[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
The Elements of Mutual Aid | Chapter 1: Fire
[Music]
Boards of Canada – Flexi/Hexi disc – 177 Giraud’s Mirror (Bonus track Inferno)
KNEECAP – Irish Goodbye (Short Film) ft. Kae Tempest
Boards of Canada – Introit / Prophecy At 1420 MHz
[Podcasts]
The Tucker Carlson Problem (with Naomi Klein) – “Tucker Carlson has emerged as one of the most influential voices opposing the U.S. relationship to Israel. He’s also anti-Trump. So is he your friend now? Today, the inimitable Naomi KIein makes her A Bit Fruity debut to explain the Right’s burgeoning realignment, why the Republican successor to Trump could be so much scarier (sorry), and how an inept Liberal establishment made the rise of an antisemitic nationalist movement inevitable.” Ugh.
Health Fascism and the Anti-State State (Re-Air) [.soundcloud.] – This episode, originally released for patrons only, is now freely accessible, and it’s still excellent.
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Ebola – Hantavirus – Covid: May 28, 2026a>Ebola – Hantavirus – Covid: May 21, 2026
Hantavirus – Covid: May 14, 2026
Covid: May 7, 2026
[The Must Read[s] This Month]
The fight against AI data centers isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy | Astra Taylor and Saul Levin – “The anti-datacenter movement, in other words, isn’t just about the future of a novel technology. It’s about the future of democracy. It’s about who controls the economy and whether regular people have a say in the decisions that affect them. Given how we’ve all been denied a voice in this technological upheaval, everyone should be cheering the movement on. Or better yet, joining the fight.” The opposition to data centers and big tech could turn into an interesting development.
The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon – “Fallon presides over his rituals of play like a vampire, feeding not on blood but on enthusiasm. He doesn’t really converse with any of his guests; they all know what they are there for. Rather, he extracts. He demands “relatability” from them, draining the authenticity from the interaction until only the husk of a “viral moment” remains. The horror lies in the repetition: the feigned shock, the hysterical laughter at unfunny mishaps, the relentless “Golden Retriever energy.”” Fallon has always been a milquetoast fence sitter.
[Articles English]
Drag queen Pattie Gonia fights trademark lawsuit by Patagonia [bbc] – “If Patagonia wants to celebrate Pride Month this year by taking a queer climate activist to federal court, then I'm here to fight for myself” Whatever rode Patagonia to even consider this lawsuit?
FIFA Should Be Banned From the Game [counterpunch] – “If money didn’t rule sports and sanity did rule US politics, both of these men [Infantino and Trump] would be either in prison or on their way to prison for the swamp of corruption they both wallow in and celebrate. While I appreciate the game known as football in most of the world, I have nothing but intense disgust for the capitalist carnival the World Cup has become.” Fuck FIFA. I sure hope i will be strong enough to boycott the upcoming world cup. I will hate every minute of it.
Trump’s New National Strategy Labels ‘Left-Wing’ as Terrorists, Akin to ISIL and Al Qaeda [unicorn riot] – “The White House’s newly released national counterterrorism strategy identifies the “left-wing,” “anti-fascists,” “anarchists” and “radically pro-transgender ideologies” as terrorist threats equivalent to al Qaeda and the Islamic State.” Horseshoe theory now official policy in the United States of Assholes.
Mold exposure can trigger and worsen chronic illness. Climate change will increase the risk. [the sick times] – “Mold exposure is a complicated and little-understood phenomena, with limited and largely untested treatments available. More research is needed to figure out the connection between different species of mold and the health impacts of exposure.” In my case, i have had mold allergies for decades. Long COVID only made it worse.
The Movement We Need | Starhawk [substack] – The entire book, written by Starhawk chapter by chapter on substack, is now done and available for your reading pleasure.
‘Petro-masculinity’ is destroying the planet. Can eco-masculinity help save it? [theguardian] – “Coined by political scientist Cara Daggett in a 2018 paper, “petro-masculinity” describes a pernicious fusion between fossil fuel use, climate change denial, and defense of authoritarian white patriarchal masculinity. Noting how fossil fuel extraction and consumption are coded “masculine”, while environmentalism and green technology are coded soft, weak and “feminine”; it tracks how insecure men are increasingly leaning in to a petro-masculine identity in order to assert traditional masculine authority in the face of climate change, threats to traditional extractive industries, and changing social norms.” Turn patriarchs into fossils.
COVID Consciousness as a Subculture[substack] – “The empowerment found in looking after each other is the empowerment of all good movements – there is no need, ever, to leave a single soul behind. Good movements sustain themselves with big imaginations for good now’s and good futures – and being part of the COVID Conscious Community, signaling my belonging to the group in any and every way I can, is my message to the world that I don’t want to go back in time, I know we can do better, and that a good future is coming. We will make it so.” Don’t get me wrong, i loved reading this. But it made me so sad, because the movement, i thought i was a part of, dropped me like a dead fly as soon as i got ill.
taken. – “You opened this page. It already knows the following.” Creepy stuff.
