The politicization of covid started early, with the "noble lie" that masks wouldn't prevent the spread of the disease, a lie told in a bid to prevent panic-shoppers buying up all the N95s that health workers needed.
The British "health and safety gone mad" panic of the 1990s is a perfect microcosm of how this works. After a revolution in evidence-based public safety measures improved the daily lives of millions of people, puny authoritarians and grifters of every stripe realized that safety talk was a powerful weapon for bossing people around while lining their pockets.
In Nebraska - and elsewhere - the forced-labor camps that some prisoners are sent to have been rebranded. They're called "Work-Ethic Camps" now, and prisoners do 30-40h/week of hard labor for $1.21/day, interspersed with "intro to business" courses.
As Jamiek McCallum writes in Aeon: "If there was a formula for obliterating the work ethic, giving people undesirable jobs with long hours and barely paying them sounds exactly like it."
In Nebraska - and elsewhere - the forced-labor camps that some prisoners are sent to have been rebranded. They're called "Work-Ethic Camps" now, and prisoners do 30-40h/week of hard labor for $1.21/day, interspersed with "intro to business" courses.
As Jamiek McCallum writes in Aeon: "If there was a formula for obliterating the work ethic, giving people undesirable jobs with long hours and barely paying them sounds exactly like it."
When we talk about the internet's problems and solutions, we tend to focus on Big Tech, the monopolizers who dominate our digital lives. That's only natural.
But there's another internet, one that deserves our attention: The Public Interest Internet.
The Public Interest Internet is a "wider, more diverse, more generous world. Often run by volunteers, frequently without institutional affiliation, sometimes tiny, often local, free for everyone online to use and contribute to, this internet preceded big tech."
EFF's ongoing series on Public Interest Internet highlights public, volunteer film scholarship:
The Public Interest Internet is a "wider, more diverse, more generous world. Often run by volunteers, frequently without institutional affiliation, sometimes tiny, often local, free for everyone online to use and contribute to, this internet preceded big tech."
EFF's ongoing series on Public Interest Internet highlights public, volunteer film scholarship:
Gregory's Server
The British "health and safety gone mad" panic of the 1990s is a perfect microcosm of how this works. After a revolution in evidence-based public safety measures improved the daily lives of millions of people, puny authoritarians and grifters of every stripe realized that safety talk was a powerful weapon for bossing people around while lining their pockets.
2/