@matuzalem

As any decent Canuck should!

Remember the good ol' days, when Bieber and Cruz were our most shameful exports?

Just got out of a meeting that made me feel a little more "human" again.

It helps to be reminded that you're not the *most* incompetent beastie in the universe.

Middle-of-the-pack incompetent, maybe. Grazing the leaders' circle only on super bad days.

But there truly is little better salve to feeling terrible about yourself than to be reminded that you can still be helpful to others, just as awful as you are.

@stueytheround

I don't want to insult your drunk with my article, Stuey! The world is awful enough.

Go be merry and soused! 🤗

@Tacitus_Kilgore

Netanyahu is already clearly signalling a strong desire to keep going, but there is a brief window of hope here, around a surge of public pressure to foreground the hostages.

That said, this is also an extremely dangerous time for one and the same: a desperate organization that feels it's been cornered could retaliate in the most horrific way possible.

Good to lean into hope - but N needs to bow to domestic pressure first - an action that is still very much up in the air.

@matuzalem

¡Así es! Debido a esto, no uso "Americanos" - ¡nunca jamás! - en ese contexto en mis escritos. "Estadounidenses", "people from the US", "US citizens/residents" y a veces "USians" en línea, pero nunca "Americanos".

Todos somos Americanos. :)

I hit a breaking point last week, while trying to write a Rewind Wednesday drawing on Cambodia.

Today, we're getting over it by talking about the breaking point itself.

The world has so much need in it, and yet for many of us, "responding" involves little more than writing articles.

Is it enough? Of course not. But even if this is all we can do--try to think, try to inform--we need to remember that it's dangerous to get too caught up in ideas.

#Humanism #MediaLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/on-intellectual-labour-and-its-delusions

#Politics #US #Democracy #MediaLiteracy

On the surface, this write-up is about Musk funding a super-PAC targeting Arab & Jewish USians with different anti-Harris messaging, but the tactic itself should be deeply concerning.

This is a classic technique in Russian politics: bankroll opposing messages & movements to demoralize citizens and discourage confidence in *any* news.

They won't engage in politics and will be easier to manipulate thereafter.

Stay sharp out there.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-funds-most-cynical-super-pac_n_670ef96be4b0c5b8c0afcc86

*throws up hands*

My brain is being ridiculous. Still can't wake early & make it "go", and haven't been outside the building in a while. All this week and last I've been struggling with this, and workflow has suffered.

I know the next trick I need to pull to try to reboot myself, but MY GOODNESS, do I ever have notes for the next rollout for these ridiculous meat sacks of ours.

@LaurelGreen

Oh, I know Grammarly is older, but these new tools haven't been around for years - that's a dishonest claim using the gloss of the company's age to suggest to young people that these specific tools have been tried and tested for years. They haven't been. But a young person seeing this ad might not know that, and take the comment as a reason to trust and use these tools anyway.

Thank you for the work you do!

@Merlin

🫂

Wee police chase in a thunderstorm this afternoon. Altercation started with a slew of taxis & bikes halted, some drivers beefing. Then police arrived, drew firearms, searched & released all but one, & started searching every other biker.

One noped out, turning back to try to slip into the highway elsewhere, & a cop zipped off after him. Then on the *other* side police gave chase to someone else.

Now stop-and-search continues on both sides.

Join me with popcorn? 🍿
#Colombia #NeverADullMoment

@poemblaze

Thank you for saying so, Matt.

May you be as gentle with yourself as you can, in those moods - and may they pass as swiftly as they arise.

What I really hate about being fed up with myself (a mood) is that it does no good.

The world is filled with people who do so much harm.

There's so much harm that needs us leaning into proactive care and grace.

So when I can't snap out of unbridled fury with myself - for existing, for existing imperfectly, for having failed to fix parts of me that get so easily exploited to greater harm - it's just ego cranked to 11.

I need it down to a nice sedate 3 or 4 again. Working on that dial today. 🤞🏻

@CanisPundit

I think your thinking about what kind of thinking would best supplement my thinking was well-thought, Canis!

I have bookmarked this for later thinking, thank you. 👌🏻Can't write and listen to thinking at the same time, alas.

And... Part 2 of my review of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist.

Le Guin wasn't really a fan of awards, and this one is weird: one person gets a ton of money, and all the other shortlisted works get nada.

This is atypical in #SFF, where most prizes don't pay out at all, but have their own problems with prestige.

Lost in the competition is often the joy of a good read.

#Books #Recommendations
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-2024-ursula-k-le-guin-shortlist-part-two/

This week, Strange Horizons published my two-part review of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist.

In it, I encourage not reading this list as a competition, but as a conversation. Many of these books pair well as meditations on themes of the self, the self in relation to the world, and the self in relation to struggle.

The work ranges from highly fantastical to slight on the speculative. But there's a rich array of good writing either way.

#SFF #Books #Recommendations
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-2024-ursula-k-le-guin-shortlist-part-one/

Here in Colombia, Petro followed up on his anti-Fossil Fuel pledge by halting future oil speculation, and pushing renewables. It's been a tough transition re: energy costs!

But the worst part is that those costs, plus Indigenous protests in rural mining regions, give right-wingers leverage to claim that de-investment yields disorder.

No, Big Oil created disorder.

But its violence happens in board rooms, courtrooms, & the environment.

Then everyone looks violent or reckless for pushing back.

Pursuant to my gloomy piece yesterday about oil shipment legal loopholes...

Big Oil exploits plenty of legislation on land as well.

“Even just the threat of such a suit is enough to halt or roll back such efforts by host states,” one expert in ISDS claims told me a couple of years ago, when I wrote about an analysis of their use. “The threats can be very effective even if they lack legal merit.”

#Energy #Economics #ClimateCrisis
https://www.splinter.com/big-oil-will-exploit-this-trillion-dollar-loophole-until-someone-closes-it