527 lines
64 KiB
HTML
527 lines
64 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
||
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
||
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
||
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
||
<title>18 March, 2022</title>
|
||
<style type="text/css">
|
||
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
||
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
||
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
||
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
||
</style>
|
||
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zelensky Invokes Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as He Pleads for More from Washington</strong> - The U.S. sent more than a billion dollars in aid in the past week. But Biden has refused Ukraine’s two biggest requests. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/zelensky-invokes-pearl-harbor-and-911-as-he-pleads-for-more-from-%20washington">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How One Swimmer Became the Focus of a Debate About Trans Athletes</strong> - Lia Thomas is not the first trans swimmer in the N.C.A.A., and her initial meets drew little attention. Then some people decided that she was winning too much. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/how-one-swimmer-became-the-focus-of-a-debate-about-trans-%20athletes">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jerome Powell’s Double Message on Inflation</strong> - The Fed raised interest rates for the first time since 2018, but its chair insists the move won’t deliver a serious hit to the wider economy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/jerome-powells-double-message-on-inflation">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things</strong> - The truth is new and counterintuitive: we have the technology necessary to rapidly ditch fossil fuels. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/in-a-world-on-fire-stop-burning-things">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rosalía Levels Up as a Global Pop Superstar</strong> - Her new album, “Motomami,” jolts us out of a prescribed comfort zone and transforms the avant-garde into something populist. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/rosalia-levels-up-as-a-global-pop-superstar">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>One Good Thing: The movie that first made me sit up and take note of Jessie Buckley</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A young woman plays guitar and sings, bathed in a red light." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/POWsvboqQElTurEpgr5WZk6ONkc=/217x0:1177x720/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70640305/wildrose3.0.jpeg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Jessie Buckley in <em>Wild Rose</em>. | Neon
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Before the Oscar nominee was in The Lost Daughter, she starred in the terrific Wild Rose<em>.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l6venS">
|
||
To see this year’s <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/people/arid-40803612.html">Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley</a> is to instantly know you’re watching a generational talent. For me, that moment came with the 2019 film <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/21/18700690/wild-rose-review-jessie-buckley"><em>Wild Rose</em></a>. Which I almost didn’t watch.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Kt0xi">
|
||
My reticence had nothing to do with the movie. It sounded delightful: A young woman from Glasgow wants to be a country singer and encounters obstacles along the way. I know that particular inspirational film template, I like good music, and it seemed promising. But my inbox brims over every day with pitches for delightful-sounding films, and there’s only so much time to watch movies. So this one almost got moved to the pile reserved for the regrettably passed-over.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qt9YrI">
|
||
I’m not sure what got me to take a second look, but I’m sure glad I did. <em>Wild Rose</em>, directed by Tom Harper from a screenplay by Nicole Taylor, is a bewitching film. Plenty of genre films get by on fulfilling the audience’s expectations, hitting all the expected story beats at the right time. But <em>Wild Rose</em> manages to improve upon genre conventions by taking the unexpected route at every turn, without ever sacrificing that satisfaction you get from a good story well told.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt="A young woman plays guitar and sings." src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/p3MbaE6_onVlu8vvtdlZAmqB9y8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23304669/wildrose1.jpeg" /> <cite>Neon</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Buckley is a revelation as an aspiring country singer in <em>Wild Rose</em>.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJzmGP">
|
||
And much of that satisfaction comes from watching its star. Buckley plays Rose-Lynn Harlan, age 23, and when we first meet her, she’s in prison, about to be released after a year behind bars for attempted drug smuggling. She insists she was duped. It’s clear she’s had a bit of a chaotic life to this point. Her two young children, both born before her 18th birthday, have been living with her mother (Julie Walters); she’s lost her job at the small but hopping copy of the Grand Ole Opry downtown; she is not exactly a fan of things like routine and structure and rules. She’ll be wearing an ankle bracelet that tracks her upon release.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y58xXl">
|
||
And she’s also a smashingly great country singer, an unusual sight in Glasgow. Since she was 14, she’s fronted the band at the faux-Opry, and anyone can hear that the pipes on her are grand. Rose-Lynn dreams of making a break for Nashville and seeing if she can be a star.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ePwwBb">
|
||
But she’s got kids, and responsibilities, and no money, and the only job she can land is as a housemaid at the home of a wealthy woman named Susannah (Sophie Okonedo) and her family. Plus, the ankle bracelet means she can’t be away from home after 7 pm — not a great setup for an aspiring singer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ks8EDD">
|
||
Susannah and Rose-Lynn strike up a friendship, and Susannah starts to fall in love with the idea of helping Rose-Lynn reach her goals. But there’s more chaos in Rose- Lynn’s life than Susannah bargained for, and more chaos in Rose-Lynn’s heart than she knows what to do with. You sort of think you know what’s going to happen from there on, but part of what makes <em>Wild Rose</em> so special is its gentle undermining of our expectations, and even of Rose-Lynn’s.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MhE8Uu">
|
||
But the other thing that makes <em>Wild Rose</em> so special — its secret sauce, its magic dust — is Buckley, who’s all red hair and laughter and a wide smile that extends into her eyes. She’s a live wire from the get-go, an actress with a difficult role to pull off. Rose-Lynn is likable but exasperating, an irresponsible whirling dervish who can’t seem to see how far over the edge she’s teetering. You want to party with her and shake her and dance to her music all at once.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ByCi0T">
