nothing here but vibe barons

issue 270 - 27th October, 2024

CJW: Sorry for the delay - had an issue that required waiting on Buttondown for help. But here we are.

Welcome to another edition of nothing here. This month has been an absolute bitch for yours truly, but thankfully Dan is back this issue to help pick up the slack.

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The Team

Daniel Harvey (DCH) - Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - is also Mia Walsch. Writer & visual artist. Hates the internet.
Corey Jae White (CJW) - author, voidwitch, wearing a necklace of eyeballs.

Lidia Zuin (LZ) - Journalist, MA in semiotics, and PhD in Arts.

Climate Change & The Environment

CJW: Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing? - Patrick Greenfield at The Guardian

In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon.
[...]
The kind of rapid land sink collapse seen in 2023 has not been factored into most climate models. If it continues, it raises the prospect of rapid global heating beyond what those models have predicted.

Emphasis mine. I'm glad that some people can still find hope in the rollout of renewable energy or whatever, but I read this and look at the glacial pace with which we're addressing fossil fuel usage and I can't help but despair.

DCH: It’s Time To Give Up Hope For A Better Climate & Get Heroic By Pamela Swanigan at Noema

If they continue to refuse to grasp the nettle of truth, we will need to turn, and soon, to storytellers who can. We need to be listening to those with the courage to treat in reality, those who understand that our task now is to delay the end by fighting these last battles of the long defeat against the earth-and-sky destroyers. In that delay, we may make such an end as may redeem, even if it cannot save, the human species.

As disheartening as it might seem at first glance I think this Tolkeinian call to embrace the necessary action of fighting “The Long Defeat” is the right one. This builds on the point we’ve been making for a long while now in the newsletter that comes from Kim Stanley Robinson about “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”

"You can begin to lose hope in the logic of these things under capitalism, because if even solar can be turned into something that’s actually a negative for no good reason except for greed, then we really haven’t learned the lesson." Jeff Vandermeer in an interview with Andrew Paul at Popular Science

Just the headlines:

Meteorologists hit with death threats after debunking hurricane conspiracy theories - Emily Crane at The New York Post
Silicon Valley is sacrificing the climate for AI - Paris Marx at Disconnect
Amazon, Google tap into nuclear power to fuel data centers and AI push - Queenie Wong at The Los Angeles Times (DCH: on the heels of MSFT firing up Three-Mile Island again)

Geopolitics & Empire

CJW: Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again - Noura Erakat at The Nation

Our collective labor [in protesting and resisting the genocide in Gaza] has made an indelible impact: The United States and Israel are isolated globally, their influence reduced to the use of naked coercive force devoid of any legal or ethical persuasion. Their boundless destruction is matched only by their moral bankruptcy, now plain for those who want to see it.
We are also forever changed: Our eyes wide open, primed to distrust media, social, and political authorities bullying us into becoming walking zombies obsessed with pop culture distractions, wide open to the fact that imperialism shapes the minute details of our daily lives, to the fact that Zionism is racism and that a free Palestine has the potential to set us all free.

A powerful piece on one year of genocide.

A genocide has threatened to erase Palestine, but it has ensured that Palestine now lives in each one of us, immortal. Nothing, and none of us, will be the same again.

MJW: The end of Israel’s economy - Shir Hever at Mondoweiss

The war has ruined the lives of 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, and of thousands in the occupied West Bank. Estimates by the UN are that 70% of the houses were destroyed, and that the rubble will take 15 years to clear. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the Palestinian survivors of the genocide, though traumatized, impoverished and mourning their lost family members and friends, will eventually rebuild and recover, however long it may take.
The physical destruction in Israel inflicted by the war is minimal in comparison, and yet one thing has been destroyed: the country’s future. The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe. Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel’s credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost “junk bonds” levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel’s far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery.

Cry me a river, Israel. Cry me from the river to the sea.

Netanyahu mulls plan to empty northern Gaza of civilians and cut off aid to those left inside - Julia Frankel at AP
“This is the first time since the beginning of the war that the occupation army has besieged an area and then begun a campaign of bombing, killing and starvation in such a complete way,” Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told the Palestinian press agency Safa. - The Murderous Logistics of Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in Northern Gaza - Drop Site (via Foreign Exchanges)
The Israeli-American Businessman Pitching a $200 Million Plan to Deploy Mercenaries to Gaza - Yaniv Cogan at Drop Site
"Christchurch has become the first city council in the country to decide not to do business with any organisations trading with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories." - Council distances itself from Middle East conflict | The Press - Tina Law at The Press - CJW: More of this, please. The people searching out business opportunities in occupied Palestine have no shame. The only thing they will understand is damage to their bottom line via BDS.
Ahmed doesn’t know what happened in those moments, but when he returned to the tent, Alaa and Sha’ban’s bodies had been consumed by the fire, and he could no longer recognize them. “I cannot forget the smell of their burning bodies,” he said. “It is stuck in my nose and mind. Every time I close my eyes, I see my wife and son burning.” - ‘I see my wife and son burning every time I close my eyes’ By Ibtisam Mahdi at 972 Magazine
“Just beneath the surface of Blumenthal’s remarks is a widely discussed mega-deal that would effectively create a U.S.-Gulf regime neo-colony in Gaza, commit the U.S. to going to war for Saudi Arabia, and plunge us deeper into a new cold war with China.” - After Israel Kills Hamas Leader, D.C. Pushes to Hand Palestine to Saudi Arabia By Aída Chávez The Intercept

