We’re seeing the end of the long 20th century
James Marriott at the Times of London:
The technocratic, good-mannered, optimistic and consensual politics we grew up with and which have prevailed in the West since the Second World War is not a normality to which we will inevitably return, but a part of history.
So far this new era seems to be marked by rejection of tolerance, reading and science in favor of bigotry, illiteracy and superstition. Life expectancy is actually declining.
I remain hopeful that this trend will change course yet again and we’ll move forward into a world that’s even better than the 20th Century. But that’s not the direction trend lines are now going.
I’m pleased to back the Kickstarter for Cory Doctorow’s latest novel, Picks and Shovels, the return (and also debut!) of two-fisted accountant Marty Hench.
The Terrifying Realization That an Unresponsive Patient Is ‘Still in There’
Dr. Daniela J. Lamas at The New York Times:
A provocative large study published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that at least one in four people who appear unresponsive actually are conscious enough to understand language. As a doctor who sometimes sees patients like this, these findings are, in a word, terrifying.
Studies like this raise the possibility that there are tens of thousands of men and women locked inside their own minds, isolated to a degree I cannot even imagine. They are voiceless and largely invisible, with some of them being cared for in nursing facilities.
It’s good to see the Justice Department formally recognize the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, in which 300 Black residents were killed, as a “coordinated, military-style attack,” but disappointing that the finding only comes after the murderers responsible for the attacks can be brought to justice.
Just finished the 10-day trial of 2025 and I’ve decided not to subscribe.
Kudos to MacStories, an excellent site for Apple nerds for pulling the plug on its Meta accountsin the face of “dehumanizing and harmful moderation policies.” I’m a regular MacStories reader and subscribe to Club MacStories.
“The Brave Little Toaster.” A delicious, dark dystopian science fiction short-short story by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr.