september 15 etc
Four things that interrelate:
The number of bold-faced lies and bad faith arguments and the level of cognitive dissonance and media illiteracy I have witnessed over the past five days has shaken me to my core and made me rethink not only relationships I have with other people but also the relationship I have to the world. This has been low-key freeing but high-key horrifying beyond comprehension.
Our culture could be obsessed with being happy, or kind, or horny, but so much of our culture is obsessed with revolves around being angry. A lot of that anger is a product being sold by bad actors who tell bold-faced lies and make bad faith arguments because their job is to foment and nurture that anger.
Certain people make more money and consolidate more power when our culture is like this than they would if our culture were not like this. They employ the bad actors who sell anger. A lot of the anger-buyers/havers think this money and power will eventually trickle down to them. It won't.
I used to understand people whose politics and beliefs differed from my own because we all lived in the same place and (for the most part) played by the same rules. Those days are long gone. A lot of people make up (and remake) their politics and beliefs as they go and don't care that a lot of those beliefs are inconsistent and incongruent with each other because there are no rules anymore.
[Extreme John Oliver voice]: And now, On y va!
📘📕 "There are some stupid mistakes that only very smart people make, and one of them is the notion that a sensible argument seriously presented can compete with a really good piece of theatre." That quote is from this Longreads longread from 2018 titled No, I Will Not Debate You that feels extremely relevant right now. (Longreads)
🪨🪨 "The world stone skimming championships have been rocked by a cheating scandal" is something I didn't expect to read today but it was and now you have to read about it too. Sorry, I don't make the rules. (BBC)
📷📸 I still like Tumblr a lot for reasons including but not limited to that it's where I saw this Lynn Goldsmith photo of Grace Jones and Marianne Faithfull from 1982. (Tumblr/70sgroovy)
🏆🏆 I didn't watch the Emmys but enjoyed watching Bowen Yang, Michael Urie, and Colman Domingo ecstatic for Jeff Hiller even though it means they lost. (Twitter/Pri_Letterman)
🇻🇦🇻🇦 Daaaaa Pope a.k.a. Pope Leo XIV criticized executive pay packages which kind of rules. (The Guardian)
🎵🎵 My Gen-Z buddy put The Dare on my radar and while his first full-length What's Wrong With New York? sounds exactly like stuff that was hot (including but not limited to LCD Soundsystem) 20 years ago filtered very mildly through the current moment, I can't and won't complain because I absolutely fw it. (Spotify)
🌲 gonna
🌼 go
🌱 touch
🌳 grass
🌷 now
Be good to yourself.
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