Just the headlines:

Israel’s roots in European colonialism explain its genocidal ideology - Ben Norton at Geopolitical Economy
Forget About It - Chris Lehmann at The Baffler (DCH: We don’t focus on US politics all that much by choice but this article about JD Vance’s long game is worth highlighting)

Tech & Design

DCH: Elon Musk's tech projects are inseparable from his authoritarian project By Brian Merchant at Blood in The Machine

There is not one silo for ‘Musk the entrepreneur’ the flawed visionary making a future of robot cars, another one for Musk the social media user who posts weird and objectionable stuff that gets him into trouble, and another one for the newfangled and ardent Trump supporter, who is advancing an ugly, authoritarian and racially charged program. It is all inseparable.

All the more inseparable since he’s going to financially benefit from a Trump second term by being appointed “secretary of cost-cutting” or getting yet another giant tax cut (or likely both). A second-term that he’s pumping huge sums of money into making happen through deeply racist and technocratic ways.

DCH: The Beggar Barons by Zed Shaw

No, this begging is particularly different because it capitalizes on the good will of open source developers. Microsoft, Apple, and Google are standing on the internet in their trillion dollar business suits with a sign that reads "Starving and homeless. Any free labor will help." They aren't holding people up at gun point. Rather they hold out their Rolex encrusted hand and beg, plead, and shame open source developers until they get free labor.

Great framing. This is the carrot to the stick of outright theft that big tech normally engages in. And this is a long-term problem that doesn’t effect just open-source but even seed stage startups. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen companies like Apple pull this shit at companies I’ve worked at.

The Destructo Test - Jon Evans (via Sentiers) - CJW: I like the idea of the Destructo Test. Seems instructive.
"Balaji worked for OpenAI for four years before leaving the company this summer. Now, Balaji says he sees the technology being used for things he doesn’t agree with, and believes that AI companies are “destroying the commercial viability of the individuals, businesses and internet services that created the digital data used to train these A.I. systems,” the Times writes." Former OpenAI Staffer Says the Company Is Breaking Copyright Law and Destroying the Internet - Lucas Ropek at Gizmodo
Truth Terminal is the most fascinating narrative I’ve seen emerge around Crypto and AI this year. It is a semi-autonomous AI agent that has created its own religion (The Goatse Gospel). The story has opened up a web of rabbit holes, exploring AI alignment, LLMs as simulators, memetic viruses and how we ascribe value.GOAT: The Gospel of Goatse by Teng Yan (DCH: I link this less to praise the art and philosophical ramifications as this crypto-bro does but more to bookmark this ongoing bullshit these brain-worm infested twats are getting up to these days. Know your enemy.)

Just the headlines:

Google charity program gifted years of free ads to prominent anti-trans organizations - Ernie Piper at Daily Dot
Meta’s Israel Policy Chief Tried to Suppress Pro-Palestinian Instagram Posts By Sam Biddle at The Intercept
Pentagon Purchased OpenAI Tools for Military Operations Across Africa By Sam Biddle at The Intercept
The Pentagon Wants to Use AI to Create Deepfake Internet Users By Sam Biddle at The Intercept

Society & The Culture

Reflecting on the Voice... one year on - Amy McQuire - CJW: On the intersection of The Voice referendum and Australia's complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza. Great read, but non-Aussies might not have all the context for it.
BRANDS AFTER VIBES - Nemesis - CJW: An interesting read on brands vs vibes, and what could be coming next.

Health, Cooking, and Related

DCH: There’s No Coming Back From Dobbs By Kristen V. Brown at The Atlantic

New federal protections, however, wouldn’t instantly undo the tangle of abortion restrictions that some states began enacting even before Dobbs was decided. Reproductive health in America is governed by a complex web of laws, regulations, and court decisions at the local, state, and federal levels. When the Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion on June 24, 2022, trigger laws designed to ban abortion went into effect. By the end of the year, states had enacted 50 new abortion restrictions, many of them resulting in near-total bans. No federal law could immediately undo all of these restrictions at once. Around the country, clinics closed, moved, or quit providing abortions; as of March, the U.S. had 42 fewer clinics than in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research and policy group.

