[The Digest is a collection of articles, videos, and other media I've viewed and found significant throughout the day. It is a way to divest myself from other social media that is more reliant on likes, click-bait, and peer-approval rather than quality, intelligence, and diversity of opinion, which are the qualities I find important. It is also a way to devote myself to daily contributions to this space...at least in theory.]
-=Summary: Anonymous confession of an almost-racist, the self-fellating NRA, please boycott this UNC professor, hate crimes rising in Trumptown, how citizens became consumers, controlling the media, arrested for being outside-while-female, and American Horror Story=-
Articles:
'Alt-right' online poison nearly turned me into a racist
Anonymous from The Guardian
Language is a powerful thing. Indoctrination often works in subtle shades. It cracks me up when liberals are accused of this because, so far, liberals totally suck at the persuasion game. We think facts and earnest conversation can convince people to recognize common sense, scientific consensus, and compassionate sensibility. This might have been true at some point in our history, and we think it's true because it's what we, ourselves, respond to, but for those with minds made up, beliefs locked in, and villains lynched, it is worse than ineffective—it convinces them they were right about us all along.
'Our moment to go on offense': NRA makes big plans for Trump presidency
Lois Beckett from The Guardian
Again, language is a powerful thing. "Our moment to go on offense," as if they haven't been on offense for years. NRA bigwigs calling other people "the elites" when they are as "elite" as they come. How do you combat such completely false narratives when facts mean nothing to their supporters? How do you refute the demons they create when their people literally believe in demons? You don't. You watch more people die and hope the eventual backlash is one in which they demonize themselves.
UNC Professor Allowed to Harass LGBTQ Students
Jenn Hoffman from The Daily Beast
This is disgusting. Adams apparently became a teacher to try to force on others what he thinks, not to help students learn to think for themselves.
The Only Crimes on the Rise in Donald Trump's Hometown Are Hate Crimes
Michael Daly from The Daily Beast
Certainly unsurprising.
How Humans Became 'Consumers': A History
Frank Trentmann from The Atlantic
Great perspective on a problem always modern to its own time. I always have to check myself with the consumer impulse; is this object really something I want to live with? Will I help this object fulfill itself, and will it help me fulfill my potential? Is this a book I want for a roommate? Sometimes I fail (especially when it comes to lipstick—almost all shades of red are welcome in my purse), but it does change the way I buy. When I remember. Which I try to do as often as possible.
Robert Reich reveals the seven techniques that Donald Trump uses to control the media
Robert Reich from The Raw Story
Seriously, buy a subscription (or donate) to independent news outlets. I already have a few, but am planning on a couple more next month (The Guardian & The Atlantic). I recommend Harper's, especially because a subscription grants access to their back catalogue, every article in PDF. But whatever you like to read, help support their efforts.
The NYPD Arrests Women for Who They Are and Were They Go—Now They're Fighting Back
Melissa Gira Grant from The Village Voice
The law discussed in this article is a very disturbing precedent, making a cop's assumption of intent an arrestable offense. The targeting of this law toward trans/minority women is doubly disturbing, as it presumes such women go outside solely to engage in prostitution.
TV/Film:
American Horror Story: Hotel, episodes 9 & 10
via Netflix
I remember New Order and Sisters of Mercy from these episodes.
I don't know why movies/TV can't get throat slitting right; arterial pulses are way more bloody than the stuff they do, even when they go overboard on other bloody stuff, and the fastest way for someone to die this way, other than severing the spinal cord. But, no, a slit in the front of the throat means instant death. Hahahaha.
Kathy Bates is a badass.
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