Watching men revel in degrading women and manipulating young men is disturbing, but our cultural obsession with high-profile influencers distracts from a deeper global problem of misogyny.
Flashbulb memories are memories that are affected by our emotional state. Your brain takes a snapshot when the ground shifts under your feet, and that snapshot includes everything—the smell of coffee going cold in your cup holder, the static on the radio, the way your hands suddenly felt too heavy.
On the morning of the Unite the Right rally, I lumbered down the staircase of a Catskills Airbnb rented for a bachelor party to learn that only hours before, a gang of white nationalists stormed the University of Virginia campus wielding Tiki torches and chanting, 'Jews will not replace us.'
A whole vocabulary of mediaspeak terms applied to real life has gradually emerged. Included here, among others, are: collateral damage, neutralized, canceled, surgical strike, playbook, rules of the game, high-value target, and gamechanger.
Mistakes are almighty: you can't ever guarantee that the next moment will host no manifestation of a mistake. According to evolution theory, the diversity of life on Earth entirely emerges from copying mistakes of DNA polymerase.
Anna Holmes defines 'hype aversion' as a reflex against being told what to like, suggesting that popularity can create pressure rather than signal quality. This feeling can lead to a deliberate choice to resist mainstream culture.
