Reads of the Week: Feb. 12-18
Nuanced news you can use, straight to your inbox, highlighting what you may have missed this week.
Welcome to Nuanced News, a weekly look at the content that encourages us to think in unique ways about a complex world. Usually, I avoid what seems most popular in favor of highlighting under-discussed issues. I may not agree with this content. I also try to separate these individual pieces from the creator’s full body of work.
Want to share something worth reading? Let me know in the comments!
Media: Ohio train derailment fact check: What's true and what's false?
Be careful what you read about this issue, as misinformation and disinformation is everywhere. For example, USA Today wrote this fact checking article, and it was subsequently shared by Norfolk Southern, the railway responsible for the disaster in Ohio. In it, the only sources are government and company officials, despite thousands of non-official sources outlining contrary information about the state of the city, its water supply and surrounding wildlife.
The Nuance: This article is not big on nuance. It is big, however, on appeal to authority fallacies, fear mongering about citizen journalism and corporate spokespeople trying to do damage control. These are not the best ways to find out what is happening during a rapidly evolving disaster. If this was your only information source, the wool is fully over your eyes.
Energy: Everything I believed about nuclear waste was wrong
Changing your mind is a wonderful thing. In this helpful explainer on nuclear energy and associated waste, you also see an environmentalist come to see that nuclear energy can be a helpful way to gain energy abundance and fight climate change.
The Nuance: Giving ourselves and each other the space to change our minds and admit mistakes is an important path to seeing the world more clearly. I know many people who believe that waste caused by nuclear energy is a problem, and that’s okay. All of us have our own misconceptions. I just hope we are all capable of doing what Zion Lights did here.
Tech:
Culture: America’s teenage girls are not okay
The depression and anxiety epidemic among young people is worth trying to understand, as it will have large ripple effects. In this piece, The Atlantic looks into the potential effects and probable causes. I tend to take an “all of the above” approach with the causes of this issue.
The Nuance: This story could have been more nuanced, although it tried its best. For example, the liberal slant of the author misses the possibility that excessive school lockdowns or rising secularization in society could be a culprit, among other things. These stories are particularly hard to be fully nuanced about, because they present such personal problems that play out at scale. All we can do is try to consider everything and try to help those in need.
Politics: Don't give up on police reform
Police reform is a traditionally polarized topic. This article attempts to walk a middle path, outlining the effectiveness of police reform and the need for continued pressure. While doing so, it largely eschews the “defund the police” perspective, as well as the “blue lives matter” perspective.
The Nuance: This is one of the biggest wedge issues of our time and a lot of people have seemingly given up on their hopes for resolving the issue. Police unions, citizens and city governments are at a political impasse based on the success of tribal talking points advocating for either extreme solutions or complete inaction. Both sound ridiculous to me. This sounds like a job for nuance if there ever was one.
Honorary Mentions
The 2023 Cost-of-Thriving Index
When a conservative think tank recognizes the collapse of the middle class, I pay attention. You may disagree with the solutions, but it’s refreshing to see this issue from a different viewpoint.
Social Security and Medicare Cuts Are Coming, Whether Politicians Do It or Not
It is very unpopular to talk about entitlement reforms, for good reason. That makes this perspective worth reading.
Hands on with Flipper Zero, the hacker tool blowing up on TikTok
Late arrival, but this struck me as a fascinating hardware device to be flying under the radar. Just think of those capabilities!
Tweets to Talk About