…and that’s even if federal protections would even come about which doesn’t seem all that likely since doing so would require the Dems to do away with the filibuster and control both houses which isn’t happening.

Never mind the fact the right is already attacking abortion pill sales.

Never mind the fact local cops are using drug-sniffing police dogs to intercept abortion pills in the mail.

Never mind the fact the US Govt can currently track individual women to abortion clinic visits.

“Turmoil at 23andMe, a company offering popular at-home DNA testing, has upset the industry. Following the resignation of every independent member of the company’s board of directors, its chief executive, Anne Wojcicki, expressed openness to selling the company and its database of around 15 million customers, raising concerns about the misuse of genetic data.” - Opinion: The risks of sharing your DNA with online companies aren’t a future concern. They’re here now - Nila Bala at The Los Angeles Times

Labour & Economics

DCH: Amazon Is Still a Health and Safety Nightmare for Workers By Sam Gindin at Jacobin

Third, even if we compare injury rates among the three leading companies in the sector, Amazon’s injury rate — whether across all the companies in the sector or just the largest ones — is about triple that of Walmart and 50% above TJX. (In Ontario, the available data is very limited, but from what we can discern, the gap with, for example, UPS warehouses is in the range of Amazon’s gaps with the largest warehouses in the United States.)

Emphasis mine. Still a whole lot of blood on Amazon’s hands. As the article goes on to say “Common sense tells us that obsessively prioritizing speed is the enemy of workers’ health and safety.” Collective action and consumer solidarity are the only things that can make this right. Which is why Amazon Says It Has a First Amendment Right to Union Bust.

DCH: Uber and Lyft Found a Loophole to Pay NYC Drivers Less By Alex N. Press at Jacobin

Bloomberg estimates the practice sets the companies up to save hundreds of millions of dollars in driver payouts. Dozens of drivers said that the months of lockouts have “caused them to fall behind on taxes, auto loan payments, rent and credit card bills.” Several mentioned contemplating suicide.

Here’s a link to the Bloomberg investigation. They’re basically cooking the books on driver utilisation rates to avoid having to pay the minimum wage laws NYC put in place awhile back. Shameful as always.

Just the headlines:

Jim Justice Tied West Virginia Coal to Global Financial Capital By Branden Adams at Jacobin
Boeing Machinists Have Voted to Continue Their Strike By Jenny Brown at Jacobin
No, Raising the Minimum Wage Does Not Hurt Fast-Food Workers By Alex Park at Jacobin

Books

MJW: Harlots, Whores and Hackabouts by Kate Lister

HW&H is a well-researched book on the highly underrepresented and ephemeral community of sex workers throughout history – or mostly up until the end of the 20th Century. Written by Kate Lister, who runs the social accounts ‘Whores of Yore’ the book is beautifully illustrated with images of working women in all iterations of their presentation, from the earliest art through photographic imagery. A truly lovely book.

Photograph of the title page of Harlots, Whore & Hackabouts, the preceding page on the left shows a black and white photo of a woman wearing long black and white striped leggings, leaning on a bar table, looking longingly at the drink in her hand.

Movies + TV

CJW: Break Time - Adam Rowe, 70s sci-fi art

Someone offering a cigarette to a xenomorph’s small inner mouth on set of one Alien. Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger both look on in consternation.

A fun diversion for you all (before the fun diversion of the memes section below…), photos of various actors on break on the set of a number of seminal sci-fi films.

Podcasts

DCH: The “Dark Elf” Leading Tech’s Extreme Right By Paris Marx at Tech Won’t Save Us

Paris interviews reporter Julia Black about Curtis Yarvin and his ongoing efforts to shape the far right through his dark enlightenment bullshit.

Games

CJW: Untitled Goose Game's player-comedians - Jini Maxwell

From its conception as a joke in a group chat to the myriad of ways players have modded, memed, recreated and broken the game in search of new ways to cause the same kind of mischief, Untitled Goose Game’s sense of humour inspires creative thinking. Its mischievous role in the zeitgeist can’t be accounted for by sales numbers alone. Maybe thinking of Untitled Goose Game as a joke-making toolkit, rather than comedy videogame, is our way into understanding its cultural impact.

Screenshot from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare of a coffin about to be lowered into the ground, and marines in dress uniform standing at rest. The screenshot has been altered to show The Goose standing beside the coffin, and the prompt says “press Y to honk”

A great write-up on the chaos-comedy game Untitled Goose Game, made by a small team in Melbourne (hey, that’s where I live!), and the equally comedic fan reactions to the game.

DCH: UGG is pure gold. It helped keep me sane during the early days of the pandemic.

The Self-Promotion

MJW: I have an autofiction piece at Kill Your Darlings this week. It’s about kangaroos, broken glass, and writing. Everything in it happened, just not at the same time. Hence, autofiction. Oh yeah, it’s illustrated too. It’s called ‘To Start Again or Try’.