The Cruel Optimism of Kamala Harris

Hello everyone! This week we are off for the holiday season. Instead of the usual episode, please enjoy a 10 minute preview of our Patreon exclusive discussion on Spotify Wrapped and why we are long-standing haters. We talk about the data surveillance inherent to Wrapped, its exploitative origins, and how it relates to "conspicuous consumption." Check out the full conversation over on our Patreon.   Check out Soaliha’s Substack Soaliloquy and Mitch’s Substack DIAGRAMMA. Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: The Intern Who Created Spotify Wrapped’s Story Format Never Got Her Due Gen Z's Fear Of Cringe Is Actually Making Dating Harder   

This week we talk about celebrity culture, body positivity, and whether it’s ever okay to talk about other people’s bodies — no matter how famous they are. We discuss the Wicked press tour, the eating disorder to white supremacy pipeline, and the role celebrities play in our society. Content warning: this episode discusses disordered eating.    Check out Soaliha’s Substack Soaliloquy and Mitch’s Substack DIAGRAMMA. Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSjqwYhB4/ https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSjqwXSB6/ https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSjqwCQpH/ https://x.com/MashaParty/status/1859618868194341249

This week we discuss the power of storytelling as a tool for preserving history — and how that preservation is not only being undermined, but is actively under threat thanks to platform capitalism.  We talk about ‘the write side of history’ panel at Muslim Agenda, the way narratives are shaped and disseminated by mediators like news publications and streaming services, and the importance of having physical media like books at a time where Palestinian stories are being lost to the ether.   Check out Soaliha’s Substack Soaliloquy and Mitch’s Substack DIAGRAMMA. Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBgZ7Xlug2D/?igsh=dm5vemR5OTh1YW42  Spotify rockets past 640 million users, on track to achieve first full year of profitability | TechSpot The Battle Is For The Customer Interface | TechCrunch

This week we talk about the rise of puriteens—a portmanteau of puritans and teenagers—and how their sexphobia, suspicion, and moral policing are shaping how sex is talked about and represented online. We discuss the prevalence of puriteenism across BookTok and other platforms, interrogating their criticisms of the dark romance genre, sex scenes in movies, and the wardrobe of Sabrina Carpenter, and examine what they get wrong about sex and sexuality — and also what they get right.   Check out Soaliha’s Substack Soaliloquy and Mitch’s Substack DIAGRAMMA. Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet Are Sex-Negative 'Puriteens' Actually Taking Over the Internet?

This week we talk about feeling “uncomfortable” compared to feeling “unsafe”, and how these terms have become conflated in conversations around free speech and protests against genocide in Palestine. We discuss what it actually means to be unsafe, the way safety as a concept has been weaponised against marginalised folk, and the importance of sitting with discomfort for growth and reconciliation.     Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Students arrested at Western Sydney University during Palestine protest - Honi Soit Working for safety collectively - Overland literary journal  University responses to anti-Semitism 'woefully inadequate', but Labor-led committee rejects judicial inquiry - ABC News Right-wing pro-Israel agitators threaten free speech on campus  Blessed is the flame | The Anarchist Library 

This week we talk about the concept of being “objective” in western media as discussed in Amy McQiure’s new book ‘Black Witness’: how objectivity is not only weaponised against marginalised folks, but is a state that isn’t even possible to reach in the first place.  We discuss the Australian media’s bias towards pro-Israel coverage, the systematic undermining of non-white journalists in matters of race and white supremacy, and the allegations of racism in the ABC (specifically, Antoinette Lattouf’s court case and the recent episode of Media Watch that targeted Tony Armstrong).   Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Black Witness | UQP   Objectivity serves the powerful, and silences the oppressed  Failing Gaza: Pro-Israel bias uncovered behind the lens of Western media | Al Jazeera Listen Loudly, Act Strongly report  Secret WhatsApp messages show co-ordinated campaign to oust Antoinette Lattouf from ABC Tony Armstrong Was Spammed With Racist Abuse After His Own Employer (The ABC) Ran A Hit Piece  fast fashion inhibits creativity and personal style 🗣️ (with receipts... | TikTok

This week we talk about Barbie (2023) — was the endlessly hyped film a feminist masterpiece, or just a massive toy commercial? Or perhaps, something else? We discuss the history of Barbie, the film’s gender theory and the queerness of Allan, and line it all up against Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble.   Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Mattel, Inc. History  Meet Lilli, the High-end German Call Girl Who Became Barbie  Guys Who Think The Barbie Movie Hates On Men Clearly Didn't Watch It Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, 1989 Patriarchy According to The Barbie Movie

This week we talk about celebrities, PR disasters and the difference between what celebrities give us, and what they owe us.  We talk about the It Ends With Us film adaptation (and the surrounding drama), Blake Lively’s dumpsterfire of a press tour and Chappell Roan’s latest assertion of boundaries.   Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Blake Lively on Fame, Family, Good Fortune—And Becoming a Glamorous Jewel Thief for Baz Luhrmann  Blake Lively's hair care secret is using no conditioner! Should you skip it too?  Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively apologize for plantation wedding  https://www.bustle.com/articles/44052-blake-lively-website-preserve-editorial-called-allure-of-antebellum-is-absolutely-inexcusable  Blake Lively says she's 'so proud' of It Ends With Us and that she 'took playing domestic violence victim seriously' amid backlash to her 'tone deaf' press tour | Daily Mail Online  Alcohol/drug-involved family violence in Australia (ADIVA): key findings  Factors associated with FDSV - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare  Ryan Reynolds and Justin Baldoni’s ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama The Screenwriter Of "It Ends With Us" Reacted After Blake Lively Said Ryan Reynolds Wrote A Key Scene  

This week we talk about ‘tradwives’: what are they, where did they come from, and why is their content so popular right now? We discuss the ahistorical nostalgia that tradwives are predicated on, the politics of their labor and the neocolonial nature of homesteading. Really, we ask the question: does the ‘tradwife’ as we know her actually exist, or is she a mythic projection?   Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Kamala Harris selects Tim Walz, pro-Israel Minnesota governor, as her running mate | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle  I'm a trad woman. I think other women secretly wish they were too | SBS Insight From Scratch | Verso Books 'Don't do this to yourself': Meredyth warns young 'trad wives' they could be on a risky path | SBS The Feed Unpacking The Ballerina Farm Discourse & What it Means For The Tradwife Movement – Centennial World  Far-right 'tradwives' see feminism as evil and push back against what they see as 'the lie of equality' - ABC News

We're back! This week we discuss the internet frenzy around presidential candidate Kamala Harris and our collective amnesia surrounding her previous (and conservative) policies.  We talk about her contradictory political history, the abject failure of US democracy and whether radical change can truly be enacted via electoral politics.    Soaliha: @soalihaofficial & Linktree Mitch: @mitchs.miscellanea & Linktree Email: [email protected] PayPal: PayPal.me/soaliha    Sources: Report: The War on Marijuana in Black and White | American Civil Liberties Union How Kamala Harris Fought to Keep Nonviolent Prisoners Locked Up - The American Prospect   Opinion | Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ - The New York Times  Kamala Harris’ A.G. Office Tried to Keep Inmates Locked Up for Cheap Labor  Kamala Harris laughed about jailing parents over truancy. But it's not funny | Nathan Robinson | The Guardian  Twitter thread of Kamala Harris' speeches on truancy and criminal justice reform  Kamala Harris Takes 'Responsibility' for Opposing Trans Surgeries  US to allow migrants from Mexico as critics slam ‘kids in cages’ | Migration News | Al Jazeera  The Pitfalls of Liberalism (1969)  Woke Scientist on Instagram.