April Links

What I'm reading

Author

Riley Haas
May 01, 2025

What I’m Reading:

  • David Graeber, David Wengrow: The Dawn of Everything (2021): I just began this massive book and I must say I’m already struggling because these guys begin argumentatively. I think I’d rather they start with their evidence but we’ll see how this goes. It is, after all, very long.

  • Barry Stone: The 50 Greatest Walks in the World (2016): This is an extraordinarily frustrating and biased list of the "50 greatest walks" of the world that seems to be part of some British series called The 50. This book should be called either The 50 Greatest Walks for British People or 30+ Great British Walks Plus Some Others or something like that. It has at least two massive flaws as well as some other lesser issues. Unless you are British or from the British Isles, or really, really love the British Isles as a hiking destination, it's really hard to know why you should read this book. Yet I will probably read the whole thing anyway, like a sucker.

  • Elmore Leonard: LaBrava (1983): This is a noir which directly references film noir in addition to having a noir-ish plot. I really enjoyed this and think it should be a film.

  • Marie Favreau: The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World (2021): I thought I knew how little I knew about the Mongols but, after reading this enlightening book, I’m pretty sure I didn’t. I knew so little about them I didn’t understand that this book is not about all the Mongols but only about one portion of them, the Golden Horde. This book is a valuable service to those of us who grew up with history that neglects the Golden Horde, or makes them a side character. I highly recommend reading it, even if it feels like only the beginning of my understanding them.

  • “Divergence From the Interests of Capital”: This is the most perplexing thing about all of this I think. Trump has transparently never had anyone else’s interests at heart. But he remains very good at tricking lots of people into believing their interests all align. Now, some people are starting to see that he really doesn’t care about anyone else after all. And it’s too late.

  • “The Bluetooth Test and other keyholes to the soul”: Some good advice on how to be a nice person in day-to-day life. I fail a bunch of these. I blame my shyness but it could just be selfishness.

  • “El Salvador And The Dark Lessons of Guantanamo”: The Democrats could have closed Guantanamo and they chose not to. They chose not to do so many things to be seen as the party of moderation. Not only did that not work - nobody to their right thinks they’re moderate on much - there’s a very real argument that by perpetuating the War on Terror they have helped bring about this new escalation in the war on US non-citizen residents. (Soon it will be citizens, too, if it hasn’t started already.)

  • “‘Elon Musk’ Was a Prolific Money Launderer for Hackers and Drug Traffickers. It Was Secretly the FBI”: Note the quotes around ‘Elon Musk.’ Once again someone has discovered the FBI participating in crimes in order to eventually make cases against criminals. One of the most maddening things about The Right in North America right now is how they go on and on and on about a “Deep State” but have, like, zero interest in stopping real abuse of power, real corruption or real criminality. It’s always the imagined stuff that’s important. The FBI regularly enables criminals to supposedly investigate them better but The Right is concerned about an “Epstein coverup” or whatever. It’s just maddening.

  • “The Folk Devils Keep Changing, But the Panic Stays the Same” [PW]: There will always be people who are trying to get the rest of us into some kind of moral panic about The Other. It is on us, as 21st century adults, to not fall for it.

  • “The New Age of Thought Crime”: I’m specifically sharing this for this incredible description of Elon Musk: “Sitting in dead silence, listening to your ex-gf’s music, posing at being a cool gamer with the kids, taking constant abuse because you’re too dumb to realize there’s an off button for chat before eventually rage quitting… this is the most divorced anyone has been in human history.” I hope investors know about this story (which is already old). At Bishop’s, I had a roommate who was a pathological liar. There are many reasons why I knew this but one of them is that I overheard him lying to one of his 5 girlfriends (yes, he had 5) about our fridge capacity. For years afterwards, when talking about him, I would say to people “If you’ll lie about your fridge capacity, you’ll lie about anything.” To me, it’s obvious that, if Musk will lie about his gaming abilities, he’ll lie about more important things.

  • “Absolute power can be a terrible weakness”: On how important coordination is for a tyrant to stay in power or for the people to remove the tyrant.

  • “Alien Poop Means We Are Not Alone. But Let Me Just Adjust This Model Parameter...”: As he puts it, the era of alien agnosticism is here.

  • “A Strange Stain in the Sky: How Silicon Valley Is Preparing A Coup Against Democracy”: Stuff I already know but it’s worth repeating over and over again. They want you to be their serfs.

  • “A writ of habeas corpus stuck to the gates of Sodom”: It is, of course, the least Christian thing imaginable to deport someone who asked for asylum to somewhere they are not from, and from which they might never be able to escape. And yet, there are millions of Americans who support this who insist they are Christians.

  • “A Ketamine Addict's Perspective On What Elon Musk Might Be Experiencing On Ketamine”: This is the second thing I’ve read about Ketamine in the last year or so. This is terrifying and I have to imagine you’re either in some weird bubble (Silicon Valley, etc.) or have extremely severe depression before you’d seek something like this out.

  • “AI Has No Noticer”: LLMs don’t know when and how they’re wrong unless it’s pointed out to them.

  • “Old Art is Strangling New Art”: This is an expanded version of the ‘IP is dominating everything’ trend. It’s concerning, for sure, but I suspect the cause really is the delivery mechanism - it’s so easy to consume old stuff now. That and how bad so much “new” content from some of the streamers is.

  • “The Hybrid Regime Next Door”: Published before our election.

What I’m Listening to:

What I’m Watching:

  • Last Week Tonight:

    • “RFK Jr. and HHS”: RFK Jr. is such a piece of shit. But the thing that I really don’t understand is why anyone who listens to him talk think he sounds healthy. When he speaks publicly, he sounds like he’s going to keel over and die any second. Why would you listen to someone like that about your health?

    • “Trump & Tariffs”: You can’t imagine what take he has on this…

    • “Trans Athletes”: This one went viral as you may have noticed.

    • “Tasers & Excited Delirium”: They’re not as safe as we think.

    • “Sports Betting”: I was really pro legalization. I didn’t realize how little self-control everyone (young men) has.