It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse. It’s another edition of the Weekly Reader! Found a blog post worth reading? Got a hot tip on a hot story? Found a link that you want to share? Drop it like it’s hot in the comments!
Jordan B. Peterson: Climate Change Denier and Faux Lover of Science (from Clean Technica): “We could go on, but Peterson’s complete lack of adherence to what is empirically valid outside of his area of specialization — clinical psychology — is well understood by everyone except his supporters.”
No, Feminists Do Not Prefer Sexists Over Woke Men (from the Houston Press): “Look, I get what they’re trying to do here, but I kind of feel this misses the forest for the trees. If a man tells you he doesn’t open a door because of gender equality, I promise you THAT dude is the one with the real aggressive sexism. Men who spend their times pontificating about how women’s equality means they never have to do anything to help women aren’t woke. They’re guys with grudges.”
Tenants today are reportedly still paying for a Trump family tax scheme from the 1990 (from Vox): “In 1992, the Trump children created a phony company, All County Building Supply & Maintenance, to pad the cost of their father’s building purchases. The company did nothing but pay vendors, and was reimbursed by Fred Trump at a higher rate, with the extra money split by the kids.
This allowed the Trumps to both dodge taxes and inflate the prices on Fred’s rent-regulated apartments through marked-up “improvement costs.” As Trump’s brother Robert once admitted in a sworn deposition, “the higher the markup would be, the higher the rent that might be charged.” (Trump did not respond to a request for comment from the Times, but his lawyer Charles J. Harder said in response to the original report that “there was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone.”)”
This map shows the US really has 11 separate ‘nations’ with entirely different cultures (from Business Insider): “Woodard mapped out the regions in his 2012 book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.” Some of his regions might sound familiar, like the “Deep South”; others might surprise American readers, like his “Midlands” region that stretches from New Jersey to northeastern New Mexico.
Recognizing the distinct values of each region is critical to understanding the United States, Woodard said.”
Documents Point to Illegal Campaign Coordination Between Trump and the NRA (from Mother Jones): “The two purchases may have looked coincidental; Red Eagle and AMAG appear at first glance to be separate firms. But each is closely connected to a major conservative media-consulting firm called National Media Research, Planning and Placement. In fact, the three outfits are so intertwined that both the NRA’s and the Trump campaign’s ad buys were authorized by the same person: National Media’s chief financial officer, Jon Ferrell.”
Hundreds of sex abuse allegations found in fundamental Baptist churches across U.S. (from the Star-Telegram): “For decades, women and children have faced rampant sexual abuse while worshiping at independent fundamental Baptist churches around the country. The network of churches and schools has often covered up the crimes and helped relocate the offenders, an eight-month Star-Telegram investigation has found.
More than 200 people — current or former church members, across generations — shared their stories of rape, assault, humiliation and fear in churches where male leadership cannot be questioned.”
They Wanted Her Body (from Longreads): “Tragically for Qandeel Baloch, what Pakistani men love to love in private, they love to excoriate in public. Sexual fantasies, or the women who are part of them, must be shamed with the same ferocity with which their bodies are lusted after. It was this truth which led to Qandeel’s death that summer day, a grisly mix of rage and misogyny ending with her brother’s hands around her neck. In the hours after Arif Nizami arrived at the scene, a sweaty mob of media men crowded before the door of the house where Qandeel lay dead, her body already swollen from heat and decay as the temperature rose. The male gaze, lust-laden in life, had turned voyeuristic in death, the journalists, most of them men, clamoring and pushing and shoving to get a shot of her corpse.”
This trans researcher is working to understand the mental health impacts of transphobia (from ThinkProgress): “The TIDE scale is similar to a thermometer of negativity that increases as transgender people face situations in which they must defend the legitimacy of their gender identity. Howe’s research suggests that the more intense and common these situations are, the more overall emotional distress transgender people tend to experience.”
I Don’t Grieve Over His Cruelty. I Grieve Over Yours. (from John Pavlovitz): “I grieve when I see elementary school teachers dressed up like a border wall for Halloween.
I grieve when I see white a woman screaming obscenities at two Muslims teenagers at a stop light.
I grieve when I see a Jewish professor’s office littered with spray-painted swastikas.
I grieve when I watch a father of four being tackled by ICE agents outside immigration offices.
I grieve when I witness white high school seniors making a “Heil Hitler” arm gesture during class photos.
I grieve when I see the contempt from white friends, when young black men die at traffic stops.
I grieve when I find the most vile sickness on my social media feed, hurled toward people of color and women and transgender people.
I grieve when I hear professed Christian pastors calling for the killing of LGBTQ people.
I grieve when I see rambling, racist tirades on subway cars filled with families with young children.
I grieve when I see supremacist candidates being elected and re-elected.
I grieve when I overhear dehumanizing conversations from old, white men, about Democratic women leaders, in crowded cafés.
I grieve when I sit across holiday tables, and witness bigoted tirades that I’d have thought people I knew and loved were not capable of.”
And that’s all for today. Drop by again–same Bot time, same Bot channel–for even more reading material! Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 