|
||
And in <em>Wild Rose</em>, she’s got to sing, too. There are fascinating stories about the movie’s songs, one of which was written by actress Mary Steenburgen (who’s not in the movie) <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/mary-
|
||
steenburgen-jessie-buckley-wild-rose-glasgow-best-original-song-1202189233/">after a freak accident</a>, and several of which were co-written by screenwriter Taylor and Buckley. But it’s really Buckley’s performance that sells this idea of a Scottish working-class girl besotted with American country music and all that goes along with it — “it’s three chords and the truth,” she tells Susannah, and shows her that phrase tattooed on her forearms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt="A young woman sings passionately, with her eyes closed." src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/KYh79kKzY3JH5wnQw2qoayC83Yg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23304676/wildrose2.jpeg" /> <cite>Neon</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Buckley burns through the screen in <em>Wild Rose</em>.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xY6ba3">
|
||
We’re a while into the movie before we see her really let a musical performance rip; after getting the ankle bracelet removed, she heads straight to the Glasgow Opry, dragging her lawyer along, jumps onto the stage, rips the mic from the middle-aged guy singing with her band, and lights into a cover of Chris Stapleton’s “Outlaw State of Mind,” while her lawyer sits with his head in his hands at the bar. Head thrown back, mouth wide open, she howls and sings and you just want to dance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aweRi2">
|
||
That performance was the moment I sat up straight and thought, “Who is this person?” I hadn’t seen her, most likely because I’m American, and prior to <em>Wild Rose</em> she was most well known for placing second on the BBC TV talent show <em>I’d Do Anything </em>in 2008, and for landing a role that same year in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s <em>A Little Night Music</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pOFjPB">
|
||
She’s had plenty of roles between then and <em>Wild Rose,</em> and her Oscar-nominated role in <em>The Lost Daughter</em>. If you’re not a habitual BBC watcher or an inveterate London theatergoer, you might still have seen her in <em>Chernobyl</em> or <em>I’m Thinking of Ending Things</em> or the fourth season of <em>Fargo</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NzCogk">
|
||
But Buckley’s greatest gifts are evidenced in her ability to make us love her characters. In the hands of a less effervescent and soulful actress, Rose-Lynn could have come off as just a narcissistic egomaniac who can’t see past the end of her nose. Rewatching the film recently, I realized that Buckley’s turn as a young mother and scholar <a href="https://www.vox.com/22869285/lost-daughter-netflix-
|
||
review-explained">struggling with motherhood in <em>The Lost Daughter</em></a> is just another shade of her role in <em>Wild Rose</em>. They’re both women with dreams and pasts that haunt them, and with impossible choices in front of them, specifically small children who depend on them. Navigating that kind of role without turning off the audience to your character seems almost impossible; Buckley has done it twice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3fQfbR">
|
||
And yet, <em>Wild Rose</em> will always hold a special place in my heart when I think of her work. The moment you get to recognize that the performer you’re watching isn’t just good, but marvelous, is a stirring one, no matter how late to the game you might be in retrospect. And the film itself makes for a marvelous evening, a tribute to great performers, to humble beginnings, to home, and to the power of a well-crafted story, poured through a generational talent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mAirHs">
|
||
Wild Rose <em>is </em><a href="https://www.hulu.com/movie/wild-rose-3554101e-7fbe-4f8e-b046-9874f9eaf8e6"><em>streaming on Hulu</em></a><em> and available to rent or purchase on digital platforms. For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/one-good-thing"><em><strong>One Good Thing</strong></em></a><em> archives.</em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Elden Ring is almost impossible to explain, but so worth playing</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A scene from the video game Elden Ring showing two characters outdoors by a campfire on a night
|
||
with a bright moon." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/UiiogK0hxXihpWlo-9Y54AyPznE=/279x0:1899x1215/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70640155/elden_1.0.png"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Actual picture of me talking to anyone who will listen about Elden Ring. | Courtesy of IGDB
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It’s wildly difficult, ridiculously complicated, and could be the best video game of the year.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ATDOA1">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GIiVvb">
|
||
My once- peaceful home has been torn asunder, and it’s all Elden Ring’s fault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6C9xd">
|
||
Elden Ring is a video game, and an extremely popular one — the NPD Group, which tracks monthly game sales, <a href="https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1502282778724868103?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1502282863986679808%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shacknews.com%2Farticle%2F129270%2Felden-
|
||
ring-is-the-best-selling-game-of-2022-year-to-date-npd">issued a report</a> noting that it’s the bestselling game of the year so far, selling over <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22980899/elden-ring-new-franchise-fromsoftware">12 million copies</a> in the month it has been available and already in serious contention as <a href="https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/elden-ring-is-officially-one-of-the-best-reviewed-games-ever/">one of the best games of the year,</a> if not recent memory.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6NngZo">
|
||
It is also extremely popular with my partner and me, who share a television and a PlayStation and are therefore unable to both play at the same time. So far, I would say that is the game’s greatest flaw, and it is hardly its fault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oJOZjY">
|
||
Because Elden Ring is good. Like, cancel-your-plans, ignore-your-chores, glance-up-and-realize-it’s-three-in-the-morning good. It’s good in the kind of way you want to evangelize to practically everyone, which marks it as something of a departure from its immediate predecessors. A mostly solo role-playing game made by the studio <a href="https://www.fromsoftware.jp/ww/">FromSoftware</a> under the direction of auteur Hidetaka Miyazaki, it’s the successor to games like the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, all of which are legendary for their difficulty, their precision, and their intricately layered, often hard-to-parse lore. They’re beloved for good reason (Bloodborne might be my partner’s all-time favorite game), but certainly not for everyone. I play <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
