The 77th Block: "We need a movement, not a messiah"
Whistleblowing hardly makes a difference, says MIT Tech Review and analysts
This week…
Brazilians challenge Jair Bolsonaro with memes, writes Marina Martinez for Rest of World; the same site also published Alex Gonzáles Ormerod’s piece on how emoji mean different things in different countries. 🤷🏽♀️ By the way, it’s that time of the year where spooky emoji are trending, writes Keith Broni for Emojipedia.
For more creepy stories we have been desensitised to, here’s a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
The Facebook whistleblower won’t change anything ($)
Os Keyes in Wired:
In this environment, whistleblowing can’t save us, because the issue isn’t an absence of information but an absence of will. And what builds will, and shifts norms, doesn’t look like a single, isolated figure speaking truth, but mass movements of people setting new standards and making clear there are costs to regulators and companies for not attending to them.
But Big Tech executives are getting spooked, says Bobby Allyn for NPR. 👀
How conspiracy theories bypass people’s rationality
From the author of The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2018) Jan-Willem van Prooijen for Psyche:
It makes sense, then, that many people would find conspiracy theories entertaining: that is, interesting and exciting. The key to their entertaining qualities is probably not negative emotions, per se, but rather intense emotional experiences. Indeed, the common assumption that people always experience emotions such as anxiety as negative might be somewhat simplistic.
Let’s again draw a comparison with scary movies. People often feel anxious when watching a scary movie, but that does not mean that watching it is an aversive experience. In fact, people pay money to see scary movies, and might leave the cinema disappointed if the movie does not frighten them enough. A plausible reason why people find such movies entertaining is because they elicit intense emotions. These emotions can distract from boredom and make people feel more alive. Likewise, conspiracy theories might elicit intense emotional experiences that involve anxiety, but also fascination and the sense that one is discovering something unique and truly important.
I don’t watch scary movies, no thanks. It’s the Hotel Transylvania and the Addams Family’s franchises that I watch for Halloween. 👻
A haunting encounter at the heart of a geolocation challenge
Natalia Antonova posted a photo and asked Twitter to identify where it was taken. In her newsletter she says “real estate listings are an OSINT nightmare”:
This is a good tip for those of you who are selling your house — or just bought a house — and think that not publishing the address will automatically keep a creepy stalker off your trail. When you have the general location and Google Maps, you don’t need the exact address to figure out the spot.
You don’t even need the distinctive Capitol Hill architecture pictured in my shot. All you need is a little bit of perseverance.
And then comes the other haunting story within. Easy read. Happy Halloween! 🎃
What I read, watch and listen to…
I’m reading Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad.
I’m watching the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
I’m attending The Walrus Talks at Home: CanCon Online about Canadian content and the new online creator economy.
Chart of the week
Interactive visualisation by Oliver Milman, Andrew Witherspoon, Rita Liu, and Alvin Chang for The Guardian on the climate crisis:
COP26 opens end of the month in Scotland. The Earth Journalism Network, of which I am a member, will be doing a daily live broadcast on its second week.