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πŸ—ž π™ΏπšŽπšœπšœπš’πš–πš’πšœπšπšœ π™°πš›πšŒπš‘πš’πšŸπšŽ Roundup

πŸ¦ΈπŸ»β€β™‚οΈ πŸš΄πŸ»β€β™€οΈ 😷 🦠 🌎 🐴

Pessimists Archive
Mar 7, 2021
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πŸ—ž π™ΏπšŽπšœπšœπš’πš–πš’πšœπšπšœ π™°πš›πšŒπš‘πš’πšŸπšŽ Roundup

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πŸ¦ΈπŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Comical Concerns

The 1950s saw a moral panic around comic books emerge, all thanks to psychiatrist FredricΒ Wertham and his book β€˜Seduction of the Innocent.’

A Dr. named F. W. Connell rightly called bullshit on Wertham and his claims saying: β€œThe is no scientific proof that comics cause child delinquency.” The newspaper hit back, defending Wertham:

"Dr. Wethham's statistic prove beyond doubt that comic books do contribute to delinquency. Worse they contribute to a debased view of life, even among those who never see the inside of a children's court."


πŸš΄πŸ»β€β™€οΈ Gender Norms

When bikes began to scale women couldn't ride them while wearing dresses, a form of trouser β€˜bloomers’ were the solution. Bloomers broke sacred gender norms (wearing trousers was an arrestable offense at the time.) This kicked off a sartorial culture war that women won.

We found an 1895 cartoon commenting on this cultural battle, in it a father approaches his bloomer wearing daughter in her mothers clothes.

Sarah Ann: β€œPa, what on earth you got ma’s clothes?”

Pa: "β€˜low if you’re a goin to town rigged man fashion, I’m a goin to wear these along to even things up”


😷 Idano

This week saw a mass public mask burning event in Idaho, 100s of people threw their protective masks into a burning barrel. 103 years ago - in 1918 - there was similar resistance to mask wearing in the state (as did every other US state.)


🦠 McAfee Virus

This week in 1992 the β€˜Michelangelo Virus’ activated, its existence had been whipped up into a full blown technopanic by John McAfee to hawk anti-virus software. It worked making John McAfee a rich man. Ironically he was arrested this week for repeating his 1992 tactic: tricking noobs into giving him money.


🌎 Stupid.com

We found a fun 1995 NYtimes piece talking about how stupid the internet was getting. A cynical take on a Cambrian explosion of creativity enabled by the democratization of publishing…


⭐️ Top Tweet

This week Elon Musk shared one of our best archival finds (via a Reddit post) the tweet garnered over 140,000 likes and 13,000 retweets.

Twitter avatar for @elonmusk
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Horses are even self-driving!
Image
6:41 PM βˆ™ Mar 2, 2021
142,524Likes13,150Retweets

🐴 Intelligence of a Horse

Elon Musk’s commentary on the horse advert was funny and in 1896 this was used as a real argument against horseless carriages:

β€œWe should not overlook the fact that the driving of a horseless carriage calls for a larger amount of attention for he has not the advantage of the intelligence of the horse in shaping his path."

Source: The New York Times, December 23, 1896

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