Links

Bypass paywalls on popular online publications for free, by 7 Labs.
There is a lot of important information out there that is behind paywalls, many requiring expensive subscription to overcome.

Above the Fold

David Graeber, anthropologist and author of Bullshit Jobs, dies aged 59, by Sian Cain, The Guardian
We’re Living In a Dystopian Future Now, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium—Apeiron
"The sooner we accept it, the better."
Along with accepting it, it would help I think to understand the surplus energy problem and the limits to growth in general. Such an understanding would help make sense of it all.
Green economic growth is an article of ‘faith’ devoid of scientific evidence, by Nafeez Ahmed, Medium—Insurge Intelligence
"For absolute resource decoupling to make sense as a global goal, we would need a scenario where, in ca. 30 years, the economy produces 2.6 times more GDP out of every ton of material used, under conditions where material use diminishes ca. 40 percent globally. Currently, no trends corresponding to this scenario are observable and, to our knowledge, no concrete proposals with such a level of decoupling have been presented."
West’s ‘dust bowl’ future now ‘locked in’, as world risks imminent food crisis, by Nafeez Ahmed, Medium—Insurge Intelligence
"The implications reach far beyond food security…. Farmers turned climate refugees will need to vacate, find new work, and support families and households that suddenly find themselves uprooted and with little means to start over."
The Unraveling of America, by Wade Davis, The Rolling Stone
"Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era"

Miscellaneous

Here's The Real Truth About That 'Election Day' Asteroid on Its Way to Earth, by Jacinta Bowler, Science Alert

Suddenly, "liberal" is a dirty word

And with good reason, it seems.

For my Dad: on what’s wrong with, ‘Being liberal’, by Neil Howard, Open Democracy
"The historical misdirection involved in 'being liberal' persists today and affects those vulnerable to ideological revisionism. We must protect them."
The anti-liberal moment, by Zack Beauchamp, Vox
"Critics on the left and right are waging war on liberalism. And liberals don’t seem to have a good defense.">br /> The author is a liberal and sets out to defend liberalism, but along the way he makes some good points against it.
The difference between ‘left’ and ‘liberal’ – and why voters need to know , by John Broich, The Conversation

Black Lives Matter

Examining Vicky Osterweil’s Case for Looting, by Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker

Coronavirus

More COVID-19 Reinfections Are Being Reported. Here's Why You Don't Need to Freak Out, by Aylin Woodward & Hilary Brueck, Business Insider/Science Alert
How Many Lives Would a More Normal President Have Saved?, by Ross Douthat, The New York Times
"Trump failed to meet the Covid-19 challenge. But it’s harder to judge whether the overall response was catastrophic or merely mediocre."
What Young, Healthy People Have to Fear From COVID-19, by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
"The White House’s new science adviser says: nothing. The science disagrees."
Herd Immunity Is Not a Strategy, by James Hamblin, The Atlantic
"What the term actually means, and what it doesn’t"
"...there’s never been a real case of herd immunity through infection."
The Most Likely Way You’ll Get Infected With Covid-19, by Dana G. Smithy, Medium—Elemental
"You don’t have to sanitize your apples anymore, but you do have to wear a mask."
Am I correct in presuming that once we get a COVID-19 (Coronavirus) vaccine, life can pretty much go back to normal?, by Ron and Marla Chapleau, The Kincardine Record

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

Property vs. Possession & why communism won’t take your toothbrush, by Storpip, Medium
Marxist Business Consulting, Existential Comics
The Possibility of Life Without Money, by Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs
"The prospect of a “cashless” society is upon us. But could ordinary life be “moneyless” entirely?"

The New Fascism, and Antifa

I hear a lot of well educated people saying that the people some of us are calling fascists don't meet all the criteria for being "real" fascists. Others have even accused us of calling anyone we disagree with a fascist. I predict that a few decades (maybe just a few years) from now those same people will be saying they wish they hadn't been quite so fussy with their definitions, and had acted sooner to oppose these "new fascists", even if they weren't identical to the fascists of the twentieth century.

