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writer, singer, webwrangler, blogger, comedy tragic | about.me/vivsmythe

• Media Circus: Blaming/Shaming Women Edition

  By tigtog on 2014-09-01 • ( 4 )

  

  In just the last week Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn and over 100 female showbiz celebrities brought it all on themselves, doncha know.

  Also in the last week our current Federal LNP government has kept on working to push its ideological agenda through Parliament, against what seems horribly likely to be insufficient opposition despite the best efforts of the Greens.

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?

• Media Circus: No Snappy Title edition

  By tigtog on 2014-08-20 • ( 12 )

  

  I have been mostly speechless/typingless at the latest news, taking refuge in offline activities. But I should still put up a post for the rest of you to vent/rant or even ideally substantively discuss these issues, because disengagement is never going to be a solution, even if it’s sometimes necessary for some self-care. Go for it.

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?

• Procedure Fail: WisCon, Feminism and Safe Spaces

  By tigtog on 2014-07-29 • ( 8 )

  

  Readers who are already part of SF fandom have probably seen a lot of this WisCon 38 fallout already, but since this sort of institutional memory-holing of relevant history regarding serial harassers is precisely the sort of social convention that serial harassers rely upon in order to keep getting away with what they do, alongside the fallacy that harassers are obvious deviants who could never be part of my well-ordered community (when in fact they are commonly those with the well-liked/respected status to be given the benefit of the doubt when/if reports are made against them), it’s worth reading about the mistakes of communities with which one isn’t familiar so that one can learn about patterns to watch out for and procedural standards which need to be known and practised by decision-makers.

• Media Circus: Hockeynomics edition

  By tigtog on 2014-07-28 • ( 18 )

  

  Good news everybody! Our esteemed Treasurer Joe Hockey just told the Kiwis that the Australian economy is not in crisis nor even in trouble!

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?

• QOTD: Neutrality is not neutral. Neutrality supports the status quo.

  By tigtog on 2014-07-26 • ( 3 )

  

  [Content Note: discussion of graphic rape threats and links to posts that quote them]
  the way you personally feel about rape threats is irrelevant. What’s relevant is how you behave when they happen. When you support and promote the work of someone who makes rape threats, you are tolerating rape threats.

• TheAmazingAtheist purportedly wrote these words, looked at them, and chose to publish them

  By tigtog on 2014-07-21 • ( 23 )

  

  UPDATE: It has been shown that there is no evidence that TheAmazingAtheist actually wrote these words, and Kincaid has responded to these allegations. The tumblr from which this quote was sourced has been deleted. Please see below.

  Count yourself lucky if you’ve never heard of somewhat popular video-blogger TheAmazingAtheist aka TJ Kincaid. He’s one of the subset of atheists who want certain other atheists to “stop being divisive” via pointing out the injustices of the kyriarchal status quo ongoing within the atheist “movement”. He has ever so many rational and deeply intellectual opinions about life, the universe and everything.

• Science outreach and when glorifying heroes can alienate prospects

  By tigtog on 2014-07-15 • ( 11 )

  

  When science heroes have a documented history of treating some kinds of people badly, their glorification by science fans can be alienating for members of the groups those heroes treated badly.

  [I]t is dangerous to rest your scientific outreach efforts on scientific heroes. […] Science outreach doesn’t just deliver messages about what science knows or about the processes by which that knowledge is built. Science outreach also delivers messages about what kind of people scientists are (and about what kinds of people can be scientists).

• Quicklink: Autism not just a boy thing

  By tigtog on 2014-07-15 • ( 2 )

  

  Virginia Hughes analyses The Sexual Politics of Autism in her National Geographic blog; a meaty overview with lots of juicy links.

• Every Arnold Scream

  By tigtog on 2014-07-14 • ( 9 )

  

  … From Every Arnold Movie. I found this mashup weirdly cheering somehow.

• Media Circus: Palmergeddon edition

  By tigtog on 2014-07-11 • ( 5 )

  

  This morning the Murdoch Media is full of grotesque caricatures of Clive Palmer focussing on his fat (wow, whodathunkit?) while trumpeting FUD about “chaos” in parliament because one vote on one bill in the Senate has not gone the government’s way. That spinaround didn’t take long, did it?

  Palmer’s pursuit of populism has worked in the national interest for this brief moment.

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?