is really about living, in the here and now, lives worth living. Not just for ourselves, but for all of those around us, whether we love them, are friends with them, or don’t know them at all.” I will never be done with anarchism. But the people who tend to call themselves anarchists these days can fuck right off. That movement has turned into a fucking joke.
[Articles English]
When Maura died, a Smithsonian curator likely took part of her brain [wapo] – “Maura came to St. Louis from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World’s Fair. Records suggest that, after her death, a Smithsonian anthropologist took part of her brain.” Beautiful comic rendition of our racist past.
Spain’s Footballers’ Strike Is a Show of Solidarity Against a Creepy Boss [jacobin] – “Spain’s footballers are on strike after soccer chief Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso without her consent. Rubiales claims he’s the victim of “fake” feminist outrage — but the players’ action is a show of unity against a boss abusing his power.” Anti-macho all the way. Men’s football is toxic, but women’s football is still beautiful.
How I Learned to Love the Bomb | Peter Gelderloos [substack] – “The point is, these tools of mass murder are the tools of the state. We should never justify them, contemplate using them, nor trust those who defend their institutional existence by falling back on them. Nor should we put ourselves in the strategic shoes of those institutions that always demand we side with them.” How that fucking movie, that i still didn’t see because they only show it in fucking movie theatres, massages the narrative on the atomic bomb.
Lessons from Gramsci [dissent] – “Too often, mainstream political analysts see all power as residing in the government, especially at the federal level, and see electing winnable centrists to office as the key to promoting progress. Gramsci tells us that power is everywhere, and that holding office is only valuable as part of a larger movement strategy to rally hearts and minds around a genuinely progressive vision. At the other end of the spectrum, many people working outside of government pursue change in only one area—at the level of a single workplace, school, church, food cooperative, or neighborhood initiative—without connecting their efforts to a more comprehensive project of change. Gramsci encourages movements to pursue wide-ranging interventions, but always to unite them as part of a common program to transform society.” Note to self: Read more Gramsci.
How Google made the world go viral [the verge] – “For two decades, Google Search was the invisible force that determined the ebb and flow of online content. Now, for the first time, its cultural relevance is in question.” Fuck Google.
Portrait of a Frightened Boy-Man [hyperallergic] – “If you look very closely at this mug shot, you can see that fear in Trump’s bloodshot eyes. These are the eyes of a little boy caught in the act, facing punishment. This boy-man is still putting on the act of aggrieved victimhood, but it’s wearing thin, and even he is beginning to doubt its efficacy as a deflection.” Yes, i never ever wanted to see this guys face again. But this analysis of his mugshot makes some good points.
Carbon Offsets to Reduce Deforestation Are Significantly Overestimating Their Impact, a New Study Finds [inside climate news] – “A study in six countries across three continents finds that most carbon offsets aimed at avoiding deforestation are failing to keep forests standing or cut atmospheric greenhouse gases.” Right, and who is surprised?
when queer punks gather | Raechel Anne Jolie [substack] – “We gather, we laugh, we flirt, we dance, we sing, and through that we conjure—the spirits of our gay liberation ancestors who threw bricks, the spirits of past elders who knew it was the state (and not their desire) that caused the AIDS crisis, and, devastatingly, the spirits of our contemporaries who we lose to depression, to queer- and transphobia, to prison, to our necro-capitalist medical system.” Another very upsetting shooting.
Got Germs? Coming to a Hospital Near You. [okdoomer.io] – “There are exactly zero circumstances where it’s okay to force someone to put themselves at additional risk just so they can access healthcare. If the CDC goes through with their plans to weaken infection control, more people are going to get sick and die in hospitals. More people are going to avoid hospitals out of justifiable fears.” I am at the point where i try to avoid going to doctors.
Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui? | Naomi Klein and Kapuaʻala Sproat [the guardian] – “Big corporations, golf courses and hotels have been taking water from locals for years. Now the fire may result in even more devastating water theft” A shocking example of disaster capitalism…as cause and outcome.
Megan Rapinoe Answers the Critics [atlantic] – “Think how much that Spanish team had to shoulder: Some of the players who stood up way back last year [to protest poor treatment by their coach and federation] still aren’t on the team. Maybe that was something that galvanized them, but you shouldn’t have to have that. There was another picture that signals such a deep level of misogyny and sexism in that federation and in that man [Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish soccer federation] at the final whistle, just grabbing his crotch. What kind of upside-down world are we in? On the biggest stage, where you should be celebrating, Jenni [Hermoso, the Spanish midfielder who was kissed by Rubiales] has to be physically assaulted by this guy.” I stand with Jenni.