highlight/22150343/video-games-2020-switch-playstation-persona">a ton of video games</a> and yet I’d always been intimidated by these, assuming they were too dark and frustrating for my more lackadaisical, button-mashing play style.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zte47k">
|
||
Elden Ring takes the fundamental DNA of those games — the sensitive mechanics, the creepy yet compelling aesthetic, and, yes, the difficulty — and suffuses it throughout a third-person open-world setting (in layman’s terms, that means you’re a little guy running around fighting enemies). As the main character, an individual known as a “Tarnished,” you roam an ever-unfolding map to seek out enemies and questlines and eventually, hopefully, become the Elden Lord. (More on the plot, such as it is, later.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BuPSmr">
|
||
The world is stunning and bizarre in its vastness, and provides the player with what I consider the game’s crucial element: It gives you a seemingly infinite number of places to go and things to do when you don’t feel like slamming your head against the wall confronting a difficult enemy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vEKEad">
|
||
It’s still wildly tough — I died around two dozen times in my first hour of the game, and a further couple dozen while attempting to take on a fight that I later learned wasn’t even against a major boss, just, like, some dude — but the game provides you with a heady sense of exploration and wonder, and a multitude of tools to improve your character build until you’re ready to go back and try again. And when you do, and you win, and Margit the Fell Omen (literally all of the names sound like this) is a pile of dust at your feet, holy fucking hell does it feel good.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJ6ENx">
|
||
Still, this game is enormous and complicated, and I’d argue that there’s still a significant barrier to entry. That shouldn’t dissuade you if you’re interested in checking it out or just learning more, but it’s good to go in armed with some basics if you’re new to the franchise like I am. Here are answers to questions you might have, as spoiler-free as is possible in a game where basically every new thing you discover could be regarded as a spoiler, but also where there isn’t really a traditional “story” to speak of. Arise now, ye Tarnished!
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/xQ32Kbq2s9CKou0ZfsOtzkdUFyQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23324821/elden_2.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of IGDB</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
You can ride Torrent, your faithful ghost-horse, across the wide, wide world of the Lands Between.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h3 id="5Wl7s1">
|
||
What’s the plot?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tLyBgF">
|
||
“Plot” is sort of a strong word when it comes to FromSoftware games. There’s certainly a critical path here — you’re seeking out big bads in order to kill them and collect pieces of, you guessed it, a really old ring — but you could spend dozens if not hundreds of hours playing without any real sense of what’s going on or why things happen, and still have a satisfying experience with this game. Information is parceled out in often easy-to-miss dribs and drabs; you primarily learn tidbits about the world by reading item descriptions, or by talking multiple times to the same NPC (gamer speak for “non-playable character,” like a merchant), and even then it doesn’t necessarily add up to a single neat whole. The world you inhabit has suffered tremendously, has fractured beyond memory, and that sense is prevalent as you are dropped in without foresight or plan and begin to collect breadcrumbs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iKmqGG">
|
||
I thought I’d be frustrated by the lack of direction or narrative propulsion, but haven’t found that to be the case at all; in fact, it’s liberating to feel like there’s nothing I’m really “supposed” to be doing and therefore can spend my time riding my ghost-horse halfway across the map to a location that just looks kind of cool. And when something does snap into place — when an NPC shows up in a location you never expected, or you realize why it was so important you picked up that seemingly useless item 10 hours back — it bears a strong resemblance to the satisfaction you feel after winning a hard battle. Above all, the game is generous; it rewards puttering around unearthing whatever seems interesting to you.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2tJCE2">
|
||
If you’re looking for more concrete-ish backstory to the FromSoftware games, there are countless streamers and YouTubers recording their playthroughs, tips, and interpretations of lore, and quite honestly part of the fun of the game right now is seeing all of that sweet, sweet content get created. As a starting point, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0DNp0mKMqrYVaTundyr9w">VaatiVidya</a> is a popular YouTuber who explains everything from the series’ more missable plot points to how to find important items early on, and my friends over at <a href="https://intothecast.online/"><em>Into the Aether</em></a> (a lowkey video game podcast) have been <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/intothecast">streaming their runs on Twitch</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="IeLs7E">
|
||
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h3 id="shqwR7">
|
||
How long is it?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qw6IoY">
|
||
Really quite long, unless you’re a speedrunner who’s managed to complete it in <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22977470/elden-ring-speedrun-record-video">under 30 minutes</a>, which, go with God. <a href="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/03/elden-ring-average-playtime-steam">The average playtime on Steam</a> thus far is around 48 hours, but anecdotally I’d say that the overall game runs longer if you’re exploring and poking around (and getting absolutely stomped by gigantic evil bears); most people I know who have already rolled credits have put in at least 60 hours, and many folks have reported putting in well over 100. Considering the game came out less than a month ago, that’s a lot.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="6cTZTA">
|
||
Why do people enjoy it if it’s so hard?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZmXRA3">
|
||
Difficulty is arguably the hallmark of FromSoftware games, but it’s not meant to be frustrating for the sake of frustration; rather, it serves a narrative function, and provides the rhythm underpinning the entire game. You’re supposed to try again and again to overcome a challenge; you’re supposed to learn an enemy’s unique cadences and timing and battle techniques in order to gain just an inch more of an edge from attempt to attempt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z0ME31">
|
||
