Welcome to the latest Weekly Reader, where I share interesting articles and hope that you will do the same. Got a link? Drop it in the comments!
A Member Of The Far-Right Proud Boys Menaced A Twitter User On His Doorstep (from the Huffington Post): “An in-person visit from the Proud Boys was revelatory. Sure, they and other hate groups online have a predilection for threats and doxing ― publishing personal information online as a form of harassment ― but this was an escalation. They were willing to physically intimidate a Twitter user they found disagreeable.”
The S Word: Self-Esteem (from Godless in Dixie via Patheos): “We have all received messages throughout our lives that have told us we are not good enough at this or important enough for that. Too fat, too skinny, too stupid, too nerdy, too bossy, too sensitive. How can anyone deflect all the messages that are thrown at us all the time by everyone and everything around us? But even more so, when the very foundation of your belief system is based on the message that you are inherently wicked, how can you possibly develop any kind of self-love? For the Christian, the only way is through viewing yourself as saved by grace and covered by the robes of Christ’s righteousness.”
I Tried to Befriend Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends. (from the New York Times; and an older article but worth the read): “This deeply dangerous sentiment, expressed under the #WalkUpNotOut hashtag, implies that acts of school violence can be prevented if students befriend disturbed and potentially dangerous classmates. The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teachers is a slap in the face to all Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.”
The Rage of the Incels (from the New Yorker): “These days, in this country, sex has become a hyper-efficient and deregulated marketplace, and, like any hyper-efficient and deregulated marketplace, it often makes people feel very bad. Our newest sex technologies, such as Tinder and Grindr, are built to carefully match people by looks above all else. Sexual value continues to accrue to abled over disabled, cis over trans, thin over fat, tall over short, white over nonwhite, rich over poor. There is an absurd mismatch in the way that straight men and women are taught to respond to these circumstances. Women are socialized from childhood to blame themselves if they feel undesirable, to believe that they will be unacceptable unless they spend time and money and mental effort being pretty and amenable and appealing to men. Conventional femininity teaches women to be good partners to men as a basic moral requirement: a woman should provide her man a support system, and be an ideal accessory for him, and it is her job to convince him, and the world, that she is good.”
6 Reasons Not to Forgive, Not Yet (from Psychology Today): “When we advise people to forgive and move on, we may make things worse.”
Why we have LGBTQ Pride and not ‘Straight Pride’ (from USA Today): “Never has a person lost their job for being white or straight in North America, or been denied an apartment for being white and straight, or been leered at or attacked by strangers for simply holding hands with their significant others. There is a level of social and systemic privilege not afforded to many members of the LGBTQ community in North America, and certainly in many countries around the world.”
Who buys a trafficked child for sex? Otherwise ordinary men. (from USA Today): “Yet the buyers who fuel the child sex trade are seldom held accountable. Most just blend back into their families, jobs and neighborhoods. Until the next time.”
The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism (from NBC News): “In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.”
That’s all for now. Drop by next week for even more reads. Until then, see you soon!
Iacon East 