Weekly Reader: Vol 3 Issue 15

It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse. It’s time once again for your regularly scheduled Weekly Reader! Got some hot links, blog posts, or articles from a local paper you’d like to share? Head over to the comments and let us know.

Their Conservative Boss Said “Take Off Your Mask Or You Can Go Home.” Now They’re Getting Sick. (from BuzzFeed News): “On his LinkedIn, Hartman calls “working to glorify God in the workplace” one of the “core values” of his property management company. He is vehemently anti-abortion, employees said, and at a companywide meeting last year showed photos of aborted fetuses in a PowerPoint presentation. He has also brought in speakers to talk about how “Democrats are killing babies,” an employee said.

“I felt like I was at a rally I didn’t want to be a part of,” the third employee said.”

The White Supremacist “Scholars” Pushing the Kamala Harris Birther Lie (from Slate): “Eastman’s Newsweek article rehashes an argument he has made for years: that American-born children of immigrants only acquire birthright citizenship if their parents were lawful permanent residents at the time of birth. According to Eastman, the children of immigrants who entered the U.S. without authorization, or on a temporary permit, are not American citizens. Rather, they constitute an underclass of (mostly stateless) aliens subject to deportation and denied the rights and privileges of American citizenship. His article is titled “Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility”—he’s just asking questions!—because he believes her citizenship turns on the immigration status of her parents when she was born. If her parents were “temporary visitors, perhaps on student visas,” Eastman wrote, then Harris lacks American citizenship. Eastman has never fully explained how he intends to strip millions of Americans of their citizenship, though he does suggest that, at a minimum, Harris might need to be expelled from her Senate seat.”

My father trafficked me throughout my entire childhood. It looked nothing like people think. (from Upworthy): “Most children trafficked in the US are so conditioned they don’t know anything else. It’s their normal. I think back as an adult and think, “Why didn’t I scream out for help? Make a scene?” But I had to forgive my inner child. There was no reason I knew to scream out for help. I wasn’t in danger; this was just my normal life.”

Sam Harris and Donald Trump: They’re completely different … yet very much alike (from Salon): “Like Trump, Harris seems wholly uninterested in getting things right. He claims to care about intellectual honesty and good scholarship, yet he consistently spouts misinformation on his podcast that could easily be corrected if only he were to engage — sincerely, and in good faith — those who disagree with him (very often actual experts on the topics of racism, feminism, social justice and so on). Indeed, so far as I can tell, Harris has become one of the greatest sources of misinformation on social justice issues in the United States today. His contribution to scientific racism — his boosting the visibility of claims like Black people are almost certainly dumber than white people for genetic reasons — will no doubt be one of his greatest, and darkest, legacies.”

Was #SavetheChildren Banned on Facebook? Hashtag Was Censored (from Heavy.com–Aside: don’t use that hashtag. It’s a misappropriation by QAnon): “At the time of publication, an official reason why the posts were hidden had not been confirmed by Facebook. Some people said they were reporting to Facebook disturbing photos and pages that they’d seen and tagged them with #SavetheChildren to spread the word and ask others to report the pages too. The hashtag may have been auto-censored because of the disturbing photos that were tagged with it.

In the Facebook screenshot below, one person said they had edited their photos later because of the disturbing nature of the images.”

Facebook removes one of largest QAnon conspiracy groups after false posts (from Reuters): “The group, called Official Q/Qanon and with nearly 200,000 members, had been deleted after multiple individual postings were removed for crossing the lines on bullying and harassment, hate speech, and false information that could lead to harm, a Facebook spokeswoman said.”

The Matrix Was Intended to Be a Trans Story, Says Lilly Wachowski (from Gizmodo): “At its core, The Matrix is also the story of a person who realizes they’re trapped in a place where they can’t be themselves, escapes, and is reborn in a new world as their true self. And considering the film was written and directed by two trans women, it’s no surprise that Lilly Wachowski says telling a trans allegory was the intent of the film all along.”

Facebook ‘danger to public health’ warns report (from the BBC): “Activist group Avaaz, which conducted the research, said Facebook posed a “major threat” to public health.

Doctors added false claims about vaccines on the social network could limit the numbers prepared to have a Covid jab if one became available.

Facebook said the findings did “not reflect the steps we’ve taken”.”

Millions of students are returning to US universities in a vast unplanned pandemic experiment (from Nature): “Bringing so many university students to crowded campuses is uniquely risky in the United States, which has seen the largest number of deaths to COVID-19 of any country and has active community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic. Other large countries with surging infection rates, such as India and Brazil, are not opening up campuses to the same degree.”

Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than nearly any city. But 60 years ago, tigers were still seen in the wild (from CNN): “Two days earlier, the men realized a deer trap they had set 400 yards (365 meters) from their village had gone missing. They followed tracks etched in the dirt where it had been dragged to a pit — inside, they discovered a wounded tiger, the jaws of the metal snare biting into its leg.

Police sent the tiger to a Hong Kong amusement park, where it died shortly after. A policeman became the “proud possessor of the skin,” according to a later news report.”

“Frontline: United States of Conspiracy” shows how Alex Jones conquered the truth (from Salon): “Jones’ profile grew after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the blame for which Jones assigned to the United States government, as he did the Oklahoma City bombings and eventually the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

The ramifications of this heartless nonsense are still being experienced by the bereaved parents of these children – including Lenny Pozner, who lost his child Noah and who was harassed and threatened into hiding by Jones’ listeners. Despite remaining in danger to this day he appears in the hour, but hidden in shadow.”

That’s all for today. But don’t worry, I’ll have more bits and bytes of information next week! So until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!