The news may be fraying your nerves, and there is new information flashed in front of us every few minutes. So much so that we can find ourselves missing the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need. This weekly update can provide that for you. We do this by distilling the best of the web and recommending just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:
Free Country: Permitless carry and the new gun-rights extremism (Rachel Monroe / Harpers)
We spent an hour exploring the circumstances under which we’d be legally justified in shooting someone. Some of the cases made a kind of sense—to prevent murder, sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping. Others were less intuitive—to prevent theft or criminal mischief (graffiti, toilet-papering) if after dark. “You can shoot someone for TP-ing your house?” the man with the crucifix necklace asked. Cargill nodded. “At night, yes.” “Seems a little harsh,” the man muttered.
An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism (Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab)
This was a magazine positioned for captains of industry, the sort of outlet that would proudly brand itself as “Forbes: Capitalist Tool” without ever thinking those words might mean something other than intended. Owner Malcolm Forbes “seemed to exemplify a kind of gleeful capitalism that relished the things that money could buy, from macho symbols like the 68 motorcycles he owned to an extensive collection of Faberge eggs.”
Of all the ways Forbes magazine might have evolved from there, Past Me would never have guessed “under-edited group blog that’s a soft mark for grifters.” Call it “Forbes: Scammer Tool.”
(NSFW) America Takes Women’s Right Back To The Dark Ages (Russell Howard)
Image: Pierre Châtel-Innocenti