Factual Dispatch #40a - The Best Things I Read This Decade (Part I of III)

The end of a year is usually a time for reflection and meditation on time that’s past. Because I’m an insufferable over-achiever, instead of looking at my favorite writing of the last year, I’m going to be spending the next three weeks of my triumphant return plumbing the depths of my archives & Pocket account to bring you my favorite writing of the last decade. I was sad to note how many sites died, links didn’t work, and writers just vanished, but so goes the world. As this Dispatch is long, I’m going to cut the chatter and get to it.

2010 

Inside the Nitrous Mafia (Village Voice) by John Tucker - The Village Voice gave us a look at festival culture, crime, and punishment within the East Coast festival circuit.

28 Dignified Ways to Impress Everyone Around You (Marc & Angel) by Marc Chernoff - While I usually retch at these faux improvement pieces, this one stands out for being unabashedly good for you and those around you without devolving into McKinsey tactics.

2011

The Liberty of Local Bullies (Noahpinion) by Noah Smith - A staunch neoliberal I only agree with occasionally makes the seminal anti-libertarian argument I keep coming back to, local bullies suck.

The Human Lake (Discover) by Carl Zimmer - Great metaphor for the body that I wish was in wider circulation.

Dr. Don, A Small Town Druggist (New Yorker) by Peter Hessler - Sobering look at the withering availability of healthcare resources and knowledgeable, kindly doctor types in rural and exurban America.

The Complete Rules for Games (Rock Paper Shotgun) by John Walker - Wonderful, almost exhaustive list of tropes, bad behavior, and general good practices the gaming industry should adhere to/throw in the toilet.

When Kerouac Met Kesey (The American Scholar) by Sterling Lord - Great look at the dissonance between the Beats and the Hippies, viewed through Kesey & Kerouac just not really getting along.

Radical Opacity (Julian Dibbell) by Julian Dibbell - One of the earliest writings on 4chan and Christopher Poole (moot) that I could find, it is a must-read for anyone concerned about 8chan, /pol/, and the stochastic terrorism Trump is stoking.

Is the World Really Safer Without the Soviet Union? (The Nation) by Mikhail Gorbachev - The former Soviet president argues (presciently) that the fall of the USSR was far less good for the world than some may think.

The Case for Enhancing People (The New Atlantis) by Ronald Bailey - I’d not seen a comprehensive philosophical case for producing humans capable of playing Mutant League Football or transcending previous fleshy barriers before, and here we are.

Varieties of Irreligious Experience (New Humanist) by Jonathan Rée - It’s not just Dawkins & militant atheism all the way down. There are many ways to not believe.

A Brief History of the Corporation 1600 to 2100 (Ribbon Farm) by Venkatesh Rao - Does what it says on the tin. Great long-form read on the most important institution in the modern era.

Turbo-Folk (Guernica Mag) by Matthieu Aikins - Amazing story about how the Croatian music scene struggled to open itself up to the world.

A chance in hell, part 1: Inside a combat hospital in Afghanistan (The Virginian-Pilot) - by Corinne Reilly - We are still in Afghanistan, which means trauma surgeons and combat doctors are still patching our boys up on hostile ground.

Which Countries Have the Tastiest MREs (Slate) by Heather Murphy - Why you always want to camp with French soldiers on long missions.

2012

Waffle House Terrorists: Counter-Terrorism Is Getting Complicated (Esquire) by Tom Junod - One of the earlier looks at the emerging white nationalist/supremacist problems not everyone thought was a problem. How naive they were.

Revolution 2.0 (Fast Company) by David Burstein - Talking to one of the chief architects of the Arab Spring movement in Egypt, a great discussion emerged about how social media would be used by the people and governments. Boy was this correct.

The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See (Men’s Journal) by Michael Finkel - Humans are so goddamn resilient.

The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgoise (London Review of Books) Slavoj Žižek just doing his thing as always.

The Caging of America (New Yorker) by Adam Gopnik - I’ll never understand why we’re all fine with sending so many of our fellow citizens to jail for so long.

