Articles 4.
4.1
Democrats and Media Do Not Want to Weaken Facebook, Just Commandeer its Power to Censor - Glenn Greenwald
“ However, if Zuck is subject to some kind of oligarchic power, he is in exactly the same position as his own moderators. He exercises power, but it is not his power, because it is not his will. The power does not flow from him; it flows through him. This is why we can say honestly and seriously that he has no power. It is not his, but someone else’s. . . .
Zuck doesn’t want to do any of this. Nor do his users particularly want it. Rather, he is doing it because he is under pressure from the press. Duh. He cannot even admit that he is under duress—or his Vietcong guards might just snap, and shoot him like the Western running-dog capitalist he is….
And what grants the press this terrifying power? The pure and beautiful power of the logos? What distinguishes a well-written poast, like this one, from an equally well-written Times op-ed? Nothing at all but prestige. In normal times, every sane CEO will comply unhesitatingly with the slightest whim of the legitimate press, just as they will comply unhesitatingly with a court order. That’s just how it is. To not call this power government is—just playing with words. “
4.2
The Cult of the Vaccine Neurotic - Matt Taibbi
“We’re similarly becoming a nation of totalitarian nitwits, speaking in a borrowed lexicon of mandatory phrases and smelling heresy in anyone who doesn’t. This cult reflex was bad during the Russiagate years, but it’s gone into overdrive since the arrival of COVID. The CNN writer who thinks it’s necessary to put a disclaimer in the lede of a story about molnupiravir, of all things, is basically claiming he or she is afraid a theoretical unvaccinated person might otherwise read the story and be encouraged to not take the vaccine.
Except, if that theoretical unvaccinated person could be convinced by anything CNN said or did, they’d have already gotten the shot, because the network runs ten million stories a day directly imploring people to get vaccinated or die. News flash: the instinct to armor-plate even unrelated news subjects with layer after layer of insistent vaccine dogma is not for the non-immunized, who mostly don’t watch outlets like CNN or read the New York Times. Outlets apply that neurotic messaging for their own target audiences, who’ve been trained to live in terror of un-contextualized content, which everyone knows leads to Trump, fascism, and death.“
4.3
Dave Chapelle Is Right Isn’t He? - Andrew Sullivan
“And, through the jokes, that’s what Chappelle is celebrating: the individual human, never defined entirely by any single “identity,” or any “intersectional” variant thereof. An individual with enough agency to be able to laugh at herself, at others, at the world, an individual acutely aware of the tension between body and soul, feelings and facts, in a trans life, as well as other kinds of life. Assuming that marginalized people cannot tolerate humor at their own expense is as dehumanizing as assuming they have no agency in their lives. It is a form of bigotry — of the left.
And the capacity for laughter — the target of every fundamentalism, left and right — is integral to being fully human. To remind us that a trans person can laugh at herself is to remind us that she too is brimming with the kind of complex self-awareness that every mature human has. We laugh, above all, at the absurdity of our reality. And yes, that’s the second point Chappelle makes: there is something called reality. We can deny it; or we can accept it. Comedy’s key role is that it helps us accept it.
Whatever else this is, it seems to me to be the opposite of transphobia. Like Rowling, Chappelle supports every law protecting trans people from discrimination; and believes in the dignity and equality of trans people, as he insisted in the show. But he also believes that it is absurd — absurd — to say that a trans woman is in every way indistinguishable from a woman. Because she isn’t.
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The weapons deployed in pursuit of this fantasy are those that are always used by those seeking to impose utopia on free people: the brutal hounding of dissent, the capture and control of every single cultural institution, the indoctrination of the young, cancellations, bullying. The costs are mounting. Across the West, people are being fired, targeted, prosecuted, even jailed, for stating biological facts. Children are being medicated with off-label drugs — “puberty blockers” — that can permanently sterilize them, arrest their neurological and mental development, and deprive them of the ability as adults to experience an orgasm.”
4.4
You Deserve More Than What ‘Seaspiracy’ Has to Offer - Mark Bittman
“The narrative and solutions in the film are a far cry from providing the multifaceted responses necessary for problems of this magnitude. To stop eating seafood is as effective a solution as reforming our democracy by refusing to vote. Do you feel better about yourself? Maybe. Are you actually making the world a better place? No. A better way to frame the question is, Do I enjoy seafood, and how can I enjoy it sustainably?
There are numerous studies showing that many sustainable seafood species, compared to other foods, including grains and vegetables, are better for the environment and life on earth than anything else. You may be surprised to learn that U.S. fisheries are some of the best managed and most sustainable fisheries in the world. The definitions, commitments, policies, systems, and successes exist in many forms. Because the film doesn't recognize them doesn't mean they aren't there. It's like going fishing and not catching anything and coming to the conclusion that the ocean is devoid of fish.
Having a choice of what to eat is a privilege, and it depends on where you live and the level of privilege your life affords. For a large percentage of the world, there is no decision to be made; they eat what they can get. And that can include fish.
“We believe people have the right to choose what they eat, and we applaud those who make personal choices to improve the health of our planet,” Oceana wrote in its response to Seaspiracy. “However, choosing to abstain from consuming seafood is not a realistic choice for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who depend on coastal fisheries — many of whom are also facing poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Oceana campaigns to save the oceans for both the people who depend on them and to protect the marine animals (and other forms of life) who live in them.“
4.5
When Bread Became Bad For Us - Mark Bittman
“The bran of whole wheat — the tough outer layer — contains the fiber that few of us get enough of, as well as some B vitamins and minerals. The germ, the most nutrient-rich part of the kernel, has the greatest share of vitamin E, folic acid, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, and thiamine. Take those away and you’re left with the starchy endosperm, which makes up the bulk of the grain and contains most of its carbohydrates. It’s a good source of calories, but it’s not a whole, nourishing food.
In addition to nutrients, though, the bran and germ contain oil, and that oil can go rancid with time, ruining the flour. Get rid of those pesky elements and the resulting white four keeps more or less forever. So wheat producers were faced with a choice: local production, which required quick sale and consumption of a higher-quality ingredient, or mass production, with a long shelf life and a nutritionally inferior product. For large producers, the choice was an easy one.
4.6
News Flash: The Taliban Violate Human Rights - Christopher Hitchens
“The story became more mind-boggling as it unfolded. One had to ask oneself what had taken the human-rights “community” so long. After all, there are war crimes and there is the crime (established at Nuremburg) of planning to wage aggressive war. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in the first place by indiscriminate violence, played host to al-Qaida forces that murdered several thousand civilians in one day on American soil, and for almost a decade has been employing systematic cruelty against civilians and fighting an undeclared war, without uniforms or formal command structure, against a force that is upholding a U.N. mandate for the rebuilding of the country. Moreover, during its period in power, it ran the country as a vast concentration camp, enslaving the female population and conducting a campaign of extermination against the Hazara minority. How is it possible to mention this enormity in the same breath as the forces that are opposed to it?
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However, is it possible to imagine Mullah Omar going even that far if the NATO forces were not in the country to begin with? Plainly, he must have heard at least indirectly from elements of the local population (he appears to have his base across the Pakistani border in Quetta) that there is some perceptible difference between opening a clinic and destroying it; between starting a village school for girls and setting it on fire or hurling acid in the faces of the pupils; between guarding polling booths and visiting villagers at night to intimidate them not to vote.”