Cory Doctorow – “All Bets Are Off”
Even if you’ve been suckered by the lie that bosses have a legal “fiduciary duty” to maximize shareholder returns (this is a myth, by the way – no such law exists), it doesn’t follow that customers or workers share that fiduciary duty. As a customer, you are not legally obliged to arrange your affairs to maximize the dividends paid by to investors in your corporate landlord or by the merchants you patronize. As a worker, you are under no legal obligation to consider shareholders’ interests when you bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions.
Fred Clark – “You Don’t Have to Stay Inside that Machine”
Erin Kissane – “Ursula’s List”
Peace is the absence of fear. Peace is the presence of justice. Because of the work that all of us have done, we are very clear that peace, in fact, is a consequence. Peace, as it was defined in 1936 by R.B. Gregg, “is a by-product of the persistent application of social truth and justice and the strong and intelligent application of love.”
Kari Stoever – “Pseudo-Religious Power Grabs and the Death of our Collective Soul”
Furthermore, pseudo-religious nationalism sows discord within religious communities themselves. There are countless Christians — and people of other faiths — who reject the bigotry that’s paraded around as “God’s will.” But under these oppressive policies, their voices are drowned out or labeled as threats to national integrity. The question is: Will they mount a meaningful resistance before more damage is done?
Evan Allgood – “Spines for Senators is Now Pitchforks for the People”
Your representatives don’t have spines—they never have, and they never will. But you do. So stand up. There’s work to be done.
Jason Benell – “Iowa Hasn’t Been ‘Nice’ for Almost 20 Years”
They want “Iowa Nice” to be holding the door open to the bar, but not the racist comments muttered to the bartender when a disfavored athlete or politician shows up on the TV. Its far easier for them to cite the decency of literally 20 years ago than it is to face the cruelty that we see willfully done today.
Fred Clark – “Ain’t That America”
MAGA faithful were prepared to hate transgender people and nonwhite immigrants and 10th-generation nonwhite citizens. But now they’re required to hate cartographers, and Lutherans, and private charities, and NATO, and Canada, and missionaries, and farmers, and Dolly Parton, too, probably. And they have no idea what arbitrary new things they’ll be required to hate tomorrow.
Cory Doctorow – “America and ‘National Capitalism’”