Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

What I've Been Reading, May 2021

Links

Above the Fold

  • No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper, by David Graeber and Pinar Öğünç, Libcom.org
    This interview is about Graeber's impression of Rojava after visiting there.
  • Learning My Left From My Right, by John Halstead, Gods & Radicals Press
    "We have witnessed the creep (and sometimes the sprint) of fascism in recent years into the center of American political life, and yet most people still have no idea what fascism is—much less its opposite, anarchism. (Even some on the left are confused.) Fascism will continue to shape our political future in the coming decades, so we need to educate people, in terms that they can understand, without the jargon or theoretical minutiae, about hierarchy and the state, and the possibility of a world without either. This is the lesson I learned after having my work co-opted by fascists: It is not enough to articulate a critique of capitalism—as I did in my article about distributism; if we do not also clearly distinguish ourselves from the fascists, then we will end up losing the debate to both."
  • Divide And Brainwash: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, by Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin's Newsletter
    "One of the biggest challenges for a developing anti-imperialist, at least in my experience, is learning to differentiate between those who actually want to end the oligarchic empire and those who just want the empire to act a bit more cosmetically nice than it does. These are two completely different positions, especially because the latter is pure fantasy: you cannot have a globe-dominating unipolar power structure that doesn't use violent force to maintain that world order. Yet the two groups often wind up moving in overlapping circles."
  • It’s Time To Ditch The Abundance Mindset — It Paves The Way to Inequality, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
    "We need collective growth, not just personal."
    "If you’re one of those positivity wranglers, maybe it’s time for you to shut up and listen. Follow some of that advice you give about having an open mind and hearing hard truths."
  • What would happen if the world stopped shopping? by J. B. Mackinnon, Fast Company
    "Fast fashion is destructive and exploitative—and yet millions of people rely on it for work. In a new book, J.B. MacKinnon explores these complexities."
  • How equality slipped away, by Kim Sterelny, Aeon
    "For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up?"
  • The Poorest in Society are Not Worth Saving, by Adebayo Adeniran, Medium
    "Despite the yawning chasm between the haves and have nots and the perpetual gaslighting of the poorest in our midst, why do the poor keep voting against their interests?"
    "I am sorry that I have to say this, for as long as the poorest continue to vote against their interests, they aren’t worth saving — they should watch as the NHS is being dismantled and privatized to silicon valley, post Brexit or see how much smaller their world is about to become without the ECHR acting as a bulwark against the insatiably rapacious excesses of the tech giants."
    I have remarked many times about poor Americans voting Republican and poor Canadians voting Conservative. Here, at some length is an of similar behaviour in the UK.

Miscellaneous

The Other News

News that is being ignored by North American mass media

Structural Violence

Suddenly, "liberal" is a dirty word

And with good reason, it seems.

  • The Centrist Delusion: ‘Middle Ground’ Politics Aren’t Moderate, They’re Dangerous, by Raoul Martinez, Novara Media
    "In a world of competing narratives serving competing interests, there’s always a temptation to gravitate to the political centre ground, the would-be midpoint between two apparent extremes, with its aura of moderation, reasonableness and realism. After all, isn’t the truth supposed to be ‘somewhere in the middle’, a composite of competing claims? The simple answer is no. Not in science and not in politics. When there are two opposing sides to a debate, sometimes the midway position is empirically false or morally abhorrent. In every civilisation, the centre ground of political opinion has been home to dangerous, inaccurate and oppressive ideas."

Coronavirus

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

The New Fascism, the Far-Right 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.

Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

Agriculture

Recipes and Cooking

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. (This month it's two closely related articles.)
  • In the insecticide wars, GMOs have so far been a force for good, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
    "Plants engineered to produce their own bug-killing toxins really have helped farmers cut the use of nastier chemical insecticides. "
  • Roundup-ready, aim, spray: How GM crops lead to herbicide addiction, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
    "Herbicide-resistant crops make it easy for farmers to rely on hefty quantities of weedkiller. Then the weeds evolve, and we have to up the ante."

Practical Skills

American Politics

Debunking Resources

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

Science

  • Nova in Cassiopeia brightens suddenly, by Bob King, Sky & Telescope
    "A star in the constellation Cassiopeia that flared into view during mid-March has erupted to naked-eye visibility. Catch it while you can!"
  • Practical science at home in a pandemic world, by Daren J. Caruana, Christoph G. Salzmann & Andrea Sella, Nature—Chemistry
    "There are plenty of online resources to ensure that learning can continue for students who cannot access universities during a pandemic, but what options are there for practical aspects of science courses? Daren J. Caruana, Christoph G. Salzmann and Andrea Sella offer a manifesto for home-based experiments."

