US Politics
It’s Bernie, Bitch | Amber A’Lee Frost
Amber from Chapo Trap House explains why Bernie is the only viable candidate for 2020, even if he dies on the campaign trail and his corpse has to be operated like a Muppet.
The Border Patrol Has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924
Even among law enforcement agencies, the Border Patrol has always been notably racist.
How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Allies Supplanted the Obama Generation | The New Yorker
In brief: the Green New Deal completely changes the conversation.
Vann R. Newkirk II: How to Kill a Revolution - The Atlantic
Liberal history treats MLK Jr’s assassination as something that happened after the success of his movement (the Voting Rights Act). But it was really at the beginning of a movement that was cut short.
The Lesson Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have for the Left: Embrace Class Conflict – Canadian Dimension
Welcome the hatred of your actual enemies.
Gender and mental health
Therapy wars: The Revenge of Freud - The Guardian
This article seems to imply that if CBT is wrong (it probably is), then traditional Freudian analysis must be right (it probably isn’t).
‘Traditional masculinity’ deemed ‘harmful’ by American Psychological Association | TheHill
Enough said.
A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder.
It’s certainly abnormal.
adult life does not spark joy
This link has already rotted between the time I saved it and the time I shared it. But basically, it points out the problem with Marie Kondo’s test for whether to keep something: your toilet plunger almost certainly does not spark joy. But you also can’t get rid of it. And really, there are a whole lot of things about adult life that are like that.
Opinion | I Put My Baby Daughter in Dinosaur Overalls. Am I an Anarchist? - The New York Times
This is an amazingly tepid take, but I guess the fact that it’s not obvious to everyone means that the gendering of babies is way out of control. The answer to the question is no, of course; you’re an anarchist if you put your baby in a red onsie that says “I’m a Little Wobbly” on them.
Computing, web
The Ethics of Web Performance - TimKadlec.com
“Poor performance can, and does, lead to exclusion…There is a growing gap between what a high-end device can handle and what a middle to low-end device can handle.”
The urge to share news of our lives is neither new nor narcissistic | Aeon Ideas
I was amazed to learn about 18th-19th century diaries being written to be passed around to fiends and family.
When YouTube Red-Pills the Love of Your Life - MEL Magazine
This is one reason why I love Chapo Trap House and ContraPoints. They may sometimes be problematic, but in terms of both style and substance, they are exactly what is needed for deprogramming people who might be just beginning the slide towards the alt-right.
social_media_design | Recent Entries
A Dreamwidth community for talking about the design of social media platforms.
Brutstrap
A CSS stylesheet for making brutalist websites. Eventually I need to make a theme for brutaldon that uses this.
Quitting Facebook & Google: Why Exit Option Democracy is the Worst Kind of Democracy
A sociologist looks at the cost you have to pay to quit Facebook and Google.
Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway.
A kind of corporate puff piece on DuckDuckGo, but you should totally be using it anyway.
How Facebook Advertising Works - The Atlantic
Most Facebook users have no idea how Facebook makes money, or what that has to do with their data.
Local
Columbia SC bans electric scooters like Bird, Lime for 1 year | The State
Surprised/not surprised.
Music
ASTRAL | Polymer Witch
Solarpunk/lunarpunk aesthetic.
The Songs We Sing - Best Of 2002-2012 | Flunk
Folktronica, alternative pop, some nifty covers.
Houmeissa | Hama
Nigerién composer Hama presents a groundbreaking album of traditional electronic desert folk songs, hovering somewhere between early 90s techno and synthwave. Nomadic herding ballads, ancient caravan songs, and ceremonial wedding chants are all re-imagined into pieces seemingly lifted from a Saharan 1980s sci-fi soundtrack or score to a Tuareg video game.