This Is How It Happens, by Colin Horgan, Medium History
"A study of men in Hitler’s Germany shows how people allow tyranny to spread"
"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise,” the philologist told Mayer. The Nazi dictatorship was “diverting,” he said, in that it kept people “so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated…by the machinations of the ‘national enemies’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us."
Fascism Has Arrived in America. Now What? by Danielle Moodie, Medium—Zora
"Trump is an autocrat, and here’s why you should care"

Collapse

Why We’re Underestimating American Collapse, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
"The Strange New Pathologies of the World’s First Rich Failed State"

Genetic Engineering

Before jumping to the erroneous conclusion that this section was paid for by Monsanto, stop for a moment and understand that organic agriculture/food is a multi-billion dollar per year industry that relies on fear to get people to buy its product. Millions of dollars are spent to convince you that non-organic food is dangerous. In fact both conventionally grown and organic foods are equally safe. Sadly neither method of agriculture is even remotely substainable.

Panic-free GMOs, A Grist Special Series by Nathanael Johnson
"It’s easy to get information about genetically modified food. There are the dubious anti-GM horror stories that recirculate through social networks. On the other side, there’s the dismissive sighing, eye-rolling, and hand patting of pro-GM partisans. But if you just want a level-headed assessment of the evidence in plain English, that’s in pretty short supply. Fortunately, you’ve found the trove."
A series of articles that does a pretty good job of presenting the facts about GMOs. I plan to include one article from this series here each month.
Is extremism in defense of GM food a vice? by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

American Politics

Is Trump Planning a Coup d’État? by Sasha Abramsky,
"Many observers—including Republicans—worry that he is. They’re organizing now to stop him."
"Fried, a student of history who chooses his words carefully, has concluded that Trump and his team are 'certainly racist, contemptuous of ordinary democratic and constitutional norms, and they believe their cause, their interests, are really the interests of the nation and therefore anything that keeps them in power is in the national interest. Does that make you a fascist? It kind of looks that way, doesn’t it?'"

Canadian Politics

Why are Atlantic Provinces of Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland) so much pro Liberal Party (even be called as 'deep red region')? by Michael Barnard, Quora

Linguistics

Real talk, by Vyvyan Evans, Aeon
"For decades, the idea of a language instinct has dominated linguistics. It is simple, powerful and completely wrong."

Debunking Resources

These are of such importance that I've decide to leave them here on an ongoing basis.

Debunking, Wikipedia
Pseudoscience, Wikipedia
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, Wikipedia
Rational Wiki
Science Based Medecine
Quackwatch
Snopes, debunks or validates urban legends
Bad Astronomy
The Skeptics Society
The 8 Best Fact-Checking Sites for Finding Unbiased Truth, by Megan Ellis, MUO—Make Use Of
Pain Science, by Paul Ingraham
Techniques of Science Denial

Science

What scientific "fact" do people keep referring to that just drives you insane?, by Jeremy Strickland, Quora
The weird space that lies outside our Solar System, by Patchen Barss, BBC—Future

Lacking an Owner's Manual

The human body/mind/spirit doesn't come with an owner's manual, and we continually struggle to figure out how best to operate them.

4 Tips for Talking to People You Disagree With, by Megan Phelps-Roper, Pocket—TED Ideas

Gender and Sexuality

As a Black Trans Man, Walking Into Church Can Cause Me Harm, by BFoundAPen, Medium—Level
"If you look at history, religion and violence against people like me go hand in hand"

There is No God, and Thou Shall Have No Other Gods

I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I am an atheist, but I may not have made it clear that I think any sort of worship is a bad thing and that believing in things is to be avoided whenever possible. Indeed, I do not believe in belief itself. That's what the "Thou shall have no other gods" is about—it's not enough to quit believing in whatever God or Gods you were raised to believe in, but also we must avoid other gods, including material wealth, power and fame.

Further, many people today (including most atheists) follow the religion of "progress", which is based on the belief that mankind is destined to follow a road that leads from the caves ever upward to the stars, and that however bad things seem today, they are bound to be better tomorrow due to technological advancement and economic growth. This is very convenient for those who benefit most from economic growth, but it is hardly based on any sort of science and leads to a great deal of confused thinking.

The Worst of ‘Christianity’ In One Instagram Post, by Dan Foster, Medium

Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI, Health Care, Affordable Housing

Minimum wage workers cannot afford rent in any U.S. state, by Alicia Adamczyk, CNBC—Make It

Humour

These are great times for political satire.

Local Woman Just Thinks Flaming Forest Could Find More Peaceful Way to Protest Climate Change, by The Needling, Seattle's Only Real Fake News
Climate wondering how much it has to change before humans notice, by Ian MacIntrye, The Beaverton

The Easiest Person to Fool

Pages

Wednesday, 23 September 2020

What I've Been Reading, August 2020