- To understand why America’s opioid epidemic keeps getting worse, just look at this map – Vox
The existing medical treatments we have for opiod addiction aren’t available in huge swathes of the country. - Moira Donegan: I Started the Media Men List
“In October, I created a Google spreadsheet called “Shitty Media Men” that collected a range of rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing…” - Everyone Can Make AI-Generated Fake Porn Now – Motherboard
What worries me about this software isn’t just the ability for people to convincingly put person x’s face on porn star y’s body, but what this will mean for the future of “fake news” – both the ability of people to create convincing fake videos, and the ability of people to convincingly claim that real videos are fake. - Dan Harmon’s apology for sexually harassing Megan Gatz is worth listening to, and actually helped Gatz feel relief and vindication.
- In The Midst Of #MeToo, What Type Of Man Do You Want To Be?
- The reaction to the Aziz Ansari allegations shows #MeToo is more measured than its critics claim.
- Dr. Larry Nassar Sentenced to 40 to 175 Years for Sexual Abuse – The New York Times
“The sentencing hearing itself garnered much attention for extending over several days, streamed live on the internet, to allow for what are known as victim impact statements from girls and women who he is accused of molesting over the years…. The final three of 156 victims spoke on Wednesday.” - Gymnastics scandal: 8 times Larry Nassar could have been stopped – NBC News
“I told somebody,” Boyce said. “Instead of being protected, I was humiliated and told that I was the problem.” - Bring on the Conservative Debate for Immigration | The American Conservative
“Many of Western civilization’s great thinkers believed in the free movement of peoples.” - Do We Code-Switch Our Laughter? (Yes.) – Atlas Obscura
- Over the past 18 months, the New York Times has dedicated 21 columns and articles to the subject of conservatives’ free speech on campus, while only three covered the silencing of college liberals or leftists.
- Where Did Animals With Tail Weapons Go? Here’s a Back Story – The New York Times
- (75) The Actual Forgotten Working Class |Full Frontal on TBS – YouTube
Did you know that many working class people aren’t white? If so, you know more than the media seems to. - BBC – Future – Do men and women really have different personalities?
A slightly more detailed discussion of some of the research Gracchi referred to in the “Toxic Masculinity Stew” comments. - Vulgarity Isn’t Praxis | Noah Berlatsky on Patreon
“The fantasy of stuffed shirt effeminate wealthy pearl clutchers opposed by virile brave cursing truth tellers is in fact a fantasy—and a dangerous one. Once you’ve convinced yourself that vulgarity is a sign of authenticity, then anyone who uses vulgarity becomes an avatar of the working class.” - Stop Listening to Seth Abramson’s Hack Trump-Russia Theories :: Paste
- BITTER HARVEST – The Washington Post
The WW2 Japanese Interment camps were motivated as much by profit as by anything else. - Pennsylvania’s Death Row Prisoners Argue That the Right to Execute Does Not Include the Right to…
- State by state, here are the most binge-watched TV shows of 2017 | The Seattle Times
The most binged watched on Netflix, anyhow. Still, it’s interesting. Several most-binged shows are ones that I hadn’t heard of, but which sound really neat (like “American Vandal”). - Why don’t dreamers just become legal citizens?
