Notices by JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)

Most people aren’t actually interested in your ideas. They just want to see if you agree with theirs.

RSS never tracked you.
Email never throttled you.
Blogs never begged for dopamine.
The old web wasn’t perfect.
But it was yours.

Anti-vaxx is a classic upper-class luxury belief.

You reject vaccines, not because you’ve studied the science, but because your zip code has a 97% vaccination rate.

https://www.theindex.media/the-herd-immunity-illusion/

How can I help you this week?

Need a second pair of eyes on something you've been working on? A signal boost for your project? Or just someone to bounce ideas off?
Drop a reply with what you need.

No strings, no expectations - just paying it forward.

From the people who brought you Reply Guys…introducing Just Guys.

Dropbox buggy? Just host your own fileserver.

Rent too high? Just buy a house.

Feeling sad? Just go for a 5k.

Oppressed? Just stop complaining.

When every problem is a Jira ticket...

Scientists confirm that the sun is getting hotter. Republicans propose banning thermometers. God is good.

Google didn’t kill the open web.

But AI might.

Because AI doesn’t click.

And if no one clicks, no one pays.

And if no one pays, content stops.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/from-penny-press-to-protocols-the-structural-shift-ai-forces-on-the-internet/

So let me get this straight, Kamala Harris was not allowed to be the President and how dare she not defeat Trump but also Kamala Harris is not allowed to be a private citizen and how dare she not lead the resistance against Trump?

Deleting social media apps from your phone might be the highest ROI mental health move you can make in under 30 seconds.

So just to sum up, the economy is worse, there’s no hurricane relief, there’s no more cancer research, the war on climate change has been set back 10 years, the situation in Gaza is worse, the situation in Ukraine is worse, and everyone hates America but on the other hand…nope, nothing.

Ross Douthat turned “Interesting Times” into a complimentary transcription service for fascism. When your “interview” reads like a campaign brochure, you’re not a journalist—you’re a publicist.

https://www.theindex.media/the-soft-sell-of-hard-power/

It’s not just that Trump officials don’t know how government works.

It’s that they think you are the fool for expecting them to.

https://www.theindex.media/the-unlearning-of-america/

This year, I founded an indie news blog doing long-form Op-eds.

It's 100% free and 100% reader funded. No venture capital, no bullshit.

And it is unapologetically opposed to Nazi fuckery.

Read/subscribe and support:
https://www.theindex.media

Trump uses antisemitism the way he uses religion, patriotism, and the law:

To silence his critics and empower his base.

Nothing more.
https://www.theindex.media/trumps-selective-antisemitism/

democracy in 1939: we must protect our institutions
democracy in 2025: well the app says this is technically still a republic so

The number of folks on the left who hate Biden more than they hate Trump is both astounding and entirely unsurprising.

Every Elon Musk product eventually turns into a very expensive way to remind people of his own insecurity

American media won’t say “Republicans are banning books.” They’ll say “A controversial debate over childhood reading habits has ignited tensions in both parties.”

How can I help you this week?

Need a second pair of eyes on something you've been working on? A signal boost for your project? Or just someone to bounce ideas off?
Drop a reply with what you need.

No strings, no expectations - just paying it forward.

Email is the cockroach of the internet - it outlives every wave trying to kill it. Forget Slack, forget Discord, forget chat apps. Email is universal, decentralized, and asynchronous. It's not sexy, but it's the ultimate survivor.