Salon.com RIP

November 8, 2026 by Leave a comment

Back when I first got on to the internet, in the mid-90s, I was a big fan of pioneering webzine Salon, which at the time was at the cutting edge of new media. It’s hard now to remember exactly why, but the idea of a magazine that you could read while seated in front of your computer screen, as opposed to relaxing on your couch, was tremendously exciting to me. Part of it must have been the air of novelty that the web had then, when being online was still a minority experience, which gave me the feeling that I had access to exclusive information, but there was also the inspiring sensation of being involved in a new wave of communal creativity, open to anyone with a keyboard and a modem. Among many other things Salon introduced me to the world of blogging, and was certainly an inspiration for Second Life Shrink.

I’ve kept reading Salon over the years, and while it was no longer the unique resource it used to be in the old days, it’s still been my go-to for a broadly progressive take on US culture and politics.

So I was saddened to read that, after nearly 31 years, Salon is to cease publication, apparently a victim of a precipitous fall-off in traffic occasioned by Google’s new policy of providing AI-generated summaries of content, thus reducing the number of people who click through to the full articles.

This would seem to undermine the revenue model of much of what remains of the human-generated internet, in the same way that Salon and other online publications fatally weakened the print magazine industry, but without the upside of allowing previously marginalised voices access to a wider audience (even if that turned out to be largely illusory), which doesn’t feel like a good development.

I guess it’s up to us old-school bloggers to battle the AI tide, and to keep alive the spirit of Salon, and the bright future the WWW promised back at the dawn of the century.

Filed under Blogging, Culture, Politics Tagged with , , , ,

Lame Trump

November 4, 2026 by Leave a comment

So, the US midterm results are more or less all in, and the Democrats have done even better than expected, with a solid majority in the House, and control of the Senate thrown in for good measure.

Donald Trump seems to be accepting this rebuke with remarkably good grace, which makes me think that either he has some nefarious scheme to overturn the polls up his sleeve, or, more likely, he has calculated that there is no need to make a fuss, since he still has two years of grift in which to salt away a few more billion dollars, and the power to pardon himself and his family at the end of his term.

He also seems to be rationalising the outcome as a verdict on the Republican Party, rather than him personally, which has an element of truth to it, though of course what the electorate are punishing the GOP for is their failure to impose any restraint on the executive branch.

The Democrats now have a chance to solidify their grip on power for a generation, if they play it smart and address the economic issues that voters have shown they care about, rather than getting too distracted by going after Trump and his fellow criminals. Their leadership does seem to realise this, but, given the scale of Donald’s malfeasance, it may be a hard balance to strike.

But that’s for the future. Let’s just enjoy today and hope that this return to good sense spreads to the rest of the world.

Filed under Politics Tagged with

Ocktoberangst

October 27, 2026 by Leave a comment

This blog has been running for nearly twenty years now, and, while we don’t get anything like the traffic we had around our peak of popularity in 2010, we do have a steady stream of hits, and I like to imagine that these are from a loyal band of readers who have been with us since the late naughties, though of course the more rational part of my brain knows that the bulk of our audience is probably made up of random bots scraping our content for some unfathomable purpose.

Anyway, regular readers, if they do exist, will recall our annual tradition of depressing autumnal posts, in which we lament the passing of summer and the prospect of another harsh winter, and muse gloomily on the short and bitter experience that is the human condition.

Reflecting on my personal anomie seems even more self-indulgent than usual this year though, what with the state of the world; political instability, economic uncertainty, endless wars, all set against the backdrop of ecological meltdown. It’s hard to know which worries to prioritise. So here’s the SLS guide to what should be causing you sleepless nights, ranked from least to most alarming:

