Joshua Citarella: Marxist memes for TikTok teens: can the internet radicalize teenagers for the left?
The next generation of political radicals will have passed through some form of these online political spaces and will bring with them many of the oddities, peculiarities and baggage of internet subcultures. Artists spend a great deal of time thinking about utopias and speculative visions of the future. Put simply, there is no desirable scenario that does not involve a revitalized left in the United States and abroad. Social media is already having the inadvertent effect of politicizing young people anyway. So we might as well put serious thought into making it work for us.
Marxist memes for TikTok teens: can the internet radicalize teenagers for the left? (12.09.2020)
Radikalisierung als Chance und Aufgabe? Die alte/neue Rechte hat schon in den 90ern verstanden, dass marschieren nicht reicht, sondern das man auf dem Dorffest am Grill stehen muss. Wenn wir die digitalen Jugendzentren zurückerobern wollen, müssen wir auch etwas zu bieten haben.
Crystal Abidin: Meme factory cultures and content pivoting in Singapore and Malaysia during COVID-19
Der Titel sagt es. Meme-Fabriken in Singapur und Malaysia und wie sich ihr Output durch COVID-19 verändert hat. Es gibt auch eine vereinfachte Version des Artikels (aber mit weniger Bildmaterial). Und wer macht jetzt bitte die Analyse für den deutschsprachigen Raum?
Kristian A. Bjørkelo: “Elves are Jews with Pointy Ears and Gay Magic”: White Nationalist Readings of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Keine Ahnung, wie ich darauf gestoßen bin, aber die Frage, die hier im Bezug auf Skyrim gestellt wird, betrifft natürlich auch das Internet an sich: Wie viel Verantwortung haben die, welche die Open World designen und bauen für das, was damit gemacht wird?
Brian Justie: Bot or Not
Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart von CAPTCHA-Tests und der Panik vor Bots:
„The standalone “I’m not a robot” checkbox that users often encounter is a decoy: The necessary evidence has already been gathered by the time you click it […] there are no longer bots on one side and humans on the other, neatly classified along predetermined ontological lines by their respective capacities for perception, interpretation, and judgment. Instead there are only data producers: Some produce data that is more bot-like, and some produce data that is more human-like.“
Bot or Not (21.09.2020)
L. M. Sacasas: What Do Human Beings Need?: Rethinking Technology and the Good Society
L. M. Sacasas fasst seine Essays meistens wunderbar selbst zusammen. Und auch diese Ausgabe seines Newsletters ist wieder durchtränkt von Verweisen, die man lesen könntesolltemüssteseufz.
„I’ve argued before in this newsletter and elsewhere that one of the salient features of digital culture is the rapid collapse of the ideals of neutrality and disinterested objectivity that have been central to the legitimacy of modern liberal institutions. While this collapse will continue to be attended by varying degrees of turmoil and conflict, it may also provide us with an opportunity to examine more carefully some of the assumptions that have informed the way we think about the nature of a good life. And I would suggest that we do well to start, as Simone Weil did, with a consideration of the full range of human needs, clarified by Ivan Illich’s searching critique of the needs engendered in us by industrial (and now digital) institutions, and oriented toward a more robust vision of a good society as Albert Borgmann urged us to imagine.“
What Do Human Beings Need? Rethinking Technology and the Good Society (29.09.2020)
Antonio Garcia-Martinez im Gespräch mit Martin Gurri: The Prophet of the Revolt
„[…] the news has always been fake and the histories at least partly (if not wholly) contrived. Read a French history of Napoleon and compare it to an Anglo one. Or for that matter, read your typical (lefty) English-language take on Cuba, vs. a Spanish language one. But they were self-consistent narratives maintained within meaningful political and linguistic borders. As flawed as these narratives were and are–the map was very definitely not the territory–they were coherent worldviews that helped that society navigate reality. Now those guiding (but also blinding) narratives are gone. Social media has served as a sort of society-wide bodycam: the institutional abuse was always there, now we’re simply seeing it.“
The Prophet of the Revolt: Martin Gurri and the ungovernable public (18.09.2020)
Oha. Hängengeblieben bin ich aber an einer anderen Formulierung, dem Massensterben der Narrative. Das dreht mir dem Magen um. Aber dem Gefühl nachzugehen ist mir heute zu gefährlich, ich ziehe mich lieber in die Datenbank zurück.