To Be Great Is to Be Misunderstood
Imagine making it this far . . .
[A quick note: You should already have received a couple of emails from me—a Glossary of Fascists and a Glossary of Pseudo-Intellectual Hacks. Sorry to send so many emails in one day but starting next week I’ll be able to link to these lists in the body of the post. You’ll notice that they’re incomplete but I will be constantly revising them as, unfortunately, the number of people and organizations eligible to be on them continues to grow.]
The exhibit, Sharks, at the American Museum of Natural History, one of the greatest museums on the planet, is meant to teach us not just why sharks are extraordinary but why they are important. Some version of shark has lived on the earth for about 450 million years—longer than trees, longer than dinosaurs (by about 200 million years) and much, much longer than humans.
Sharks have survived four mass extinction events over the course of their existence, but, according to the exhibit, they may not survive the next one—their mass extinction at the hands of humans who kill about 100 million sharks a year. Sharks, on the other hand, kill fewer than 10 humans per year on average.
Near the exit there is a quote by Sylvia Earle:
“Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks.”
What Sharks made me focus on (other than the awesomeness of sharks, of course) is the amazing people who care so much—who are dedicated to doing the research and educating the rest of us; who are creating innovative ways to protect sharks and their environment through conservation and advocating for changes in fishing practices; who do the painstaking work to put together a thoughtful, interactive, fun, and though-provoking exhibit like this one.
It was inspiring. If you’re in town, I highly recommend you check it out.
2/21/22-2/27/22
N.B. The numbers in parentheses indicate the position on last week’s list.
Things were still a bit unusual at Facebook this week—a bigger group of people on the right got top spots and more non-political actors appeared than usual—but the right still dominated and the left, as always, got left in the dust. Here are the 70 daily top ten posts for the week:
Ben Shapiro held 12 (9), Dan Bongino had 9 (5) and Sean Hannity had 3 (3). Franklin Graham was back on the list with 3 spots as well, followed by Fox with 2 (1). Breitbart, Steven Crowder, Nick Adams, ForAmerica, Federalist, the Daily Caller, the New York Post, Sarah Palin, and Political Insider each had one—for a total of 37 out of 70. Last week it was 20 out of 70.
The usual two left-leaning organizations claimed spots in the top 70: Occupy Democrats with 6 down from 13, and The Other 98% with 2 (3) for a total of 8 out of 70. Last week it was 16 out of 70.
NYT BESTSELLERS HARDCOVER NON-FICTION
13. The Real Anthony Fauci, RFK, Jr. (15) (It’s just depressing at this point.)
3. The 1619 Project, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones (3)
AMAZON BESTSELLERS HARDCOVER NON-FICTION
5. The Great Reset, Glenn Beck (3)
11. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson (19).
19. 1619, Nikole Hannah-Jones (17)
Almost all editions of Maus are still on backorder (way to go) but you can still get the paperback of Volume I if you’re interested. Let’s keep ordering it.
LGBTQ+ books are the most frequently banned, comprising 80% of the top ten. So this week check out George, by Alex Gino; A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, by EG Keller with illustrations by Gerald Kelley (BONUS: it totally makes of mockery of Mike Pence, although probably not as effectively as Mike Pence makes a mockery of himself); and, if you’re into graphic novels, the Wings of Fire series, by Tui T. Sutherland.
APPLE PODCASTS—NEWS
THE RIGHT AND THE ENABLERS
3. The Ben Shapiro Show (2)
8. The Dan Bongino Show (5)
12. Steve Bannon’s War Room (4)
14. The Glenn Beck Program (9)
18. Real Time with Bill Maher
19. Matt Walsh (10)
THE LEFT
7. Pod Save the World (18)
10. Pod Save America (8)
13. The Rachel Maddow Show (7)
SUBSTACK POLITICS NEWSLETTERS
Although the Substack top-ten is more ideologically diverse across the right-wing spectrum, it contains a disturbing number of serially wrong anti-democratic writers who have way too many followers than is healthy for our nation. Every single newsletter in the top ten has tens of thousands of subscribers.
This list is very stable and won’t change much from week to week.
2. The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief
3. TK News by Matt Taibi
5. Glen Greenwald
6. Unreported Truths by Alex Berenson
7. Common Sense by Bari Weiss, aka the “Substack grifter,” in the words of Press Run’s Eric Boehlert
8. The Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan
9. Take Control: Dr. Mercola’s Censored Library, Joseph Mercola (This snake-oil salesman is up one spot from last week, which is the wrong direction.)
Thankfully, the essential Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson remains at number 1.
Judd Legum’s Popular Information is still at 11.
I highly recommend you subscribe to both.
I am a longtime subscriber to both Judd Legum’s and Professor Richardson’s newsletters!
It was amazing reading about the Shark exhibit. I didn’t know they were here so long before dinosaurs. Leave it to humans to be their biggest threat. I cannot believe 100 million are killed each year. That is insane! Thank God there are many people and organizations trying to protect them.