brief update (Patreon)

hey pals,

I'm currently writing a LOT. I'd love to have something out by the end of Feb but I'm not pushing myself. I just wanted you to know what I'm working on and what to expect (soonish). I'm basically picking away at several different projects at once in the hopes that they'll all be finishable at roughly the same time and I'll be able to pump out videos for a little bit when that happens, but I don't have a release order because the first one to come out is basically whichever I finish first and so on.

1. Cyberpunk 2023

As discussed frequently and therefore I'm hoping much-anticipated, I'm close to releasing the first part of my 9 essay collection Cyberpunk 2023: A Direction For The Online Left. These first 3 essays are just taking stock of where we are and understanding ourselves. When they're out I'll make them public here and also record myself reading them to give people a way to consume it without reading, as I know that's not the easiest thing for everyone. The first three essays are titled The Internet Was (Not) A Mistake, Against the Blackpill: An Argument For Optimism, and Be A Punk, Be A Hacker, Be A Clown.

2. Alex Jones: An Epistemic Political Nightmare

I recently started writing about Alex Jones and how he understands the world around him. Initially this started with a cut tangent from Conspiracy on the Left, and then became a longer cut tangent from the project I'm doing later this year about apocalypse preachers, because I realised I didn't want it to just be a footnote. I wanna talk about conspiracism, Alex Jones, and how epistemology affects our understanding of reality around us, since Jones is such a prominent case of someone making a completely alternate reality for their fans to exist in. It'll largely focus on the Sandy Hook reporting and legal case, but I obviously have to discuss a few things from across Jones' career.

3. Pressure, Prodigy and Profit: A Theranos Story

So I've started writing about Elizabeth Holmes. I've been really interested in Holmes and Theranos for a while, especially since the verdict came in and the thing she's actually been sentenced for is defrauding investors, not patients. As someone with experience working in tech startups and as a young person who worked in the deep brainworms of entrepreneur culture, I have a lot to say about her story and how it relates to work and business broadly. I'm trying not to make it overly sympathetic to Holmes, who is a terrible person, but I do want to look at the actions of people around her that led to her (?)success(?) and downfall, because I think it paints an interesting picture.

4. The Next Monster Men Episode

The topic is secret so there's not loads I can say right now but it's coming

5. The World Is Not Ending

My video about climate change and revolution is on the way, but it's a really BIG project and it's taking a while to reign in and turn into something recogniseable as an essay/video script. It might be the first of all these things that I finish, but it could just as easily be the last. I do wanna have it out before the end of March if I possibly can though.

Yup, that's what's currently in the pipeline, so stay tuned for the text versions of those and then, eventually, other versions. I'm also going to update the patreon goals soon, because my project ideas have changed a lot, as has my financial situation.

Be kind to each other,
Sophie