Weekend Reads (July 2): “Stranger Things,” Mid-Year Favorites, TikTok, Crypto
Recommended weekend reading material for July 2, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
Christ and Pop Culture’s K. B. Hoyle writes about Stranger Things’ fourth season.
Stranger Things is a show about killing monsters, and when you can personify (or … monsterfy) the deadly abstractions in life, then you can show the ways in which those abstractions are deadly. You don’t have to love the ‘80s to resonate with Stranger Things; you just have to love the idea that the invisible and intangible things that haunt us can be fought and defeated. Abstractions like depression, fear, anxiety, trauma, rage, loneliness — mental health crises that separate us from our family and friends and peers — can take actual form in a TV show as a monster. The invisible becomes visible, and fantasy helps to put form to the darkness that so often crouches at our door.
We held off on watching the new season of Stranger Things until it was closer to the time when Volume 2 dropped (which was yesterday), so we’re playing a bit of catch-up.
Related: My review of Stranger Things’ first season (which remains one of the most perfect seasons of TV that I’ve ever watched) and its perfect use of nostalgia.
When Alissa Wilkinson writes some cultural commentary, then you’d better believe I’m going to read, then recommend it. One of her latest pieces examines the ways in which Hollywood promotes the “good guy with a gun” myth.
[F]or many gun carriers — who are predominantly men — carrying a weapon is a way to identify with that courageous ideal. Carlson came to this conclusion through studying the state of Michigan, where economic depression, crime, and the impression of decline have fostered a robust concealed-carry gun culture. For many of the men she spoke to, carrying a gun was a way to fight back against the deterioration they saw in the world around them.
“Against the backdrop of socioeconomic decline, guns become a powerful means of asserting oneself as an upstanding person, as a dutiful father, and even as a committed community member,” she writes, noting that guns allowed those men to “rework their personal codes about what it means to be a good man and transform lethal force from a taboo act of violence to an act of good citizenship.”
That image has to come from somewhere. And one source seems obvious.
As we near 2022’s mid-point, some are already reflecting back on the year to date, culturally speaking. NPR has published their favorite songs and favorite albums of 2022 (so far) while The A. V. Club has a list of the year’s best albums (so far). Movie-wise, TimeOut has published their best films of 2022 (so far), as has Consequence and USA Today. And Polygon, Vulture, and Mashable have all listed their favorite video games of 2022 (so far).
In addition to being one of the most influential anime series of all times, Neon Genesis Evangelion might also be one of the most merchandised. Case in point: A Japanese brand is currently selling fancy shoes inspired by the Evangelion characters’ uniforms.
Fashion brand mayla classic specializes in iconic, artistic accessories — many of them inspired by popular anime. Their latest line takes its cue from Rebuild of Evangelion, resulting in five flashy pairs of pumps inspired by the stars’ plug suits.
Related: My deep dive into Evangelion’s mythology, influences, and legacy.
Also related: My review of Rebuild of Evangelion, an ambitious re-imagining of the original anime series.
Warhammer 40,000 — a tabletop strategy game known for its “grimdark” setting and ridiculously convoluted lore — has received some criticism for its use of “gender critical” and transphobic language.
They were concerned by a potentially harmful passage in the Age of Darkness rulebook for The Horus Heresy. Draeci writes that while they feel “no malice was intended” they are also asking that GW “understand how accidental use of language that echoes real-life pain and harm, not only breaks our immersion in a setting that we cherish, but shakes our faith that we are truly regarded as part of it to begin with.”
This follows recent efforts to make other tabletop games, like Dungeons & Dragons, more inclusive.
It’s bad enough that TikTok can easily become a huge time suck. Now it’s apparently a threat to national security due to its Chinese ownership.
Some US officials are concerned TikTok threatens national security because parent company ByteDance could share data about Americans collected through the app with the Chinese government. That data, they worry, could be weaponized against Americans. In theory, China could use the data to build profiles and spy on individual users, monitor their activity and target them directly. Another worry is the data could be used in aggregate to attack the US, such as using data to craft misinformation campaigns that could be used to destabilize the US government.
The FCC has sent letters to Apple and Google requesting that they pull TikTok from their respective app stores. Meanwhile, TikTok has taken steps to address potential security concerns, including moving their US data storage and creating an American-led department to focus on data security.
Google may be an indispensable part of our modern lives, but there’s a growing suspicion that its search functionality has become increasingly irrelevant and useless.
Most people don’t need a history lesson to know that Google has changed; they feel it. Try searching for a product on your smartphone and you’ll see that what was once a small teal bar featuring one “sponsored link” is now a hard-to-decipher, multi-scroll slog, filled with paid-product carousels; multiple paid-link ads; the dreaded, algorithmically generated “People also ask” box; another paid carousel; a sponsored “buying guide”; and a Maps widget showing stores selling products near your location. Once you’ve scrolled through that, multiple screen lengths below, you’ll find the unpaid search results. Like much of the internet in 2022, it feels monetized to death, soulless, and exhausting.
Via 1440.
Recent interviews with some leading figures in the Web3/crypto community serve only to reveal the hollowness and emptiness of crypto’s promises.
I don’t doubt that there are might be some interesting blockchain applications down the line coming from people who aren’t just profiteering but who want to build a better web. But so far, I don’t see it. And so often when I read this stuff from investors I feel like I’m being DDoS’d by marketing language, needless complexity, and vague future-casting. I believe that much of it is in earnest, but I think that much of it is also intended to obscure how little meat there is on the bone of these arguments. A lot of people simply won’t read a 15-page whitepaper, but they will be impressed by the flowcharts. By making the language of Web3 meandering and impenetrable and by building a culture that is very self-referential, investors make criticism harder to come by. This very attempt at trying to describe just a small sliver of Web3 boosterism has itself morphed into a 3,000 word newsletter because this stuff is so dense to navigate.
Via Pixel Envy.
Related: Dan Olson explains why NFTs and crypto are so bad.
Also related: Ruja Ignatova, the so-called “Cryptoqueen,” is now on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list after defrauding investors out of $4 billion with a fake cryptocurrency. (For more coverage of Web3/crypto scams and controversies, check out Web3 Is Going Just Great.)
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