Reading List #21 (Patreon)

Here are 16 things that are worth a read! Also, Im currently reading a book, White Trash (The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America) By Nancy Isenberg. 

1) Five Myths About the Supreme Court (Jeffrey Segal) July 13th, 2018

Reading Length: Short

I don't know about you, but it's always good to have a refresher on the sneaky bureaucracy that is American politics.

2) Facebook Wants To Cut Down on Misinformation. So Why Isn't It Doing Anything About InfoWars? (Eli Rosenberg) July 14, 2018

Infowars violates Facebook's policy about spreading false info but won't be removed because it will alienate their conservative base and destroy their business model. AKA, they only care about money (but we knew that). 

Reading Length: Medium 

3) Breastfeeding or Formula? For Americans, It's Complicated (Christina Caron) July 14th, 2018

"Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Trump administration opposed an international resolution to encourage breast-feeding, stunning maternal health advocates and drawing swift criticism. But this isn’t the first time the United States has rejected such a measure."

Reading Length: Medium

4) Did Drinking Give Me Breast Cancer? (Stephanie Mencimer) May/June 2018

This article shook me to my core. I gave up wine for like, a week. But seriously going forward I will be cutting down on drinking. 

Reading Length: Long

5) While America Sleeps: Trump's Treachery and the Russia Scandal (David Corn) July 7th, 2018

"...it is too often referred to as meddling- not as an act of information warfare that was part of Putin's longterm strategic plan to weaken the west." 

Read Length: Medium

6) On Writing (Stephen King)

Writing fiction fills me with excitement and dread, but after reading this I definitely feel less of the latter.

Read Length: Book

7) Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

Im picky about fiction because I prefer things written from at least after 1950. I was hesitant about reading this because it's so damned old- but this jawn is timeless. Though written in 1932, the book manages to rattle my modern fears about autocracies, class, dystopia, and reproductive rights. Soma, the drug used to placate the citizens into submission and happiness, was terrifying. The conditioning of the classes to feel superior or inferior to each other was my other favorite component. I also loved the dated views on promiscuity for women. This book will definitely be worked into one of my future essays. Be sure to read this!

Below is an artist's rendering of the social classes in Brave New World, which I thought was cute. 

Read Length: Book (Short)

8) The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis (C. Lee Ventola, MS) April 2015

If you don't mind being freaked out by the horrors of disease and their capacity to wipe out mankind, read this.

Read Length: Long

9) Inside the Radical, Uncomfortable Movement To Reform White Supremacists (Wes Enzinna) July/August 2018

A few years ago I interviewed a former white supremacist named Frankie Meeink (you can read it here), and he told me about the importance of empathy in his journey to shaking his extremist beliefs. This article goes more into depth about that, along with posing the argument of extremist racism as an addiction. Im intrigued by this, and plan to write something encompassing this idea soon. 

“We was told we’d go to eternal damnation if we didn’t fight Jews and blacks,” he says. “That’s some scary shit for a young kid.”

 "He called these factors “the three Ns”—need, narrative, and network. It doesn’t matter if they are skinheads or jihadis; everyone who gets involved in hate movements has a deep urge to participate in a greater cause. Yet that cause, Kruglanski argued, needn’t be destructive. To successfully deradicalize a neo-Nazi, a new, constructive set of Ns—which might stem from education, a job, a partner—would have to replace the old, hateful ones."

Reading Length: Long

Related: The Year in American Extremism (Southern Poverty Law Center) 

10) The Massive Fight Over Sunday Mail (Livia Gershon) 7/8/18 

I had no idea mail was so messy. 

Reading Length: Short

11) The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologists Perspective (Nachman Ben-Uehuda) July 1980

Enjoy learning about The Salem Witch Trials? Learn about the European culture that eventually led to it. 

Reading Length: Long

12) An Optimism Icon: Anne Frank's Canonization in Postwar Culture (Alex Sagan) Fall 1995

Have you ever noticed how the optimism of a 15 year old girl in hiding in Nazi Germany has been a tool in lazy politics? Read this and get back to me.

Reading Length: Long 

13) My Grandfather Was a Nazi Collaborator (Silvia Foti)

"I had no idea I was embarking on a project that would lead to a personal crisis, Holocaust denial and an official cover-up by the Lithuanian government."

Reading Length: Medium

14) What If The Government Gave Everyone a Paycheck (Robert B. Reich)

I clicked on this not knowing it was a book review and became convinced I needed these books on my shelf. But it also serves as a mini-beginners guide to UBI, or Universal Basic Income. While I remain skeptical of UBI being implemented by the greedy 1%, I want to learn more. 

Reading Length: Short

15) Alabama Moves to Limit Sheriffs From Pocketing Jail Food Money (Alan Blinder) 7/11/18

It's horrifying, but not surprising that this is just now being addressed (and ever was allowed to happen in the first place).

Reading Length: Medium 

16) They framed me': On death row for decades, Kevin Cooper pushes for new DNA tests in Chino Hills murders 7/08/18 (Los Angeles Times)

This was a weird and interesting question that made me confront my own bias against rapists. In 1985 Kevin Cooper was convicted of murdering four people. All the evidence seemed to point towards him, but revelations in the years since have made people skeptical of his conviction. By the time I was nearly done with the article, I was angry and ready for Cooper to be sprung from prison. It seems rather plain that he was framed for the murder. BUT then I read how he raped a teenager in the early 80s and was never prosecuted for it. He admitted to "consensual" sex with the teen, but the circumstances screamed rape. Instantly, the empathy and compassion I had for him melted away. I'm conflicted. He shouldn't be in prison for the four murders (or at the very least there should be an entirely new investigation and trial), but he should be rotting in prison for rape. Read this article and let me know if you agree. 

Reading Length: Medium