[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
Capitol of Conformity | Dystopian Short Film
The Scariest Sound In The World Dude 3D printed an aztec whistle. Also please be aware that at some point the video turns into an advert. This is why i do not embed it here.
Chunk the groundhog is a notorious vegetable thief [tiktok – “Chunk the groundhog is a notorious vegetable thief” I think this must be the first tiktok i link to.
[Music]
DJ Shadow – You Played Me (Official Video) Album soon.
[Podcasts]
To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation [truthout] – “a phrase I stole from the wonderful comics artist Dana Claire, who writes this great series of comic books about a little girl and her unicorn. And the unicorn can be seen by grownups, but grownups don’t notice the unicorn because the unicorn exudes a thing that she calls the shield of boringness. And the shield of boringness is just this thing that makes your eyes glaze over when you contemplate it. And as a result, nobody finds it remarkable that the unicorn is there.” Cory seems to make an effort to talk less fast and still says so much.
We Can Survive Together by Becoming Kin [truthout] – “I developed an exit strategy to get out. And then I actually developed PTSD, because you can’t fight a system while you’re inside the system and not have some emotional trauma as a result. So yes, so working in child welfare made me an abolitionist in the broadest possible sense. And I have taken that training and then used it to analyze the stories and histories of the world around me, but I am still bothered by the harm that I did. And so knowing and understanding the harm that I did, even while I thought I was helping, that also shapes my activism.” It had moments that made me cringe, but beautiful.
Stream Reflections w/ Naomi Klein (09/14/23) | Death Panel [.soundcloud.] – “Bea and Jules speak with Naomi Klein about left melancholy, coping with and working against years of disastrous pandemic response, and her new book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.” Since then i have read the book. It is exiting but in equal parts frustrating. Klein’s statements against identity politics are embarrassing. She is a reformist, posing as a revolutionary.
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (audiobook outtake) | Cory Doctorow [craphound.com] – “the introduction and chapter one of the audio edition of The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation, which Verso will publish on September 5, 2023. I made my own DRM-free audiobook for this, reading it under the direction of the incredible Gabrielle de Cuir” Cory reading an excerpt of his new book.
Our Movements Need Infrastructure for Care, Recovery and Belonging [truthout] – “When the George Floyd uprisings happened and the Breonna Taylor uprisings happened, there was this overwhelming sense for me and I think for a lot of people of a sense of desperation, but also of purpose and groundedness that things were bad and this was an important moment, and that if we didn’t kind of draw the line here, we might not all survive what came next, that it was this moment of a police riot connected with a rise of a fascist movement in the White House and a developing grassroots fascist movement and also a mass disabling event through COVID, and that there was kind of this dramatic moment in which we were going to sacrifice whatever we could to give ourselves a better future.”
[Toot Threads] [i am now on bluesky as well, but i don’t trust it]
I also wrote a longer thing about the book. But feeling insecure about it. Yeah, i have a fucking substack lol.
What she says.
COVID now for free in any supermarket near you.
Free the animals.
Gotta love math.
As they say, hope dies last. My hope may well survive me.
A fantastic book!
[Pandemic Roundup]
Pandemic Roundup: September 28, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: September 21, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: September 14, 2023
Pandemic Roundup: September 7, 2023
[The Must Read[s] This Month]
Heating Up: An Interview with Peter Gelderloos on Climate Change and the Fight to Change Everything [igd] – “The truth is that for decades already, entire ecosystems and many of the species that make them up have been completely destroyed, for decades already tens of million of humans are dying every year as a result of this broad ecological crisis, and for centuries the extractivist societal forms responsible for the ecological crisis have been colonizing and eradicating the societal forms that take care of their ecosystems and that also tend to resist human-to-human oppressions.” Peter veers into some strange territory in the middle somewhere, but it is still a great read.
Nationalfeiertag: Achtung: die Schweiz [taz] – “Aber seltsam: Ein Großteil der Bevölkerung glaubt an Wunder und Mythen. Denn nicht heute ist der Nationalfeiertag, nein, das ist der 1. August. Der ist ein Märchentag: 1291 war angeblich was mit einer Wiese und einem Schwur und drei mutigen Kantonen (bis heute die konservativsten des Landes), die sich zusammenschlossen gegen die Habsburger. Schiller hat mal was darüber geschrieben.” I loved reading this so much. I hate this country.
Back To School Panic | Lachrista Greco [substack] – “May we all reimagine accommodations as loving/healing/safe access points. May we all practice community care. May we all get what we need—at the very least.” I fucking hated every fucking second in fucking school.
