Reading List: Don’t Worry, It’s Only 95 Percent Rooted In Dystopian Anxiety!
It’s Friday! So please enjoy the below while I attempt to keep my teenaged puppy from stealing pieces of clothing and adding another steppe to Chewed-On Sock Mountain. And unplug this weekend if you can.
LONGREADS/LISTEN, AHOY!
Conspirituality, 100: State of Disinformation (w/ Imran Ahmed) - This podcast ep is chock full of terrifying tidbits about the current state of our collective public square, and is a very important reminder that there are social forces touching us (and influencing how we hate) that we aren’t even aware of.
Ronan Farrow, How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens (The New Yorker) - Go into this remembering that during his investigating into Harvey Weinstein, Farrow was followed and harassed, and at numerous points had attempts made to hack his phone. So needless to say, go into this piece knowing that the ferocious investigative energy is channelling a lot.
Taylor Lorenz, Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine (The Washington Post) - If you haven’t already read this, you’ve probably seen reference to allegations that Lorenz “doxxed” a TikTok user in the news. Look, I realize the ultra-right don’t exactly care about logic, or what this here very liberal morning newsletter writer thinks about the role of the fourth estate, but when a Tok Tok account is influencing public policy while also amplifying material used to harass marginalized people in service of taking away their rights: methinks that’s what the press is for, poppets.
Greg Sargent, Opinion: A young Democrat’s viral takedown demands a ‘wokeness’ rethink (The Washington Post) - While I am ever so sick of the Left’s insistence on eating its own tail at any chance it can, it also bugs when Democrats of earlier generation insist that all of our problems can be traced back to “wokeness”. But do I one hundred percent agree with Dem strategist James Carville when he states that the recent barn-burner of a speech by State Sen. Mallory McMorrow of MI is an “enormously effective piece of communication”? Yes. And do I hope and pray that ever Dem politician sees that speech and reconsiders the way in which they discuss social issues? Also yes. (H/t Friend of the Missive Daniel)
John Leland, How Loneliness Is Damaging Our Health (The New York Times) - Not much to say about this, except to say: check in on your friends. Check in on your family. Check in on your loved ones. And work hard to try and get out there if you feel you safely can, because we are not built to live all of this alone. And I say that has a former extreme extrovert who now catches herself deciding to stay in out of fear and anxiety, not choice (huge thanks to FotM Austin for putting a “kidnapping” on my calendar last night to get me to dinner, where we cackled for two hours about SF politics.)
You’re lovely. Drink some water, get outside, hug a tree, throw your laptop into the ocean, run for local office, and be kind to yourself, won’t you?
Xoxo Amy