Quickies: Anti-Choice “Experts” Spreading Bad Science, the Scourge of Online Threats, and Why Anonymous Isn’t That Great

• The Truth About Anonymous’s Activism – “As a narrow oral history, the book offers interesting anecdotes and insider information about a little-understood topic. But in arguing that Anonymous is an exciting new model of political action, Coleman exaggerates Anonymous’s achievements, downplays crucial failures, and is blind to the ways this supposedly novel way of organizing protest rests on bad old myths. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy helps us understand how well-meaning and intelligent people can fall for the Anonymous mystique, and exactly why that’s a bad thing.” From Michael.
• False Witnesses – “Each member of the False Witnesses gallery has pushed false information designed to mislead the public, lawmakers, and the courts about abortion. RH Reality Check analyzed scores of public records, contracts, public statements, and research articles, and identified their key falsehoods in order to set the record straight.”
• Victims Of Online Threats Say Perpetrators Aren’t Being Caught – “It is illegal to threaten someone online. But in recent weeks there have been a number of high-profile threats against women — among the targets were several feminist video game critics and an actress who starred in a video about street harassment of women. But many victims of online threats say they are frustrated because the perpetrators are never caught.” Rebecca was interviewed for this article too.
• The Anita Sarkeesian Hater That Everyone Hates – “In mid-October, I was approached by some Gamergaters who wanted to show me something important. They had bagged a big one, they said. They said they had tracked down one of the people who was sending death threats to feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian.”
• Family Film Offers Glimpse Of ‘Three Minutes In Poland’ Before Holocaust – “In 2009, Glenn Kurtz stumbled across some old family films in a closet in his parents’ house in Florida. One of the films, shot more than 70 years earlier by his grandparents while on vacation in Europe, turned out to include footage of his grandfather’s hometown in Poland.” A man finds a video of his grandfather as a boy, years before the Holocaust, and helped his (still-living) grandfather reclaim his childhood.

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