[Articles English]
Native Artist Shot in New Mexico at Rally Over Colonizer Statue [hyperallergic] – “Activists in Española had peacefully gathered to protest a monument of Juan de Oñate when Jacob Johns was allegedly shot by a man wearing a Trump hat.” Thankfully he seems to be recovering.
Covid Causes Much More than Brain Fog | Jessica Wildfire [okdoomer.io] – “If left unchecked, the mass disabling event of Covid will become the biggest public health crisis in hundreds of years. And we haven’t even talked about Covid’s toll on your immune system. We can’t let students spend another year getting infected with Covid. They’re already looking at a future darkened by war, climate disaster, and pending social collapse. Are we going to kill their brains, too, leaving them utterly unable to function in this chaotic world?” I simply can’t understand how COVID could be allowed to run rampant. Still.
24 hours in an invisible epidemic – Nice visualisation, but it made me feel lonely.
In depression treatment trials, placebo effect is growing stronger [ars technica] – “And these are some of the things that can potentially influence how people perceive the sham treatment. After all, the placebo effect is largely mediated by the belief that some form of treatment is happening. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, which involves medical staff and some serious-looking equipment placed next to someone’s head, lends itself very readily to that belief. If more effort has been put into making the placebo convincing in recent years, it could easily explain the change we’re seeing.” Do not diss placebo, just the people making a business model based on it.
Mutual Aid and the Criminalization of Compassion: Humanitarian Aid Must Never Be A Crime [igd] – “Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr have irresponsibly and dangerously put out the astonishingly false narrative that mutual aid and solidarity are criminal and nefarious into the public discourse. This seriously endangers billions of people around the world who engage in, benefit from, and survive by simple acts of mutual aid on a daily basis.” This is so fucking maddening.
RICO and Stop Cop City: The Long War Against the Left [the abusable past] – “When it comes to the left, the state uses RICO to criminalize radicals as thieves and separate them from a broader base of support. Whatever the outcome, the use of RICO is damaging. Already, 42 of the 61 Stop Cop City activists facing RICO charges have had their lives upended by “domestic terrorism” charges. Ranging in age from 19 to 49, the accused have lost jobs, faced housing insecurity, been prevented from attending school, and experienced mental distress.” Dan was also on death panel podcast with this article, sadly it’s patreon only.
The big idea: could we use music like medicine? | Science and nature books [the guardian] – “We know that music influences our emotions, but could it improve physical health too?” Tune!
Generative AI closes off a better future | Paris Marx – “Ursula Le Guin said we must be able to imagine freedom. AI traps us in the past.” Concise.
How to Start a Mask Bloc Soft Launch Version [google docs] – “Mask blocs provide high-quality, high-filtration (Hi-Fi) masks to their communities for free. They can also be sources of other tools and information about COVID-19, clean air, and accessibility. For many marginalized communities— including disabled folks, queer folks, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)—mask blocs have become essential to surviving the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. There are systemic barriers in front of multiply-marginalized folks that affect their access to COVID-19-prevention measures, as well as to organizing networks, experience, and credentials.” Cool, but why the fuck use Google doc?
care is where the body lives. | Raechel Anne Jolie [substack] – “Where is the body? It is wherever the chaos is. And the treatment of disease is no place for a body. Even for the dying ones (we’re all the dying ones), care is where the body lives.” We are all dying.
The grifterverse and Russell Brand [freedom news] – “None of Brand’s output over the last couple of years is particularly new or of much concern to actual billionaires, who’ll take a loudmouth wannabe guru rattling on about conspiracies any day over genuine investigation and challenge. Spectacle acting as flak to misdirect the public is their bread and butter.” This guy. I always wondered, how could he ever be popular?
‘Home Confined’ Z-Library Defendants Deny They Are Fugitives [torrentfreak] – “Last year, the U.S. indicted two Russians who stand accused of operating the book piracy site Z-Library. Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova were arrested in Argentina, where they are currently ‘home confined’ pending their extradition battle. Meanwhile, their lawyers are trying to convince a New York federal court to dismiss the case for a myriad of reasons.” Brave people.
