Links 4/3/16

Politics:

They'll start writing books in 20 years how the baby boomers managed to fuck up the entire planet for all future generations while writing snarky articles about how self-involved GenY is. 

Young people’s sense that America needs a moral rebirth is not just economic. The Black Lives Matter movement has done for racism and police brutality what Occupy did for financial realities—not discover a fresh injustice, but rather expose a long-festering moral blight. The words “Black Lives Matter” are a clear expression of the movement: a statement of sheer obviousness, identifying a historical ugliness that has lived in the shadows and is finally being dragged into the national light.
In the biggest picture, young people don’t just feel that they have been uniquely disadvantaged by the economy, but also that they are revolutionaries for urgent social rights, particularly for black Americans and gay couples. They sense that they are both America’s impoverished generation and its moral guardians—absent on the payroll, but present at the the revolution. 

The Atlantic: The Liberal Millennial Revolution, February 29, 2016 

The lockout laws are not the closure of a few pubs because of drunken violence. They are final confirmation of who the country is run by, and who it is run for. Those details are unambiguous elsewhere. Take the Grattan Institute’s 2014 report into wealth across generations, which isn’t “across” generations at all. Generation Y may be the first generation in memory to be less wealthy than that of their parents. Almost all the benefits of the mining boom in additional government spending went to older voters. As Greg Jericho reported in the Guardian, from 2003–04 to 2011–12, households where the head was aged 55 to 64 saw their wealth rise $174,000 (19%). The households of 24- to 34-year-olds lost $10,400 in wealth – a 4% drop. In major metropolitan areas, the shut-out of the young from the housing market is almost complete.
This relative disadvantage is treated not as the outcome of fate or policy, but as a matter of morality, a kind of just deserts. Young people angered by these laws are trivial, selfish, deluded and threatening. Just as they can’t get regular work because they’re precious, lazy and disloyal. Just as they can’t be allowed to drink because they’re violent, noisy and irresponsible. If they complain it’s only more evidence that they’re spoilt. 

The Monthly: The Boomer Supremacy, March 2016

How President Obama's plans to shut Guantanamo fell through. 

Hillary Clinton's plan to defeat Donald Trump, the Republican party is self-destructing, how Europe looks differently at Donald Trump's populism, which doesn't seem so exceptional from that perspective, and a possible nuclear option to prevent filibusters against Supreme Court Nominees. (and Paul Krugman - "So it’s amazing to see the party’s elite utterly astonished by the success of a candidate who is just saying outright what they have consistently tried to convey with dog whistles.", and the possibility of a third-party option independent Republican option in case Trump wins the nomination). 

Poland's fall from grace. 

Europe is dismantling itself. One of my nightmares is going back to Austria and finding it as small (small-minded, small in terms of space, small in every sense of the word) as it was in the 1990s, and that is definitely the way it is heading right now, as is the rest of the EU.

The future of the Asia-Pacific region, and a new silk road. 

About the class difference between Uber and Airbnb, or labour and capital. 

I hope Melissa Harris-Perry gets a much better gig elsewhere very soon. 

Innovative ways to recycle air pollution. 

Pop Culture:

Writer Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on visiting James Baldwin's home in France. 

Beer culture: Scottish brewery BrewDog has made their entire operation open source, which is fantastic news for home brewers looking to up their operation. 

This is a very good article about Broad City. A SHOW THAT HAS RECENTLY LOVINGLY REFERENCED INSTANT FILM CLASSIC SISTER ACT 2. 

So sad that I won't be able to see this. 

Kate McKinnon & Kumail Nanjiani in Carol. 

Deadpool was less terrible than I thought it would be but I've been severely disappointed with Marvel films recently (and I love Agent Carter dearly but sometimes wish it could be more edgy and less confined. And more gay.)