Congrats on the Star gig, Justin. Look forward to your columns there. But please, never stop with your great "deep dives" like this one here on Bug-eyed and Shameless!
I fear that the return to sanity will be a long road, however. A November 2023 study published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction concluded that a third of adults around the world qualified as addicted.
Congratulations for the new job. They are very lucky to have you, and I hope your influence makes changes there for the better. I’m glad you’ll still post here, though. Will you stay in Montreal?
fascinating discussion of local social media. I long ago stopped reading Next Door; the closest I get to local social media is the Ring alerts, and those flash by quickly. All you do is check that they aren't in your neighborhood.
A while ago I started getting emails about "crime near me" (I didn't sign up for them) that alerted me to crimes--mostly burglaries and car thefts--that were within a few blocks of me. Thing is, I live on top of a very steep hill. 5 blocks away is a very busy street and commercial area, DOWN that hill. There is only one through street from there to near the top--there is NO through street that reaches my area. It's a pain in the neck when you want to go somewhere, but---- So I'd get all these reports shrieking "only 5 blocks away" and yep, all in the lowland commercial zone.
So I created a rule that sent all those emails to trash. We are not immune to crime here. I had a friend with a car full of stuff he was moving and yes it got robbed across the street from me. He'd left it unlocked with a freaking computer showing through the window. I've got Ring Cameras and a security system and keep house and doors locked--and have a loud dog--but I'm not going to spend time fretting about "living with crime" when I could spend my energies on all the criming of our regime.
I'm lucky that I live where I do. But I also live about 5 miles as the seagull flies from the center of the BLM protests in Seattle. Our City Was Burning Down, shrieked the news. The only smoke I get is from the evermore encroaching forest fires. And yes, Fox replayed over and over a scene from the riots that--wasn't from Seattle at all.
On some of the sub Stacks I read there are "gifts" of unlocked New York Times articles. Is that something you can do with your star articles? I don't want to subscribe to the star but I want to read your writing and The Star has a 100% paywall rate.
Looks like the Star gift links are only good for 72 hours. Archive.is gets around most paywalls. I'd subscribe to either the Globe or Star, but their business unit has decided they hate their customers and if you get tricked into a trial you get to wait on hold for an hour and then argue with some asshole in Bangalore to cancel your subscription. No other major news publications behave like this, just Canadian ones. It's fucking infuriating.
Congrats on the Star gig, Justin. Look forward to your columns there. But please, never stop with your great "deep dives" like this one here on Bug-eyed and Shameless!
Another great post, Justin. I always love your historical parallels, like the Pinkertons' in this case.
As you say at the very end, people do have the option of not participating. The best news I've seen recently is that social media use may have peaked. (Source: Financial Times, as reported by Bill McKibben; ref. https://erwindreessen.substack.com/i/175123026/social-media-use-may-have-peaked)
I fear that the return to sanity will be a long road, however. A November 2023 study published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction concluded that a third of adults around the world qualified as addicted.
Congratulations for the new job. They are very lucky to have you, and I hope your influence makes changes there for the better. I’m glad you’ll still post here, though. Will you stay in Montreal?
fascinating discussion of local social media. I long ago stopped reading Next Door; the closest I get to local social media is the Ring alerts, and those flash by quickly. All you do is check that they aren't in your neighborhood.
A while ago I started getting emails about "crime near me" (I didn't sign up for them) that alerted me to crimes--mostly burglaries and car thefts--that were within a few blocks of me. Thing is, I live on top of a very steep hill. 5 blocks away is a very busy street and commercial area, DOWN that hill. There is only one through street from there to near the top--there is NO through street that reaches my area. It's a pain in the neck when you want to go somewhere, but---- So I'd get all these reports shrieking "only 5 blocks away" and yep, all in the lowland commercial zone.
So I created a rule that sent all those emails to trash. We are not immune to crime here. I had a friend with a car full of stuff he was moving and yes it got robbed across the street from me. He'd left it unlocked with a freaking computer showing through the window. I've got Ring Cameras and a security system and keep house and doors locked--and have a loud dog--but I'm not going to spend time fretting about "living with crime" when I could spend my energies on all the criming of our regime.
I'm lucky that I live where I do. But I also live about 5 miles as the seagull flies from the center of the BLM protests in Seattle. Our City Was Burning Down, shrieked the news. The only smoke I get is from the evermore encroaching forest fires. And yes, Fox replayed over and over a scene from the riots that--wasn't from Seattle at all.
On some of the sub Stacks I read there are "gifts" of unlocked New York Times articles. Is that something you can do with your star articles? I don't want to subscribe to the star but I want to read your writing and The Star has a 100% paywall rate.
It is! And, unless I bungled it, both the links in this piece should be gift links!
Yay! 🎉
Looks like the Star gift links are only good for 72 hours. Archive.is gets around most paywalls. I'd subscribe to either the Globe or Star, but their business unit has decided they hate their customers and if you get tricked into a trial you get to wait on hold for an hour and then argue with some asshole in Bangalore to cancel your subscription. No other major news publications behave like this, just Canadian ones. It's fucking infuriating.