Too hot for Gumroad
Gumroad — one of the services I use to sell my books — has instituted a new content policy on their platform, banning "media that is created for the primary purpose of sexual gratification." This rule strikes me as, among other things, difficult to enforce in any consistent way. If Gumroad points at a sex scene I wrote and says it's intended to get someone off, and I say it isn't, who has the final word? Who decides whether I'm a pornographer?
For now, I haven't removed any of my books from Gumroad. I'll play the situation by ear.
One frustrating element here is that Gumroad is instituting this content ban to stay in line with its payment processors' policies, which are themselves in place to stay in line with a law known as FOSTA-SESTA. Like Gumroad's new content policy, FOSTA-SESTA offers only vague definitions of what it actually prohibits, thus encouraging those under its power to self-censor. This is how censorship works: it's not actually feasible to identify and prosecute every possible infraction, so censors rely on uncertainty and fear to do their jobs for them.
FOSTA-SESTA was also passed into law in the United States, of which I am not a citizen and in which I do not live. Ostensibly it only affects platforms and payment providers based in the US; however, most platforms and payment providers are based in the US. And as the TikTok situation shows, any platform based outside the US can and will be either blocked from operating within it or forcibly divested from its foreign owners.
I was legally prohibited from voting for or against the legislators who passed FOSTA-SESTA; nevertheless, I am expected to comply with it.
This is yet another facet of American empire, by the way. It's more than bombs and guns and client states — it's that the US leverages its dominance over technology and finance to set policy for, effectively, the entire world.
itch.io's Spring Sale is still on!
As of this mailout, there should be roughly 2 days left of itch.io's Spring Sale. All my books are 50% off, or you can get the whole library in a bundle for just $3 USD.
Recommendation: The Paper
Henry Hackett is the workaholic editor of a New York City tabloid. He loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchet-man Alicia Clark—Henry's nemesis—impose unpopular cutbacks.
The Paper is one of those movies I quote constantly, which is unfortunate because the only other people I've met who've even heard of it, much less seen it, are my parents. Both of them worked in newspapers, so I might be genetically predisposed to like this movie.
It's great, though. It's funny, it moves at breakneck speed, and anyone who's worked in a high-pressure production environment will recognize everything about it.
This Week's Links
The Real Harm in "Harmful Content"
After all, there’s a convergence of factors here: anti-intellectualism rises in alignment with anti-sex attitudes. Anti-intellectualism and movements against bodily autonomy and sexual education are about the same thing: control, and maintaining control.
Was the giant sheep cloning and breeding operation at risk of causing an ecological disaster? Yes. Is this entire concept really, really funny? Also yes. I'm now imagining a Jurassic Park scenario where the giant sheep get loose and go on a rampage, killing and eating trophy hunters.
How a Foul Ball From 2014 Became Part of a Russian Disinformation Campaign
Then I realized that I probably could determine exactly how ancient this 13-second clip of a foul ball was, because a series of databases—most notably the incredible baseball-reference.com, tracks essentially everything that happens in baseball.
Here is how I performed this critical investigation, which no one actually asked me to do but which does demonstrate the incredible amount of granular statistical data available about the sport of baseball.
News from the front is that Chappell Roan's opening act for the first leg of Olivia Rodrigo's world tour is causing a mass lesbian awakening event. I could not be more delighted.
-K
