[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
What happens to your brain without any social contact? | TED-Ed
Diddy And The Death of #MeToo | Taylor Lorenz
[Music]
Sense of Place: Italian singer-songwriter Ariete [npr] – “Italian singer-songwriter Ariete has always known that music was what she wanted to do — and nothing was going to get in her way.”
[Podcasts]
Die Peter Thiel Story [deutschlandfunk] – “Peter Thiel ist der Strippenzieher hinter dem kulturellen Rechtsruck in den USA und einer der wichtigsten Unterstützer von Donald Trump. Mit Paypal und Facebook ist er reich geworden. Das ist die Geschichte des geheimnisvollen Tech-Milliardärs.” Not a huge fan of some of the political subtext in this series, but parts of the information were new to me.
Deny, Defend, Depose: Health Struggle After “Luigi” | Death Panel [.soundcloud.] – “With the new administration, the federal government has been actively attacking healthcare funding for the poor and intensified its targeting of trans and disabled people and the immiseration of healthcare workers. In this session, we discuss what the fight for health communism may look like under this new regime, and what strategies and forms of politics may help us move forward. With Death Panel co-hosts and co-authors of Health Communism Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant, joined by writer and organizer Vicky Osterweil.” The parts by Artie and Beatrice are musts, they are also transcribed bellow. Vicky is a bit all over the shop.
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Covid: July 31, 2025
Covid: July 24, 2025
Covid: July 17, 2025
Covid: July 10, 2025
Covid: July 3, 2025
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[The Must Read[s] This Month]
Anarchism and Disability [the final straw radio podcast] – “I feel that the focus on language is a very neoliberal approach to liberation. I feel people want to be respectful towards disabled people and not say the wrong thing, but that initial anxiety that you feel around them, that’s the thing that maybe you should be exploring, as to why you feel uncomfortable around these people and why that is. You just treat them like they’re people. It shouldn’t be hard.” This is the transcript of the podcast with a disability justice anarchist that i linked to last month.
The Pandemic Has Been a Portal (for a few of us) | Julia Doubleday [substack] – “I also feel sad that people who spend so much time reading leftist theory cannot spot an opportunity to directly care for others when it is staring them in the face, and instead continue to participate in harming others while said others beg them to stop. But this article isn’t about them, it’s about those who have walked through the portal, and what life is like over here. Well, I won’t sugarcoat it. Lonely. So many of our comrades chose not to come with us, that yes, it is lonely. The biggest downside of masking and practicing COVID safety is the social opprobrium we receive, born on the right wing, tolerated and then advanced across the political spectrum. This social rejection and stigma is no mystery, no accident; it is a meticulously constructed psychological project intended to shoo people back to the capitalist, individualist “normal”” A few of us have gone through the portal, join us. It is lonely here. I feel more than isolated.
Where is the site of struggle in healthcare? | Beatrice Adler-Bolton [substack] – “Everyone in this room knows that having health insurance deny care kills. Just as I’m sure everyone in this room who’s a healthcare worker has seen again and again the choices people have to make when they can’t afford their care or they’re already buried in medical debt, or they’ve had to avoid care altogether for so long they’ve become more sick. So many of us know all too well what it feels like to have to choose between going to the doctor and paying rent. Or going to the doctor and being able to eat. And for too many of us, even that choice would seem a luxury. We can’t afford the rent, we can’t afford to eat, and we certainly can’t afford to be sick.” This is the transcript mentioned above from the talk at Socialism 2025.
[Articles English]
Dude, the history behind the word dude is wild [npr] – “The exact origin of the word has been difficult for linguists to pin down, but Gerald Cohen, a professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, published a book on the topic in 2023 with two other language scholars. Cohen says it seems to have been coined in reaction to a particular fad among young men in New York City in the late 19th century. Think hipsters of the 1880s.” Hipsters!
To Starve a People: Gaza and the Settler Biopolitics of Health Gaza is starving by design | Beatrice Adler-Bolton [substack] – “Famine has always been a tool of empire. In Gaza, it is being used to break the bodies and will of a people who refuse to disappear or quietly submit to their own annihilation. It is being used to punish resistance, to punish global solidarity, to erase a population whose very statistical existence contradicts the foundation of the settler state. To deny food is to deny futurity. To starve children is to starve Gaza’s future.” We must get active. Or be complicit.