John Galt Is A Crybaby And So Are You (HuffPo) by Richard Eskow - Atlas Shrugged is bad, and if you think it’s not, you’re wrong.

How To Strengthen Willpower (The Art of Manliness) by Bret & Kate McKay - Those faux motivational articles are usually light on details, this one is a blessed exception.

The New Bleak: Trauma, Haunting, And The Cultural Obsession With Darkness (The Quietus) by Ryan Alexander Diduck - Why the mood for the decade dabbled in darkness, even at its high points.

The Post Office Is Not Broke (OpEdNews) by Jim Hightower - For when your MAGA uncle rolls out this old chestnut at the Christmas dinner table.

A Stephen King Interview (Neil Gaiman) Neil Gaiman interviews Stephen King. What’s not to like?

The NYPD Tapes (Village Voice) by Graham Rayman - The NYPD maintains to this day that they don’t engage in stat-driven policing that usually results in faux quotas, productivity targets, stop & frisk, and general profiling. The Village Voice proved that is a lie.

The War Against Youth (Esquire) by Stephen Marche - Yes, the Baby Boomers did fuck the youth. In light of the Trump tax cuts and environmental stupidity, this idea is no longer up for discussion.

ILU-486 (Panda-monium) by Amanda Ching - Terrifying dystopian story that looks at exactly what would happen if abortion was criminalized.

Six Degrees of Aggregation (Columbia Journalism Review) by Michael Shapiro - HuffPo was one of the first barbarian hordes at the gates of journalism. And now it’s a shell of its own former conquests.

Why Elites Fail (The Nation) by Chris Hayes - Chris Hayes, in his pre-MSNBC anchor days, wrote a stunning book called the Twilight of the Elites, which also called quite a bit of what we’re seeing today.

On Tipping In Cuba (The Walrus) by Chris Turner - One of the best looks at Cuba, two currencies, and tipping in the developing world I’ve ever read.

Dirt Under the Rug (The Audacity of Despair) David Simon, creator of The Wire, talks about how a city uses statistics to sweep problems and people aside.

Mitt Romney, American Parasite (Village Voice) by Pete Kotz - Fuck Mittens. He’s a parasite.

Fear of a Black President (The Atlantic) Ta-Nehisi Coates was pilloried for this when it was published. History has vindicated him entirely.

On Loneliness: Art, Life, and Fucking Human Beings (The Millions) Sonya Chung’s terrific writing on loneliness and literature was a rare treat.

Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy Are Probably Totally Illiterate (Tor) by Ryan Britt - I mean, the man makes a very good point.

Privatization of Consciousness (Monthly Review) by Jerry Mander - You know that Banksy meme about how advertisers are taking the piss out of you every day? This is that thesis statement, unpacked and defended quite powerfully.

How the American University Was Killed In Five Easy Steps (The Homeless Adjunct) by Debra Leigh Scott - Stunning read about the militant dismantling of the university.

My Little Republic: Plato is Magic (Overthinking It) by Starswirl - Platonic interpretation of the My Little Pony Kingdom. Yup.

How Doctors Die (The Health Care Blog) by Ken Murray, MD - Doctors approach death very differently than non-doctors in America. They know how it can be.

Dark Ecology (Orion Magazine) by Paul Kingsnorth - Harrowing look at the ecology movement, violence against the state, anarchism and the urge to return-to-nature.

2013

Spoons, decision fatigue and a glimpse into poverty (PocketMint) by Karawynn - If you’ve heard a friend use the “spoons” metaphor for depression, executive functioning, or what stress can do to a brain but never quite understood what it meant, this article is for you.

For Amusement Only: Life & Death of the American Arcade (The Verge) by Laura June - History of a beloved American institution that will one day make no sense at all.

Beat By Dre: How Monster Lost The World (Gizmodo) by Sam Biddle - One of my favorite stories of cosmic Karma, how Beats by Dre destroyed Monster cable, a company no one liked.

The Weird 1969 New Wave Sci-Fi Novel that Correctly Predicted the Current Day (The Millions) by Ted Gioia - Stand on Zanzibar got a jaw-dropping amount of stuff about the future correct.

