Another Saturday has rolled around, so here I am in your inbox, regular as an RBA rate rise, bringing you some good stuff from around the Guardian this week. The obvious standout: a new planet covered in water.
You might find something interesting to think about here, or something to enjoy, as you start your weekend. (Meanwhile, if you were thinking about exercising, this might tip you over the edge: apparently just a few minutes can “unleash your creativity”.)
1. Owen Jones on politics and protesters
A week ago, the British PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a startling address in which he described a “shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” in his country since 7 October. He pointed the finger directly at protesters, staying vague on policy, but clearly endorsing a crackdown. Many have worried about what it signals for civil liberties – and similar tensions have been brewing in many countries globally.
“Casting your opponents as dangerous extremists is the oldest trick in the book,” Owen Jones wrote this week.
History returning? Jones, though noting that “McCarthyism” is a pejorative label now beloved of both left and right, suggests today’s politico-moral panic is directed most obviously at protesters marching in support of Palestine, “who face being deplatformed, demonised, targeted by law, and fired for their ceasefire demands”.
His big question: “We’ve seen how history judges McCarthyism. What on earth will its verdict be on societies that scrutinised those who opposed the mass slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people, rather than those complicit in such a crime?”
How long will it take to read: two minutes
Further reading: The British Green MP Caroline Lucas had some interesting things to say about Sunak’s speech. You can find our full coverage of the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza here.
2. ‘The problem isn’t tech. It’s people’
John Harris has interviewed Kara Swisher, the business journalist and podcaster who for three decades has tracked Silicon Valley and its major players – “supremely odd but compelling people”. She’s had a front-seat view to big tech’s moments of spectacular potential (and spectacular falls from grace), and her new memoir is, inevitably, also a series of portraits of some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential actors.
Here, she gives her takes on …
Mark Zuckerberg: the “most damaging man in tech”.
Elon Musk: the “most disappointing”.
Donald Trump: “I get him. He’s very easy to read. He’s a racist, he’s a homophobe – he’s everything terrible about the United States. My issue was with the tech people who knew better, didn’t like him, but wanted money. More money. They wanted less regulation and the ability to grow, unrestricted. They knew he was bad … They could have done anything. But they snuck in. They really did.”
How long will it take to read: about five minutes
Speaking of Trump: he also makes an appearance in David Runciman’s long read on “political long Covid”, and the democratic legacies of the pandemic.
3. Oversensitive and overreactive:
Nervous system dysregulation, Adrienne Mattei explains, is when your sympathetic nervous system (think: fight-or-flight response) and parasympathetic nervous system (the one that helps you rest and calm down) are out of balance. Some people experience this through physiological symptoms, but most often it presents emotionally – making you “oversensitive and overreactive to perceived threats, even if there is no rational danger”.
“The borderline of medicine”: the condition is tightly wound up in conversations about the connections between mind and body – that murky zone between faddish therapies and genuinely evolving research. Wherever you stand, it makes for interesting reading.
How long will it take to read: about three minutes
Further reading: Analyse this, a special series on therapy, goes deep on another approach to mental health care – from myths busted to the rise of chatbot services.
4. ‘Knowing grandeur’: why musicians love Dune
On Sunday I saw Dune 2. (I have not seen Dune 1, which it turns out didn’t really matter – though if you have strong feelings about this, do email us: australia.newsletters@theguardian.com). The first thing that hit me was the sound. Not just because I was in a gigantic cinema (though, that too) – it really is a noisy film. And as Shaad D’Souza wrote this week, the sonic world of Frank Herbert’s 1960s sci-fi epic has inspired countless major artists.
Dune contains multitudes: despite its weighty themes (colonialism, gender, ecology), D’Souza points out, Dune also “kind of ridiculous – perhaps the only sci-fi property that can cause its fans to gravely discuss the politics of sandworms or superhuman nun cults without a trace of irony”. Lots to play with for someone with a few hours and a theremin.
How long will it take to read: two-and-a-half minutes
(And if that movie had you longing for vast, strange buildings … look at these pictures of Europe’s brutalist churches.)
5. Red carpet ridiculous
Red carpet questions are getting stupider and stupider, writes Zoe Williams. Reporters seem either underprepared, or desperate to “make a moment”, or both – and actors are responding with irony, discomfort or often plain disdain. Everyone is bored, everyone is stressed, no one is having much fun. The whole thing is falling apart.
“Plainly, if the world isn’t ready to say goodbye to the red carpet, we need a re-establishment of the rules so that everyone can play nicely again,” Williams writes.
A particularly bad one: “a BBC journalist, Colin Paterson, asked Andrew Scott what he thought of Barry Keoghan’s penis at the end of Saltburn, a film Scott had nothing to do with (he was at the Baftas promoting All of Us Strangers). Paterson went on to say: ‘There’s been a lot of talk about prosthetics. How well do you know him?’ It’s random, puerile, but never mind all that, guys, it’s just so awkward.”
How long will it take to read: five minutes
Catch you next time. Hope your conversations until then are filled with scintillating titbits and thoughtful inquiry, and that no one bothers you about Barry Keoghan’s penis.
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