I don’t read enough, but I’ll give it a shot
*and all the other people
~the only actual book recommendation. I’ll get the politics out of the way first.
“Confronted with an international league of nationalists, the book is an attempt to establish a transnational public sphere, on three levels: first, that of the authors and the authors, followed by the level of the phenomena discussed, the third being the level of distribution - the book appears simultaneously in several countries.”
Like how the internet was supposed to be. I can’t help but to think this project would have worked better as an internet-centered campaign, as it stands it’s this maddening “targeted” thing, the book you’ll get is different from the one I’m holding (220 vs 350 pages), the part I think is the strongest is the final chapter from Romania, looking from the outside at the quiet that replaced class tension-driven progress (and how alien RO is next to “normal” western politics). The basic premise is that “the 90s as the end of history” was wrong, and the book itself is a set of essays from many authors talking about many countries on the why and hows of the fog of badness, why so many feel excluded and unrepresented. We’re back to being shocked about “the current thing”, so a 2017 book about pushing against suffering in isolation it is. Perhaps it’s better that it’s a book separated from the internet to drive the point home, one chapter brings up how social media bubbles of extremism is an expression of discontent, not the source of it, “blaming the algorithm is like blaming the radio for Goebbels, people resonated with it”.
We recently cancelled the election results here because “TikTok made the wrong guy win”, so looking back at this video after two years of russian hybrid operations hits a little close to home, but here’s a rounded analysis that felt appropriate to share:
2.
As for cope, well, since we’re back in 2016 with the “situation is crazy” and “woke games bad” I went on rabbit-holes reading about the aftermath of the game Sunset,
A fictional South American republic, Anchuria, during a military coup, or shortly after. a very different perspective on war; not a man with a gun in the field or some faceless general, but a woman with a feather duster in a luxurious apartment, given one hour a day to both make things tidy and make a difference.
Just like everyone, you try to handle it and get on with your life. […] That’s what it’s ultimately inspired by, seeing all these things happening around us, and as small people it feels like there’s nothing we can do. But we still have our lives, we can still make the best of it. The most concrete things here are part of her housekeeping. For a lot of tasks, the player get options in terms of how to perform actions
I filed it under literature because reading about it seems more interesting than re-playing it, it’s a kinda-poorly executed walking sim with puzzles. It’s not even about La Révolucion as much as it is about asynchronous character interaction in absentia, above the chaos in the streets. I found it relatable as I also interacted with my cool computer-savvy uncle via chores at my aunt’s house while both of them were away. 
“A game for gamers” but Tale of Tales’s audience wasn’t gamers, wasn’t even games media, it was game designers. Their artsy influence is still felt, and we’re in dire need of more experimental stuff in the medium. I think even Destiny’s Final Shape campaign has walking sim and furniture-sort’em-up bits.
3.
404 media cracking jokes on how this just sounds like an average organization.
4.
and uhh… this thing. Can’t survive by pointing at the world/phones alone. Idk if it qualifies for a book club or whatnot but it’s what I’ve been reading lately.
I’m not immune to y’all’s propaganda lol, I got “Deep Work” by Cal Newport from the local library today.