Labor of Love (The New Republic) by Timothy Noah - Pret was one of the first companies to demand “affective labor” and this look was a great window into what many companies would start demanding of its workers soon.

About A Boy: On the Sociological Relevance of Calvin & Hobbes (Inequality by Interior Design) Bill Watterson is one of this author’s favorite sociologists. As someone who goes back to Calvin & Hobbes over and over, I cannot agree more. (Also, Bill Watterson’s wonderful commencement speech in 1990) Also

Tower of Light (The Atlantic) by Megan Garber - We take artificial light for granted. The Atlantic looked at what we used to do when electric light was new and we built Moon towers.

Diamonds Are Bullshit (Priceonomics) by Rohin Dhar - They are bad and companies that push them are worse.

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food (New York Times) by Michael Moss - Junk Food is probably more over-engineered than the last recreational drug you consumed.

Disco Now, Disco Then by Greg Wilson - The Daft Punk piece you never knew you always wanted to read.

Should You Go To Film School? (Birth Movies Death) Film Critic Hulk answers the seminal question that all aspiring filmmakers wonder about.

Why It’s Good To Be Wrong (Nautilus) by David Deutsch - Critical look at humility and why people who can’t be corrected fail.

https://thenewinquiry.com/further-materials-toward-a-theory-of-the-man-child/

Survivorship Bias (You Are Not So Smart) by David McRaney Survivorship Bias is one of the primary distorting intellectual biases our culture is facing. We need to move past it.

A Hard Look at GM Crops (Nature) by Natasha Gilbert - A sober, rational, evidence-based review of the GMO literature. Facts, not feelings.

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Ecstasy of Hedy Lamarr (The Hairpin) by Anne Helen Petersen - Hedy Lamarr was better than all of us.

How consciousness works & why we believe in ghosts (Aeon) by Michael Graziano, PhD - Consciousness is hard to create, and believing things we see out of the corner of our eye is a side effect of data processing.

The Pixar Theory by Jon Negroni - All of the Pixar movies are part of a cinematic universe.

20 Things Boys Can Do To Become Men (Esquire) Kareem Abdul-Jabar shares his thoughts on how boys can become men. (See also the longest study on happiness in men ever.)

The 14 Habits of Highly Miserable People (Alternet) by Cloe Madanes - Alternatively, here are 14 habits of the miserable people you know.

A Very Brief History of Why It’s So Hard To Get From Brooklyn to Queens (City Lab) by Richard Greenwald - Why I never see any of you people anymore.

All My Exes Live In Texts (The Cut) by Maureen O’Connor - Great read for Boomers and Gen X’ers who don’t understand how dating has changed in the trillion years since they settled down.

The Sex Lives of Godmen (Open Magazine) by Mihir Srivastava - Do not fuck your guru. If you’re a guru, do not fuck your adherents. This isn’t hard people.

When Games Pretend To Be Games They Aren’t (Overthinking It) by Stokes - Candy Crush isn’t a puzzle game, it’s a JRPG. Critical read on how cell phone games pull money out of people. (For more on this see Factual Dispatch #28)

Adam Smith, Communitarian (The American Conservative) by David J. Davis - Adam Smith was not the capitalist we’re told he is.

Confessions of a Drone Warrior (Esquire) by Matthew Power - We are causing PTSD in drone pilots, it’s just a type of PTSD we’ve never seen before.

Inside the Rainbow Gulag: The Technicolor Rise and Fall of Lisa Frank (Jezebel) by Tracie Egan Morrissey - One of the most compelling reads of the decade, especially if you lusted after those damn school supplies.

Survival in an Extremely Adversarial Environment (HackerOPSEC) by TheGrugq - If your encrypted messaging system isn’t being used by bad actors, it’s not secure enough.

You made it! Next week, I’ll be looking at the best writing from 2014-2016! Your reward for getting to the bottom is The Onion remaining undefeated:

And now is the Winter of our Cheap Wigwams,

T