The Long Road Out

Today's wacko news:  five or seven individuals, perhaps Chinese high school students, have been kicked off Facebook and Twitter for posting pro-Chinese depictions of the Hong Kong protests.  Presumably we've also kicked some Russian programmers off those platforms too because they posted stuff that supported Trump for president. The reason:  stating government points of view on the platforms so that you and I could possibly see them here in the United States.   Please note the ludicrousness of this--the Chinese government itself has banned the platforms domestically, so clearly China (and Russia) has very little reason to care what gets posted since their own citizens can't legally see any of it (not even all the selfies!). Still-- the media, including NPR for instance, characterizes the high school student posts as "an international propaganda campaign." Two points of insanity destroy this perspective: The Chinese government has been heavy-handed, but ...

I want to celebrate this cultural essay by Zach Webb , writing for thebaffler.com.   Webb is incensed that a bunch of entrepreneurs are charging more than the Louvre so that millennials and others can photograph themselves with ice cream, or in one of eight pre-editted dreamscapes. To make matters more commercial, most of these "look at my picture now" rooms are sponsored by web brands.   The noose of selfie celebrity tightens beneath our chins. The good news is Webb sees what's happening clearly, and he can write.   Starting with the quote in the headline above.   Yes, we are, in fact living in "populated meme-crap."  Over 150,000 repostings from The Museum of Ice Cream, late of Miami and elsewhere, sponsored by Dove, Tinder, and American Express (swipe right on that shit!).   What does Webb have to say about this?  He quotes Jonathan Crary, author of 24/7, to build up steam: “[W]hatever remaining pockets of everyday life are not directed towar...