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Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words Posts

Delta 8 FAQ: What You Should Know Before Trying Delta 8A photo depicting a person's open-mouthed face in silhouetted profile as they take a dropper of bright green liquid. Text: Kti's Delta 8 FAQ. WTF is it and should you try it?
When it comes to Delta 8, caveat emptor.
June 30, 2021
Kit
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Delta 8 FAQ: What You Should Know Before Trying Delta 8

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

There’s a lot of buzz around Delta 8 right now, but I’m concerned people aren’t educating themselves about this new cannabinoid before using it.

Almost weekly, someone asks me about Delta 8 products. What are they, should I try them?

I appreciate that people look to me for guidance, so I thought I’d put together a few tidbits about Delta 8.

If you’re not aware, Delta 8, short for Delta-8-THC, is a close relative of Delta-9-THC. That’s main compound in psychoactive cannabis (“marijuana”). As you might guess, the two compounds are very chemically similar with somewhat similar effects. They both make you high but in slightly different ways. I’ll get into that below.

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‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual ErrorsA Guy Fawkes 'Anonymous' mask looms out of a dark space. "It Came From Something Awful" detals 4chan, Anonymous, the rise of QAnon and what the author sees as a grand culture war.
(Tarik Haiga / Unsplash, public domain)
May 6, 2021
Kit
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‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual Errors

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I don’t write about books often, and usually I stick to good ones, but I feel this needs to be said: “It Came From Something Awful” is a book that, at minimum, needed more fact-checking before publication.

Though the book came out in 2019, author Dale Beran is back in the spotlight because of the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Beran is seen as one of the experts on 4chan, and 4chan is seen as a key origin point of What Just Happened ™.

When I dug into the book, I found out this argument represents the first third of it at most, and my problems with the latter chapters make me call the whole thing into question.

Read more‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual Errors
Podcast: Talking with Visu.News about ‘Officer-Involved’ ShootingsA photo of a police car at a crime scene, framed with just the roof and blue light visible in the foreground, and a blurry urban scene in the background. Kit O'Connell went on the Visu.News podcast to discuss how the media covers police when they kill.
Kit went on the Visu.News podcast to discuss police and the media.
April 16, 2021
Kit
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Podcast: Talking with Visu.News about ‘Officer-Involved’ Shootings

Posted in Audio, and Journalism

I appeared on the Visu.News podcast to discuss my recent article on the language media uses when discussing the police. The hosts, Aaron Cynic and Zach Roberts, had just watched the recently released bodycam footage of the police murder of Adam Toledo. They were understandably shaken, and it gave our discussion an increased urgency.

Read morePodcast: Talking with Visu.News about ‘Officer-Involved’ Shootings
Officer-Involved Shootings: How Was The Officer Involved?A closer look at the myth of officer-involved shootings. Two police cars lined up at a roadside with their emergency lights lit.
At the scene of another 'officer-involved' shooting?
April 14, 2021
Kit
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Officer-Involved Shootings: How Was The Officer Involved?

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

I found a really stark example this week of how the mainstream media continues to misreport about police killings, or as they too-often call them, “officer-involved shootings.”

I’m not the first one to point out that this is a problem. Experts on journalism discourages the use of vague language like “officer-involved shootings.” So why does the media persist in it?

Again, this happens all the time. I’m only calling out ABC here because it’s so blatant: two contrasting examples from the same 24-hour period. Here’s the first tweet:

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Mutual Aid In The Media After The Texas Freeze (Podcast Appearance)The sun sets over a snow and ice covered field in rural Texas, February 15, 2021.
How did media and local governments react to mutual aid efforts in Texas? (Flickr / Jonathan Cutrer, CC-NC license)
April 6, 2021
Kit
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Mutual Aid In The Media After The Texas Freeze (Podcast Appearance)

Posted in Audio, Austin, Journalism, and Media

I appeared on a second episode of the It’s Going Down podcast about the Texas Freeze.

The first part of this discussion, published last month, focused on the disaster itself. In the second part the panelists (including myself) discuss how the media, populace and local governments reacted to the mutual aid efforts:

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Anyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine InterviewA photo of a banner drop on an overpass, but the banner has been pixellated to make it illegible. Three small figures are visible behind the banner, attaching it to the bridge.
Banner drops and other tactics don't "belong" to the Left. (From a 350 dot org image on Flickr, CC NC SA license)
March 17, 2021
Kit
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Anyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine Interview

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

Activists sometimes forget that anyone can use tactics like banner drops, including the fascist far right.

Late in 2020 and in the first days of 2021, I spoke twice to Spencer Sunshine, a researcher of the far right and ways to oppose them. I included “40 Ways To Fight Fascists,” the zine he co-wrote with PopMob, in my Virtual Gonzo Zine Library.

Since Trump’s election, I’ve noticed more American fascists using tactics traditionally associated with leftist activism, like banner drops or wheatpasting. Patriot Front is one of several groups that frequently drops banners, with messages in support of white supremacy, from buildings and overpasses.

Read moreAnyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine Interview