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The Present Age Weekly Recap: July 29, 2022
www.readtpa.com
TPA Weekly Recap

The Present Age Weekly Recap: July 29, 2022

Marriage and SpongeBobs and so much more

Parker Molloy
Jul 29, 2022
10
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The Present Age Weekly Recap: July 29, 2022
www.readtpa.com

Welcome to the weekly recap. In this post, I’ll be linking to my work from the week, sharing some stories from others I thought were interesting, and providing a few casual thoughts on [gestures at everything]. If you’d like to receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “TPA Weekly Recap.” If you don’t want to receive the weekly recap, leave all boxes except “TPA Weekly Recap” checked.


The Present Age is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoy my work, please consider purchasing a paid subscription if you don’t already have one. Thanks!


From me this week:

On Monday, I published a story about what would happen if the Supreme Court were to overturn the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized marriage equality. Turns out that a lot of states still have laws on the books banning same-sex marriage…

The Present Age
The future of marriage inequality?
Happy Monday, all. Let’s start the week with a lengthy post for paid subscribers. Since June 26, 2015, here are all the places in the United States where it’s legal for same-sex couples to get married: everywhere. Easy, right? Okay, now let’s see what the state of marriage equality would look like if…
Read more
6 months ago · 17 likes · 6 comments · Parker Molloy

And then on Tuesday, I wrote about why I made 1,000 images of SpongeBob SquarePants using AI (and talked a bit about mental health).

The Present Age
1,000 SpongeBobs
Since first getting access to its closed beta back in March, I’ve spent quite a bit of time messing around with Midjourney’s artificial intelligence art tool. As of this writing, I’ve created… 18,569 images. That’s… a lot. It’s a fun little hobby, and I’ve found it helpful to my writing, as well…
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6 months ago · 41 likes · 8 comments · Parker Molloy


Stuff from others elsewhere I’d like to highlight:

Over at his Law Dork newsletter, Chris Geidner has a story about the legal case against Florida’s anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Law Dork, with Chris Geidner
Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law is a discriminatory threat to LGBTQ people, lawyers tell federal court
We’re not into August just yet, but it feels like it, right? Anyway, I’m back in DC because I wanted to get back to the one city more disgustingly hot and humid than New York City in the summer. While there are no public Jan. 6 Committee hearings this week (or in August), we learned a lot on Tuesday about what’s going on and where things could be headed in the committee’s work and the Justice Department’s related investigation…
Read more
6 months ago · 4 likes · Chris Geidner

Adam Johnson has a post at The Column about the way the press prioritizes things like “cancel culture” stories over actual news like the heating crisis in US prisons, many of which become unbearably hot during the summer.

The Column
During Record Heatwave NYT, WaPo, Atlantic Run 28 Stories on “Cancel Culture,” Zero on Over Heating Crisis in US Prisons
Which harms our media focuses on and which it ignores is a window into the class interests of not just who makes up a publication, but who the publication serves and what ideological ends it works towards. The atomic unit of propaganda, as we’ve said on Citations Needed dozens of times, isn’t lies but emphasis—what we are told matters and why…
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6 months ago · 20 likes · Adam Johnson

Ruth Ben-Ghiat has a piece pushing back on arguments that Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted (even if he committed crimes). As she writes, “‘Getting away with it’ has been the bedrock of authoritarianism,” and “prosecuting bad actors, no matter who they are, is essential to safeguarding our democracy now and in the future.” I agree.

Lucid
Should Donald Trump Be Prosecuted?
Welcome back to Lucid, and a big hello to all new subscribers. We’ll gather on Zoom this Friday, July 29, 1-2pmET, for our regular Q&A. You’ll receive a link to register that morning. Check your spam and promotions folders if you don’t see it in your inbox…
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6 months ago · 88 likes · 63 comments · Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Popular Information’s Judd Legum has a piece (which certainly ties into the 3 stories from Ben-Ghiat, Johnson, and Geidner) about how Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is attacking actual free speech. Unfortunately for those of us who actually support free speech, the mainstream media is making clear that it desperately wants DeSantis to be president, so we’re bound to hear 100x more about “cancel culture” than about a tyrant in Florida using the power of the state to silence his critics and make certain subjects off-limits.

Popular Information
A radical attack on the First Amendment
There is a lot of discussion about the state of First Amendment rights and free speech in modern America. Much of this discussion is focused on "cancel culture" and allegations that "the left" is intolerant of divergent views. The New York Times summ…
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6 months ago · 212 likes · 32 comments · Judd Legum

That’s it for this week. As always, thank you for reading, for subscribing, and for supporting my work. Things remain financially rocky over here in the operation of The Present Age, but it’s thanks to those of you who subscribe that I’m able to do this. Thank you so much.

And if you don’t subscribe just yet…

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The Present Age Weekly Recap: July 29, 2022
www.readtpa.com
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