Daily Bafflements

Last week Megan Nolan wrote about the way mystification in the supposedly apolitical art world enables the spread of reactionary ideas: “I have seen it said by antifa that LD50 is not a story about art, but about fascism. . . . It’s a story about the voiding of language’s applied meaning. It’s a story about what exactly is gotten away with under the assumed guise of irony and objectivity.”

 • “There is an evil term, collateral damage, for the people who die unintentionally: the civilians, non-participants, etc. Maybe what I am proposing here is an idea of collateral benefit.” Rebecca Solnit writes on the real, unexpected influence of past organizing on the present. “So what did the Clamshell Alliance achieve? Everything but its putative goal.”

• Bizarrely (but all too predictably), Uber is producing a podcast to discourage its drivers from joining a union. May we suggest that Uber drivers may prefer our own modest audio offerings: the second episode of Whale Vomit will appear on Friday and the first Experts Baffled came out yesterday.