  • AI apocalypse – I’m not saying that AI is harmless – it’s clearly a powerful tool that allows bad people to do bad things more efficiently, and stupid people to fuck up more catastrophically – but I’m finding it hard to get too concerned at the prospect of a silicon consciousness deciding to off humanity. For one thing AI isn’t actually conscious, and for another it’s a highly complex technological artefact which sits on top of a fragile supply chain that would collapse long before the totality of human civilisation did. I’m much more worried that the inevitable bursting of the AI bubble will crash the stock market and precipitate a recession. Which brings us to:
  • The economy – Any hope that Andy Burnham might be serious about shifting the balance of economic power in the UK back towards the working classes seems likely to be dashed tomorrow with the publication of his first budget; some tinkering around the edges will do little to slow the gradual impoverishment of the mass of the population, and the accompanying social dislocation. Any spare money seems set to be invested in defence, as the nation gears up for the next:
  • War – The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a seismic shock; the European conflict we thought we’d avoided at the end of the Cold War suddenly on our doorstep. Four years on and the threat has grown, not helped by the increasing unreliability of our American allies. Which makes me very nervous about:
  • The US midterm elections – This should be a good news story; Democrats odds-on to take the House and possibly the Senate, allowing them to put a brake on the reign of Mad King Donald. The inevitability of their victory is what has me worried though; I can’t believe that Trump doesn’t have some crazy scheme lined up to annul the result, which will surely play out very poorly. All we can hope for is an outbreak of sanity in the Republican Party, which seems like a long shot.

So that’s what I’m fretting about, for this week at least. I should probably just chill out, since all of these problems are going to seem inconsequential once El Niño really kicks in…

Filed under Culture, Economics, Politics, Psychology Tagged with , , ,

Gloria Steinem RIP

September 4, 2026 by Leave a comment

Looking back at the numerous obituary-themed posts we have featured over the years, I see that only three have had a female subject – Elizabeth Windsor, Margaret Thatcher, and Ruth Ginsburg – and none of them were even really about the woman herself, but rather used her demise as a jumping-off point for some other observations.

This is of course shameful, for a blog that links to think of itself as progressive, especially at a time when the struggles championed by Gloria Steinem are more relevant than they have been for years, as reactionary forces seek to roll back the gains won by the women’s movement in the last half-century.

Perhaps a relevant observation on Steinem’s life and work is to note that she was always aware of her own relative privilege, and leveraged that in support of those more marginalised. Certainly an example we could benefit from following…

Filed under Culture, Politics Tagged with ,

Change at the top

July 20, 2026 by Leave a comment

So, Spain emerged triumphant at the World Cup, as we predicted (more or less), though their victory over reigning champions Argentina was one of the less thrilling games of the tournament. The winning goal was pretty impressive though.

There’s a new top dog here in the UK too. It’s still not entirely clear how Andy Burnham plans to steer the nation back towards the sunlit uplands, but he is making some vaguely promising noises, so I guess we should give him the benefit of the doubt, for a while at least…

Filed under Culture, Politics Tagged with , ,

July 4th 2026

July 4, 2026 by Leave a comment

I have vague memories of the events marking the bicentennial of the American Revolution back in 1976. I was quite young, so the only clear image that I recall is a photo of an aircraft carrier with sailors lined up on the deck in the shape of “1776-1976”, but I also remember that, in the wake of disappointments like Watergate, the fall of Saigon, and the Ford administration generally, the prevailing mood was rather downbeat.

Fast-forward 46 years, and I found myself sitting on a beach in California, pleasantly baked, watching the fireworks and feeling that the US, after a few rough years, was back on a broadly progressive course. No doubt my optimistic outlook was influenced by the summer warmth and the agreeable company, but it’s still disheartening that just four years later it looks like everything is going to hell again.

My American friends are actually considerably more relaxed about the situation than I am, reassuring me that good sense will reassert itself in November, and I guess they have the advantage of being in the country, rather than residing an ocean away, so perhaps I should just chill out, and start planning another trip to see them for the 251st.

Filed under Culture, Politics Tagged with , , ,

Bregrets, we’ve had a few…

June 23, 2026 by Leave a comment

It’s tough to say which of the six ex-PMs of the last ten years was the worst, as each was terrible in his or her own way, but I would nominate David Cameron, for the level of entitled carelessness he displayed in needlessly subjecting the nation to the disaster of Brexit.

A decade on from that fateful day, I still feel visceral anger that my European citizenship was stolen from me by a sorry collection of cynical schemers, who had latched on to the populist campaign without really believing it could actually win. They have, of course, mostly walked away without suffering any adverse consequences, leaving the dispossessed masses who bought into the rhetoric to pay the price for the economic damage that has been done.