Former Actor Attacked for Wearing COVID Mask Left Permanently Blind [newsweek] – “While inside the townhouse, Keenan was seated at a dining room table when suddenly he noticed something around his neck. “At first I thought it was a joke but it kept getting tighter and yanked me off the chair,” he said, who added that he eventually was able to fight back and remove a rope from his neck. Keenan said he later realized it was a “nylon rope” when he jumped up and asked the perpetrator what was going on. “He screamed at me and said, ‘I told you never to wear a mask in this house,’ and I replied immediately back, even louder, ‘What the f*** are you talking about? I’ve been here five or six times with a mask every time, you’ve never even seen my face,'” Keenan told Newsweek.” This scares the shit out of me. I fear we will see more such anti-mask behavior.
Diplo has successfully escaped the arena | Ryan Broderrick [substack] – ““Say what you will about the 70,000 people stuck at Burning Man but they’re in the arena and you’re on the sidelines,” Twitter user tolstoybb wrote. It’s a funny bit, but it’s also the perfect physical representation of the “arena” that Silicon Valley is so obsessed with. Esther Crawford, the former Twitter executive who slept under her desk after Musk took over and still ended up getting fired, is in the arena. Oliver Anthony probably wasn’t even though a bunch of places said he was… including me in a previous version of this post. As is with Neal Katyal, the self-described “extremist centrist” lawyer who has defended companies that use child slaves. And all of them are sitting in a flooded playa full of human waste waiting out the undeniable effects of climate change. Diplo was also there, but he escaped with Chris Rock. If you want to see what the next 25 years are going to be like, Burning Man is it. Millionaires and managers ignoring huge structural problems until it starts to impact their libertarian freak fests and then escaping to somewhere safe when they get the chance. Well, until there aren’t any safe places to escape to, I guess…” I do not like Ryan, not one bit, but here he nails it.
August 2023 Global Climate Report [ncei] – “The August global surface temperature was 1.25°C (2.25°F) above the 20th-century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F), making it the warmest August on record. This marked the first time an August temperature exceeded 1.0°C (1.8°F) above the long-term average. August 2023 was 0.29°C (0.52°F) warmer than the previous August record from 2016, but the anomaly was 0.10°C (0.18°F) lower than the all-time highest monthly temperature anomaly on record (March 2016). However, the August 2023 temperature anomaly was the third-highest anomaly of any month on record. August 2023 marked the 45th-consecutive August and the 534th-consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average.” You think?
You Could Use a Mourning Routine [okdoomer.io] – “Now almost everyone we know tries to quarantine sadness. They push negative emotions out of their minds and out of their culture. They go around telling each other to smile. They make up words to pathologize and shame sad people. They prescribe them pills and aphorisms.” Grieving as a revolutionary praxis.
Libyan Youth Climate Activist Says Flooding Disaster Was Not a Surprise [truthout] – “And just two years ago, Mr. Abd al-Aziz Ashour, who is a civil engineer, published a paper with the University of Sebha where he warned that both of the dams are very fragile, and he expected that they will be falling apart very soon. He also mentioned that we need to have a lot of tree planting in the area in order to combat the desertification, because all of the sand in the area or, like, the dry area will only make the flooding much worse. So it’s something that we have expected.” Sadly this kind of stuff is bound to happen more and more, and mostly in the countries of the global south.
50 Years After “the Other 9/11”: Remembering the Chilean Coup [the nation] – “Pinochet’s reign of terror, destined to quash the slightest hint of opposition or criticism, allowed the military—and the right-wing civilians who had instigated the coup and then benefited from the ensuing policies—to turn Chile into a laboratory for neoliberalism: a series of measures that privatized the economy, imposed austerity on an unwilling populace, and trusted an unbridled free market to magically solve all the ills of society.” This arcticles fully buys into the hyperbole surrounding Allende’s Chile. But the coup was horrendous.
How a Queens teenager helped pave a path for women in graffiti culture: Catching up with Maria ‘Toofly’ Castillo [gothamist] – “Maria Castillo, known as Toofly, is among the early female pioneers of graffiti culture. Coming up in the 1990s, Toofly carved a name for herself in New York City’s male-dominated graffiti scene, setting the stage for other women to express themselves with an aerosol can. She said her cousin coined the nickname Toofly for her, believing it represented her artistry and style – both fast and fly.” Love her work.
Temperature Check [the nib] – This cartoon sums up the state of the pandemic.
What long COVID taught me: How to help a friend with chronic illness [timesofisrael] – “Instead of ‘Are you feeling better?’ and ‘What do you need?’ here are some truly helpful questions you can ask” It is a bit middle of the road, but some people might learn what to ask and what not to.
