Revisiting Violent Femmes’ Self-Titled Album as a Window Into Impotent Teen Male Rage

Post-gamergate, an examination of the poisonous mixture of humiliation, frustration and entitled rage that has a nasty habit of producing the sort of assholes who harass women on the internet. (See also: mass shootings.)

The Last Days of Carles: A ‘Postscript’ to Hipster Runoff’s ‘Era’ of ‘Cynicism’

A not-especially-affectionate farewell to the halcyon days of VICE and Hipster Runoff. Features lots of scare quotes, and resulted in Carles calling me a “cyberbully.”

Cyberspace Is the Place? Afrofuturism in the 21st Century

Can cyberspace fill the role for 21st century Afrofuturism that the idea of space did for a selection of 20th century black artists and writers: a place free of white oppression?

Waiting for the End of the World: ‘Fallout’ and the Lure of the Apocalypse

A few months before Fallout 4, I looked at why the idea of apocalypse (and, specifically, the idea of a definitive, final event) is so seductive, to me and to others. Draws upon Douglas Rushkoff’s fascinating thoughts on a similar topic.

Imagining a World Without Work

We work longer hours than ever, and yet — in a utilitarian sense, at least— we have less to do that we ever have before. Why are things this way? And what would a world without work-centric capitalism look like?

Mahatma Gandhi, Baltimore, and the Myth of Nonviolence

Circa the protests in Baltimore about the death of Freddie Gray, a reminder that a) nonviolence is an idealized form of protest, advocated by those in power for very real reasons, and b) what worked in 1940s India isn’t necessarily what’s going to work in 2015 America.

Why It’s So Important to Stop Conflating Racism With Mental Illness

“Racism is a mental illness!” No. It’s not — which is important, both because seeing it as such is obnoxious to people with actual mental illness, and because it implies diminished responsibility for one’s actions.

The Only Good Binary Is an Exploded Binary

How binaries and polarities can continue define our thinking, even if we reject their actual premises.

Why Even ‘The New York Times’ Can’t Agree On Its Amazon Exposé

Who benefits from Amazon’s brutal corporate culture? And why does condemning that culture feel so radical? (Spoiler: because Amazon is idealized capitalism.)

The Problem With Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher’s Militant Atheism

Dawkins, in particular, was in the news a lot this year, and his brand of proselytizing atheism shares a lot with the religions he loves to condemn, particularly in terms of intolerance.

2015 in Culture: Pounded in the Butt by Late Capitalist Absurdism

In which I realize all of 2015 has been leading up to a serious examination of My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass.