Category: issues

“Blaming people on the internet — as most of us are, helplessly — for not engaging in ‘good-faith debate’ doesn’t just misdiagnose the problem; it’s stunningly naïve. Have you met the internet? … Political discourse has been warped less because of ‘cancel culture’ or ‘illiberalism’ than by the way social media platforms have been poisoned, like wells, that poison us in turn.” And, argues Lili Loofbourow, it’s not the left that’s ultimately at fault. – Slate

“The huge yellow floodgates immediately started to work after being activated on Friday, rising simultaneously to separate the Venetian lagoon from the sea. More tests will be carried out over the coming months and the barrier will not be fully functional until the end of 2021.” – The Guardian

The Banff Centre shut down suddenly as the COVID crisis began and has canceled most of its residencies and programs. Much of the growth of the Banff Centre in recent decades has come through a combination of revenue streams that, until recently, was unlike any other arts institution in Canada. This, says Banff CEO janice Price, made the center particularly vulnerable. – Canadian Art

For the first time, anti-Olympics activists from around the globe are now joining to stand against the Games. Their slogan is “No Olympics anywhere,” and after 200 of them met last summer in Tokyo, one attendee — American Jules Boykoff, who teaches politics and government at Pacific University in Oregon — summed up the ills of the Olympics in a neat list: “overspending, militarization of police, citizen displacement, greenwashing and corruption.” – Washington Post

“Even if you had a hundred people in a space that’s supposed to be 200, are they really going to keep six feet apart? A lot of people expect a nightclub to feel a certain way and have a certain kind of energy. If we are going to reopen at a reduced capacity it will have a different feeling, it will have a different vibe to it.” – Politico

Some social media users took aim at the cheery “Welcome Back” videos Disney put out ahead of its world resort’s reopening. Remixing the park footage with eerie music, including the opening theme from horror classic The Shining, they reimagined Disney’s reopening as a sign of a dystopian present. – Deadline

The actor, who attended USC on a football scholarship in the 1920s, said some intensely racist things in a 1971 interview. So why did an exhibit honoring him go up at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts … in 2012? In any case: “School officials first responded to the protests in December by expanding the exhibit to include Indigenous filmmakers as well as feminist and critical race theory” – but now it’s coming down entirely. – Variety

This is, in case it’s not clear, a dictatorial move. “The results of the vote — slammed by critics as an assault on press freedom — could potentially keep the radio, TV and internet giant from broadcasting until the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.” – Yahoo News

Julia Sawalha, who played Ginger in the 2000 film, writes, “Last week, I was informed out of the blue, via email, through my agent that I would not be cast as Ginger in the Chicken Run sequel. The reason they gave is that my voice now sounds ‘too old’ and they want a younger actress to reprise the role.” – The Guardian (UK)

Most dispassionate observers now recognize that return-to-campus plans are, as Juliana Gray wrote in McSweeney’s, cooked up by your university’s “Vice President for Magical Thinking.” – Inside Higher Ed