“You Do You,” The War on Compassion [okdoomer.io] – “The painfully obtuse slogan “you do you” has become ubiquitous. It’s everywhere now. It perfectly sums up the ideology of toxic individualism: You don’t owe anyone anything. You don’t have to help anyone. It makes you entitled, even rude if you expect anyone to care about you or anyone else. It’s inappropriate to ask anyone to take on the slightest inconvenience for the greater good.” You do who. I am nobody.
The Dark History ‘Oppenheimer’ Didn’t Show [wired] – “In 1939, just before the start of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a muted warning: “The element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future … It is conceivable … that extremely powerful bombs of this type may thus be constructed.” There’s more this movie didn’t show.
AI Isn’t Banning Books in Iowa Schools. Republicans Are. [intercept] – “Overstating the power of algorithmic systems only serves to benefit the tech companies behind them.” Technology does what the people in power want it to do.
Helicopter Footage From Mass Arrest Reveals State Trooper Surveillance Capabilities, Tactics, and Communications [unicorn riot] – “In an exclusive release, viewers are taken inside Minnesota State Patrol’s Bell 407 helicopter, N119SP, to see and hear the operations of authorities as around 700 peaceful protesters marched onto Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. Watch a condensed video highlighting the chopper’s camera capabilities alongside the audio communications below, and the full hour-long video further down in the article.” Scary shit.
Jordan Peterson: Critics complain over ‘misleading’ book cover quotes [bbc news] – “Two critics who reviewed a book by Jordan Peterson have said their articles were quoted on its cover in a misleading way.” This is hilarious and sad. How could this guy ever rise to prominence. Oh.
Elon Musk has killed Twitter. I’m going to miss it [smh] – “Twitter has been an important alternative path, and it has helped level the playing field. Marginalised people have had more of a chance to make their voices heard, unencumbered by gatekeeping, the tired traditions, the limitations put on their success. For people whose work and ideas might never have been seen otherwise, Twitter has provided an opportunity to make a mark.” Time to grieve. But so many still use that awful platform.
Why Media Conglomerates are Spoon-Feeding Us Anti-Capitalism [current affairs] – “As it turns out, there’s as much profit (if not more, currently) in anti-capitalism as there is in pro-capitalism (or simply not addressing its existence at all). Ironically, anti-capitalism, in fact, is its own market! Why would a capitalist actively contribute to the popularization of anti-capitalist sentiment? As has been written in this magazine before, this is because “the only actual capitalist value is generating and accumulating profit.”” Commodification.
July 2023 Global Climate Repor [ncei] – “The July global surface temperature was 1.12°C (2.02°F) above the 20th-century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F), making it the warmest July on record. This marked the first time a July temperature exceeded 1.0°C (1.8°F) above the long-term average. July 2023 was 0.20°C (0.36°F) warmer than the previous July record from 2021, but the anomaly was 0.23°C (0.41°F) lower than the all-time highest monthly temperature anomaly on record (March 2016). July 2023 marked the 47th-consecutive July and the 533rd-consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average.” This is fine.
Long COVID is devastating and far from rare. As infections rise again, why are we still ignoring it? [salon] – “The mistakes of the past are currently being remade with long COVID. The combination of institutional ineptitude and bureaucracy, the politicization and polarization of the COVID debate and pandemic fatigue has prevented very serious and legitimate science about the potential long-term dangers on COVID infection leading to neurodegenerative issues from entering the mainstream discussion.” Fuck everyone who participates to spread this disease.
Don’t waste food [reuters] – “How every one of us can reduce greenhouse gases by keeping food out of landfills” Just don’t.
Conspiracy theories: how social media can help them spread and even spark violence [theconversation] – “Our study identifies four key stages in the escalation of such conspiracy beliefs.
Identity confirmation: Users consult and view different types of content (via fora, mainstream media and social media) to actively verify and confirm their own views.
Identity affirmation: Individuals disassociate or pick selectively information from their original sources of information (mentioned above). In the case of “Pizzagate”, conspiracy-minded users took pictures from the Clinton Foundation’s support work in Haiti, created visual materials supporting supposed connections to a sex-trafficking ring, and then posted them on Reddit and 4chan. While obviously altered and taken out of context, the images were widely shared to promote the conspiracy theory.