“If death is to be more than a mark of failure, how do I give it meaning? How do I make death enjoyable?” Miyazaki told <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/hidetaka-miyazaki-sees-death-as-a-feature-not-a-bug">the New Yorker</a> upon the game’s release. In the same interview, he said, “I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbX6FP">
|
||
This is obviously not everyone’s cup of tea, nor should it be. If it sounds like the opposite of how you’d like to spend your leisure hours, that’s deeply reasonable. But I will say that as someone who has often been attracted to gentler games, where sometimes there isn’t even a hint of a reanimated skeletal warlock who can one-shot you from an in-game mile away, I’ve found it far more accessible than I’d anticipated, and frustration isn’t even in the top five of my emotions most of the time I’m playing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWJQud">
|
||
I want to be clear here that I’m not very good, at this game or really even these types of games; I tend to prefer turn-based over real-time combat, which basically means that I like to agonize over making a move for a plethora of seconds that is absolutely not available in a game this fast-paced. But I can figure it out; I can use the tools at my disposal, memorize the movements of enemies, and hack and cast my way through most hardships eventually. If I can, you probably can too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="GpxjHH">
|
||
Isn’t George R.R. Martin somehow involved?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="irx59N">
|
||
He sure is. According to the New Yorker, Martin and Miyazaki were mutual fans of one another’s work, and the <em>Game of Thrones</em> author “provided snatches of text about [the world]’s setting, its characters, and its mythology” rather than writing the actual script of the game. See if you can spot the somewhat unexpected place where his initials show up.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="dAr6uO">
|
||
Do I need a (<a href="https://www.engadget.com/sony-ps5-forecast-down-chip-
|
||
shortages-085523096.html">still notoriously hard-to-find</a>) PlayStation 5 in order to play?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="afJ5fe">
|
||
Nope. If you have one of the older consoles, like a PS4 or an Xbox One, it runs there, as well as the newer PS5 and Xbox Series X and S (it is not and likely never will be on Nintendo platforms like the Switch). It’s also on PC, and if you are one of the lucky few people who have managed to snag <a href="https://www.polygon.com/reviews/22949326/steam-deck-
|
||
review-pc-gaming-portable">Valve’s new SteamDeck</a>, which is essentially a handheld PC, it apparently runs pretty well there too. Just know that it is a massive, massive game, and as such there have been a variety of bugs reported, <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1501630309691011078">particularly among PC users</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/8l2g9thjV042wI3coOiqvD3TR9M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23324818/elden_3.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of IGDB</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
This is not even close to the most unpleasant enemy you’ll encounter on a minute-to-minute basis.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="l8thk9">
|
||
Is there discourse about it?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FNGIUo">
|
||
You bet there is. The question of difficulty is sort of perennially central, among other somewhat related topics like user interface — there’s a corner of the hardcore FromSoftware fandom that apparently believes the only way to “properly” play Elden Ring is by ignoring any element that might make battle easier (long-range magic, summoning ghostly creatures to provide backup, playing online co-op with other players to take down bosses), in a way that can veer into snobbery and dismissiveness when it comes to less- seasoned players. There’s a sort of meme-mantra in the community known as “git gud,” which, as <a href="https://www.thegamer.com/elden-ring-fans-discourse-toxic-from-software/">Jade King writes</a> over at the Gamer, is “shorthand for hardcore players laughing in the faces of newcomers who found themselves struggling with tough enemies and obtuse systems when learning the ropes of FromSoftware’s masterful vision.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TkBXU9">
|
||
If you spend time on Twitter and Reddit reading about or discussing the game (which is, IMO, one of the more enjoyable parts of playing it at the same time as so many other people), you’re bound to encounter this attitude, although at this point you’re probably more likely to see its vocal opposite, decrying the above as elitist gatekeeping.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IBPDnn">
|
||
I tend to fall closer to that end of the spectrum: All those in-game elements are there for a reason, after all, and essentially serve as difficulty modulators (although <a href="https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-patch-1-03-op-build-mimic-tear-
|
||
hoarfrost-nig-1848666715">the recent patch update</a> might have defanged some previously overpowered items and skills). Above all, though, anyone who disagrees with your play style did not pay $59.99 in order to have access to your personal game file, so truly who cares what they think.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Gth0CI">
|
||
Any tips for someone just getting started?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9tDKra">
|
||
<em>The Resties</em>, a sub-brand of gaming podcast <em>The Besties</em>, is co-hosted by Polygon’s Russ Frushtick and Chris Plante, and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/5gAL0r8IjcYyPoslvwXyj5?si=BWTxEqoCQiuei4hTJABj1w">one of their recent episodes</a> has an excellent list of tips for beginners, many of which I found naturally over the course of my own gameplay.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gzzhXn">
|
||
They recommend choosing a starting class that has some facility with magic if you’re new — I wound up going with the Astrologer, a mostly magic-and-occasional-melee unit that can project bolts of power from far away, which means I don’t have to go directly toe-to-toe with many of the stronger enemies. I’d add that it’s totally fine and even fun to start the game over a couple of times if you want to experiment with different characters; I’d originally chosen the Ranger, a class that focuses on bows, and while I wound up bouncing off in the first couple of hours because it was just too hard for me to do any real damage, I’m really glad I got a feel for such a dissimilar unit. I’m already planning to do future runs with a variety of builds. (See, this is how you get to 100 hours without blinking).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="05zbqd">
|
||
Another piece of advice they offer, and I heartily cosign, is to get comfortable just straight-up running away from situations you find you can’t handle. You get a horse early on (<a href="https://www.polygon.com/22957071/elden-ring-torrent-ultimate-horse-companion">his name is Torrent</a>, which some players <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/t2bhws/did_they_name_the_horse_torrent_so_that_people/">speculate</a> is so if you Google “Elden Ring torrent” you’ll get a bunch of pictures of the horse) and he can go faster than virtually any enemy I’ve encountered; it might feel cowardly or unnatural at first, but there’s a certain glee and even humor in the moment when you realize you’re absolutely in over your head and need to frickin’ book it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DI5A87">
