Articles – The Flaw

The Myth of “Fair and Balanced”

Reya Singh — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:14:41 +0000

Getting that awkward Facebook Messenger notification from your distant uncle is never fun. As soon as the notification dings and you look down to see his name, the secondhand embarrassment fills your conscience as you wonder which it would be this time: the yearly holiday BBQ plans or repugnant social commentary? These days it is almost exclusively the latter. You swipe the notification away...

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“Reprowashing”

Reya Singh — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 23:16:06 +0000

When the Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent to decimate abortion rights last summer, your first question probably wasn’t “what does Uber have to say about this?” And yet, after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision came down last June, Uber and Lyft were two of countless companies publicly responding with unequivocal disapproval. “This decision will hurt millions of...

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Nowhere to Hide: A World Without Privacy

Reya Singh — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 03:06:03 +0000

In his 2013 dystopian novel The Circle, Dave Eggers follows Mae, an employee of the lightly-fictionalized Google-analogue from which the novel derives its title. The plot centers on the launch and rise of SeeChange, a network of wearable cameras that broadcast their users’ every move to their online followers in a bid to advance the values of The Circle, which include Orwellian proclamations such...

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The Salience of Emotional Harms

Reya Singh — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:33:18 +0000

Born in July of 1996, I am peak Zillenial—old enough to appreciate the strategic use of a laughing-crying emoji and to have once been the proud owner of light purple Motorola Razr, young enough to relate to the hard-earned cynicism of a generation steeped in clickbait and heavily edited social media profiles. I was seven in the winter of 2004 when a Harvard sophomore cracked open the Pandora’s box...

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Pay No Attention to that Corporation Behind the Curtain

hanson — Tue, 23 May 2023 18:18:30 +0000

If you ride uptown on the New York City subway, taking the #2 or #5 train, you’ll eventually reach the South Bronx. Just after the 149th Street station, the train emerges from its dark tunnel onto elevated tracks that will carry it to the end of the line. If you look East, you might catch a glimpse of a seemingly contradictory sight. Beyond rows of coiled razor wire, mounted on high concrete walls...

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Corporations are Keeping Cop City Alive

hanson — Sat, 13 May 2023 23:27:36 +0000

Preschoolers in Atlanta have had enough. In May of 2022, preschoolers marched through the streets of East Atlanta Village with crayon-crafted signs reading “I love you trees! Stop, never cut down trees!” Other community members marching alongside the preschoolers were more specific in their demands: “Stop bomb testing in the forest! Stop the terror! Save the South River [Welaunee] Forest please.

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Bed Mandates and Corporate Profits

Reya Singh — Tue, 09 May 2023 23:48:46 +0000

“The for-profit private prison industry has been driving the rapid expansion of the immigrant detention system and their executives haven’t been shy about their reliance on harsh immigration enforcement to prop up their business model.” – Grassroots Leadership Legislatively imposed bed mandates in immigration detention facilities increase the rates of immigration detention throughout the United...

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Activism and Land Control in a Changing Boston

hanson — Sun, 30 Apr 2023 17:20:30 +0000

On November 3rd, 2021, Michelle Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, became the first woman and person of color to be elected mayor of Boston. A Democratic political strategist proclaimed that “the old Boston is gone, there’s a new Boston in terms of political power.” Her campaign promises were wide and ambitious, including pledges to “reapportion city contracts to firms owned by Black...

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California Farmers are Hoarding the State’s Water Resources

hanson — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 01:36:50 +0000

As you drive down Interstate-5, cutting across California from north to south through the Central Valley, large signs staked into the ground along the road’s shoulder disrupt the monotonous view. Some say, “Stop the Congress created dust bowl!” while others ask, “Is GROWING FOOD wasting water?” Meanwhile, the landscape that you encounter out of the car window is one of either endless dense...

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How Corporate Power Facilitated Ethnic Cleansing of Indigenous Armenians in Artsakh

hanson — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:01:47 +0000

In October of 2020, the brother of an Armenian soldier receives a call from the Azeri Armed Forces. They tell him that they beheaded his brother. And that they are going to post a photograph of the beheading on his brother’s social media page. Hours later, he finds the video of his murdered brother on the internet. In December of 2020, Azeri troops hold down an 82-year-old Armenian man and saw off...

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