Kneecap: On Palestine, History Will Stand by Us | jacobin – “This shows the dysfunction of politics. Bands shouldn’t be feeling pressure over political agendas and genocides happening. The pressure should lie on the politicians and decision-makers who are responsible for children starving to death in Gaza and funding genocide. I think it’s important for people with a platform to direct that pressure to where it’s needed.” Considering the way Kneecap gets demonized, they sound quite reasonable in this interview.
COVID Can Cause Alzheimer’s-Like Plaques in Eyes And Brain [sciencealert] – “When researchers added an NRP1 inhibitor to the mix, however, they managed to counter the amyloid beta increase that otherwise occurred in retinal tissue exposed to the coronavirus spike protein. This hints at the possibility of targeting NRP1 to combat neurological complications of COVID, such as those commonly labeled brain fog.” You would not believe how much this worries me.
Is he autistic, or is he just an asshole? | Laurie Penny [substack] – “There is a difference between neurodivergent behavior and entitled male bullshit -it may not negate the damage done, but the distinction still matters. For one thing, the Department of Health is not currently trying to find a cure for misogyny. But autism and assholery are increasingly confused, and that confusion creates a lot of problems. Especially when it’s deliberate.” Sadly parts of this article is behind a paywall. Or maybe was. But what i read is precise.
Two Days Talking to People Looking for Jobs at ICE [n+1] – “Customs and Border Patrol, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service were all recruiting at the event, but ICE was the main draw. Far more applicants stood in line to submit their resumes for deportation officer than for any other position on offer in the cavernous room. […] there were also a handful of women ICE applicants and a lot of men of color. The deportation officer applicant pool was, I felt, shockingly diverse—one might say it looked like America.” Americans of all stripes are rushing to join the SA/SS in the fascist state called US of Assholes.
The Day Andrea Gibson Died | Lipstick Manifestos [substack] – “I don’t buy the idea that the loneliness epidemic primarily affects men. What about, for all but the billionaire class, the felt impacts of the pandemic, ongoing genocide, destructive language models and the AI-right, its fascist surveillance technologies of mass extinction, the struggle just to make ends meet, our ragged bodies undone from overwork and the chronic stress of urgency culture while we toil to pay for absolute shit health care, for starters? Meaning, I would like to consider how rich and powerful men’s existential despair has material consequences for all of us—including men—despair at once massive, structural, and microcosmic, granular.” Only the start of the text talks about Andrea Gibson’s death, which is such sad news. Then it veers into the day to day life of a sex worker, with the usual (for Alison Rose Reed) concise political and philosophical undertones.
Monthly Climate Reports [ncei] – “June 2025 recorded the third-highest June global surface temperature in NOAA’s 176-year record, which dates back to 1850. The temperature anomaly for June 2025 was 0.98°C (1.76°F) higher than the 20th-century average. This June was cooler than June 2023 (second warmest) and June 2024 (warmest). All ten warmest Junes on record have occurred since 2016, and June 2025 extended the streak of consecutive Junes with above-average global temperatures to 49 years.” Move along. Nothing to see here.
Personal Belgians [n+1] – “Tour de France 2025” The article is a bit glib in tone, but contains interesting information and thoughts.
The End of Biopolitics [ill will] – “Today, in the era of the biopolitics of catastrophe and apocalyptic capital, it is precisely these notions that are returning to the forefront. At a moment when, as Enzo Traverso writes, the idea of revolution has been completely obliterated from political and biopolitical discourse — a moment that has instead become associated with the imaginary of terrorism, social collapse, and, I would add, global catastrophe — a genealogical inquiry into the life-politics nexus could offer a crucial contribution to the recovery project outlined by Lazzarato.” I admit it left me a bit clueless, but i think this is relevant.
Making Sense of the PKK’s Self-Dissolution : What Does It Mean for the Middle East? [crimethinc] – “Öcalan’s stance reflects his persistent opposition to Israel and his reluctance to see the Kurdish movement forced—out of strategic necessity—into a tactical or pragmatic alliance with it. This, they argue, is what drives his pursuit of preemptive political solutions aimed at avoiding such alignments. Other proponents of the Kurdish movement contend that the decision by Öcalan and the PKK was a strategic attempt to prevent Kurdistan from becoming the next Gaza of the Middle East.” Much needed context.
