A dark period, letter writing, and culture recommendations
To state the obvious, we’re living through a dark period in American history. I often feel like it’s a race against time to see whether the elderly, accommodationist leaders of the Democratic Party retire or are replaced before the country’s overrun by fascists.
Anyway, since I started this blog, I’ve been very bad about sending out letters to the editor in support of cultivated-meat research. I used to blast one out to my mailing list every week, but over the past eight months or so, I’ve only done this a handful of times.
I’m genuinely unsure whether consciousness-raising through letters is more or less effective than directly pressuring lawmakers. There’s a very good chance, for instance, that one letter I got in The New York Times was more widely read than all my signs have been for Slaughter-Free America.
After a year of writing the same letter over and over again in different ways, however, I needed a change. Perhaps, when I need a break from protesting, I’ll go back to letter-writing. But since I’m going to be out of town for the next couple of weeks, I thought I’d send out at least one letter now.
I’ll probably use Eat Just’s announcement of its intention to build the world’s largest cultivated meat facility as a news peg. This news came out a month ago, but it will be fresh information for most of the opinion editors I’m writing to. If you want some tips on drafting and sending letters of your own, read this:
Also, in a break from the serious, I wanted to revisit my (Cell) Culture Recommendations feature. Perhaps, I should rename it Culture Talk as I won’t always be giving rave reviews. Anyhow, here are some of the things I’ve been watching recently.
TV: Ms. Marvel. I believe Kamala Khan is the first Muslim superhero in the MCU. The show feels important and it also happens to be quite good. Having grown up in the post-9/11 era, it’s wonderful to see this Muslim family going to their mosque and the portrayal not having any sort of negative association.
Film: Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. This is the latest Marvel movie to arrive on Disney Plus. I enjoyed it. The film was trippy with a touch of spooky. Somehow, I was under the impression that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was going to show up, which he didn’t, so that was a little disappointing. Still, the movie was a fun ride.