Personally, I'm faking it.
The worst part of a holiday weekend, I find, is returning from it, particularly when batshit crazy news goes down in your absence. If you sleepily checked your phone Tuesday morning, only to be like -- what shooting -- Rap Genius? -- yes all what UGH awful -- then you have my sympathy. Seriously. There is a whole lot to digest on the Santa Barbara shootings and their aftermath, and a lot of it's really important. On that note, I'm devoting all of today's recommended reads to that subject. Ready? Here goes:
1. #YestoAllWomen is more than a hashtag. It's a moving, needed response to a troubling tendency in mainstream American culture -- expressed, if manically, in the manifesto of the Santa Barbara shooter. "[Elliot] Rodger was crazier and more violent than most people, but his beliefs are on a continuum with misogynistic, class-based ideas that are held by many."
2. Think Rodger was crazy? Watch a Hollywood movie. My colleague Ann Hornaday has gotten serious grief -- from Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow, of all people -- for this really smart, nuanced column on how the narrative Rodger's filmed about himself echoes the narratives Hollywood tries to sell us. (Psst: if you think she's "blaming" Rogen for the shooting, you misread. Here's her follow-up.)
3. Inside "the manosphere" that may have inspired Rodger's misogynist rants. I look forward to the usual, friendly tweets from men's rights folks! Ahem. Hey guys.
"I've had enough of this!"
Pocketables: A not-so-short history of wine and all its spiritual complications. (6500 words/26 minutes)
Postscripts: Phrosties. Schlocky songs. Famous paintings made better with cats. Why online games make people crazy and why phones may actually make relationships great. How beauty vloggers changed the industry. How the Internet ruined our conception of time. This is the world's worst waiter and this is the world's best (?) social media guy. Today in Twitter: music rankings, tweets for scientists, censorship and poetry. Are you culturally literate? Personally, I'm faking it.
Until tomorrow!
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