Future Sustainable Neighbourhood [resilience] – “I think we’re now clear that governments, ‘leaders,’ the elite and powerful, are not going to build the world we need to thrive. So, it really does have to be ‘bottom’ up – we the people. That’s why I say, ‘neighborhood.” No good me being sustainable and/or self-reliant, when those around me are not.” Let’s start with the world we want to see.
Moon Phase Tracker | Rendered in ASCII Art – When the moon is made of commas, hyphens, asterisks and dots.
UN Expert Exposes Dozens of Companies Complicit in Israel’s Genocide, Apartheid in Palestine [truthout] – “UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese has released a report naming dozens of companies that bear complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid in Palestine, aiming to show how companies have built Israel’s occupation into a sprawling, profitable industry.” Follows the money, who profits from this cynical war. (Many do).
[Articles German/French]
Bilder, paranoid gelesen. Die Netflix-Serie Adolescence [geschichte der gegenwart] – “Netflix tut alles, um die Interpretation der Serie in eine bestimmte Richtung zu lenken. Die Streaming-Plattform versteht sich überaus gut darauf, ihre Serien und Filme für ein möglichst breites Publikum zu vermarkten. Dabei orientiert sie sich an emotional aufgeladenen Themen und skandalträchtigen Figuren, aber vor allem auch an Genres, die garantiert für emotionale Reaktionen und Diskussionen in den Sozialen Medien sorgen, insbesondere auf YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram und TikTok.” The author takes a step back from the hype surrounding the hyped series, but i still am a fan.
Berlins Queerbeauftragter Alfonso Pantisano: „Das Haus der queeren Community steht in Flammen“ [tagesspiegel] – “Das Haus der queeren Community steht in Flammen. Während die Wände brennen – während queere Menschen beleidigt, bedroht, zusammengeschlagen werden – während queere Jugendliche sich in ihren Kinderzimmern aus Verzweiflung ritzen, weil ihnen täglich gesagt wird: „Du bist falsch. Du bist eine Schande. Du bist nicht wert.“ Während all das passiert, da schauen viele weg. Oder schlimmer: Sie lächeln uns hämisch an und gießen weiteres Öl ins Feuer.” Lists all the ways in which homophobia makes a return in Germany, since that dickwad Merz is in power.
Felix Baumgartner verunglückt: Die größte aller Ich-Hupen [taz.de] – “Der allgemeinen Betroffenheit angesichts des Tods von Felix Baumgartner skeptisch gegenüberzustehen, richtet sich nicht gegen den Menschen Felix Baumgartner; es richtet sich gegen die Galionsfigur einer Ideologie, die Rücksichtslosigkeit und Selbstüberschätzung idealisiert und feiert.”
Psychisch krank und unter Generalverdacht – wie der Überwachungsstaat wächst [perspektive] – “Statt die Gründe für die zunehmenden psychischen Erkrankungen zu untersuchen – Stress, Armut, Einsamkeit, Arbeitsdruck, soziale Unsicherheit –, werden die Erkrankten nun zum Sündenbock gemacht. Statt sich mit dem offenkundig rechtem Hintergrund des Anschlags in Magdeburg zu befassen, lenkten CDU-Politiker die Debatte auf psychische Erkrankungen um.” It is a known mechanism by now, deflect, stigmatize, but it continues to get used.
[Older articles, still great]
Arundhati Roy: ‘The pandemic is a portal’ [ft] – “Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.” Seminal. Describes the portal described above.
Junkie Communism | M. E. O’Brien [commune] – “As the crisis of capitalism and working-class life deepens, insurgent movements will need to grapple with drug addiction. Today we need a practice of liberation that recognizes and embraces the fundamental dignity and potential revolutionary agency of drug users and calls on new approaches to interpersonal care, mental illness, and profound personal misery.” Word!
Here Come the Lionfish | James Bridle [emergencemagazine] – “perhaps it’s because I’ve never felt comfortable in my home country either, not in my school or social class, not in my gender, not even, one hundred percent, in my species, that I feel a kind of kinship with the lionfish. Nothing could be more alien to me: rubber-suited, breathing canned air, clad in clunky mask and boots, underwater, ten thousand miles from where I was born—and yet: hello!” Some of this is vague and a bit too generous towards “invasive” species, a misnomer, we agree.
R.I.P.
Andrea Gibson
Ozzy (i guess)
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Header Photo: A tomato tart for Spain