Category Archives: politics

The Weight of the World

personal, politics, teaching 2022.04.25 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

[The following blog contains discussion of suicide.] Only 29% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients fully well one year on: Study (channelnewsasia.com)It’s not over: COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in US (sfgate.com)Climate anxiety and high school: How young people are coping (ABC News on MSN) One of the things I’m testing out with my College Writing students this semester is a term-long exercise where students are expected to keep up semi-regular email correspondence with me. In addition to helping students learn the formal and social…

No Words, No Ideas, No Future

glbt, politics, rhetoric, transgender 2022.04.11 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

The following blog contains mentions of suicide, child abuse, bullying, homophobia, and transphobia. Poll: Only 52% of Democrats oppose Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ policy (Yahoo! News)Alabama lawmakers approve bill that criminalizes gender-affirming care for trans youth (USA Today via msn.com)Celebrating International Asexuality Day 2022 (thefword.org.uk) I don’t remember if the dune buggy in the back corner of my family’s backyard ever really worked or not, but I remember its rusting shell staying there for year after year when I was very young. It wasn’t exactly…

Destroyed Discourse

politics, rhetoric, videogames 2022.04.04 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

One of the common refrains in this past week’s online discussions of the violent incident at the Oscars was just how much attention was being paid to the interactions between Chris Rock and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith on the one hand, and how little attention was being paid to other issues that many people believe to be far more important. From global climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic to the humanitarian crisis in the Ukraine, every other news story that felt like it would…

The Master’s Tool

politics, television 2022.03.28 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

The following blog contains mentions of violence, bullying, and child abuse. Will Smith Apologizes to Chris Rock for Oscars Slap: ‘I Was Out of Line and I Was Wrong’ (msn.com) On page 169 of his memoir No Struggle No Progress, American education “reformer” Howard Fuller writes about taking a flight for the purpose of using corporal punishment on one of his sons, Malcolm, for an alleged act of stealing. By itself, the description of this event wouldn’t have caught my attention so much, had it…

Anything (Someone Else Does) for a Dollar

internet, politics 2022.03.14 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

Bandcamp Bought By Fortnite Maker Epic Games (Spin via yahoo.com) I’d been looking forward to this month’s Bandcamp Friday for a while. The fact that Bandcamp has been willing to forgo its usual fees for selling music in order to assist independent musicians, who have been even more likely to suffer serious problems due to the pandemic than musicians with record deals, was a cool enough thing to start with, but I’ve been making an effort this year to give even more to independent artists.…