The future is not what we wanted
This week: Dunkin, D'Amelios, delivery workers, the fall of Couchsurfing, viral fakes, MRAs and deepfaked pornography
Hi friends. Today is September 17, 2021.
It’s been 10 years since Occupy first took Zuccotti Park, and somehow we’re still memeing about taxation. Chairing is the new laughing, I … guess? The D’Amelios are the new Kardashians. And for those keeping track, Facebook has logged not one — not two — but seven (and counting!!) scandals since September started.
If you read anything this weekend
“Revolt of the Delivery Workers,” by Josh Dzieza in The Verge. This is one of the best stories I can recall reading on the dangers and indignities and sheer bullshit of gig work, and there have been a lot of those. Try ordering a pizza after reading this. It’ll feel … complicated!
“Music Copyright in the Age of Forgetting,” by Nate Rogers in The Ringer. We’re drowning in so much media these days that we can’t remember where our ideas come from — a new wrinkle in cognitive science, daily life and surprisingly, increasingly frequent copyright battles.
“Help! I Couldn’t Stop Writing Fake Dear Prudence Letters That Got Published,” by Bennett Madison in Gawker. It turns out that a successful viral bit — on Slate, Fox News, AITA or just about anywhere else — must be vaguely plausible, rooted in “the convoluted pieties of Twitter,” and absolutely ridiculous.
“‘Men’s Rights Asians’ Think This Is Their Moment,” by Aaron Mak in Slate. Last year’s BLM protests spurred new discussion about anti-Black racism in the Asian community. But it also emboldened MRAsians — standard-issue online misogynists, with an added dose of racial resentment and some very terrifying mass harassment tactics.
“Paradise Lost: The Rise and Ruin of Couchsurfing.com,” by Andrew Fedorov in Input. Was Couchsurfing ever really a “paradise”? I dunno. I remember it chiefly as the site that got me into several iffy travel situations with random European weirdos. Nonetheless! Couchsurfing was, for a moment, “the rare internet project that seemed like it lived beyond the dictates of capital.” Now the site charges a monthly membership fee and is run by a cagey Palantir alum.
The classifieds
This edition of Links is powered by my new daily planner (seriously — I’m obsessed), Headspace’s handy bite-sized daily podcast, the last gasps of summer weather in Buffalo, N.Y., and the following very wonderful sponsors:
Midnight Burger — At the nexus of all things ... there is a diner. Midnight Burger is an audio drama hailed by The Guardian as a "must-listen indie podcast." It's the tale of a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner that serves great coffee right when you need it. Come on by, we open at six.
An anonymous subscriber — who is linking out to Grassroots Gardens, an awesome non-profit in Buffalo that aims to “share knowledge, power and resources to grow healthy food, heal systemic harm, and strengthen neighborhood connections through community gardens.” [Note: This ad *is* an endorsement — this reader has kindly sponsored ad space for four of my favorite community orgs over the next few weeks. Very cool!!]
📣📣 You too can get your product, newsletter or cause in front of 12,000+ subscribers, ALL while supporting the free edition of this newsletter. Fill out this form to book; ads are $35.
Postscripts
Wikipedia food. Gentrification house. Little Free Blockbusters. Genius: actually not so smart. Ebooks: actually not book enough. Things that should be allowed to die: Twitter trending topics, Spin magazine. This week, in the future is not what we wanted: Roblox strip clubs for kids and deepfaked pornography.
The right-wing website “cancelling” professors. The doctor fighting for organ emoji. I love that, two decades on, we’re still getting new thinkpieces about The O.C. The lifestyle brand that is Dunkin’ (Donuts). The parents planning pregnancies around Zodiac signs. Finally, the five stages of a meme challenge, “because time on the internet seems like it moves incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time.”
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin