The pandemic is a poor excuse to elevate car culture
I’m not completely against the car, but reading this article from the NYT about how car culture is “renewed again” really drives home how dystopian this mode of transportation really is. It’s sort of a conundrum of American society that we’ve built cities and communities in such a way that the only way for us to see each other in some places is to drive there — which is why this article thinks car culture is back with a vengeance (hopefully it’s not).
While some might romanticize the photos shown here, I can’t help but think how oddly weird it is that we would box ourselves in even more in times of quarantine by sitting in a metal moving box with wide avenues and roads separating people, all for the sake of the moving vehicle. It makes no sense. Cars are indeed necessary, but as Americans, we’ve somehow boxed ourselves into a life that requires the car to do simple things like wish people a happy birthday. I mean…what?!
An Incalculable Loss
The New York Times’ deeply moving front page (in print) is accompanied by this interactive page for the same list of names.
The New York Times front page - May 24, 2020 - 100,000 coronavirus deaths
An incredible “graphic” image of just 1% of the 100,000 deaths so far in just over 2 months of coronavirus hitting the United States.
My previous post has a link to the story behind the decision making of this front page.
How the "Plandemic" movie spread widely online
The internet, in some ways, is making us all a bit dumber. This is now a great time to dive into The New York Times podcast, The Rabbit Hole, about a very similar topic on how the internet is changing us.
The New York Times analyzes all the words spoken by Trump during the pandemic
Incredibly work by The New York Times.
“He doesn’t speak the language of transcendence, what we have in common,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University. Instead, Dr. Mercieca said, he falls back on a vocabulary he developed over decades promoting himself and his business.
“Trump’s primary goal is to spread good news and information and market the Trump brand: ‘Trump is great. The Trump brand is great. The Trump presidency is great,’” she said. “It’s not the right time or place to do that.”
The New York Times front page - March 27, 2020
Just for the record. One of the most visually striking NYT front pages in a while.