Early 2022 Story Round-Up
#TC119
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter covering all things queer and techno-politics from the perspective of Kyle Borland. My goal is to highlight all the ways today is different (and not so) from yesterday.
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This edition:
No essay today. The first full week of work caught up with me, but I still wanted to share the round-up below.
Links, Quotes & Things
As always, thanks for reading.
Kyle (@kgborland)
Links, Quotes & Things
10 Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2022 (Longreads)
10 ways to build back LGBTQ human infrastructure better (Washington Blade)
13 young lives lost in 2021. In America, a child is shot every hour, and hundreds die. (Washington Post)
30 LGBTQ Destinations To Explore in 2022 (MSN)
A Day At The Park (Kostas Kiriakakis)
Along Hadrian’s Wall, ancient Rome’s temples, towers, and cults come to life (Nationanl Geographic)
Amazon workers in Alabama will begin voting again on unionization in February (Washington Post)
Americans Reading Fewer Books Than in Past (Gallup)
Amy Schneider is game to host ‘Jeopardy!’ When she’s done winning it, that is (LA Times)
Author of anti-CRT bill tells teacher he should stay "impartial" on Nazism (Popular Information)
Ballroom Culture in Nigeria Is Being Revived By Queer Youth (Teen Vogue)
Biden couldn’t protect LGBTQ equality. Can he protect voting rights? (LGBTQ Nation)
You say I “might have exhibited millions of plebeians sacrificed to the pride, folly, and ambition of monarchy and aristocracy.” This is very true. And I might have exhibited as many millions of plebeians sacrificed by the pride, folly, and ambition of their fellow plebeians and their own, in proportion to the extent and duration of their power. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.
– John Adams in a letter to John Taylor. Two years before serving as first U.S. vice president in 1789, Adams published his Defense of the Constitutions, a sprawling three-volume study of past governments that sought to reveal the essential elements of republicanism. Taylor, a U.S. senator from Virginia and close ally of Thomas Jefferson, devoted the opening of his 1814 Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States to an extended critique of Adams’ work. The two began a correspondence that, despite their political differences, eventually developed into a lasting friendship. (Lapham’s Quarterly)
Discrimination against women, LGBT people ‘pervasive’ in Korea, Human Rights Watch says (Korea Herald)
Fit and fab: Meet Atlanta drag fitness instructor Cookie D’Lite (Reckon)
Funny Women #106: Gay Wedding Vows (The Rumpus)
Gay penguin “power couple” celebrate their anniversary (LGBTQ Nation)
Germany appoints first 'commissioner for queer affairs' (DW)
Google Had Secret Project to ‘Convince’ Employees ‘That Unions Suck’ (Vice)
Guantanamo Bay, an atrocity, turned 20 years old on January 11. (Forever Wars)
Hawks Still Don't Understand the Limits of American Power (Eunomia)
How Betty White’s Rose Nylund Gave ‘Golden Girls’ the Perfect Character to Take on Queer Social Issues (Collider)
How LGBTQ Groups Supported Striking Miners vs. Thatcher (JSTOR)
How the speed of climate change is unbalancing the insect world (The Guardian)
Hungary sets a date for referendum on controversial LGBTQ law (CNN)
I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months. (Ben Adam)
I'm Dying to Talk About "Hades" (Saeed Jones)
In Baton Rouge, there’s a $100 million football coach and everyone else (Washington Post)
Indigenous tribes around Lake Superior depend on fishing to survive — but the fish are contaminated (Washington Post)
Is South Korean media silencing LGBT voices? (The Phnom Penh Post)
Janet Jackson Is Still in Control (allure)
Judge rules trans inmate with severe dysphoria can’t be denied surgery in historic decision (LGBTQ Nation)
Kenyan LGBT Students Protest Suggestion They Be Banned From Boarding Schools (All Africa)
Manchin's Coal Corruption Is So Much Worse Than You Knew (Rolling Stone)
Most LGBTQ kids' mental health negatively impacted by anti-trans legislation (Axios)
My Hundred-Year-Old Boyfriend: On Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha (LitHub)
NATO Expansion Overtime (GZERO)
Over 15 million older adults aged 65+ are economically insecure, with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. (National Council on Aging, SAGECents, USA Today)
These challenges are amplified for LGBTQ elders, particularly with the persistent disparities and discrimination they face simply because of their sexual orientation.
One-third of LGBTQ older adults live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
LGBTQ elders are poorer and have fewer financial resources than their non-LGBTQ counterparts.
Transgender people in the U.S. are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as non-transgender people, and transgender people of color are more than three times as likely.
LGBTQ people are likelier to be subject to employment discrimination, making their earnings and Social Security payments lower.
Praise Be: ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Has Returned (The Ringer, GQ)
Progressive Democrats and MAGA Republicans are uniting on a proposal to ban sitting lawmakers from trading individual stocks (Axios)
Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible (NYT Magazine)
South Carolina Man Convicted of Sodomy Sues Over Sex Offender Status (The Advocate)
Spanish LGBT token responds to critics, says it expects listings soon (CoinTelegraph)
TERRORWAR chapter 1 (Copper Bottle)
The Anti-War Movement Could Be Reignited By Gen Z (Teen Vogue)
The Drag Queen Comedian Who Wants To Create a World Where Being Queer Is the Norm (The Wire)
The Gentrification of Consciousness (Alta)
Tilda Swinton: ‘My ambition was always about having a house by the sea and some dogs’ (The Guardian)
UNHCR notes work with LGBTQ asylum seekers in Central America (LA Blade)
University of Alabama teams with Smithsonian to study role of religion at Capitol on Jan. 6 (AL.com, Uncivil Religion)
U.S. Donor Blood Supply Running Low (Statista)
Comment: Now would probably be a good time to repeal that homophobic blood donation ban.
Web3 Round-Up
Cryptocurrency is suddenly everywhere — except in the cash register (Washington Post)
My first impressions of web3 (Moxie Mindlespike, former CEO of Signal)
Who is Web3 Really Good for? (Margins)
What Makes The Princess Bride Such a Great Movie? (LitHub)
What Should the Left Do About China? (The Nation)
Who gets called a 'tech worker' is the big question for 2022 (Mashable)
Who Leads Us Across the Sea (Life is a Sacred Text)
Why Americans are losing trust in elections and the media (Alabama Public Radio)
Why Do We Return to the Greek Myths Again and Again? (LitHub)
Worldbuilding and the Whims of History (Counter Craft)
