occasional posts by risa aratyr
Risa Aratyr About six months ago, I stopped blogging. Didn’t see the point. My posts were nothing but anguished cries of horror in the guise of heavy-handed sermons to a converted choir. With gobs of articulate and widely-read pundits making my same arguments with better data and more cachet, applying my particular brand of pessimism to a … Read more Gimme Shelter
An oft repeated lyric in the official GOP Impeachment Talking Points chorus is, “If people don’t like what this Prez is doing, they can take their dissatisfaction to the polls in 2020.” The glaring fallacy here, of course, is that if Despicable D is allowed to continue pressuring foreign powers to dig up dirt on … Read more GOTV
Can’t swear to it, but I believe I woke to the connection between meat and climate change about ten years ago, via the “Meat Free Monday” group on Facebook. While I have hardly been religious about the Monday thing and can’t truly say I’ve been doing my part, no-meat salads are my count-on-it contribution to … Read more Vegging Out
Cultural appropriation is a hot topic these days. And rightly so. Getting woke to cultural appropriation ranks up there with waking up to white society’s systemic racism or male society’s inherent sexism. It’s about time, past due. Unfortunately, many are inclined to take the above balls and run with them right off the nearest politically-correct … Read more A Beginner’s Guide to Cultural Appropriation
It was a love-hate relationship from the start. “Social” means fun for most folks. For folks like me, “social” means stressful. Introverts tend to find the very idea of socializing online somewhat to very off-putting. When wonky pre-social networks (AOL profiles, Classmates.com) gave way to genuine social networks (Friendster, MySpace), I gave them a pass. … Read more Facebook Farewell