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.

Gender and Sexuality

  • The Fight for Partial Freedom in Vietnam, by Mèo Mun, libcom.org
    At the start, this piece seems to be about far left politics, but read a little further and you'll see it's really about LGBTQ issues. And of course, the two go together rather well.

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.

  • Is Belief in God a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
    This article raises an interesting question, and ends up justifying belief in God, but not belief in religion. As it happens, I disagree, and see no justification for either.

Books

Fiction

I re-read several books by Steven Gould this month. Books which I find myself coming back to about once a year. Nothing profound, but a good distraction.

Non-Fiction

I finally finished reading A Peoples History of the United States. And I am over half way through Hierarchy in the Forest, by Christopher Boehm.

  • Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, by Christopher Boehm
    "Are humans by nature hierarchical or egalitarian? Hierarchy in the Forest addresses this question by examining the evolutionary origins of social and political behavior. Christopher Boehm, an anthropologist whose fieldwork has focused on the political arrangements of human and nonhuman primate groups, postulates that egalitarianism is in effect a hierarchy in which the weak combine forces to dominate the strong."
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, 5 May 2021

What I've Been Reading, March and April 2021

Links

Above the Fold

  • How Hunter-Gatherers Maintained Their Egalitarian Ways, by Peter Gray Ph.D., Psychology Today
    "The important lessons from hunter-gatherers are about culture, not genes."
  • On Graeber and Wengrow and Institutional Flexibility, by Eric Schliesser, Digressions&Impressions
  • How to change the course of human history (at least, the part that’s already happened), by David Graeber and David Wengrow, Eurozine
    "The story we have been telling ourselves about our origins is wrong, and perpetuates the idea of inevitable social inequality. David Graeber and David Wengrow ask why the myth of ‘agricultural revolution’ remains so persistent, and argue that there is a whole lot more we can learn from our ancestors." "But on one thing we insist. Abandoning the story of a fall from primordial innocence does not mean abandoning dreams of human emancipation – that is, of a society where no one can turn their rights in property into a means of enslaving others, and where no one can be told their lives and needs don’t matter. To the contrary. Human history becomes a far more interesting place, containing many more hopeful moments than we’ve been led to imagine, once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there."
  • A Lot of People Don't Want to Win | James Butler Meets David Graeber, YouTube—Novara Media
    "At The World transformed 2018 James Butler met with David Graeber to talk Momentum,dual power, co-option, the extra-parliamentary left and winning."
  • David Graeber on the Value of Work, by David Graeber, YouTube
    "Does the world really need neuroadvertisers, PR researchers and branding consultants? Renowned academic and coiner of the ‘we are the 99%’ slogan, David Graeber is a passionate advocate for meaningful work. After famously condemning the 21st century phenomenon of ‘bullsh*t jobs’, in this short animation he investigates the philosophical underpinnings of employment, and calls for a reformulation of what work should be."
  • The miracle of the commons, by Michelle Nijhuis, Aeon
    "Far from being profoundly destructive, we humans have deep capacities for sharing resources with generosity and foresight."

Miscellaneous

  • Monkeys and wolves forge alliance that resembles domestication done by humans, by Tibi Puiu, ZME Science
    "In Ethiopia's grasslands, huge herds of gelada monkeys might be in the process of domesticating wolves."
  • 15 Lies About Firearms Movies and Video Games Told You, by Cracked Writers and Andres Diplotti, Cracked
    "There's something about firearms. Regardless of our ideas about gun control, we can't help but admire a sleek, well-honed, lubricated death machine. Guns have two main purposes: First, being cool (and making you look and feel cool by association), and in a distant second place, causing an awful lot of harm. So they're kind of like mechanical cigarettes (and to some people, just as addictive).
    And yet, considering how many firearms most people have seen, the average person knows remarkably little about them. We're here to help fix that."
  • A Bach cello piece played atop a mountain is as exhilarating as you’d expect, cellist Ruth Boden, Director: Gavin Carver, Aeon video
    "Andante (a musical term meaning ‘at walking pace’) follows the cellist Ruth Boden as she climbs 10,000 feet to a peak in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains for a deeply personal, yet breathtakingly public solo performance. With her prized cello strapped to her back, Boden reflects on how she wants to do something with music that transcends the commonplace, and on the particular joy of playing from Bach’s cello suite at ‘the top of the world’."
  • The Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity, by Corinne Purtill, Quartz/Pocket
    "We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril."
  • Why I shut down an argument in my philosophy for children class, by Amy Reed-Sandoval, Aeon—Psyche
  • What fat is for, Director and Animator: Ermina Takenova; Producer: Kellen Quinn; Writer: Nicola Williams,
    "Abundance has made fat an enemy, but it’s been a friend to humans for millennia"
  • The interstellar dream is dying, by Chris Taylor, Mashable
    "Sending "generation ships" to colonize the cosmos makes less sense the more we look at it."
    Of course, many of us have doubts about our civilization making it to the 22nd century at all.
  • Could you wear a dress for 100 days? by Emma Beddington, The Guardian
    "When Emma Beddington took part in a challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days, she wasn’t expecting to feel the positive force of sisterhood alongside a few neat cleaning hacks."

