nerd

Some Interesting Things I Read Today (26 July)

related tags: #ShortReading, #GraeberStuff

• David Graeber: Concerning the Violent Peace Police (2012)

A letter that Graeber wrote in response to Chris Hedges misrepresenting Black Bloc. Some interesting bits and pieces. Was suggested in response to critiques around discussions of violence. I may want to come back to this because of my frustration with parts of it.

• Josef Burton: The Modern Passport Has Eliminated Fraud, Forgery, and Heroes Who Can Bend the Rules to Save Lives (2026)

Interesting exploration of the modern passport. It doesn't fully explore the history of passports, but does look at how they've changed over the decades to be hellish creations.

• Noah Hawley: What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos's Private Retreat (2026)

Meh, but it at least has some useful bits. Overwhelmingly, it's annoying that this is about an event from 2018. Took a while for Hawley to, you know, realise some things, I guess.

• Sophie Hurwitz: Gwyneth Paltrow Just Goopified Drone Warfare (2026)

Not long, low-info, but it does provide a good highlight of how the wellness industry works with state apparatuses and also is accepting of laundering reputations of people who should be labelled as war criminals.

• Gigi G: PSL's Top Propagandist Resigns, Publishes Tell-All Letter (2026)

More PSL-internal drama. Highlights known issues of them sweeping abuse under the rug, being authoritarian, and acting as such while pretending to engage in anti-colonial or anti-imperial politics. One funny sentence includes, “[Smolarek] says members caught reading Jacobin... are treated as security breaches.” Considering Jacobin is such a patsoc outlet, I'd also treat them as a security breach... but for a different reason. (This is a joke. But also, I wouldn't read the Jacobin.)