I Should Read... Nov 3
Typically, I title these posts “You Should Read”. But if I’m honest, many of these recommended links are articles I save to Instapaper and then completely forget about. So, it really is “I should read.”
In any case, soon I’ll be leaving Ghost as the platform for this incredibly infrequent newsletter. I’m decamping for http://buymeacoffee.com/toddwalker where I can do the occasional newsletter as well as sell art and art projects (like this photography zine, $10 plus shipping, cheap!) Once I get all the details worked out (meaning, read the instructions), I’ll include sign-up info in the next newsletter. (Ghost is not bad, I just don’t need to pay for something I use so infrequently.)
If you’re on Bluesky, I'm pretty active there. Give me a follow.
Just One Thing
Organizing My Thoughts: We Have to Move
There are living, breathing people all around you who need your sense of decency to be made material. Don’t give up on them, or on you... There is no moment when all is lost, and the credits roll. There is no cue that we can all throw our hands up now and give up on each other. No matter how upsetting the headline, no matter how frustrating the organizing meeting, no matter how pompous and arrogant that one guy was, no matter how tired we get of this bullshit or of each other—if you’re still here, feeling, thinking, and hoping for a way out of this, if you’re still holding onto your values and each other, it’s not over... Do not allow your values to be captured and contained behind a screen in a cycle of inactive reaction. Jailbreak your cynicism and isolation, and escape your devices. Bring your hope, rage, and potential into the world.
All The Rest
ARC Digital: 7 Things the No Kings Protests Accomplished The political emergency isn’t over, of course, but who thought it would be. Here are seven things this weekend’s protests accomplished.
MIT Technology Review: How AGI Became the Most Consequential Conspiracy Theory of Our Time The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely and you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies do.
The Intercept: Inside the World of Leftist Gun Nuts Graham Platner’s firearms trainings are only the most public example of the left’s efforts to arm themselves.
DAME Magazine: Anti-Fascist Movements Have Succeeded in the Past. Can They Work in the U.S.? There has been a constant onslaught of terror from our new autocratic administration, which can make us feel powerless. But there is nothing futile about resistance. Here’s why.
SF Gate: La Catrina: Mexico’s Grande Dame of Death “Catrina has come to symbolize not only El Día de los Muertos and the Mexican willingness to laugh at death itself, but originally Catrina was an elegant or well-dressed woman, so it refers to rich people.”
It's Nice That: If Print Is Not Dead, Who’s Keeping It Alive? Shifting our focus from the designer or artist, and putting a spotlight on the printmakers and presses behind their projects, we spoke to some of the people crafting our tangible visual worlds about what the next generation of printmaking might look like… and if there is one.
PRRI: Trump’s Unprecedented Actions Deepen Asymmetric Divides “Most Americans remain committed to a vision of America that is religiously diverse. Strong majorities also agree that America is best understood as a nation built on the idea that all people have equal rights and freedoms rather than as a nation comprised of people with a shared heritage and homeland.”
The New Yorker: The Invention of the Police Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.
Splice Today: No One in the Jungle Predator and the war that wasn’t there.
The Predator: Badlands trailer focusing on Elle Fanning's android character instantly sold me on a movie that I was otherwise uninterested in.