Linkspam #3

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To Be, or Not To Be by Masha Gessen in the New York Review of Books:

“I saw it as a story of impossible, anguished choices that he nonetheless insisted on making. Totalitarian regimes aim to make choice impossible, and this was what interested me at the time. I was awed by the gap between my capacity for judgment and the unbearably limited options faced by my grandparents. I fixated on the ideas of “impossible choice” and of having “no choice.” But what interests me now is that I think resistance can take the shape of insisting on making a choice, even when the choice is framed as one between unacceptable options.”

The Nationalist’s Delusion by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic:

Birtherism is a synthesis of the prejudice toward blacks, immigrants, and Muslims that swelled on the right during the Obama era: Obama was not merely black but also a foreigner, not just black and foreign but also a secret Muslim. Birtherism was not simply racism, but nationalism—a statement of values and a definition of who belongs in America. By embracing the conspiracy theory of Obama’s faith and foreign birth, Trump was also endorsing a definition of being American that excluded the first black president. Birtherism, and then Trumpism, united all three rising strains of prejudice on the right in opposition to the man who had become the sum of their fears.

In this sense only, the Calamity Thesis is correct. The great cataclysm in white America that led to Donald Trump was the election of Barack Obama.

Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth by Nina Martin and Renee Montagne at ProPublica:

Underneath the numb despair was a profound sense of failure — and an acute understanding of what Shalon’s death represented. The researcher working to eradicate disparities in health access and outcomes had become a symbol of one of the most troublesome health disparities facing black women in the U.S. today, disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. The main federal agency seeking to understand why so many American women — especially black women — die and nearly die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth had lost one of its own. Even Shalon’s many advantages — her B.A. in sociology, her two master’s degrees and dual-subject Ph.D., her gold-plated insurance and rock-solid support system — had not been enough to ensure her survival. If a village this powerful hadn’t been able to protect her, was any black woman safe?

The female price of male pleasure by Lili Loofbourow at The Week:

Women are supposed to perform comfort and pleasure they do not feel under conditions that make genuine comfort almost impossible. Next time you see a woman breezily laughing in a complicated and revealing gown that requires her not to eat or drink for hours, know a) that you are witnessing the work of a consummate illusionist acting her heart out and b) that you have been trained to see that extraordinary, Oscar-worthy performance as merely routine.

Now think about how that training might filter down to sexual contexts.

Blockchain’s Problem with Unknown Unknowns by Shermin Voshmgir at Medium:

While blockchain can eradicate many layers of bureaucracy, it will not be able to get rid of expert opinion. Trustlessness, or trustless trust, is a valid claim as long as the protocol does not require change. The moment a community needs to decide over protocol change, a mass of non experts will need to trust the design judgement of a handful of people who understand the code.

Friendship is a root of freedom by deterr at Joyful Militancy:

This neoliberal friend is the alternative to hetero and homonormative coupling: ‘just friends’ implies a much weaker and insignificant bond than a lover could ever be. In neoliberal friendship, our everyday lives aren’t tangled up together: we don’t really need each other to live. But these insipid tendencies don’t mean that friendships are pointless; only that friendship itself is a terrain of struggle.

Legends of the Ancient Webby Maciej Cegłowski at their personal website:

This trajectory must have come as a shock to its pioneers.  At its birth, it seemed like radio would only be a force for good. How could something that connects people together be anything but beneficial?

Radio brought music into hospitals and nursing homes, it eased the profound isolation of rural life, it let people hear directly from their elected representatives.  It brought laugher and entertainment into every parlor, saved lives at sea, gave people weather forecasts for the first time.  But radio waves are just oscillating electromagnetic fields.   They really don’t care how we use them.  All they want is to go places at the speed of light.

It is hard to accept that good people, working on technology that benefits so many, with nothing but good intentions, could end up building a powerful tool for the wicked.  But we can’t afford to re-learn this lesson every time.

Machine Bias by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner at ProPublica:

Prater was the more seasoned criminal. He had already been convicted of armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, for which he served five years in prison, in addition to another armed robbery charge. Borden had a record, too, but it was for misdemeanors committed when she was a juvenile.

Yet something odd happened when Borden and Prater were booked into jail: A computer program spat out a score predicting the likelihood of each committing a future crime. Borden — who is black — was rated a high risk. Prater — who is white — was rated a low risk.