Identity protection: Individuals safeguard their “informational environment” by actively seeking to discredit individuals or organisations that present contradictory evidence, for example with antagonistic or negative posts or comments.
Identity enactment: Individuals seek broader social approval from a more mainstream audience. This can also lead to efforts to recruit more people and call for violent actions, leveraging the community userbase.” Sounds helpful.
What is Anaculture? [sabot media] – “If permaculture is to survive it must be willing to critique and change itself. If not it will become another institution and cease to be a movement at all. It will calcify and rot from neglect and disinterest. The next generation is getting bored of the current politics of feigned neutrality and ethics that don’t line up with the actions of the movements participants. So let this article stand as one critique. I love the concepts of this design system, I hope that we can develop a better system that takes the good from what was there and learns from the bad.” I get the point the author makes, but there are and always have been strains of permaculture that are very political.
Let Them Eat Plague [open-source Eechaton] – “The myth that the immune system is like a muscle that needs to be used to stay in shape is as popular as ever, while the complete opposite is true: there is no material benefit to any amount of viral infections, and the immune system stays healthier for longer the less it is engaged. Playing in the dirt as kids was for exposure to probiotics, not viruses. SARS-CoV-2 in particular has been confirmed to cause lasting immune dysfunction in 10-30% of people who become infected — odds that do not improve with reinfection. According to Japanese data, the rate of reinfection since Omicron has become about 3 times a year.” Fuck everyone who spreads this disease.
‘Everything you’ve been told is a lie!’ Inside the wellness-to-fascism pipeline [the guardian] – “But the blame does not lie with the women – it lies with the gender data gap. Thanks to hundreds of years of treating the male body as the default in medicine, we simply do not know enough about how disease manifests in the female body. Women are overwhelmingly likely to suffer from auto-immune disorders, chronic pain and chronic fatigue – and such patients often hit a point at which their doctors tell them there is nothing they can do. The conditions are under-researched and the treatments are often brutal. Is it any surprise that trust in conventional medicine and big pharma is shaken? And is it any surprise that people look for something to fill that void?” The wellness to fascism pipeline.
[Articles German/French]
«Inklusive Sprache kenne ich nicht gut – aber ich kann sie nicht ausstehen!» [unifr] – “Die ermutigenden Ergebnisse dieser Studie zeigen, wie wichtig es ist, Menschen für die Grundlagen und Ziele der inklusiven Sprache zu sensibilisieren und sie darüber aufzuklären. Durch die Förderung eines vertieften Verständnisses dieser Sprachpraxis und die Sensibilisierung für die ihr zugrunde liegenden Motivationen können Vorbehalte abgeschwächt und positivere Einstellungen begünstigt werden”
Wer in der Schweiz das Klima aufheizt [daslamm] – “Berechnungen zeigen, dass die Superreichen mit ihrem Lebensstil und ihren Investitionen für besonders viele Emissionen verantwortlich sind. Trotzdem macht es sich die Linke zu einfach, wenn sie mit dem Finger nur auf den Luxuskonsum zeigt.” Milo Probst again. Always a good read.
„Es ist alles andere als ‚normal‘, eine solche Sammlung zu betreten“ [daslamm] – “Schutzanzüge und Brillen: „Wir begehen jetzt ein kontaminiertes Gebiet“. So beginnt eine kritische Führung des Komitees Kapital Kollaboration Kriegsgewinn durch die Sammlung Bührle im Zürcher Kunsthaus. Im Interview mit das Lamm gibt Mediensprecher*in Kim Kunz Auskunft.” Much respect for this performance activism.
Vorwürfe sexueller Belästigung – «Republik» stellt Journalisten frei – WOZ leitet Untersuchung ein [srf] – “Sechs Frauen werfen einem bekannten Journalisten sexuelle Belästigung vor. Die aktuelle und eine ehemalige Redaktion reagieren.” The shocking part is how long it took, everybody knew about this guy and his predatory behavior.
Trans-Panik: Wer macht hier Terror? [woz] – “Wahlkampf gegen Regenbogenflaggen und Hetze gegen Aufklärungsunterricht. Die von rechts geschürte Panik kann nur mit nüchterner Wissenschaft bekämpft werden.” Okay. But how well has scientific argumentation worked in the culture war.
