[a pleasurable headache] learn how to be a human being by watching normal people
An incredibly short edition this week. I am toying with sending this out monthly, or when I actually have a large amount of links to send out as I'm aware there are some weeks where these newsletters contain about as much text as a postage stamp.
On Being Overwhelmed By Feelings of Complicity and Paralysis
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2024/03/on-being-overwhelmed-by-feelings-of-complicity-and-paralysis/
Nathan J. Robinson on existing in waves hands around whatever this current moment is as a political writer.
"As a political writer, I have never felt more ineffectual than at this moment. Not just on Palestine, either. Back in 2016 and 2020, when Bernie Sanders was running for president, a political writer on the left had a clear task: help explain the importance of the left alternative, rebut criticisms, expose those who used some lefty phrases but were clearly insincere, and generally push the public discourse in a helpful direction. Today, our public discourse seems to have gone off the rails entirely, and this sometimes makes me question what my approach should be as a political writer. Look, for example, though the top-selling political commentary books No.1 at the moment is a book by Abigail Shrier, whose terrible polemic about trans kids I reviewed a while back. This one is about how we’re ruining children by coddling them and is a broadside against mainstream psychology. I suspect its claims are just as dubious as those in the last book. Should I bother to go through and refute them? Will anybody care if I do?"
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On adapting 'American Psycho'
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/february/on-adapting-american-psycho
Mary Harron on adapting Ellis' book into a movie.
"Christian and I had talked about how Patrick Bateman is not really a human being. The story is a bit like Frankenstein, I think, in the sense that the character is a tragic monster. Not as tragic as Frankenstein, but Bateman is a pathetic monster in a lot of ways: he cannot help himself, he is a deformed human being, and he’s trying to learn how to be a human being by watching normal people."
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The TikTok Ban Is an Act of Elite Desperation
https://www.columnblog.com/p/the-tiktok-ban-is-an-act-of-elite
Adam Johnson on the money as always.
"The media and government moral panic over TikTok, of course, pre-dates the latest “war” in Gaza. But Gaza is what will put the ban over the top; it’s clearly the dispositive force. If one doesn’t believe this, they should ask lawmakers and pro-Israel organizations, who openly say as much. Several pro-Israel lobbying groups have called for a ban on TikTok. Senator-turned-full-time-pro-Israel-troll John Fetterman has repeatedly blamed TikTok for younger voters’ pro-Palestine preferences, and conservative Senator Josh Hawley has as well. This has been accompanied by a parallel media panic—from the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal—about how TikTok is turning your teen into a Hamas sympathizer."
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Austerity Is Killing Birmingham’s Culture
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/03/austerity-is-killing-birminghams-culture/
"Last week, Birmingham City Council announced its plans to shut 25 of 35 libraries completely, and, from 2025/6, make a 100 percent cut to the arts funding that makes institutions like Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Opera Company, B: Music — the charity that oversees Birmingham Symphony Hall and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra — and the century-old Birmingham Repertory Theatre possible. The council could make up the funding shortfall by selling off its assets — even works of art from our much-loved museums could be sold to private collectors. With this comes a 21 percent rise in council tax."
Absolutely abysmal.
This is tempered somewhat by the news that The Crown (where I spent many a karaoke session) has been given Grade 2 listed status, thereby hopefully saving it from cash-hungry developers.
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Behind F1's Velvet Curtain
So, this is a but of an odd one. Kate Wagner is primarily a cycling journalist who was recently given the assignment to cover the Las Vegas Grand Prix for Road and Track* magazine.
The piece above was posted to the R&T website before being promptly yanked, never to reappear. It's not hard to see why with Wagner's piece overtly critical of the absolute materialistic, glitzy, fuel-guzzling spectacle motorsport has become.
The article's sub-heading says it all:
"If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race. The kind of money I saw will haunt me forever."
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I'm off to decompress after spending most of the day in London. Too many people. See you in two!