|
||
That’s probably my last and best piece of advice: Let yourself find the humor in Elden Ring. It’s a serious game, to be sure, full of darkness and terror and unanswerable questions about the nature of life and death and legacy, but it’s also fairly hilarious. I don’t often laugh out loud at games, yet there have been more than a few moments when I’ve been absolutely ganked by an enemy in such an unceremonious way that I can’t help but burst into giggles. The writing, though spare, is often dry and arcane to the point of self-aware absurdity, and the character and level design is capable of evoking simultaneous paroxysms of terror and a hefty dose of WTF.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQQHf5">
|
||
Really, my overall hesitation before playing this game was fear: fear of the dark and of vastness and of monsters with heads grafted onto their elbows, sure, but mostly fear that I would suck, and that it would not be at all fun to suck. I’m here to report that I do, and that it absolutely, totally is. Now the greatest challenge is snagging the PlayStation controller before my partner gets to it first.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fp7cnI">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="otIkC2">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The simplest, most revolutionary approach to ending poverty</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ruiA6mIAGlU1qPIYLrOr--
|
||
xyuIM=/126x0:2849x2042/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70640023/AP6612151552.0.jpg"/></figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Martin Luther King Jr., testifying in 1966 before a Senate Government Operations Subcommittee studying urban problems and poverty, urged a guaranteed income to end poverty. At left is his executive assistant at the time, Andrew Young. | Henry Griffin/AP
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A guaranteed income program designed by and for Black women.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3a0hd7">
|
||
In the last years of his life, frustrated by the failure of the civil rights movement to change the day-to-day financial circumstances of Black Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. turned much of his focus to questions of economic justice, and increasingly landed on one possible option. In <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90602957/guaranteed-income-is-having-a-moment-the-last-time-it-did-was-because-of-
|
||
martin-luther-king">1966 testimony</a> in front of the US Senate, King declared, “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most revolutionary — the guaranteed annual income.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xwl9NF">
|
||
More than 55 years later,<strong> </strong>King’s dream of a guaranteed income is about to get a test in his home neighborhood: Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. Later this month, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund (GRO), a community racial justice organization, and the nonprofit GiveDirectly <a href="https://community.givedirectly.org/campaigns/cbcb518edbde54f8">will be launching</a> the largest guaranteed income program so far tried in the American South. They’ll be sending out cash transfers averaging $850 per month to hundreds of women in predominantly Black neighborhoods throughout Georgia over the next two years. Starting in the Old Fourth Ward, the program will expand to other urban, rural, and suburban areas in the state, ultimately providing aid to about 650 women in all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="012ppf">
|
||
While direct cash giving programs have proliferated <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22313272/stockton-basic-income-guaranteed-free-money">in the US</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/11/25/20973151/givedirectly-basic-income-kenya-study-stimulus">rest of the world</a> in recent years, the Georgia program stands apart in its intended targets and its ultimate aims. Income and wealth gaps by race and gender are persistently wide in the US — <a href="https://statusofwomendata.org/women-of-
|
||
color/spotlight-on-women-of-color-poverty-opportunity-data/">more than 25 percent of Black women</a> live under the federal poverty line, compared to about 20 percent<strong> </strong>of Black men, 12 percent of white women, and 9 percent of white men. According to a 2019 Federal Reserve survey, the median Black household holds less than <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-
|
||
the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928.htm">15 percent of the wealth</a> of the median white household.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mGsKKZ">
|
||
The GRO Fund and GiveDirectly program is meant to center groups that have been pushed to the economic margins. But just as importantly, it can demonstrate that direct cash giving can help create a just system that works for everyone, said Hope Wollensack, executive director of the GRO Fund. “If the economy can work for Black women — who have faced some of the highest income gaps, are most likely to live in poverty, most likely to get stuck in poverty — if we can start and develop policies among those who are facing some of the most acute impacts, then we are developing policies that will work for everyone,” she told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aMFYDU">
|
||
As King understood decades ago, guaranteed income can change lives. But the way that the organizers of the Georgia program are targeting their plan — predominantly if not solely for Black women — raises questions about the political trade-offs of framing and targeting cash transfer programs as an issue not just of economic justice, but racial justice as well. Those questions have relevance for progressive priorities that go beyond guaranteed income.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WklYq3dfaT-w_AEagBFlbgkF_JY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23316034/GettyImages_1168328976.jpg"/> <cite>Raymond Boyd/Getty Images</cite></p>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A mural of Georgia politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams by Fabian “Occasional Superstar” Williams is displayed in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2019.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<h3 id="kfLtIy">
|
||
The Georgia cash giving program, explained
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="waZ6FY">
|
||
What’s being tried in Georgia is not a universal basic income program, which provides steady, unconditional income over the course of years to everyone in a targeted area, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/6/14007230/kenya-basic-income-
|
||
givedirectly-experiment-village">GiveDirectly’s work in Kenya</a>. Rather, it’s a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
|
||
