[Update: since a number of people are reaching my blog via this page, please see this addendum post, which includes an apology and other things related to this post.]
You’ll need to click the “read more” because the darn Storify is so long that it floods my main page.
Why would someone make a list of important and interesting works of dystopian fiction? Or a suggested reading list of works that are relevant to those dystopian works? There is absolutely no reason other than raw interest. There’s nothing going on to compel this. There is nothing in particular one making such a list would hope you’d learn. The lists below are not an exhaustive list. There are bound to be texts I have forgotten or texts you think folks should read that are not listed. Feel free to make your own list and tell me about it OR leave a comment. I’ll add things I’ve missed! Anywhoodles. Here goes:
And so it came to pass that I finished up my annual Best of EDM [Insert Year Here] lists. I used to do these on Spotify before switching to Tidal, and I continued doing them on Tidal because I listen to an absurd amount of EDM and like keeping track of the tunes I love the most. Below, you will find a Tidal playlist that should be public. You can listen to the first 50 tracks right here, but the full playlist is available on Tidal proper (which has a free version just like Spotify does). For whatever reason, the embedded playlist breaks the page, and so I’ve opted to link to it here and at the bottom of this post. Embeds are weird. Or you can pull songs into your preferred listening app. It’s up to you. Some caveats before we begin:
We’re nine days into 2025, and it’s already full of exhausting levels of controversy before we’ve even had a turnover in power in my home country of the United States. We’ve seen resignations of world leaders, wars continuing and getting worse and worse (you know where), the owner of Twitter continuing his tirade of lunacy and demonstrating why the billionaire class is not to be revered, California ablaze with a horrendous and large wildfire, right wing thinktanks developing plans to out and attack Wikipedia editors as any fascist-friendly organization would do, Meta rolling out and rolling back GenAI profiles on its platforms, and, just yesterday, the same Meta announcing sweeping changes to its moderation policies that, in a charitable reading, encourage hate-based harassment and abuse of vulnerable populations, promotion and support for disinformation, and other problems, all of which are so profound that people are talking about a mass exodus from the platform to…somewhere. It’s that last thing that brings me back to the blog today. Since the takeover at Twitter, social networks have been in a state of chaos. Platforms have risen and fallen — or only risen so much — and nothing I would call stability has formed. Years ago, I (and many others far more popular than me) remarked that we’ve ceded the territory of self-owned or small-scale third party spaces for massive third party platforms where we have minimal to no control or say and which can be stripped away in a tech-scale heartbeat. By putting all our ducks into a bin of unstable chaos, we’re also expending our time and energy on something that won’t last, requiring us to expend more time and energy finding alternatives, rebuilding communities, and then repeating the process again. In the present environment, that’s impossible to ignore.1 This is all rather reductive, but this post is not the place to talk about all the ways that social networks have impacted control over our own spaces and narratives. Another time, perhaps. I similarly don’t have space to talk about the fact that some of the platforms we currently have, however functional they may be, have placed many of us in a moral quagmire, as in the case of Meta’s recent moderation changes. Another time… ↩
Dr. Shaun Duke © 2010 - 2025. All Rights Reserved.
5 Responses
Thanks for sharing this,man.I had no idea about your own personal growth and arc.
Having to write this again as your system seems to have eaten my comment. Someone told me about your post and I thought I'd come and see what you had to say. Now that I've seen it, I can't just go away without responding to what you've said here.
First of all, I have not seen anywhere that Laura Mixon-Gould advocates for ostracization. Laura has not, none of the victims have, none of those speaking up in support of the victims and targets have. Elizabeth Bear's post is very clear on this, in case you want to revisit it again, it's here: http://www.elizabethbear.com/?p=2506
In all these things, the message has been clear. This is what's happened and this is what's going on. The report is there as a warning for people to make their own choice as to whether they engage and how far they are willing to trust because people are vulnerable and some of us already carry a trauma from history.
Now, I ask you: Can you blame me if I choose not to interact with this person who made it very very clear that her intent was to destroy me? Yes, forgiveness is possible and change is always possible, but it is my choice whether I choose to take people back into my life or not. I reserve that right and it's not up to people like you to dictate to me or to those in this community who have been hurt what we should do. Many of us are still dealing with the trauma of those encounters. If you cannot understand that, then it's very clear to me that you are simply speaking from your throne of privilege and judging us when you have never been on the receiving end of the pain that has been dealt out.
Wounds can't heal if you keep scratching at them. Your experience doesn't give you any right to pass judgment. Not on Laura who took up this task when nobody would, not on those who have offered support to us when the community turned a blind eye, and not on any of those who were duped, deceived and made to feel less than human.
That you chose to post this even after vulnerable women of color have spoken up in namespace is something that I find almost unforgivable. That you dared to post this after these women put themselves at risk–I've had to edit myself because it just makes me so angry how white folks like you feel it's your task to preach at us and erase and erase and ignore the voices of us who have been harmed.
Of course, there is always room for forgiveness and of course there is always the possibility of change, but it is for those who have been hurt the most to decide the terms and conditions under which that will done.
Rochita:
First, thank you for the comment. I wanted to let you know that I am not ignoring you or your concerns, but I am also not going to comment tonight for two reasons:
1) A lot of what you have said and what some others have said to me needs some careful thought, and it would be better for me to take some time to digest and fully comprehend the disagreements.
2) I have been battling a chest cold since Tues/Wed of last week and thought I had started to kick it this morning. Unfortunately, it has decided to kick back, which means I'm currently medicated on some stuff that makes me a tad loopy. In case that might affect how I respond, I'd like to refrain from doing so until I am both not cranky from being ill or loopy from being drugged.
I hope that is OK. I intend to respond soon, just with the proper mindset so I do not jump when I should pause.
Thanks!
I appreciate that you have acknowledged this and that you are taking the time to think through all that has been said. I believe I've made my position very clear. I do not wish any harm on RH. I will however continue to stand for those who have been harmed.
Do take care of yourself.
A quick thought based on the arguments presented here:
-There's a difference between someone who wields a worldview that is potentially (and perhaps inevitably, at least occasionally) harmful to others, and someone who ACTIVELY seeks out to harm others with their worldview, stances, beliefs, etc. As Bear pointed out in her own writing on this topic, Bee was a frequent and very very active offender, there's even records of her retreating only to surge forth at a later date with a different target. That's a very different thing than what you were (or think you were) in your younger years. I'm sure you said and did harmful things in the past, but I'm also sure it wasn't your raison d'etre to exist and interact with others. You probably never developed a routine of active, targeted attacks against multiple flesh and blood human beings.
Forgiveness and second chances are important for people to change, yes, and in this era of "SJW's" being a pejorative it's important for all of us to recognize the lines and not cross over into harming our own positions, causes, and well being in relation to other groups of people just because we get angry – we shouldn't make enemies just to have them eternally.
But that said, it's also important to live happy productive lives in the interim. Some people do not deserve second chances with other certain people after the aggressor has crossed certain lines. "Second chances", fine and dandy. "Second chances in all things regardless of the details", no way. The almost literal devil is in the details in this case.