Kim Gordon’s Capitalist Realism [jacobin] – “In Capitalist Realism (2009), Mark Fisher writes of how Kurt Cobain’s suicide marked the end of a certain utopianism in rock music, which was already being overtaken by hip-hop. In both instances, authenticity was integral to their creativity — a feature recognized and commodified by the corporate music industry.” I can highly recommend Kim Gordon’s latest album Play Me.
[Articles German/French]
Demokratische Selbstsorge? [gdg] – “Was wir heute infolge der zerstörerischen Politik von Trump oder Putin beobachten können, hängt zwar mit diesem Grundparadoxon von Demokratie zusammen, hat aber bereits eine neue Stufe erreicht. Es geht nicht mehr darum, aufgrund von einem realen Schutzbedürfnis demokratische Rechte teilweise einzuschränken, sondern bereits darum, diese Achillesferse demokratischer Gesellschaften gezielt anzusteurn, um Demokratien gegen sich selbst zu mobilisieren.” Whenever i read takes like these i always want to ask, what democracy are you talking about? But sure, the author quotes Foucault and stuff, so it must be good.
Slopaganda: Was ist Slopaganda? [woz] – “Anders als gewöhnlicher Slop nutzt «Slopaganda» die Mechanismen sozialer Medien nicht allein zur profitablen Aufmerksamkeitsgenerierung, sondern zur politischen Einflussnahme. Von klassischer Propaganda unterscheidet sie sich nicht zuletzt im Hinblick auf Menge, Geschwindigkeit und Reichweite: Generative KI erlaubt die schnelle Massenproduktion von Content, der sich über soziale Medien rasch global verbreiten kann. Aber «Slopaganda» ist kein bloss quantitatives Phänomen. Sie ist auch verteilte, partizipative Propaganda – Propaganda zum Mitmachen.” Weekly column about slopaganda.
Long Covid und ME/CFS: Heilung in drei Tagen? [woz] – “Die Methoden, die der Podcast vorschlägt, sind unter anderem als «Brain Retraining», «Mind Body Medicine» oder «neuroplastischer Ansatz» bekannt. Die Idee dahinter ist, dass chronischen Schmerzen oder Fatigue – wie sie typisch sind für Long Covid – keine körperlichen Schäden zugrunde liegen würden. Das Nervensystem verharre in einer Art falschem Alarmzustand und löse so Symptome aus, obwohl die Ursache, etwa eine akute Covid-Infektion, bereits ausgestanden sei. Dank «neuroplastischer Verfahren» könne man diese Symptome wieder «verlernen». Wenn man dem Gehirn mit positiven Botschaften, Meditationen und verändertem Verhalten vermittle, dass keine Gefahr mehr bestehe, lerne es mit der Zeit, sich durch Symptome nicht mehr bedroht zu fühlen, was zu einer Genesung führe.” I link to this because of the critique it makes, but i must also warn that one of its authors is a pro-zionist Antideutsch proponent.
Mark Fisher, la techno et la virtualité du futur – « Rien n’est présent, tout est fantomatique » [lundi.am] – “Presque dix ans après son suicide en janvier 2017, qu’est-ce que le théoricien de la culture Mark Fisher penserait de l’état actuel de la musique techno ? En dix ans, la techno a conquis le monde, mais en même temps, elle s’est transformée en machine nostalgique et apolitique. La techno a-t-elle « annulé le futur », comme dirait Fisher dans son livre Spectres de ma vie ? Et si oui, comment le réactiver ?” I am getting so tired of reading these long ass, intentionally obtuse articles. But if i understood this one right, it offers an interesting analysis and an optimistic outlook for techno music.
Tax the poor, feed the rich [daslamm] – “Der Bund begründet das EP27 damit, dass die Kürzungen den finanziellen Engpass des Schweizer Staats ausgleichen und Spielraum für die geplante Aufrüstung der Armee schafft. Ob die geplante Aufrüstung tatsächlich politisch geboten ist, sei dahingestellt. Tatsache ist, dass der Bund 2025 1.1 Milliarden Franken über dem Budget abschloss, und der Schweizer Staat trotzdem weitere Kürzungen plant.” Austerity is no longer about saving money, it’s about oppressing and also scaring people into submission.
[Older articles, still great]
Charlie Kirk: The Man Who Broke Politics
My Octopus Girlfriend | Sophie Lewis – “Capitalism, as I have already suggested, is definitionally anti-erotic (which is to say queerphobic). As a way of organizing nature, it has not only subjected us all to the domination of work; it also generated the novel coronavirus—meaning that the ruling class have fucked the planet to the point that billions of us now have to stay in our (also ecocidally built) houses and refrain from going outside to flirt with the trees.” I so often wish i was gay. Or trans. Probably if i was 20 now, i would be.
R.I.P.
And way too many in Sudan, Congo DR, Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon and Palestine, and all the other stupid wars.
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Header Photo: A fox is looking for food in a freshly mowed field