The Loop

Putting the "news" in "newsletter."

Hello Darlings,

The following e-mail contains a list of my favourite resources for staying informed, advice on also staying sane, and some responses to current events that I have found personally helpful (+ a crucial postscript on keeping your news organized.)

Finally following through on my promise to drag a few more of you people inexorably into the loop with me.

Reader, there's a lot happening in the world right now, and less access to news about it than ever before. For the benefit of those who'd like to be a little more engaged and informed, but don't know where to start, I've compiled a few of my favourite alternative news sources (curated by relevance to the greatest possible percentage of my readers.¹)

THE LIST:

• Garbage Day — As an internet user, you are affected by the state of the internet — I’ve long read this newsletter for its analysis of culture through the lens of internet ephemera, but in recent weeks Garbage Day has also become one of the very best sources of breaking news and analysis about the ongoing coup. Even if you subscribe to nothing else in this e-mail, you are certain to discover a variety of journalists and news publishers via this publication (many of the independent journalists linked below I originally found via a link in Garbage Day.)

• 404 Media — As a reader of my work, you are affected by US anti-pornography laws, which limit freedom of sexual expression online — Sam Cole (ex-senior editor for Motherboard) at the independent news publication 404 Media does the best reporting on news related to these topics of any individual journalist I'm aware of. 404 Media is an internet and technology news platform that was co-founded by four journalists: a writer, two senior editors, and the editor-in-chief of Motherboard.

• What the Fuck Just Happened Today? — As a person who lives in the world right now, you are, unfortunately, affected to some extent by US politics — WTFJHT delivers an extremely lucid, concise, once-per-day summary of US political news.

• Law Dork — As a person affected to some extent by US politics, it is in your interest to understand US law. Chris Geidner (US Supreme Court expert and ex-BuzzFeed legal editor) is the best source I can recommend for informative, detailed reporting + analysis of, in particular, LGBTQ+ political and legal issues in US news.

• Erin in the Morning — Erin Reed (trans rights activist and ex-digital director for The American Independent) is one of the best sources for all news regarding the fight for trans rights in the US; in-depth coverage of the wave of anti-trans legislation and how people are fighting back. Very difficult and vitally important work.

• Notes on the Crises — Nathan Tankus (economist and self-taught monetary policy expert.) This is a finance-focused publication that has pivoted to full-time coverage of Elon Musk's activities within the treasury. It has been one of the first places to break news of Musk's activities and has been cited in the lawsuits against him.

• Popular Information — Judd Legum (founder of the now-defunct ThinkProgress.) Highly influential investigative reporting; also publishes the newly-minted Musk Watch, focused on Elon Musk’s activities.

• Public Notice — Aaron Rupar (ex-Vox journalist.) Notable reporting on the activities of the US right wing for a progressive audience.

• WIRED — Believe it or not, the tech-focused magazine WIRED has been consistently publishing what is universally considered to be some of the best reporting on all breaking news WRT Elon Musk’s ongoing bureaucratic coup.

This is all thoroughly outside the ordinary scope of this newsletter, of course, but, y'know — plenty of things happening right now are out of the ordinary. Since I find myself in the somewhat unusual² position of being aware of a lot of alternative news sources, I figure that the least I can do is to take the opportunity to share a few of them.

This newsletter has proven remarkably challenging to write. There are several writers and publications I like very much that didn't feel right to include in what I wanted to keep a short list. Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket has brought some attention to the phenomenon of independent journalists with reader-supported newsletters reporting a significant portion the most important breaking news happening right now. Parker Molloy of The Present Age normally writes about media criticism, culture, etc. in addition to politics, though most of her recent attention has been devoted to the latter. Cory Doctorow of Pluralistic (and Boing Boing emeritus) has been a pillar of internet culture since the 90s; a stalwart activist for online freedom, he may best be know for coining the term enshittification in a 2022 blog post. Taylor Lorenz of User Mag provides insightful reporting and analysis of the internet and pop culture, and has lately broken important news about Elon Musk. I could go on.

THE LOOP

Finally, a few words of advice on how to cope with being in the loop.

The important thing is finding ways to balance keeping yourself informed with keeping yourself sane. (None of us are much use to anyone if we can't keep ourselves motivated, emotionally stable, etc.) Here, briefly, are the techniques that I have found most helpful with managing it all:

1. Compartmentalize

2. Have routines

3. Talk to friends

“People get drunk on the idea of needing to know every little thing that happened right now: just pull to refresh! [...] But I think the single best way to hedge against burning out on the news is to have a more dedicated reading experience.