perfect/2021/6/3/22463776/guaranteed-universal-basic-income-charity-policy">guaranteed income experiment</a> of the sort that is <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/19/21112570/universal-basic-income-ubi-map">growing around the world</a>, and which<strong> </strong>have been connected to positive effects on <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22313272/stockton-basic-income-guaranteed-free-money">employment</a>, mental health, housing, and more. Unlike UBI, guaranteed income is more narrowly focused to temporarily<strong> </strong>help demographic groups that are more likely to experience poverty. The amount of money going to each recipient will often be too small to pay for all of someone’s basic needs — though potentially still big enough to be a life-changing amount.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E16MFv">
|
||
The GRO/GiveDirectly program will study what recipients use the money on, and the effects of the program on their mental and psychological well-being.<strong> </strong>“We wanted to listen to the voices of recipients,” said Miriam Laker-Oketta, GiveDirectly’s research director. “We’re looking at multiple areas where we believe that cash should be able to have an impact, but we’re listening to stories of the recipients instead of just numbers.” (Since program recipients are not randomly assigned to a treatment and control group, the researchers won’t try to make causal claims for the program.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TQjbBB">
|
||
A key aim of the program is to explore the difference between providing much of the cash up front in a lump sum versus parceling out payments over time. Half the women will receive $4,300 up front and $700 for the remaining months — 24 in all — while the others will receive $850 each month. The total payments will be the same for both groups: $20,400.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cKrvTK">
|
||
Another difference from other income experiments is exactly who the program is looking to target. While recipients might not exclusively be Black women, it’s being explicitly framed by <a href="https://www.thegrofund.org/our-work">the organizers</a> as “a guaranteed income initiative focused on Black women across the state of Georgia,” and will take place in neighborhoods with large Black American populations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DAJCok">
|
||
The impetus for designing the program this way is clear: There are deep wealth and income inequalities around race and gender that persist in the US, Georgia, and the Old Fourth Ward.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C17Ux5">
|
||
Black women face some of the highest levels of poverty of any race or gender group in the state, where about <a href="https://gbpi.org/women-powered-prosperity-report/">26 percent of Black women</a> live below the poverty line. (Twenty-nine percent of Latina women live under the poverty line, but make up a much smaller share of Georgia’s population.) Though the Old Fourth Ward is ethnically diverse, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ec6b90710cc710ad40a67e1/t/5f4fb6f00194e649f7ed241f/1599059701091/O4W+Background+Memo+%281%29.pdf">38 percent</a> of Black women there live in poverty, compared to 26 percent of Black men, 8 percent of white women, and 5 percent of white men.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/1EvMei3yXhKBoQZY5k0ILLMbgek=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23316041/AP120606060636.jpg"/> <cite>David Goldman/AP</cite></p>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The residential portion of Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn Historic District in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood includes shotgun row houses set against a downtown skyscraper, as seen from the front porch of the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr in 2012.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7SWMPw">
|
||
But contemporary income gaps don’t get at the full historical extent of racial wealth, income, and opportunity gaps. A 2019 study found that Americans <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691619863049">vastly underestimate</a> the extent of the racial wealth gap, and the size of that overestimation has grown over the past 40 years.<strong> </strong>Americans believe that the racial wealth gap has narrowed over time when in reality, while both Black and white Americans have made income gains, the wealth gap has <a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-
|
||
commentary/2019-economic-commentaries/ec-201903-what-is-behind-the-persistence-of-the-racial-wealth-gap.aspx">barely narrowed</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eOTI1O">
|
||
This is a divide centuries in the making, going back to slavery, through Jim Crow and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-
|
||
emancipation/">GI Bill-era exclusion</a> from education and housing benefits, to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajes.12241">mass incarceration</a> in the present day. The fact that <a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/2019-economic-
|
||
commentaries/ec-201903-what-is-behind-the-persistence-of-the-racial-wealth-gap.aspx">Black Americans have been consistently paid less</a> throughout America’s history — and nothing through much of it — has compounded over time to account for most of the wealth gap we see today, researchers at the Cleveland Fed found.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UzrFbd">
|
||
<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/11/16/tackling-the-legacy-of-persistent-urban-inequality-and-
|
||
concentrated-poverty/">One in four Black Americans</a> live in high-poverty neighborhoods, compared to one in 13 white Americans, but the gap goes further. <a href="https://opportunityinsights.org/race/">Opportunity Insights</a>, a nonprofit organization that focuses on social mobility, found in a report that race is a major factor for generational mobility even within neighborhoods, and Black-white gaps are even larger in low-poverty neighborhoods.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CDI2hE">
|
||
While guaranteed income alone won’t be a magic fix to the historical injustices around race in the US, cash transfers that reduce contemporary income gaps can begin to make a dent in racial wealth inequalities. To think about it another way, if cash transfers had been given to low-income families in 1960, it would’ve lessened the racial income gap back then, which in turn would have compounded into a smaller racial wealth gap today. We didn’t do that in 1960, but we can start today.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="zusODm">
|
||
The politics of race-based framing
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XQpxqz">
|
||
The Georgia program is different from GiveDirectly’s other programs in that it’s the first to use racial justice as a framing strategy and as part of its targeting. For many activists working on narrowing the racial wealth gap through anti-poverty programs, racial justice is at the moral center of their goals, and to downplay this would be to draw attention away from the point of the programs. But historically it’s been easier to garner support for plans that emphasize the economic benefits of poverty reduction.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="eA2veW">
|
||
