• You’re Being Lied to About Electric Cars: Science has repeatedly shown EVs are better for humans, despite the meme you just retweeted. (MotorTrend)
• Conservatism as an Oppositional Culture: How a sociological concept explains the “Scam Right” Spend some time consuming conservative media, and you’ll see it’s all just one scam after the other: “commemorative” gold coins, something about refinancing your house, Ben Carson brain pills. Often, there is barely any line between the straight reporting and scams, with the theme of the news coverage blending right into the messages of sponsors, both spatially and psychologically, as can be seen in two recent emails from Breitbart and Daily Caller. (Richard Hanania’s Newsletter) see also Trolling as a Service in 2022 In 2022, social media manipulation services (or, trolling for hire) are a commodity. Even “bots for Putin” may not be Russian, nor even full-time paid posters. A campaign can be booked even by an individual, in many languages, and many countries. (Medium)
• A $100 Billion Lesson In Why Building Public Transportation Is So Expensive in the US: There’s a plan to spend $100 billion fixing the Northeast Corridor by 2035. Similar countries build entire new rail corridors with dozens of new stations for a fraction of that cost. Why can’t the U.S.? (Vice)
• Your Wallet Is Being Drained by Subscriptions. Wall Street Thanks You. While most consumer habits are reverting back to normal, spending on subscriptions has remained well above prepandemic times. That’s partly because people are enjoying them—and partly because they keep forgetting to cancel. (Wall Street Journal)
• Why does the US keep running out of medicine? America’s frequent drug shortages put patients’ health — and their lives — at risk. (Vox)
• Why Is Everything So Ugly? The mid in fake midcentury modern (N+1)
• TikTok’s Viral Challenges Keep Luring Young Kids to Their Deaths: Children are dying from the blackout challenge. Why isn’t the world’s most popular app doing more to protect them? (Businessweek)
• Trump Stands in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Shoots the Constitution: Trump writing that we should cancel the Constitution ranks right up alongside John Tyler’s support of the Confederacy as among the most shameful acts of a former president in our nation’s history. (The Bulwark)
• Facing $1.44 billion judgment, Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy. Here’s what his filing says. The move is just the latest step in Jones’ efforts to restructure his assets amid his legal troubles. Conspiracy theory entrepreneur Alex Jones filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, citing more than $1 billion in liabilities. (Grid)
• Darkness on the edge of the Patriots dynasty: Death and distress haunt members of the 2001 title team. (Boston.com)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Kathleen McCarthy, Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate. Blackstone is the world’s largest owner of commercial real estate globally with a $565 billion portfolio and $319 billion in investor capital.
Comprehensive new data show just how many Americans died after vaccines became widely available — mostly in less-vaccinated states.
Source: Bloomberg
Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.
~~~
To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.
