Oregon Decriminalizes All Drugs, China's "Proposal to Prevent the Feminization of Male Athletes," Audio is the Next Big Thing in Social Media, Pop Culture Friday! (The Five for 02/05/21)
Hey,
I normally drop two newsletters a week…but I saw some more stuff I thought you should know about, so here’s #3 this week.
Oh, and if you haven’t checked out my private social network, you can do so here.
[one]
China wants their boys and men to be tougher (and also to win the World Cup).
For a while China's government has signalled concern that the country's most popular male role models are no longer strong, athletic figures like "army heroes". Even President Xi Jinping, a well-known football enthusiast, has long been seeking to cultivate better sports stars.
So last week, the education ministry issued a notice with a title that left no doubt about its ultimate goal.
The Proposal to Prevent the Feminisation of Male Adolescents called on schools to fully reform their offerings on physical education and strengthen their recruitment of teachers.
The text advised recruiting retired athletes and people from sporting backgrounds - and "vigorously developing" particular sports like football with a view to "cultivating students' masculinity".
It is a decisive push in a country where the media does not really allow for anything other than squeaky clean, "socially responsible" stars.
Observations:
I have long believed China is gearing up the war machine, to be used at some point in the next 20 years. This seems to be further evidence.
Americans are weak little wusses. Participation in sports is declining. Participation in organizations (4-H, Scouts) is declining.
Every year, fewer students meet the President’s physical fitness challenge. (Which I missed a couple of years because of the stretching test…freaking garbage).
Everyone has a masculine and a feminine side. Balance in life seems to come, in part, from each person finding healthy expressions of both, although not necessarily in equal measure. I really like Cinema Therapy’s breakdown of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, who chops the heads off his enemies, has close relationships with his male friends and acts virtuously with his (eventual) wife and child, approaches leadership with humility and writes poetry. He’s not toxic, but he is dangerous. And also good.
Neither the American nor Chinese systems are set up to produce men (or adults in general) as described in #4.
[two]
Oregon! Drugs! All of them!
That’s a five word summary of what actually happened.
Oregon’s law decriminalizing small amounts of all street drugs went into effect on Monday — making it the first state in the nation to enact such a measure.
Those found with personal-use amounts of drugs — including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and ecstasy — will now face a $100 fine instead of a criminal charge.
Known as Measure 110, the legislation was overwhelmingly approved by state voters in November. It focuses on providing drug users with treatment through newly funded addiction recovery centers.
“Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen,setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization,” Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told the Associated Press.
As a taxpayer, I’m not sure that it’s the best use of my money to keep people in prison for possessing small amounts of banned substances…like a guy I knew who finished his prison sentence for dealing marijuana in IL as the state legalized weed, and still kept him behind bars.
But as a citizen, I’m not sure letting people access all drugs with no real consequences is gonna work out well.
One of the reasons federalism (balancing power between localities, states and the federal government) is great is that it allows for experiments.
The high tax/high crime experiment in NY/LA/Chicago isn’t going well, and people are leaving. Defunding the police policies are resulting in more crime in cities like Minneapolis.
The good thing about America is…you can move.
If you’re in Oregon, you have to accept that the increased drug use may lead to increased violent crime, and you may need to move. But the rest of us will know if it did (or didn’t) work.
[three]
Bank of America allgedly handed over the financial info of some customers who were accused of participation in the 01/06 Capital riots.
Bank of America searched through customer transactions to target people who may have been involved in the Capitol riot and handed information over to federal authorities, according to a new report.
At the request of federal investigators, the bank identified 211 customers who fit the profile after making purchases in the D.C. area or spending money on flights or accommodation in the days around the violent riot, Fox News' Tucker Carlson claimed on Thursday.
Carlson reported that one person identified by their transactions was taken in for questioning but was found to have no links to the event, as he accused the bank of spying on its customers and sharing their private information without their knowledge.
After 9/11, we got the Patriot Act, which started out as a way to “fight terrorism” but led to the government spying on the text messages of nearly every private citizen in the U.S.
There’s been no law passed for a Patriot Act 2.0 after the riots at the Capital, but I’m sure that one is being drafted up. In the mean time, Bank of America seems to be fine with violating the privacy of their customers.
When government tramples on the rights laid out in the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, it’s never just the guilty who are stepped on.
I hope I’m wrong, but I expect there will be a lot more to report on very soon in regards to federal surveillance and major corporations violating the privacy of everyday citizens.
[four]
Clubhouse, a mix of a chatroom and a podcast, is blowing up as the next big social media platform.
Tesla’s Elon Musk jumped on this week, helping the invite-only app to swell from 3 million to 5 million users.
On Sunday, Elon Musk nearly broke Clubhouse. It was the Tesla founder’s first appearance on the invitation-only audio app, and the conversation quickly pushed the app to its limit.
The official stream maxed out with more than 5,000 listening to Musk discuss memes, COVID-19 vaccines and interview the much maligned Robinhood founder on the previous week’s GameStop drama. Thousands more who couldn’t get into the official stream, joined “overflow” rooms in the app to listen in. The audio also quickly made its way to less exclusive platforms like YouTube. Ultimately, there was nothing particularly revelatory about the conversation, but it was a huge moment for Clubhouse, the buzzy app that’s become known as a virtual hangout for celebrities and the Silicon Valley elite.
But though the app has made a name for itself as the latest Silicon Valley darling — the year-old startup was recently valued at $1 billion — it’s much more than just tech bros talking at each other.
The app bills itself as “drop-in audio chat.” The idea is similar to the chat rooms of the early internet. But instead of instant messaging, it’s real-time audio. Any user can start a “room” that others can join. Each room has moderators, speakers and listeners. Moderators control who gets speaking privileges, though listeners can “raise their hand” to ask to speak.
I can’t offer my thoughts, as it’s currently an iOS only app, and I’m an Android user.
[five]
Let’s head into the weekend with a little pop culture roundup:
Foo Fighters have a new album out today!
If you want an introduction to the Enneagram (personality test similar to Myers-Briggs, etc) the Around the Circle podcast has an excellent run of episodes to help you dive deep using movie characters.
And speaking of stuff to learn from movies, the aforementioned Cinema Therapy is one of my favorite YouTube channels at the moment, featuring a licensed therapist looking at how we can grow through watching movies.
A few random recommendations: Rag & Bone Man (British soul singer who’s halfway between Van Morison and Bruce Springsteen with a bit of The Killers sprinkled in) is a recent favorite. I don’t read a lot of fiction, Shawn Smucker’s Light from Distant Stars, about a guy untangling his childhood as his father dies in the hospital, has a good hold on me. (About halfway through).
I’m sure there’s some good TV/movies out, but I haven’t watched anything in two weeks…so I’ll have recommendations when I have time to watch something. Marvel’s WandaVision on Disney+ is getting pretty solid buzz. And Bridgerton. People are talking about that.
Until the next one,
-sth