Wars of Future Past

Hello, Wars of Future Past subscribers. The last time you heard from me, over 19 months ago, I sent out a newsletter as part of a campaign challenging the editorial decisions of Substack as a publisher. I can’t say I’ve found that Substack was responsive to the critique, and most of my fellow co-signatories have either moved platforms or quit newslettering entirely. As for my part, I’ve de-monetized this newsletter, pausing all payments indefinitely.

Hi readers—Below is a letter to the Substack founders that I helped draft as part of a group of publishers seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis. We are all publishing the letter on our own individual Substacks today for visibility, and to make our readers aware of our asks and concerns. Thanks for reading. Dear Chris, Hamish & Jairaj: We’re asking a very simple question that has somehow been made complicated: Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis?

This newsletter is a collaboration with of the excellent Fingers, which is a great read on the culture and industry of modern alcohol. I’ve got a little bit of a career update at the end, but before I get to that, I’ll let Dave take it away with why we’re talking about grunts and grain alcohol. If Grunt Style and Black Rifle Coffee Co. opened a distillery, what would it make? Unfortunately, we don’t have to speculate, because this Veterans Day, the militarization of brown liquor is fully upon us.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. "Never has 'that which we know by many names' been more appropriate," said Chair Oliver. "We have been blessed with a sacred obligation to mediate relations between our universe, and those now teachable through the All Souls portal in Tulsa." "How can we be trusted to speak for the whole of humanity?" asked member Lathrop. "Should this not be put in the hands of the scientists or the politicians?" "The first message through the portal was 'sanctuary,'" replied Oliver.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. In the wee hours of the too-late night and the too-early morning, I’ve been revisiting the 1992 X-Men cartoon. I recall excitedly finding it after it came highly recommended on the preschool playground.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. I have spent the last two weeks acutely aware of sensors and sensor error. Newborns can communicate in finite ways, useful signals all, but a scream is an alert, not a diagnostic. For those who require immediate attention in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, being born means a rapid transit from nude in the womb to swaddles and an array of sensors, providing doctors and nurses readings on heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen levels, among others.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. A block or so from my house is history’s least-effective roundabout. The traffic circle, put in place at some point in my teen years, is the median point of trying to render a dangerous intersection safe. Before the roundabout, the intersection was already a four-way-stop, with speed bumps added to try and calm traffic in the late 1990s.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. By February 5th, I knew I had missed a big story. I’d taken a long weekend to be present with my in-laws as they helped us set up the nursery in our house. That meant pre-filing stories, so I was off the clock when a large high-altitude balloon caused a halt in air traffic over Billings, Montana. Even as I stayed off twitter, I learned the news through other chats, texts, and eventually my in-laws asking what I’d thought about the whole affair.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. When treaded armored vehicles first rolled into battle in 1916, they were categorized not by weight or role, but by gender. The Royal Army, seeking to break the stalemate on the Western Front, devised these “dreadnoughts of the battlefield,” and then made two versions. If the land battleships were armed primarily with machine guns, they were female, while if they had two 57mm cannons, they were male.

Edited by Althea May Atherton. This newsletter will contain spoilers for A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, Rogue One, The Clone Wars, and the first season of Andor. The last shot of the finale episode of season one of “Andor”, tucked away as a post-credits reveal, shows droids assembling a structure in minute detail. Three droids cluster around a connector on a shiny-slick surface, and a fourth moves another one of the connectors on its back.