Reading List: Go Hack Yourselves.
Darlings, it’s the last weekend before the U.S. midterm elections, which means you’ll need a great deal of reading to do while on phone bank breaks. And btw, unless you’re sawing off your own arm, I hope you’ll be voting on Tuesday, or have already voted.
To the reading!
Max Boot, Vote against all Republicans. Every single one. (The Washington Post) - Coming in with the hottest of takes, the former Republican Boot doesn’t pull any punches about this Tuesday’s elections.
Claire Stapleton, Tanuja Gupta, Meredith Whittaker, Celie O'Neil-Hart, Stephanie Parker, Erica Anderson, and Amr Gaber, We’re the Organizers of the Google Walkout. Here Are Our Demands (The Cut) - Yesterday, workers around the globe walked out of their Google offices to demand an end to forced arbitration and pay inequity, as well as better sexual harassment policy transparency and the addition of an employee representative to the company’s board. You should hear it from the organizers.
And FWIW, WIRED journo Nitasha Tiku captured the best Google walkout sign of all time yesterday at the SF protest:
Mike Powell, Meditation in the Time of Disruption (The Ringer) - I’m relatively new to the world of meditation, mindfulness, and anything that forces me to look my own neuroses dead in the face and say “not today, Satan!” But I can tell you that in the past three and a half years, training myself to sit with my own brain has made my life easier to manage and more enjoyable. While I’ve used some of the apps detailed in this article, I’ve found that the best work comes from sitting in an IRL space with other like-minded stress balls, whether that be in yoga or a meditation class. Powell takes a look at the tension between the old school and the new in the race for your meditative attention.
Amanda Mull, The Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Language of Dieting (The Atlantic) - And speaking of old practices in a new pocket computer form, Mull dives into the world of app-based personal “self-optimization”, or as we used to refer to it whilst attempting to fit into the tiniest of costumes for the stage, dieting. She examines the hyper masculine marketing of diets to men, how “the growing popularity of the size-acceptance movement, and dieter fatigue” have led to a decrease in diets followed, and how the “fastidious attention to detail when it comes to calories and macronutrients” in food trackers bolsters anorexic activity.
Clayton Schuster, 'American History X' Premiered 20 Years Ago, But It's More Relevant Than Ever (Vice) - As Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Centerm, is quoted in the piece: “I don’t think anyone watching American History X in the nineties thought its white supremacist characters would ever become mainstream.” And considering that the Trump administration recently ended programs designed to counter violent extremism by funding organizations like Life After Hate, this cultural history is painfully relevant.
I love you all. Be kind to each other.
Amy