- How the far right has perfected the art of deniable racism | Gary Younge | Opinion | The Guardian
- Scott Walker Is Literally Preventing Wisconsinites From Voting | The Nation
Scott Walker is refusing to call elections to fill empty seats in the legislature, presumably because he’s worried that Democrats could win those seats. Given Walker’s enormous prominence, the lack of Republican party opposition to Walkers anti-democracy policies should be seen as approval. - 12news.com | Border Patrol arrests ASU instructor who gave food, water to immigrants
The instructor is part of “No More Deaths,” an activist group that, shortly before the arrest, released video of border patrol agents deliberately destroying water meant for migrants. He was arrested for harboring. This is just sheer evil. - Cow runs away from farm and spends the winter with a herd of bison – BBC News
- Why You Shouldn’t Think for Yourself | Noah Berlatsky
- Don’t Be Accountable to Nazis | Noah Berlatsky on Patreon
It’s entirely possible I missed something. But looking at news stories from the last 24 hours, they don’t say anything…
Identity Evropa member threatens classrooms at UCSD. Silence from the NYTimes, Atlantic, et al. http://triton.news/2018/01/white-supremacist-student-disrupts-lecture/
Those Noah Berlatsky pieces were fun. In the second one he talks about the slippery slope of libertarian language police. I couldn’t agree more. Nazis killed people. They continue to kill people. They want to kill more people. I am not worried about no-platforming people like that.
Elusis,
That article tells a very disturbing story. Given where I teach and the history of white supremacy there—there was a time when the Klan marched without their hoods not too far from my school—I often wonder when (not if) something like that will start to happen.
Sometimes the lack of history scares me. In those last two links, Noah Berlatsky almost exactly recreates the arguments for why communist party members and gay people were not permitted to be teachers.
There is also irony in an argument that says the whole culture is oriented around celebrating independent thinkers, but I THINK we shouldn’t do that.
As a normative claim though, he’s wrong, independent thinking isn’t what most people are asked to do. The fact that we celebrate certain ‘independent thinkers’ doesn’t mean that independent thinking is generally a value of our culture.
Yeah, Noah’s argument is that Nazis preaching their arguments makes minorities feel unsafe and react angrily so people who listen to them naturally gravitate to the polite Nazis. Which is fine. But how does he think Poles, Balts, Ukrainians,etc felt in the 1940s and 50s when they felt Communists talk? Does he think that Communists should have been banned postwar? And in fact, both groups tried to tamper with a presidential election with Russian help.
I couldn’t agree more with this, especially when it comes to politics. Many people are suspicious of independent thinkers. This is why rightwing folks use stupid pejoratives like “cuck,” and “Rino,” for those who dare to march a little out of step with whatever brand of conservatism is popular at the moment. This is why many of my friends to the left think Steve Pinker is actually a secret right-winger. This is why nuance is frowned upon in so many partisan spaces- partisans often pattern match nuanced “independent” thinkers with the enemy.
I used to be pretty libertarian, but eventually I really struggled with the way libertarians in libertarian spaces (often a group that prides itself for openness) shut down conversations when their vulnerabilities were exposed by a critic. A statement like: “I’m not sure how you can justify defending property rights with force, while basing your entire political philosophy on the non-aggression-principle.” is less likely to start a good dialogue, and more likely to be followed by a barrage of insults or an appeal-to-my-really big-gun-collection response. When I was younger, and didn’t know any better, I too would dismiss such criticisms of libertarianism, imagining that such a criticism only came from a place of disingenuous hackery, rather than real well-thought-out disagreement. “This guy is just trying to be a prick! His desire is to control me!” is the way I thought at the time. Back in those days, the Reason.com comments section was full of incredibly smart people, but it wasn’t enriching. Spending time there was unhealthy for me. I haven’t been back in 10 years or more.
I try to associate with as many people as I can who are willing to hear and dish out criticism because the spaces where this is frowned upon are ugly. These spaces don’t foster the growth f useful lenses that I can use to better understand the world (I’m looking for predictive validity here, rather than a lens that just confirms a narrative I like). Even disagreements to “closed questions,” are useful, if for no other reason than that they force me to reevaluate and thus refine my principles. Popper has it right- our knowledge is advanced through the destruction of old ideas as they are replaced with new innovative ones, and this works best in an environment where people are encouraged to think independently and criticize the orthodoxy. Noah’s statement: “contrarian daring individualism is both impossible and undesirable,” is historically wrong and morally wrong for those who believe truth-seeking is a moral imperative.
Slate: I Am the Very Model of a New York Time Contrarian