Worse though has been the effect on the national psyche; the UK today seems a sadder, meaner, less optimistic country than I can ever remember. It’s little surprise that polls consistently show a clear majority judging our departure from the EU a mistake, and support, especially from the younger generations, for rejoining.

We are where we are though. I’m tempted to say that all we can do is let hope triumph over experience, and trust that our next Prime Minister will finally be one who knows what he is doing, but I’m not quite ready to slide into such a state of passivity, so I’ll see if I can summon the resolve to get involved in some local political activity again. I guess I can’t bemoan the state of the world if I’m not prepared to at least try to do something to make it better.

Filed under Politics Tagged with

London’s Burham’s

June 22, 2026 by Leave a comment

The country’s standing as a functional polity, already shaky, took another blow today, as Keir Starmer’s resignation marked the seventh time in a decade that the nation has been obliged to contemplate a new Prime Minister. It’s worth noting that only two of the six ex-premiers were dismissed by the electorate; Rishi Sunak directly in a General Election, and David Cameron as a consequence of the Brexit referendum. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and now Starmer were all defenestrated by their own MPs, making a mockery of our supposed democratic process.

So now we must, it seems, welcome Andy Burnham, who is offering… well it’s not clear exactly, since his declared platform doesn’t consist of much more than not being Keir Starmer.

I guess I should wait a little longer to see how things play out before I succumb to cynical hopelessness, but it feels like we’ve been around this block several times over the last few years, so it’s hard to retain any optimism…

Filed under Politics Tagged with

Making it in Makerfield

June 17, 2026 by Leave a comment

Depending on the narrative you prefer to believe, tomorrow will mark either the start of a national renaissance, as PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham takes his first step towards Number 10, or the beginning of yet another spell of political chaos, after the carefully-laid plans of the Westminster elite are disrupted by a victory for the insurgents of Reform.

Informed opinion seems to favour the former scenario, on the grounds that progressive voters are likely to coalesce around Burnham, with the right split between Reform and Restore. It sounds plausible I guess, though “plausible” has hardly been a reliable guide to the political landscape around here in recent years.

My main anxiety stems from the assumption that the presence of Restore on the ballot will hurt Reform; to me it seems equally if not more likely that Farage’s outfit will benefit from a detoxifying effect, as closet racists reassure themselves that at least they’re not supporting the overt Nazis.

Even if the nightmare of a Reform win doesn’t unfold, Burnham’s path to the premiership is hardly obstacle-free, and there isn’t actually a huge amount of evidence that he would be any more up to the job of rectifying the nation’s woes than the current incumbent.

Perhaps I’m being too gloomy; even a small nudge in the direction of social democracy would be welcome in these times, and might be enough to take the wind out of the sails of those forces who want to roll back the hard-won victories of the last century. As ever, when the way ahead seems difficult, it pays to take the long view.

Filed under Politics Tagged with

More election dissatisfaction

May 7, 2026 by Leave a comment

Readers may recall that I was rather annoyed back in 2024, when I ended up being unable to vote in that year’s General Election due to an ill-timed trip abroad. My inability to apply for a postal ballot in a timely fashion hasn’t been a problem for today’s local elections, as I’m safely at home and able to make it down to the polling station in person, but I still may end up abstaining, since not one of the candidates in my constituency is particularly inspiring.

I always used to vote for the Communists, represented in my district by a veteran comrade who looked like a contemporary of Joe Stalin himself, but the Party hasn’t put up a candidate since he passed away about a decade ago, so more recently I’ve been backing the Greens. They have evidently chosen to focus their electoral efforts elsewhere this year though, so I’ve been left politically homeless.

The seat I live in is not a marginal, so I guess my vote is not going to make much difference anyhow, but I still feel that I would be failing in my civic duty if I didn’t participate at all, so I’ll probably write in my own name for President or something.

Looking at the bigger picture, it seems certain that both Labour and the Conservatives are going to suffer some serious damage as an electorate thoroughly disenchanted with mainstream politics fractures unpredictably. Whether that will benefit broadly progressive parties like the Greens, and the Scottish and Welsh nationalists, or reactionary currents represented by Reform, remains to be seen. I’m hoping for the former, but the experience of the last few years suggests we need to prepare for the worst.

Filed under Politics Tagged with

← Older posts