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Some Interesting Things I Read Today (19 September)

related tags: #ShortReading #GoodWorkAbuse

• “But he does good work” by Violet Blue (2016)

This piece focuses on Jake Appelbaum and his repeated abuses within the hacker community, but it is yet another piece of evidence for how men's abusive actions will be excused while their victims are sacrificed on The Altar of Good Work.

When harassment, sexual or otherwise, requires a cost-benefit analysis, you have failed.

This is true, and the comment that someone made on this precise sentence is a perfect representation of how abusers get to stay because victims' statements are never seen as “evidence.”

• Sally Rooney just defeated a data center by Dan Sheehan (2026)

Some good news coming out of data centers, for once. I'm sure it was more than just Sally Rooney, but having her assistance in destroying this bullshit is definitely a good example of a person using their platform for good.

• Two reasonable people amicably resolve potential dispute by RJ Rushmore (2012)

Not a fan of the writing or style, but it's an interesting way of handling a situation where someone has “stolen” from you. It has a good ending, and it's a good example of how to handle things without invoking copyright (or at least not doing it openly).

• The Battle for Reality by David Solnit (2008)

This was one of the things I wanted to read for context in Peter's book (because he complains about both Solnits), but it's not really worth my time to make a post about it because it's... not as offensive as Peter made it out to be. Is there a focus on nonviolence? Sometimes. But it's also primarily an essay that's been taken from a book of a similar title that is also trying to relay more of the history of that moment. Is it perfect? No, but nothing is. And Peter's representations of this essay are largely inaccurate to make a point for something that isn't really what was done.

Some Interesting Things I Read Today (8 September)

related tags: #ShortReading

• Odysseus at the End of Civilization by Bret Devereaux (23 July 2026)

The result is a fundamentally conservative, almost Burkean critique: Whatever structural problems society has, its catastrophic collapse comes not from those structural issues but from the violation of long-standing norms of behavior.

This is... very true. It's also a very common theme in Nolan's work, as he always finds ways to have conservative critiques that wrap back around to “the structure is fine, but it is us who have failed.” He never wants to think about how “we” (for it is always “we” and never the people responsible) can so consistently fail as a result of the structure. I wish Devereaux would point this out. Many people have, but it bears repeating.

Anyway, lots of interesting conversation due to the inclusion of history... as expected of Devereaux's writing. His blog posts are far more interesting, though.

• LifeLog was real.

An interesting audio setup discussing LifeLog, which was a system that had been built by the Pentagon to effectively collect evidence about and index everyone's lives. It also connects a lot of what has happened with modern “social” media (e.g., Facebook) and other services (e.g., Google Pay) and how they have operated as surveillance for our whole lives. We've been indexing everything just as the Pentagon wanted.

LifeLog is not a story about a program that died. It's a story about who is allowed to build it.

• B-Sides: Gloria Steinem’s “The Beach Book” by Sari Edelstein (29 January 2025)

Found in another post, this was a review of Gloria Steinem's much less known The Beach Book. Despite my many frustrations with her, this is at least in some part adorable. It was found in the next short read:

• Eight theses on Gloria Steinem, because goddamn by Sophie Lewis (7 September 2026)

With Gloria Steinem's death, it's important to hold an actual picture of who she was and what she did in our minds. Sophie Lewis does just that with her theses about Steinem. I do think it is occasionally more polite than I'd justify, but it is among the best pieces to hold a lot of these thoughts in one place.

• Some Like It Hot: Notes from the Marilyn Appreciation Society by Sophie Lewis (2022)

It's an interesting read that holds a lot more space for the complexities of Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe than are ever really present in most places.

• Weird Little Guys (List)

While I think that calling fash and fash-adjacent people “weird” undermines the seriousness of what they do and how they impact communities, it's a decent list of blokes who hold harmful politics and fund others who do (and have power over us).