When the most profound human emotion becomes an automated transaction in an online shop, the techlords have won
The Guardian reported on the arrival of “Fate” and, friends, I laughed. Or maybe I cried…
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Van Badham
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5 days ago
45 days ago
Elon Musk’s Grok made the world less safe – his humiliating backdown gives me hopium | Van Badham ⊖
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a story from The Guardian ⚠️ › International
The AI chatbot’s torrent of nonconsensual deepfakes isn’t its first scandal and won’t be its last. Responsible governments should simply ban it
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4 months ago
AI might be creating a ‘permanent underclass’ but it’s the makers of the tech bubble who are replaceable | Van Badham ⊕
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a story from The Guardian ⚠️ › International
Despite the relentless insistence of tech’s grifters, AI is not industrially inevitable – or even sustainable. Which is why it is time to push back
Bad news, baby. The New Yorker reports the rapid adv…
6 months ago
Middle-aged men are among society’s loneliest people – what does that say about the patriarchy? | Van Badham ○
The internet, toxic male influencers and ruthless marketeers – not biology – have helped create a cohort of men with few friends
I’m unsure how this particular column got the job of public advocacy fo…
Microplastics are everywhere, even in human testicles. So will the patriarchy finally step in? | Van Badham ○
It’s not the sisterhood busting your balls, fellas – it’s the fossil fuel interests making money from the tonnes of synthetic garbage spewed on to the planet every day
There is plastic in your balls!
S…
7 months ago
Are young women finally being spared the unique cruelty of male literary opinions? | Van Badham ○
Oh, boys; with the passage of time, have you forsaken your Goldberry … or have you forgotten her entirely?
Gen X, millennial and gen Z men are reading less than boomers and older generations in Austra…
8 months ago
Our obsession with spoiling pets has gone too far: your dog doesn’t care if its collar is from Burberry | Van Badham ○
From luxury pet-friendly accommodation to chartering a private plane for your pooch, the indulgences of late-stage capitalism are extreme
A delightfully fluffy expenses controversy emerged in Queensl…
9 months ago
A fluff ball with a monster face: what explains the luxury appeal of Labubu dolls? | Van Badham ○
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a story from The Guardian ⚠️ › International
Despite their cute fluffy ears and sharp-toothed grin, these dolls are part of a conspicuously grown-up consumer conversation
Labubu dolls first hit the market in 2019, but in 2025 they’re sustaining …
10 months ago
The ‘womanosphere’ is the latest cultural propaganda assault on young womanhood. Will it work? | Van Badham ○
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a story from The Guardian ⚠️ › International
A conservative movement seeking to harness female fandoms and pop culture gossip is the new front in the hard right’s endless culture war
Fun news from the Guardian’s “Everything is Awful” desk this w…
America used to fire the world’s imagination – but now the cultural conversation is being silenced | Van Badham ○
Not only are TV-watching, book-reading, show-going, music-listening travellers declining to visit the US, we have started to cease to imagine it
This week, fresh data revealed the United States has se…