Reading List #6 (Patreon)

1) How Twitter Secretly Benefits From Bots and Fake Accounts David Dayen (11/6/17)

"Twitter has lagged well behind Facebook and other rivals in terms of user growth, with a little over 300 million users compared to Facebook’s 2 billion. According to Miley, the company didn’t want to excise the bots and spam accounts, as doing so would widen that gap even further." 

Read Length: Medium

2) Without net neutrality in Portugal, mobile internet is bundled like a cable package 

If net neutrality is ended here, it can have major repercussions. I have several cynical predictions for how this will play out for poor people and people of color. Also, will access to porn sites be extra? This is all deeply troubling. See the next article for more. 

3) How Verizon and Comcast are working to ensure states don’t pass their own net neutrality bills

 "At stake are the FCC's rules that prohibit Internet providers from blocking, slowing or giving preferential treatment to some websites at the expense of others." If net neutrality is ended federally and left up to individual states, it will be dangerous. Of course it's republicans gunning for net neutrality to be a state matter. To me its another way to disenfranchise the oppressed. 

4) The Early 20th-Century ID Cards That Kept Trans People Safe From Harassment (Natasha Frost) 11/2/17

Who knew the Wiemar Republic had "transvestite passes"? Very interesting history!

Read Length: Medium  

5) TV's Ad Apocalypse is Getting Closer (Derek Thompson) 08/10/17

The most important takeaway from this article? One day in 2019 we're going to hop onto Netflix and it's going to look a lot different. 

Read Length: Medium 

6) The Last Stand: The Fight For Racial Integrity In Virginia in the 1920s (Richard B Sherman) 1988

If you're looking for a long article packed with history, this is the one. Patterns of white supremacy, eugenics, and race politics are examined. In 1924 the Virginia General Assembly passed The Racial Integrity Act to prevent miscegenation in the face of what they saw as a thriving mulatto population. They sought to categorize everyone as white or colored, and even  native Americans were made "colored". The one exception? Rich white families who got clout from claiming to be related to famed native Pocahontas were allowed to retain their white label. 

Read Length: Long

7) The 'Drunken Monkey' argument: Are We Predisposed to Alcohol Addiction? 11/2/17

People be getting drunk as fuck. Is it more than the world being a cesspool of trauma, oppression, and financial despair? Science says yes. 

Read Length: Short