We really need to find places to stop and take a break on the internet.”

Matt Kiser of What the Fuck Just Happened Today? (recommended above) in a relevant interview with Caitlin Dewey.

“Your survival also depends on managing anxiety, and remaining capable of action.”

Evan Urquhart in an equally relevant Bluesky thread (+ unrolled version for readability) on how to approach staying informed about the news for trans people specifically.

1. I suggest getting good at compartmentalization.

Set aside part of your day in which to engage with the news; give yourself space to process the information and your feelings about it instead of reading the news during a spare 5 minutes between activities (especially if those activities require a lot of concentration.) Likewise I would caution against going straight from reading the news to distracting yourself with entertainment (scrolling social media, watching a video, etc.)

2. Having routines helps with staving off insanity.

If possible, build some restful, distraction-free activities into your schedule. No matter how bad it gets, going for a daily walk ensures that at least one thing in your life remains consistent amid the all-consuming chaos.

3. Discuss what you're reading with friends.

If possible, talk to another human being about it. It can help a lot with staying sane / feeling less alone to hear another person's response to the latest bullshit.

ONE (OR TWO) FOR THE ROAD

Before I end this e-mail, I want to highlight a couple of specific pieces that, though they were written in January and February, respectively, continue to assist me in shaping my thoughts about what we're going through and what we might be able to do about it.

• We failed to stop the rise of fascism. What comes next? — Shatter Zone is an occasional newsletter mostly written by Robert Evans (with whom some of you are doubtless familiar from the Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here podcasts.)

• You can never truly go back — Garbage Day, recommended above.

Yours in love and terror,
St John Starling

P. S. — Speaking in my capacity as a professional e-mails guy, it’s extremely easy to overwhelm your inbox with too many newsletters.³ If you decide to follow any more than two or three of the preceding publications, I recommend using an RSS reader.

"[RSS] is totally enshittification-proof, [...] anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power."

Cory Doctorow (who coined the term "enshittification") on why you should be using an RSS reader.

Here is a simple guide + a list of RSS readers. For people who've always meant to learn what that is but never got around to it, CHECK THE FOOTNOTES. 👇⁴

1. When it comes down to it, all that I really know about you, reader, is that you're an internet user, you can read English, and you have some interest in queer art and freedom of sexual expression online. With that in mind, the first couple of publications listed above at least should be of interest to almost all of you.

According to my Substack subscriber report, roughly 40% of you are not in the United States (more than I would have guessed, actually!) If you're among those 40%: sorry about all this. Also, though — if you're among my handful of Canadian readers and you have some local journalists or news publishers that you recommend, I'd love to hear from you! You can reply directly to this e-mail or DM me on Tumblr at any time.

2. If you're one of the many people confused about where all the news went — or simply feel that you personally have lost touch with the news over course of the past several years — you're not alone! There's a reason the publications recommended above are almost entirely the newsletters of individual journalists, most of whom were previously employed by now-shuttered online, print, and broadcast news organizations. The whole infrastructure of what has been called legacy news media has undergone a protracted collapse over the last decade or so, and many of the channels via which the news may once have reached you have been partially or entirely dismantled.

So it's not your fault, basically, is what I'm saying.

3. NOT THIS ONE, THOUGH. My newsletter is absolutely never cluttering up your inbox. 10/10 experts agree that mine is the one single newsletter to which you should absolutely remain subscribed even if you outsource every other to an RSS reader.

4. A VERY SHORT AND SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF HOW TO START USING RSS FEEDS FOR PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS MEANT TO LEARN WHAT THAT IS BUT NEVER GOT AROUND TO IT:

(Mostly stealing and paraphrasing Cory Doctorow's explanation of the subject.)

• With RSS, you can create an entirely self-curated, chronological feed (dashboard, timeline, etc.) of new posts from whatever webpages you want to follow online. You access this feed through an RSS reader.

• Most news publishers, e-mail newsletters, blogs, etc. have an invisible feed of updates. You can subscribe this feed to via a dedicated URL which you can add to your RSS reader (enter it where the reader says "add feed.") Many pages don't have their RSS link as prominently displayed as they used to, but that's okay because —

• In almost all cases you can search the name of a news publisher, e-mail newsletter, blog, etc. in your RSS reader, or simply copy+paste the normal URL of the webpage that you want to follow, and the RSS reader will automatically find the feed for you.

• You can access your chosen RSS reader via your browser or a phone app (most RSS readers have an app,) and they'll sync up.

• Don't worry too much about choosing which RSS reader to start with — you can outsource your list of feeds and import them to a different RSS reader at any time.