- On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs This is really interesting–and I’m just going to warn y’all that the design of this site is an eye-searing yellow.
- What makes good criticism?
- Scalia Is a Twitter Egg I have to say that I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about how great Scalia’s dissents are, most of the conversation I see is people making fun of him.
- Bree Newsome Speaks For The First Time After Courageous Act of Civil Disobedience Yes yes yes yes. And yes.
- We Are Not Descended from Monsters: the Illusion of Moral Clarity This is something that’s really important to remember. And is why I like this song so much–because it reminds me that it’s not monsters who do terrible things, it’s other human beings.
- White supremacist calls Charleston ‘a preview of coming attractions’ Horrifying, especially when you look at his rhetoric and compare it to that of the Puppies and of GamerGate.
- Violent US History Looms Large as Feds Investigate String of Black Church Fires
- I used to lead tours at a plantation. You won’t believe the questions I got about slavery.
- The White Problem This is a fascinating and thought-provoking series of articles about the social construction of whiteness and how it’s used to exploit and divide people who would otherwise be allies. Smart stuff here.
- Race, Speculative Fiction and Afro SF “I only came into the online world of speculative fiction a few years ago and already I am tired.”
- Eight Books You Need To Know About To Understand The Hugo Awards Snafu
- Dogs in space
- What to do if a woman is funny on Twitter.
- Authentic Ann Leckie talks about peas in guacamole–or is she talking about something else entirely?
- Memento Mori: the beautiful ways we have kept the dead among the living
Friday Links: Ugly Leggings Edition
Ugly leggings, balls, and trauma. Not necessarily in that order.
I like Leckie’s thoughts about guacamole. What I’m not sure of is how many people are actually enraged over putting peas in it (seems unlikely to me, but I know some people who have hard lines against raisins in scones, beans in chili, etc. … but rage?) or just another slow news day.
Space dogs had a lot of stuff I didn’t know.
Slave tours: I’m happy to say that when I toured BrookGreen Gardens in SC 10 or more years ago, they made a large point of talking about the hundreds and hundreds of slaves who labored and died to create the pretty rice plantation (now an outdoor sculpture museum).
The essay about monsters and humans is kind of meh for me. I mean, no shit, most people who do terrible things are people; right, that’s all we have, there are no such things as demons. But they are also monsters. Just because people don’t think they’re evil doesn’t mean they aren’t, and just because they do charity work or are kind to their aged mother doesn’t mean they can’t be monsters.