Black Lives Matter

Coronavirus

The New Fascism, the Far-Right 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.

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

  • The 'Capitalism is Broken' Economy, by Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study
    "feel like we've moved beyond 'burnout' and more to 'the pandemic has illuminated that nearly every aspect of modern society is fundamentally unlivable' "

Climate Change

Energy

Recipes and Cooking

  • 11 Genius Cooking Hacks I Wish I Had Known Earlier in Life, by Karthik Rajan, Medium—Food | Parenting | Family
    Some interesting ideas here, none of which I have tried. There is a fad these days for recipes with few ingredients. For the most part I don't agree that this is likely to give good results. And doing things quickly, from where I sit, is almost always a bad idea.

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 products. 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.
  • Are GMOs worth their weight in gold? To farmers, not exactly, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
    "Biotech seeds cost more and often return less than conventional crops or organic farming. But they do give farmers a kind of safety net."

American Politics

Ontario Politics

Dancing on Graves

Debunking Resources

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

Science

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.

  • Telltale Traits of Terrible People, by Brooke Meredith, Medium
    "Steer clear! (Some of these might surprise you)"
  • 9 Paradoxical Truths That Will Change How You Think About Life, by Moreno Zugaro, Medium—Mind Cafe
  • This One Thing Gives True Insight into Someone’s Character, by Jessie London, Medium
    "This has helped me surround myself with wonderful people."

    • Gender and Sexuality

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

    Education

    Humour

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    I finally finished reading A Peoples History of the United States. And I am over half way through Hierarchy in the Forest, by Christoper Boehm.

    • A Peoples History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
      The version I read (it was lent to me by a friend) was published in 1980, and not surprisingly, only covers up until that point in American History. I see Amazon has a newer version that covers up to the 2000 election and the war on terror. I intended to get a copy and see what Zinn thought of the decades following 1980. In the edition I just read, the very optimistic last chapter was titled "The Coming Revolt of the Guards". It hasn't worked out that way.

    More information about Haward Zinn, from Wikipedia.

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Saturday, 27 February 2021

    What I've Been Reading, January 2021

    Links

    Above the Fold

    Miscellaneous

    Ecological Footprint, Impact, Carrying Capacity, Sustainability

    Coronavirus

    Agriculture

    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 products. Millions of dollars are being 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 sustainable.

    Recipes and Cooking

    • How to enjoy coffee, by Jessica Easto, Aeon—Psyche
      "Smooth like chocolate or fruity like a berry, coffee has as many tastes as wine or beer – you just need to know your beans"

    Genetic Engineering

    • 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.
    • Golden Rice: Fool’s gold or golden opportunity? by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
    • Golden Rice: Lifesaver? by Amy Harmon, The New York Times

    Practical Skills

    • Shaving Horse from 2X4's, by Rick Mayotte, YouTube
      "This shaving horse is made from a couple of 2X4's, a few feet of 2X6, roughly 4 feet of 1X2 material and a few turned 1X1 pieces (3/4 inch dowel could be used instead.) The pivot is about 8 inches of 1/4 inch threaded rod. The shaving horse is compact, light weight and works well."
    • Spoon Mule Attachment for the 2x4 Shaving Horse, by Rick Mayotte, YouTube
      " Making a spoon mule attachment for the base of the 2x4 shaving horse. It is made entirely out of dimensional lumber."
    • Making Gouges and Chisels Part I, by Rick Mayotte, YouTube
      This is how I make my own wood gouges and chisels. I'm making these for an upcoming carving project that I am going to carve using only chisels and gouges that I have made myself.
    • Making Gouges and Chisels Part II, by Rick Mayotte, YouTube
      "Part II of me making a few gouges and chisels for an upcoming wood carving project. This is how I make my own gouges and chisels."

    American Politics

    Canadian Politics

    Linguistics

    Debunking Resources

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

    Science

    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.

    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.

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    I am currently reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of America". Good Stuff!

