White Speech, “Other” Speech

I recently finished Randa Abdul-Fattah’s book Coming of Age in the War on Terror that, while limited primarily to broad national conversations and a Sydney-specific context, provided a keen insight into the perceptions of kids who grew up with the “war on terror” following 9/11, particularly Arab and/or Muslim kids. While practically as white as it gets, I also grew up in this context – I was three in 2001, so any notion of a “pre-9/11 world” is foreign to me. But what isn’t foreign is my ability to form and express opinions on these topics, something I can do without any particular consequence (so far – if I’m on any kind of list I’d be honoured to learn about it and laugh). The same cannot be said for those without the privilege of Whiteness.

(Anarchist Federation readers can click here to read at the original source!)

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Human Rights Do Not Exist, But We Can Make Them Exist

One of my current reads coming into the new year is Susie Alegre’s Freedom to Think: Protecting a Fundamental Human Right in the Digital Age. Part one of the book is all I have read so far, a fairly broad history of human thought and expression and the ways in which it has been oppressed or undermined (from religion to advertising). I look forward to seeing how the concepts introduced there are transferred to the modern digital era – in fact, I’ve already read some parts ahead for essays I wrote on privacy last year. Aside from privacy though, the notion of human rights is a pillar of the book, and it’s one I have quite a fundamental disagreement with Alegre over. That is, I don’t believe they actually exist.

(Anarchist Federation readers can click here to read at the original source!)

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My 2023 Reading List

My reading habits this year were a bit different to previous years. Firstly, while I did not read (i.e. finish) as many non-fiction books as I had last year, I did start reading fiction again, mostly at the behest of a friend who had some series she wanted me to read. While I won’t include those here, it’s nice to read stuff about how awful fictional worlds are, rather than how awful the real one is. Second, I probably actually read more material in academic journal articles this year than in books. Can only hope with my degree finished that I don’t lose access entirely to the online library for research… As before, list is in order of when I finished reading each book, and all books are here, not splitting into different parts.

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A Brief Rant on Minorities in Media

A lot of my recent pieces have been rather brief (end note: it went longer than expected), mostly because I am heavily procrastinating writing university assessments that I could fairly easily complete in a solid day of work – but alas I’m an idiot rationalising writing about entirely unrelated topics by keeping it short. Here I’m bouncing off a few different conversations, online and real life, I’ve had about minorities – specifically queer people – being represented in media. Suffice to say there is nothing wrong with it, and you think there is then it isn’t them who are the problem.

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A Brief Note on the Claim of “Godlessness” After US Shootings

I am sure most people have seen the new regarding the school shooting in Nashville a few days ago. As usual, the calls for action on gun control have been met with fierce resistance and repeated cries to not “politicise” the, very preventable, death of children. That silence is itself a policy choice, but that’s not what sparked fury in the aftermath for me. I stumbled across a sick accusation – that these deaths, preventable mass shootings, this time (again) involving children – that it was “removing God” that causes these events, that they are “under God’s wrath”. Let me just put this bluntly.

If these events are the wrath of your god, your god is a monster.

If your god is capable of preventing it, yet allows these events to occur, your god is a monster.

If your god is incapable of preventing it, then your god is not worth the name.

The disingenuous “thoughts and prayers” mantra is damning enough. But if you are going to blame the ills of the world on your perceived slight of your god, you are a deluded, disgusting wretch.

And you deserve the monster you created.

But humanity doesn’t.

My 2022 Reading List – Part 2

This is part 2 of my 2022 reading list – part 1 can be found here. It is here the focus of my reading (for the most part) was on Australian foreign policy and Indigenous politics as they were some of the units I took at university in first semester. Again, it is in the order that I finished reading them, so there are some odd jumps as I read multiple books at once.

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My 2022 Reading List – Part 1

It’s that time of year again where I make note of how little I have written, but at least I’ve made up for it by reading more. Particularly, reading books on topics to ensure that what I did write (mostly university essays) was as polished as possible – and given my grades, for the most part, were good this year, it paid off. So like previous years (linked below), here is the first part of my 2022 reading list. As usual, it is in the order that I completed reading them – so enjoy the jumps between topics.

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On Accepting the Consensus View of Science

19/07/2022

I had someone reach out to me recently under the pretext of asking a few questions about science and given they perceived me, from my online posts, to be intelligent. Putting aside the fact my scientific knowledge is more that of a keen hobbyist, it pretty quickly became clear the person in question wasn’t just asking questions they were confused about – they were on a personal crusade against what they believed was a conspiracy from the top, and they didn’t get how I, someone “against the grain” so to speak, could accept the lies we had apparently been fed. This is my rather rambling thoughts on the matter.

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Conservatism As a Disposition and a Conservative Anarchism

28/01/2022

There is much debate about whether conservatism is a fully fledged ideology or merely disposition, a way of looking at the world that looks to the past to inform the present and carefully guide the future. This is the argument, always presented as a question in textbooks or other material on conservatism but is never answered, and it is adopted by conservatives themselves to justify or explain their positions on political, cultural and social arenas. I think there is merit to the disposition argument, but more often than not it is used as a shield against genuine criticism.

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2021 Reading List (Part 3)

This is part 3 of my 2021 reading list, following on from parts 1 and 2, and the final one reaching a total of thirty books for the year. Given that last year I only read twelve, I would call that quite an improvement, and I somehow doubt I’ll read quite as many in the coming year, fingers crossed. Part 1 was fairly good, part 2 was hit and miss, but the last ten books I read this year were all great reads that I’d recommend, for the most part. Enjoy!

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