Essay: Wer darf sich abkühlen? | Adrian Daub [woz] – “Inwiefern ist die Gesellschaft, die der Neoliberalismus den Amerikaner:innen hinterliess, überhaupt noch bereit, das Leiden, das die Klimakatastrophe mit sich bringen wird, kollektiv zu mildern? Wer heute in der prallen Sonne arbeiten muss, wer ein Recht auf eine Hitzepause hat, wer sich eine Klimaanlage leisten kann und, ja, auch wer die Möglichkeit hat, in ein kühles Nass zu springen: All das wird immer öfter über Leben und Tod entscheiden. Die öffentlichen Schwimmbäder der Progressive Era waren ein Stück Kachel und Beton gewordene Biopolitik. Ihr Fehlen ist das Gegenteil: Nekropolitik, ein achselzuckendes Leben mit dem Hitzetod des anderen.” Pools in San Francisco have a racist history.
[Older articles, still great]
COVID, Vulnerability, and the Death of Solidarity: “Who Do We Not Save?” [journal of bioethical inquiry] – “Solidarity between more and less vulnerable groups is fundamental to an effective public health response to a global pandemic. Yet in the case of COVID-19, a focus on deciding who can and who cannot be protected from harm has shaped the pandemic experience and continues to determine the post-pandemic trajectory of life with SARS-CoV-2.” I loved reading this and almost added it to the Must-Reads.
An Interview with Peter Gelderloos, Part I: Anarchism and Environmental Struggle [sum.uio.no] – “this refusal to engage with struggles that are already there, it smacks of arrogance and of racism, and if you look historically at the movements that followed that exact model, they are all movements with a certain amount of authoritarianism at their center, which are basically trying to take over and monopolize issues. And they almost never accomplish anything except sometimes the formation of a new political party or getting some of their leaders elevated to positions of power.” An interview with Gelderloss before the release of his book The solutions are already here.
An Interview with Peter Gelderloos, Part II: From Colonial Trauma to Ecological Resurgence [sum.uio.no] – “More hierarchical societies and movements are generally easier for the State to repress because those societies or movement are already repressing their base, they already have the mechanisms needed to impose a sort of unity, in which unity is a code word for some central groups to be able to make decisions that everybody has to obey. So those mechanisms already exist, the base is already being ruled in some way, the only thing that the state—or a more powerful state—that comes along has to do, is to take over these mechanisms.” Cont’d.
How to Hide a Plague: How Elite Capture and Individualism Made Covid Normal – “The US has experienced among the highest cumulative mortality rates from Covid-19 in the Global North. This lecture will argue that the failures of the US pandemic response were mainly driven by economic elites who used their influence to undermine public health protections.”
You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence [leavingevidence] – “Disabled people are not disposable. We are your feared present and your inevitable future. We are what age and time promise more than anything else, and this is one reason you fear us and why you have continually pushed us away and hidden us. You don’t want us too close, don’t want a daily reminder of difference and privilege; you don’t want to have to change your life for us.” Powerful.
Practicing a Love Ethic in the Ongoing Pandemic Part 1 [ji-youn kim] – “Given that abled supremacy is normalizing disabled death, what is needed to resist the disposability of the most marginalized, such as poor and working class, disabled, queer and trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? Those of us in the so-called left who care about social justice are invited to embody and commit to a love and care ethic that is rooted in Disability Justice, interconnectedness, and collective responsibility, rather than solely relying on public policy to determine our practices.” Highly recommended.
Practicing a Love Ethic in the Ongoing Pandemic Part 2 [ji-youn kim] – “Multiply marginalized peoples who have been either repeatedly abandoned by the state or have been or continue to be explicitly harmed by the state know that the state and institutions can not be relied upon for justice. A crucial part of liberatory work is to embody the world that we want to co-create in our own communities before that world is tangible in its fullness on larger, more systemic levels.”
Pride and Rage by Sour Queer Press [antidote zine] – “COVID denial—which is a form of genocide denial, if you think about it—continues to proliferate and spread well beyond its previous niche among dyed-in-the-wool fascists, and is now becoming entrenched as part of neoliberal common sense, achieving cultural hegemony even in “progressive” and “radical” circles while COVID continues, undeniably, to spread, disable, and kill. It’s terrifying; it feels like no one is talking about it; and it feels like no one is talking about how no one is talking about it.” This also contains a recording of the entire zine.
R.I.P.
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Header Photo: Fox at night near a corn field