Currently viewing the tag: "racism"

I’m at a bit of a loss for what to read online lately.

In May, the Autism Hub disbanded itself. One of the bloggers who had been a hub member was bullying others on the hub and many of my favourite bloggers removed themselves from the group a few days before it was officially disbanded. I’ve tracked down most of the blogs I enjoyed reading there, but find it much more difficult to keep up to date with them now. I’ve tried using an RSS reader, but I’m not very good at remembering 1. to add blogs and 2. to visit the reader to see if they’ve posted. The Autism Hub had been a really great website for a few years, a respository of science-based blogging about autism by people on the spectrum, parents of kids on the spectrum, and professional researchers and educators. It introduced me to many of my favourite blogs. After the hub came down, most of those bloggers have stopped writing.

In June, Jezebel got a new EIC. With her came bannings, destarrings, and general discord. I stopped reading. I’ve been to groupthink off and on, but I haven’t been on the main page much at all. In the past two or three days there’s been a few articles of substance, the most worthwhile writing in months. I’m really hoping that this trend will continue and Jez will return to its former glory as my absolute favourite website. In its heydey, Jez was full of smart, feminist writing with an eye to intersectionality. It discussed the political and personal with humour and research, and the commenters were snarky without being mean (except to trolls) (this is a difficult line to walk and one they’ve lost entirely). Corrections were issued if the Editors made an error, often quickly. The new EIC calls commenters assholes and seems to encourage bodysnarking.

In July, ScienceBlogs had its own implosion. I missed it; as I’ve noted before, when I’m feeling spoonless I can’t muster the energy for SciBlogs, even though it often renews my spoon pile. What appears to have happened is Pepsi bought a blog spot there without clear distinctions being made on said blog that it was a paid spot (Sciblings are invited and paid for their efforts, usually). Many of my favourite Sciblings have left the website as a result, though the Pepsi blog has been pulled. There’s a disaspora of science writing, now, and, again, RSS is not my friend.

Please, gentle readers, suggest places for me to read. I’m looking for political and sciencey blogs with a liberal, feminist bent, preferably explicitly anti-racist and anti-ableist. Hubs or group blogs are very welcome.

Tagged with:
 

Oh, Jezebel.

Let’s talk. You recently went through a transition of Editor in Chief, moving from Anna Holmes to Jessica Coen. Why yes, that is the Jessica who destarred me for calling out ableist language–and, yes, it’s reflective of the tone of the whole site, now.

A number of blogs have sprung up to deal with your shit, and that’s not really what I’m trying to do here. I took a whole day off yesterday–the first Day Without Jez I’ve had on purpose in about two years. And it was…great. There was less stress, less frustration over a formerly well-written website that can no longer be bothered to turn on the spelling and grammar check features in Word before posting. I didn’t see the dozens of comments using “lame” and “retarded” as insults, or an editor call anyone assholes. Again.

It’s not me, Jez, it’s you. And I think we might be done.

A lot of people are dissatisfied with the turn of the site, and leaving, and it’s led to some of the best wikipedia editing I’ve ever seen.

jez wiki

jez wiki

A full compendium of the edits are available here.

There have been mass destarrings (usually for pointing out explicitly racist language), and more than a few bannings for the same.

In conclusion, this was the best thing to come of it:

Best. Fake. Jez. Evar

(Credit for that goes to the lovely Haugenite.)

Tagged with: