CJW: Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Our latest bonus was Can't Get You Out of My Head, and our latest unlocked bonus is on Ursula Le Guin’s , capitalism, culpability, etc. 

CJW: We've gathered together here to discuss Kylie Minogue's iconic 2001 pop hit, Can't Get You Out of My Head:

The song was released on the 8th of September, 2001 - the very end of the End of History, before two planes crashing into the World Trade Center proved that history was far from done with us.

In the opening shot of the video clip we see Kylie driving a classic muscle car along a future-coded highway, expressly demonstrating that the tools of the past were sufficient for carrying us into the future. This was neoliberal capitalism distilled into pop perfection, but little did Kylie know, the highway she was driving us all down would lead to an entrenchment of what Mark Fisher termed Capitalist Reali--

CJW: Welcome to another edition of nothing here.

Our latest bonus was the first two chapters of The Forgetting Navigations, a novella Marlee is serialising over on . Our latest unlocked bonus is , a piece of original short fiction from Marlee.

CJW: Here are the opening chapters from The Forgetting Navigations - a novella Marlee is serialising over at her Patreon.

CJW: Welcome to another edition of the nothing here newsletter.

Our latest bonus was A primer on propaganda in the 21st century courtesy of DCH, and our latest unlocked bonus is , the continuation of MKY’s explorations. 

Today I want to talk to you about propaganda in the modern world. This will be a whistle-stop tour of the strategies, tactics, tools, and channels used by bad actors, trolls, and other assholes to spread hate, disinformation, and terror. Before we do though I’d like to give a shout out to the amazing Tash Wilcocks for illustrating all of this in one brilliant go. Ok… buckle up. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

From Kissinger to Trump

As with many horrible things in the world today, a lot of this shit starts with elder statesmen and war criminal, Henry Fucking Kissinger. He was a pioneer of “constructive ambiguity” as a policy construct. It’s weasel words that “fudges” sensitive issues to let countries save face while actually accomplishing little. Or worse, exacerbating issues over time. A perfect example of this is UN Security Council Resolution 242 which had two mutually exclusive principles in it. That resolution and other policies like it in the mid 70s intentionally lit the fuse for the conflict we see in Syria today.

CJW: Welcome to another instalment of the nothing here newsletter.

Our latest bonus was The Secret of the Ancestor Simulation, in which I combine my interests in Simulation Theory and chaos magick (and some politics sneak in there too, because these are the times we live in).

There was a tweet I can no longer find1 that said something along the lines of this:

If we’re all living in an ancestor simulation then there’s a possibility that our social media posts are the only concrete record of our original’s lives, and everything about our lives between those posts is just extrapolation.

MJW: I’m light in this issue because I’m busy with a shitfight battle to manage both my mania and my outrage. The list of bullshittery gets longer and longer, with new players (or old ones you weren't paying attention to) entering the game from all sides, and all of it is IMPORTANT and FUCKED and LOUD. 

My cohort of sin eaters has corralled some of the world’s flaming shit for you, and posted here, so ENJOY!

But really: take care, friends. It’s hard and rough and scary but remember we’re in it for those who don’t have a fucking choice but to engage because it’s their lives. SO, try and eat a vegetable, and if you can’t sleep, try at least to rest. Keep hydrated, look in on yr loved ones and don’t forget to floss: you’ll need good teeth for when we eat our slumlords. Xx

Written late last year, obvz. Insert fresh metaphors and horrors since to suit…

CJW: Welcome to the final Nothing Here for 2020. We hope you have a great holiday (of whichever sort you happen to celebrate), and hopefully have had (or will have) some time to decompress a little before we have to get up and do it all again in 2021.

Got some bonuses to share:

CJW: Happy holidays good people. We decided that with Christmas approaching we’d have a little fun with this bonus, and also send it out to everyone - partially to say thanks for sticking with us, and partially because I’ve got no idea how next week’s issue is going to look, it being Xmas and all.

If you've spent any amount of time on the internet in the past few years, then you are no doubt sick of hearing about how Die Hard is a Christmas movie (or you're one of the sickos still talking about it). Let's expand the narrative a little, shall we? is a movie set around Christmas time, but herein I argue that is a in both the secular and religious sense.

MJW: I’ve emerged momentarily, from my months-long migraine fog to write one single paragraph in this fortnight’s edition, so I took the reins on the intro too. Look at me, I’m performing functionality! If I keep this up, maybe I’ll be a real girl again soon (tho not likely.) This week there’s the usual: other newsletters (we’re not the jealous type), thoughts on various Media Content, and more links to hectic news shit that you can follow if you are able to engage with the world at all (say hi for me, I’m not ready yet!). Enjoy.

I wrote our latest bonus issue - Gould’s, about the kinda-traumatic experience that made me the only book-obsessive who hates the smell of old books. For future bonuses and access the full archive, just go here to . Unlocked bonuses are .

People love the smell of old books, that musty, almost vanilla scent.

I do not.

When I was twelve, I went into Gould’s bookstore on King Street in Newtown with my mother. Newtown was my dreamland and I took solace in its dirty nineties streets, full-regalia drag queens and alterna-vibe that was so different from the suburban misery and bigoty-crush of the Central Coast, where I grew up. Gould’s was a Newtown institution, a massive shop crammed tight with second-hand books. I say massive and I say crammed tight but that doesn’t convey it. The dust was epic. The pages fluttering, old spines falling apart. Behind each row of books was another row of books. There were no prices. It was a place to get lost and stay lost. Gould’s was where old books went to die.

CJW: Welcome to another edition of nothing here. It’s a comparatively skint issue this time around - if I’d realised this is how it would pan out I could have held something back from the last overstuffed issue.

Let’s pretend we’re giving you a light one so you can focus on Thanksgiving (where applicable), and that it’s not because the last week or so has been pretty bad for your favourite (?) newsletter family.

Our latest bonus was , a personal essay of mine that originally appeared in . I’m really proud of this piece and think it came together quite well in the end. I hope to write more in a similar vein down the track.

This personal essay was originally published in Creeper Magazine Issue 1.

I don’t remember the first model kit I built.

CJW: Welcome to another issue of nothing here, your fortnightly dispatch of the now.

I wrote our latest bonus issue Wandering the Icelandic States of America, about , its timeliness and not, climate change, and accidental socialism. Quite by accident I posted it on the anniversary of the game’s release, so (to celebrate?) I thought I’d so anyone who’s played the game, or has been thinking about playing it, can have a read. For future bonuses and access the full archive, just go here to . Unlocked bonuses are (and I unlock new posts every couple of weeks, so it’s worth keeping track of).

CJW: On a recent edition of Alasdair Stuart’s fantastic positive pop-culture newsletter The Full Lid, he mentioned Operation Adopt-a-Book, to whit:

CJW: A bumper issue this time around, and it’s been a while since I had to say that.

The latest bonus is The high cost of convenience about Amazon’s bodycount, poor working conditions, their stance against worker’s rights, and the ways the pandemic has helped them further consolidate online sales. Dan’s doing important work over at , tying together disparate strands to demonstrate the full depth and breadth of the damages Silicon Valley is wreaking on our society, economy, etc.