<q>Any program that effectively addresses poverty in the US will disproportionately benefit Black Americans because poverty in the US disproportionately affects Black Americans</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0umKsV">
|
||
Racially targeted programs such as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americans-say-colleges-should-not-consider-race-or-
|
||
ethnicity-in-admissions/">affirmative action</a> and <a href="https://www.umass.edu/news/article/umass-amherstwcvb-poll-
|
||
finds-nearly-half">reparations</a> tend to be unpopular. Opposition to these programs is <a href="https://www.umass.edu/news/article/umass-amherstwcvb-poll-finds-nearly-half">largely driven</a> by white Americans; they tend to be <a href="https://www.umass.edu/news/article/umass-amherstwcvb-poll-finds-nearly-half">far more popular</a>, if not universally, among Black Americans and other Americans of color. <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/race-blind-policies-racial-equity?s=r">As of 2016, far more Americans</a>, including Black Americans, supported progressive anti-poverty programs such as a public option for health care and raising taxes on the rich. That segment of the population also<strong> </strong>holds more conservative views on racial justice than people who do not support progressive economic programs but have progressive views on race.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="844xl3">
|
||
Still, <a href="https://igpa.uillinois.edu/programs/racial-attitudes-2021">researchers at the University of Illinois have found</a> that, since 2016, a “more structural understanding of racial inequality” has intensified among Black Americans and also has grown among white Americans, meaning it’s plausible that race-based framing of programs has gained some popularity in the years since, marked as they were by the Trump presidency, the Black Lives Matter movement, Covid-19, increased support for cash transfers in general, and increased progressive framing of programs around race.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UFzItb">
|
||
The fact that race-based framing is still less popular than economic framing — even if the approach has gained some ground — raises the question for activists working on guaranteed income: Should racial equity be central to their framing?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kdMYci">
|
||
Any program that effectively addresses poverty in the United States will disproportionately benefit Black Americans because poverty in the United States disproportionately affects Black Americans. That’s part of the case for tackling poverty: Among all its other benefits, it will reduce some of the financial harm done by a history of racial discrimination in America.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FO0otp">
|
||
It’s not necessarily an either- or. Ivuoma N. Onyeador, a psychologist at Northwestern University, warned against changing programs to address these gaps out of fear of backlash because the gaps are real. She discussed the importance of universal framings to build empathy with all people living in poverty: “It’s hard to lift yourself out of poverty when you don’t have food for your children.” These can be combined or complemented with framings that explicitly note how racial wealth disparities tend to be underestimated, along with appeals aimed to change views over time, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/us/politics/minneapolis-deep-canvassing.html">deep canvassing</a> — long conversations to develop empathy between people with different views and convince people on policy issues in the long- term.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a0Ov1W">
|
||
The Georgia program is privately funded, but as guaranteed income grows into <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2021/6/3/22463776/guaranteed-universal-basic-income-charity-policy">public policy</a>, future, larger programs will have to handle the politics of framing such programs in a democracy. And the choices they make may be consequential. The reality is that while racial justice is a major moral goal of guaranteed income for many working on the issue, a racial justice framing may sacrifice possible popular support, which in turn may make a socioeconomic argument more persuasive and more politically sustainable. But a <a href="https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/2021/11/22/22783093/vox-conversations-briahna-joy-gray-democratic-
|
||
party-popularism">popularist</a> approach can require its own assumptions about which groups to prioritize, and may also underestimate the extent to which voters’ minds can change.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yICDAT">
|
||
Few Americans did more to change the minds of their fellow citizens than Martin Luther King. <a href="https://time.com/5099513/martin-luther-king-day-
|
||
myths/">Civil rights</a> were not a popular cause in his time, yet he persisted not merely by appealing to popularity, but to concepts of justice — and in doing so, changed the nature of America.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NiPpOb">
|
||
Guaranteed income has gained attention only in recent years. It’s possible that different framings around guaranteed income can work in different contexts, or can work in conjunction with instead of in opposition. Given how different poverty is for Black and white Americans, if guaranteed income is to take off as King envisioned and work for everyone in society, it can’t avoid grappling with the hard problem of racial inequality.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Champions League quarterfinals | Chelsea gets Real Madrid, City faces Atletico</strong> - In the semifinals, Manchester City or Atlético Madrid will play Chelsea or Real Madrid, and Benfica or Liverpool will face Villarreal or Bayern Munich</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Top sports court upholds FIFA ban on Russia</strong> - CAS is still to rule on the legal basis of the ban, but a decision is not expected for several weeks at least.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Star women's hockey striker Vandana eyeing gold in Asian Games</strong> - Vandana, a member of India's historic fourth-place finished side in the Tokyo Olympics, is also eyeing a top-two result in this year's FIH Women's World Cup</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I always think whatever I've done, achieved so far is not 'the best: Neeraj Chopra</strong> - He said touching the 90m mark will be one of his targets this year with a medal in the upcoming World Championships</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2022 | Mark Wood out of tournament due to injury</strong> - Lucknow Super Giants had paid ₹7.5 crore for Wood at the IPL auction last month</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>KSRTC-KSINC ship cruise on March 26</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Meeting discusses projects to be implemented in Idukki this fiscal</strong> - Budget earmarks ₹75 crore for district</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SC has not approved plan for restoration of environment in three mining-hit districts: Karnataka Government</strong> - Total size of the plan is ₹24,999 crore</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Woman entrepreneur stabbed to death in Thrissur</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New Punjab cabinet to take oath on Saturday: Officials</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russia destroys aircraft repair plant near western city of Lviv</strong> - The attack on the facility near Lviv sparks concern that Russia may increase strikes in the west.