uspolitics

20220101 can we survive technology in 1955 john von neumann wrote this for fortune magazine. there’s a ton of ground covered and it predates, but anticipates the rise of semiconductors, nods at the impacts of carbon dioxide on the climate, talks about weather control and climate control and the dangers inherent in the acceleration of technology. he is way ahead of the curve when it comes to seeing the impacts of what some of the most notable technologies to come out of the second world war would be....

we are bellingcat author: eliot higgins ISBN: 978-1526615756 overview higgins provides a nice and reasonably chronological account of what led to the creation of bellingcat. from his days lurking on the guardian and various message boards while working a standard office job to the creation of his brown moses blog and eventually the creation of the bellingcat project. notable escapades/investigations include: detailing the acquisition of expertise in identifying war crimes during the civil war in syria as well as chemical attacks on the part of the assad regime....

largely apropos of nothing given the state of things these days. the article is primarily interesting to me given the author author and the candor. Having been cosseted by self-validating coverage for so long, many Americans now consider any news that might suggest that they are in error or that their side has been defeated as an attack on them personally. The lie that Trump won the 2020 election wasn’t nearly as much aimed at the opposing party as it was at the news outlets that stated the obvious, incontrovertible fact....

it’s no secret, i was really disappointed with the results of the 2016 election, but i honestly didn’t think things would end up here. one could reasonably be forgiven for thinking that there would be practical limits to the damage that could be wrought in 4 years. i was incredibly naive. to be fair, i think a lot of us were. oh the things i’ve learned over the past 4 years....

a useful reminder as to how young and anomalous democracy actually is and that the tendency is towards authoritarian rule. The way to shore up American democracy is to shore up American democracy—that is, to strengthen liberal institutions, in ways that are unglamorously specific and discouragingly minute. The task here is not so much to peer into our souls as to reduce the enormous democratic deficits under which the country labors, most notably an electoral landscape in which farmland tilts to power while city blocks are flattened....