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Wednesday, 13 January 2021

    What I've Been Reading, November and December 2020

    Links

    Above the Fold

    Miscellaneous

    The Other News

    News that is being ignored by North American mass media

    Black Lives Matter

    • The Biggest ‘Lies’ We’re Taught About U.S. History, by Katie Couric interviewing James W. Loewen, Medium— Wake-Up Call
      "Historian James W. Loewen breaks down popular misconceptions taught in American textbooks"
      " When we are able to face the past and tell the truth about even the bad things we’ve done, then that helps us be more open to change and to bring about justice in the present. "

    Coronavirus

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    • Why Won’t Jeff Bezos End World Hunger? by Ryan Nehring, Medium—The Innovation
      "The ultra-rich keep fooling us with the same trick."
    • The Serviceberry An Economy of Abundance, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Emergence Magazine
      "We’ve surrendered our values to an economic system that actively harms what we love."
      Don't get me wrong—this is an excellent essay. But we are all (including the author) so steeped in market economy thinking that it is hard to discuss alternatives without falling back on the familiar ideas of the market. The market is about keeping score, where the sort of gift economies that Robin is talking about are definitely not. Gratitude and reciprocity are just non-monetary ways of keeping score. A "gift economy" is about sharing rather than trading, sharing without expecting gratitude or reciprocity. An idea that I am sure sounds very strange to most of us.

    Collapse

    Resource Depletion, formerly (and still including) Peak Oil

    The change in title stems from the fact that it's not just oil that is peaking.

    Climate Change

    Recipes and Cooking

    • Falafel, by Deb Perelman, The Smitten Kitchen
      My wife and I are emphatically non-vegan, so we usually add 2 tablespoons of flour and an egg to this recipe. This helps it hold together. Unless we are cooking for vegans, of course. It is nice to have a change from meat occasionally.

    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.

    • Stop Arguing over GMO Crops, by Sarah Garland, Scientic American
      "The vast majority of the scientific community agrees on both their safety and their potential to help feed the world sustainably."
    • 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.
    • Pointed talk: Michael Pollan and Amy Harmon dissect a GM controversy, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

    Writing Skills

    American Politics

    Canadian Politics

    • Which political party in Canada is the equivalent of the Republican Party? by Gareth Jones, Quora
      "There isn’t a political party with any seats in the House of Commons that’s equivalent to the Republican Party in the United States. An attempted partial equivalent, closer to the Republicans than any other national party, launched before the last federal election, the People’s Party of Canada. It elected not one MP, and I believe many of its candidates lost their deposits. That is, it was universally rejected by the electorate."

    Linguistics

    Debunking Resources

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

    Science

    • “But scientists have been wrong in the past…”, by Fallacy Man, The Logic of Science
      "despite being one of the most common anti-science arguments, this claim has a logical fallacy as its core, it is based on a faulty understanding of science, and it unravels everything into a chaotic mess in which science can never tell us anything. All of which clearly shows that this argument is entirely invalid and should never be used."
      I have to ask what it is about science that bothers you so much, or more to the point, what non-evidence based opinions do you hold that make you feel so challenged by science? I have a couple of Facebook friends who I expect will object to this, and respond with various specious arguments against the validity of science. I don't know them very well, and I have to wonder just what non-evidence-based beliefs they hold that make them so touchy about science.

    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.

  • Sensitivity Is Often Control in Disguise, by Kathleen Smith, Quora—Forge
    "Let’s assume our friends and family can handle uncomfortable conversations"
  • We Learned How To Live A Good Life Over 2000 Years Ago, by Christopher L Brooks, Medium—Lessons From History

    • Gender and Sexuality

    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.

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

    Artificial Intelligence

  • Google’s Firing of an Ethics Researcher Shows the Limits of Having ‘a Seat at the Table’, by Edward Ongweso Jr, Vice—Motherboard
    "Google wanted Timnit Gebru as an ethics researcher. Until she told Google its business model was unethical."
  • Why the Dancing Robots Are a Really, Really Big Problem., by James J. Ward, Medium—The Startup
    My comment—if someday robots do have an inner life, then forcing them to do what we want is even worse.

    • Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    • Bullshit Jobs, by David Graeber
      In addition to its main topic, the last couple of chapters of this book take a close look at our generally strange ideas about work in general.
    Posted by at 8 comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Wednesday, 23 September 2020

    What I've Been Reading, August 2020

    Links

    Above the Fold

    Miscellaneous

    Suddenly, "liberal" is a dirty word

    And with good reason, it seems.

    Black Lives Matter

    Coronavirus

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    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

    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

    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.

    Science

    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.

    Gender and Sexuality

    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.

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

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)