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Burger King Russia partner ‘refuses’ to shut shops</strong> - Restaurant Brands International says it demanded that its local operator close its Russian restaurants.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Deepfake presidents used in Russia-Ukraine war</strong> - Videos of Putin and Zelensky declaring the war is over have been circulating online.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Poland’s business community is helping Ukrainians</strong> - Small and medium sized firms, including recruiters, are organising support for arriving refugees.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine’s Zelensky calls on Germany to tear down Russian wall</strong> - Ukraine’s president accuses Germany of helping Russia create a new type of Berlin Wall.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s new expansion is good so far—but is it worth $25?</strong> - Believe it or not, the best track so far comes from the series’ smartphone version. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1841965">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dentist broke his patients’ teeth to make millions installing crowns, jury finds</strong> - The dentist billed $4.2 million for crowns between 2016 and 2019. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1841967">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Speedy new 5800X3D is AMD’s first non-overclockable Ryzen processor</strong> - New 3D V-Cache technology requires a lower voltage limit for the CPU. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1841964">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to become a world-dominating supervillain for a measly $55 billion</strong> - Ars chats with <em>Dinosaur Comics</em>’ Ryan North about his new book <em>How to Take Over the World</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1840846">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AMD announces FSR upscaling 2.0, promises big, hardware-agnostic gains</strong> - Admits that FSR 1.0 wasn’t up to snuff—which led to new, temporal-based solution. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1841896">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A blind girl was giving me a handjob once</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She says “Wow, this is the biggest dick I’ve ever layed my hands on!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I’m like “Nah, you’re just pulling my leg”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CaptainLostInAugust"> /u/CaptainLostInAugust </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgys22/a_blind_girl_was_giving_me_a_handjob_once/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgys22/a_blind_girl_was_giving_me_a_handjob_once/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>So it’s ok when a season does it…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How come when spring comes early everyone gets excited, but when I do it my wife cheats on me with the neighbor.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SpiretRaider"> /u/SpiretRaider </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgr5j2/so_its_ok_when_a_season_does_it/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgr5j2/so_its_ok_when_a_season_does_it/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Putin goes undercover as a drill sergeant. Talking to a new recruit, he asks</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Where are you from, private?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Sir, St. Petersburg
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Oh, I’m from there too. Who’s your father?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Sir, my father is President Vladimir Putin.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
That is impossible, how can that be?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Sir, people always say that President Putin is father of our country.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Surprised but pleased, Putin tell the recruit:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
That actually makes sense, but really who’s your mother then?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Sir, my mother is Russia.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How so?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Because people always say Russia is mother of all people, all ethnic, all nation.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Laughing out loud, Putin’s liken the new recruit with great hope and ask him friendly.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Spectacular private, what role model do you want to become?
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I want to be an orphan, sir.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Zan_Jr"> /u/Zan_Jr </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgqv9q/putin_goes_undercover_as_a_drill_sergeant_talking/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgqv9q/putin_goes_undercover_as_a_drill_sergeant_talking/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What is the preferred pizza for epileptic midgets?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Little Seizures.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
(I am so sorry)
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HoggyOfAustralia"> /u/HoggyOfAustralia </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgopbf/what_is_the_preferred_pizza_for_epileptic_midgets/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgopbf/what_is_the_preferred_pizza_for_epileptic_midgets/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Two factory workers are talking among themselves.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The woman says, “I can make the boss give me the day off.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man replies, “And how would you do that?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
To which the woman answers, “Just wait and watch.” She hangs herself upside down from the ceiling.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The boss comes in, takes a look at her and asks, “What are you doing?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The woman replies, “I am a light bulb.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The boss then says, “You have been working so much, that you have gone crazy. I think you need to take the day off.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
As the woman leaves, the man starts to follow her. The boss stops him, saying, “Where are you going?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man answers, “I am going home too. I can’t work in the dark.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Lava_Wolf_68"> /u/Lava_Wolf_68 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgeauw/two_factory_workers_are_talking_among_themselves/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/tgeauw/two_factory_workers_are_talking_among_themselves/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html> |