I'm so glad @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social is moving her essays—or are they anthropological sermons? cross-cutting signposts of hope? or indeed "meditations" as she calls them—to a new newsletter. This will be good for the soul and great for social media hygiene. meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io

Writing an ethnography is a time-intensive practice in shedding your biases about whatever phenomenon you're observing. Holy crap, y'all. Easier said than done.

This is what should swell our feeds: evidence of the "resistance" ethic. And it's everywhere—California, Detroit, and maybe even your home.

This quaint, unassuming tile was made by one Bruce Weiner of Pennsylvania, who appears to sell only Ben Franklin-themed art. Niche market, niche buyer. Just look at it. It brings me interminable joy. ❤️

There's nothing like being assigned to a dissertation writing group where one of your peers is an upper atmospheric and space sciences scholar to make you feel you're out of their league. It's humbling, I recommend it! 😂

I appreciate all the people recommending the Shock Doctrine. I've been thinking about what makes Trump's use of these tactics a little different.

In recent decades, shock tactics were used mainly to rapidly impose neoliberal economic policies. But what Trump is doing goes way beyond that.

a 🧵

On the other hand, I'm thrilled to learn that having high levels of trust can mean being better able to navigate the unknown. For my sake and for research purposes. I'd never thought of this in such terms but it makes sense! Such a great interview: pod.link/1554567118/e...

I've been thinking a lot about the premium we as a society place on transparency, how it suggests how distrustful we are when we ask for it of institutions, and how it doesn't really fix that problem because it can't guarantee that we'll understand what's behind the veil.

1/ Autocrats combine tools to stay in power, but most research looks at them in isolation. We map 6 strategies—repression of rights & physical integrity, co-optation through institutions & resource distribution, and indoctrination via education & media—for a full picture.

Bear with me: In my dissertation, I want to introduce a conceptual framework that describes how some folks — living in very crappy, unfair conditions — leverage information to thrive. By information, I mean institutional knowledge & gossip, eavesdropping, transient observations... the good stuff.

These are precarious times — sad and maddening, too — but they also call toward a watershed of renewed hope, the type that Vaclav Havel sees as an "orientation of the spirit." And, I really try to hold onto that.

I like the "yes, and" kind of mindset. Precarity is a word that's been choked to death in my academic tower — so vague, so unwilling to clarify whether it's a good or bad thing, although many edge toward the latter — but today, I'm OK with it.

A few years ago, I published research on undocumented immigrants' tech practices, finding their digital behaviors mirrored kinda everybody else's at the time: unaware of how companies can pass their data to law enforcement.