Over 60 People Indicted on RICO Charges in Atlanta, Allegedly Promoting ‘Anarchist Ideas’ [unicorn riot] – “Georgia prosecutors have indicted 61 individuals under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, for their alleged participation in the #StopCopCity movement and for, as they put it, promoting “virulent anarchist ideas.”” And with that the road to fascism is wide open. Or even more wide open i should say.
Welcome to the “You Do You” Pandemic [the nation] – “People like them—the ones with money and access—can afford the expensive Covid tests. They can ensure that Paxlovid reaches their door quickly. They’ll be first in line for the new boosters. Some of them even have a concierge physician on speed dial for when things get hairy. Meanwhile, they offer the rest of the country the policy equivalent of “You do you” and “Let them eat cake.”” Yeah well, you contributed.
Autoenshittificatio [pluralistic] – “Don’t drive a cab, create Uber and extract value from every driver and rider. Better still: don’t found Uber, invest in Uber options and extract value from the people who invest in Uber. Even better, invest in derivatives of Uber options and extract value from people extracting value from people investing in Uber, who extract value from drivers and riders. Go meta.” Enshittification is catching on.
What Happened to Us? [okdoomer.io] – “Anthony Fauci recently went on the BBC to talk about the new surge of Covid cases. He said something remarkable: “The vulnerable will fall by the wayside. They’ll get infected. They’ll get hospitalized, and some will die.” He said it in a casual tone. He was almost smiling.” Cynical.
[Articles German/French]
Paris: Die Steinwüste lebt [woz] – “Die Hauptstadt Frankreichs ist eine der am dichtesten bevölkerten und bebauten Grossstädte der Welt. Doch da sind auch die stolzen historischen Pärke und Squares – und nun erprobt die aktuelle Stadtverwaltung von Paris die visionäre Begrünung der Stadt.” The beautiful city getting ever more beautiful.
Von Zürich bis Guatemala: Eine Schweizer Kolonialgeschichte [daslamm] – “Das Beispiel Guatemala zeigt: Bei der (neo-)kolonialen Expansion im 19. Jahrhundert waren auch Schweizer aktiv beteiligt. Doch daran erinnert man sich hierzulande noch immer ungern.” Fuck this opportunistic country and its racist, colonialist history, even if at times by proxy.
Wenn “kritische Männlichkeit” antifeministisch wird [daslamm] – “Denn dass einzelne Menschen, vor allem (cis) Männer, sich und ihr Verhalten verändern müssen, ist eine schlichte Notwendigkeit im Angesicht der patriarchalen Zustände. Die Frage, ob das, was daraus entsteht, noch Männlichkeit genannt werden kann, ist nicht von Interesse. Man(n) sollte sie zurückweisen, statt ständig zu versuchen, neue, positive Antworten auf sie zu finden.” Shows just how fast critical masculinity can turn into masculinism.
Missbrauch in der Kirche: Mit nikotingelben Fingern [woz] – “Erstmals zeigt eine Studie das Ausmass sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche der Schweiz. Tausend Fälle sind dokumentiert – darunter jener von Vreni Peterer.” Seriously fuck the church. 2023 and we still have religion based on fairy tales?
Tödliche Intelligenz – Science Fiction und K.I. [54books] – “Aber diese Art von Science Fiction, die jahrzehntelang das entsprechende Milieu der amerikanischen Popkultur prägte, ist heute ein völliges Randphänomen geworden, und das wird sich vermutlich auch nicht mehr ändern. Der Blick zurück kann sich jedoch zumindest punktuell durchaus lohnen. Speziell in diesem Fall könnte er zudem dabei helfen, unsere Wahrnehmung dafür zu schärfen, wie sehr die aktuell auf künstliche Intelligenz projizierten Befürchtungen durch popkulturelle Konventionen konditioniert sind, die bei Saberhagen als demjenigen, der den Topos populär machte, noch gar nicht etabliert sein konnten.” SciFi shows what AI could have been.
[Older articles, still great]
Climate Protesters Shut Down BURNING MAN, Rangers Ram Through Blockade – This video says everything you need to know about burners.
The Aging Anarchist’s Cookbook [thenewyorker] – “How to broadcast your fragile punk-rock identity by making your toddler wear a Black Flag T-shirt. How to prominently display your old skateboard deck without ever, ever trying to skate again. How to become one of those vegan punks who channel all of their aggressive energy into self-improvement and get really into hot yoga.” Busted.
R.I.P.
Too many in Libya, Ukraine and in other wars, plus too many still from COVID.
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Header Photo: Laptop almost closed