I’ve been reading a lot, and worrying a lot, about the court, and rape culture, and all that. And I’ll say this: I don’t have a lot to say that hasn’t already been said. A friend of mine suggested that I write more about it. About how men and women both participate in, marinate in, the rape culture that surrounds us. But I think I don’t have anything to add. I think shutting the hell up and listening to other people is probably a better contribution to the conversation for right now.
I’m angry. I’m afraid. I’m thinking I should do something but I don’t know what. Emergency supply stockplies. Protests. Sharing angry memes on the internet.
The Republican party seems transparently pro-rape, pro-racism, pro-patriarchy. It seems to make manifest the idea, expressed by Frank Wilhoit, that “conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Despite all this, Gallup says approval of the Republican party is the highest it’s been in 7 years.
This note from the centrist, sensible Noah Smith, a former finance professor and current Bloomberg columnist, chills me:
Possible ways that I see the current era of U.S. political turmoil ending:
1. Everybody calms down and things go back to normal
2. Coup/civil war/national breakdown
3. War with China and/or Russia (but probably China)So, basically:
Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) September 26, 2018
1. The 1970s
2. The 1850s
3. The 1930s
Option 1, obviously, is still the most likely. But there’s a nonzero chance of the others.
Links
- Sickening: The drowning of two mentally ill inmates locked in the back of a police van during a hurricane.
- Thoughtful: A profile of a former Tea Party darling who got locked up and realized how terrible we are to the disadvantaged.
- Strange: Curious botanists uncover a murder. No, it’s not a cozy mystery novel. Yet.
- Alarming: Fox News edited their video of yesterday’s UN speech to cut out the part where the world laughed at our president for his lies and boasting.
Pop!
Trap isn’t necessarily the hip-hop subgenre you’d expect to get the literary-magazine treatment, but N+1 has an article titled “Notes on Trap” and it’s glorious.
See also: Pitchfork’s explanation of the history of autotune.
I’m Taking Economics 101 So Here are My Hot Economics Takes
My economics textbook describes the market for insulin as almost perfectly inelastic: A reduction in price won’t move more units, because people don’t use more than they need. An increase in price won’t move fewer units, because people can’t buy less than they need. Except, of course, that there are limits even to the near-perfect. Insulin prices keep going up. It’s killing people.
(After all, as I’ve quoted repeatedly, “If it isn’t making dollars then it isn’t making sense;
if you aren’t moving units then you’re not worth the expense…”)
Meanwhile, the exploitative app economy meets exercise compulsion meets community service: The CitiBike Angels.
Cultivating Joy
If you find stuff online you think should be in the newsletter please send it in. For example, our friend Dora sent in this dog imitating a person doing lunges.
- Current Affairs ranks paintings of Judith beheading Holofernes.
- Just a reminder that Comedy Wildlife Photography is a thing.
- Glow.cat is a real URL and a real product.
- Also this cat is pretty cool.
- Also these cats.
Secretly Ironic 