Threats Against Election Officials Are a Threat to Democracy “To have someone say you deserve a knife to your throat, that you should be executed, that they are going to eff up your family, shakes you,” a former city clerk said. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/threats-against-election-officials-are-a-threat-to-democracy Since the election, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, who has served as…

Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante After he killed two people in Kenosha, opportunists turned his case into a polarizing spectacle. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/05/kyle-rittenhouse-american-vigilante According to a theory of social psychology called the “weapons effect,” the mere sight of a gun inspires aggression. In 1967, the psychologists Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage wrote, “In essence,…

After the Lost Cause Why are politics so consumed with the past? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/after-the-lost-cause Though Smith sets a chapter in Manhattan, where he visits the site of a slave-auction block, and a chapter in West Africa, his book is mostly about the American South, during a period when the South’s political identity…

How bankruptcy lets oil and gas companies evade cleanup rules Bankruptcy code allows companies to abandon “burdensome” properties, a provision companies have tried to use to discard entire oil wells. via Grist: https://grist.org/accountability/oil-gas-bankruptcy-fieldwood-energy-petroshare/ “The crucial feature of these fossil bankruptcies — where fossil companies are using bankruptcy to get out of environmental obligations — is…

Can Biden Reverse Trump’s Damage to the State Department? Reeling from the leadership of Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, career officials wonder whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken can revitalize American diplomacy. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/can-biden-reverse-trumps-damage-to-the-state-department Aides who worked under Pompeo said the exchange regarding the raid typified a leadership style that included brusque…

Why Confederate Lies Live On For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe. via The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/06/confederate-lost-cause-myth/618711/ “I don’t mind that they come on Memorial Day and put Confederate flags on Confederate graves. That’s okay,” she said. “But as far as I’m concerned, you don’t…

Does Tech Need a New Narrative? In Silicon Valley, “disruption” is giving way to “building.” What will be built? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/does-tech-need-a-new-narrative Acquiescing to the terms set by the industry, Harnett argued—“disruption,” “sharing economy,” “platform,” “innovation,” even “startup”—also helped “pave the way for a handful of companies that represent a tiny fraction of…

The Fight for the Heart of the Southern Baptist Convention How the Convention’s battle over race reveals an emerging evangelical schism. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-fight-for-the-heart-of-the-southern-baptist-convention “What’s happened is that people are now sorting themselves into churches that align more with their political ideology than their theology,” he said. “They want the sermons they hear…

The Oracle’s Daughter Sarah Green escaped her mother’s cult 22 years ago. She still thinks about those she left behind. via The Cut: https://www.thecut.com/2021/06/sarah-green-escaped-mother-cult.html It was September 1999. At 26, Sarah had spent almost her entire life as a member of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, a paramilitary religious cult headquartered in the New…

The FBI’s Anom Stunt Rattles the Encryption Debate The agency spent years running a secure phone network for criminals. So much for “going dark.” via WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/fbi-anom-phone-network-encryption-debate/ Import requirements, shipping container logistics—the FBI had seen it all, hammered out over a series of texts dating back to October on the Anom encrypted phone network. Federal…

The Dark, Democratizing Power of the Social-Media Stock Market BitClout collapses everything—art, humor, personhood—into money, laying bare just who, and what, we are willing to pay for. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-dark-democratizing-power-of-the-social-media-stock-market where would Twitter, Reddit, or TikTok be without the people who supply them with content? A site like BitClout is simultaneously empowering and…