(Follow up: New York City moves to create accountability for algorithms)

Other Favorites

Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land by Ruthanna Emrys at Tor - a set of interwoven stories written in a Jewish-inflected magical realist style, with seven lovely illustrations to go along with them

Underscores, Optimization & Arms Races by Anil Dash at Medium - how Google began impacting web standards

Does Jury Nullification Undermine the Rule of Law? by Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy - from the subtitle: ‘In theory, yes. But not in the world we actually live in, where law enforcement is already rife with numerous discretionary decisions made unavoidable by the fact that we have far too many laws.‘

Disagreeing without disliking each other by Emma Pierson at Obsession With Regression

Utopian Commonplace Book by John Holbo and commenters at Crooked Timber - a short collection of quotes about utopias and dystopias

New Data Reveal 250 Preschoolers Are Suspended or Expelled Every Day by Rasheed Malik at the Center for American Progress - horrifyingly yet unsurprisingly, black children are more than twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than white children

My web app died from performance bankruptcy by Nikita Prokopov at their personal blog - how Chrome’s design prioritizes browser performance over keeping the web working

When Social Class Chooses Your College Major by Jacqui Frost at Sociological Images

How to Respond When the International Criminal Court Goes after America by David Bosco at Lawfare

The Asshole Filter by Siderea at their personal blog - ‘If you find yourself wondering, or just feeling, “Why is everyone I wind up dealing with an asshole?” you might want to consider the possibility that you have set up an asshole filter.’

From Territorial to Functional Sovereignty: The Case of Amazon by Frank Pasquale at Law and Political Economy - how some tech platforms don’t just compete in markets, they make and regulate them

Wretched woman! by Shaun Usher at Letters of Note - in 1834, Jarm Logue escaped from slavery.  In 1850, the woman who had enslaved him wrote him asking for money.  This is his response.

When We Body-Shame Sexual Abusers, We Shame All Those Who Look Like Them And Did Nothing Wrong by Suzannah Weiss at The Establishment

Scott Galloway Says Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Should Be Broken Up by, uh, Scott Galloway on YouTube - I never include videos in this link, but this talk is worth it

Terror management theory, diet culture, and right-wing politics by Michelle Alison on Twitter - I also never include Twitter threads but again, worth it

We need to talk about mathematical backdoors in encryption algorithms by John Leyden at The Register

Safari in Arms Race Against Trackers by Alan Toner at the Electronic Frontier Foundation - tl;dr: a malicious tracker is paying off the owners of Adblock and Adblock Plus

The Intrusion of White Families Into Bilingual Schools by Conor Williams at The Atlantic

Stories of Forbidden Love:Photographing LGBT citizens in countries where homosexuality is still criminalized by Robin Hammond at PSMag

Using a Genetic Algorithm to Optimize Developer Conference Schedules by Filip Hracek on Medium

The impromptu Slack war room where ‘Net companies unite to fight Spectre-Meltdown by Sean Gallagher at Ars Technica - how Google, Amazon and Microsoft hung the rest of the tech industry out to dry, and how they banded together to fix their security vulnerabilities

Improving the web with small, composable tools by Ian Bicking at their personal blog - a history of the Firefox Screenshots feature

Ideological Training for the New Economy by Ignacio Thomas at Jacobin - how the unemployed are systematically trained to blame themselves

What’s So Great About the Declare War Clause? by Matthew Waxman at Lawfare - if you were longing for a deep dive into James Madison’s stance on constitutional war powers then boy do I have a link for you

The Dreams of an Inventor in 1420 by Bennett Gilbert at the Public Domain Review - a fascinating overview of the drawings of 15th-century engineer Johannes de Fontana

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Revolutionized Public Health by Laura Spinney at the Smithsonian Magazine

In Defense of Suspected Russian Agent Carter Page, Michael Mukasey Just Gave Defense Attorneys a Big Gift by Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel - how the #$#@ Nunes memo may give defense attorneys greater access to FISA warrant applications

Department Stores Are Basically the Reason Women Were Allowed in Public by Marlen Komar at Racked

Trump abuses show we must turn traditions into laws by Preet Bharara and Christine Todd Whitman at USA Today - announcing the launch of the Democracy Task Force

What Happens When You Ease Parking Requirements for New Housing by Nick Magrino at their personal blog

‘13 Reasons Why’ Scared The Shit Out Of Me — And It Should Scare You Too by Ijeoma Oluo at The Establishment - I am still so mad at Netflix about this, guys.  So mad.

Nativist Anti-“Open Borders” Rhetoric Is a Big Lie by Will Wilkinson at The Niskanen Center

Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and the Modern Whistle-Blower by Malcolm Gladwell at the New Yorker

Multiplicity versus Duplicity: The Harkonen Conviction by Nathan Schachtman at their personal blog - can a statistical mis-characterization be a crime?

‘That’s Just the Life of a Warrior’: How Disability Activists Are Playing the Long Game Under Trump by David Perry at Pacific Standard - ‘An interview with Anita Cameron, a legend among disability rights activists.‘

“I never do x” vs “When I do x, it doesn’t count, because it’s justified” at Social Skills for Autonomous People - the importance of morally neutral language for talking about morally not-neutral things

The authoritarian personality and its discontents by dishajani at JHIBlog

Twilio Demonstrates Why Courts Should Review Every National Security Letter by Andrew Crocker and David Ruiz at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Why It’s So Expensive to Build Urban Rail in the U.S. by Alon Levy at CityLab

And finally, let’s wrap this up with a great story:

This is not the golden age of kindness by Fred Clark at Patheos