Sunday Picks: Anti-Trans Bigots, Labor Fights, and Covid Fails
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Hey there, OptersOut!
I’ve got a lot of other OptOut work to do today and the weather is great in Brooklyn, so let’s get right into our weekly roundup of content from the excellent independent outlets participating in our forthcoming anti-corporate media app.
NEWS
Jewish Currents: The Fight for the Right to Organize
Clio Chang in Jewish Currents:
Now, as they seek to pass the PRO Act and prevent the proliferation of Prop 22 copycat laws, labor organizers and advocates are trying to develop more strategies around education and messaging. Bain’s group, for example, has a new slate of initiatives, including writing op-eds, reaching out to worker-centered podcasters and YouTubers who cover the gig economy, and producing a short film with [OptOut participant] the Gravel Institute, a project to combat right-wing disinformation.
Progressives Everywhere: How Activists Are Fighting Georgia's New Jim Crow Laws
Catch up on the Georgia voter suppression laws and what activists are doing to fight them with Jordan Zakarin.
Acute Condition: Employer tele-mental health is new branding on an old model
Don’t miss Olivia Webb on the latest in tele-mental health.
Lyra, Ginger, Spring, and Modern are making access cooler while remaining tethered to an older system.
Sludge: Tech Companies Run Anti-Immigrant Hate Group Ads Amid Border Hype
Donald Shaw for Sludge:
Twitter, Facebook, and Google have ad policies against hate, but they are allowing designated hate group FAIR's new round of advertising to stand.
Exposed by CMD: The Pro-LGBTQ Companies That Helped Elect Arkansas Anti-Trans Bill Sponsors
This week I buried my head in Arkansas state campaign finance records and exposed a raft of companies that go all out for Pride month and boast of their inclusive workplaces but also fund the careers of lawmakers who are attacking their transgender constituents.
Foreign Exchanges: Today in History — April 1-4
Derek Davison’s newsletter takes us back to the beginning of the Falklands War begins, the end of the Italian War of 1551-1559 ends, and other historical events in early Aprils.
Current Affairs: That’s It, I’m Out
On April 1 (ahem), Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson announces his departure from the magazine. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
No longer can one explore ideas freely. There was a time, reader, when the important questions could be posed and discussed in a civil manner. Questions like “Was the 19th Amendment wise or unwise?” and “How do we know phrenology wasn’t onto something?” Now, even to pose these questions is considered an affront, something unwoke and discreditable. The discourse has been debased to the point where even to ask whether some people ought to be placed in cages for the rest of their natural lives, or whether there is something kind of fishy about people who look different from one’s self, is considered a “cancelable” offense.
PODCASTS
Here’s what my “Favorites” tab in our OptOut app-in-development looks like today! I’ve filtered for just podcasts in this screenshot. Here are a few of these episodes.
Counterpunch Radio: Ruth Hopkins
This week Eric [Draitser] welcomes Dakota/Lakota Sioux writer and indigenous defender Ruth Hopkins to discuss critical issues facing the Native community in the early days of the Biden Administration. Eric and Ruth discuss the confirmation of Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary and what that means for Native communities and the policies affecting them. The conversation explores everything from the impact of Trump and COVID on Native people to the false promises of Green energy and 21st Century extractivism to the latest on pipelines and the struggle to defend water and sacred land.
Gilded Age: 'If We Get Lucky' — A Conversation with Harvard social epidemiologist Justin Feldman
Epidemiologist and Harvard fellow Justin Feldman talks with the Gilded Boys about the United States' mishandling of Covid-19 and whether, or if, the pandemic will end.
Empire Files: Eyewitness North Korea — An American's Journey Through Society, Myth, and History
After a recent North Korean missile test has once again created a flurry of U.S. war propaganda, Abby and Mike talk to John Prysner, who went to North Korea for two weeks in 2018, about what his experience was really like, as well as go through the main criticisms and tropes and the historical context that is often missing whenever the DPRK is discussed by the US empire and its media.
The full episode is available here.
Counterspin: Peter Maybarduk on Global Vaccination, Jane Chung on Big Tech Lobbying
At this point, media could ask how the global economy can recover if only parts of the globe are vaccinated…But what if they went deeper and wondered: If we don’t learn from this pandemic that none of us can be healthy unless all of us are healthy, how many chances will we get?
VIDEO
The Humanist Report: Protect Trans Youth
In this episode we’ll cover a number of issues, but we’ll first examine the wave of bills popping up across the country that aim to criminalize healthcare provided to transgender and non-binary youth. Gender-affirming care is medically necessary and life-saving, yet Republicans are trying to criminalize the existence of young trans people under the guise of “protecting” them. We’ll talk about that along with the country’s ongoing stupidity with regard to COVID-19, the conservative hysteria over Lil Nas X’s new music video and shoes, and Georgia’s new Jim Crow law. Finally, we’ll close the show by talking to Real Progressives’ Steve Grumbine about the fundamentals of modern monetary theory.
Tim Black TV: Derek Chauvin Bombshell Day 5
Catch up on the trial of the cop who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and killed him.
Status Coup: WHISTLEBLOWER: Amazon DECEIVES for Profit by Cloaking COVID
Tina-Desiree Berg interviews Amazon warehouse whistleblower Tristian Martinez on how Amazon deceives workers and cloaks information about COVID outbreaks so they can continue to line their pockets.
The Nomiki Show: How labor intersects with gender and race
When we talk about labor issues, we are also talking about feminist issues. Kim Kelly and Nomiki Konst discuss the ways labor intersects with gender and race.
The Majority Report: Matt Gaetz's Problems Just Got SO MUCH Worse
LOL. For Trumpy Rep. Gaetz, this week was…real bad. Catch up on this dumpster fire with Emma Vigeland and Manny Fidel.
Thanks as always for reading and following the work of OptOut participants. Stay safe and see you next week!
