Thoughts on causes of gun violence, and new science writing
Welcome to Ramin’s Space, the newsletter from science writer and editor Ramin Skibba. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
I’ve seen a lot of takes on the escalating political violence in the US, including two assassination attempts on Donald Trump, and on recent mass shootings and gun violence in general. But I think there’s more to this situation than Trump’s hateful and polarizing rhetoric as well as the abundance and easy accessibility of guns in this country, as problematic as they are.
To me, the ease with which many Americans decide to pick up a gun and point it at others is closely connected to the ease with which Americans support both police violence and military attacks and wars abroad. The US spends more on its police forces and on its military than most other countries (though Hungary and Israel spend a lot per capita on their police and military, respectively), and efforts to reduce those investments haven’t been very successful so far. The US uniquely arms the police throughout cities and communities and dispatches military forces in numerous countries around the world, including in places they don’t belong. Police brutality is responsible for more than 1,000 deaths annually, and the US’s military adventures and investments have a much grimmer death toll. Yet many Americans, including some political leaders, have no problem joking about invading and bombing other countries, usually Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. No one should ever turn to violence so quickly, so easily.
Gun violence in the United States is mostly perpetrated by men, too, and it’s certainly related to the prevalence of domestic violence and rampant sexism and misogyny. At the same time, an often unhealthy, even toxic, individualism seems to have become common today, partly thanks to the decline of unions and churches and the social isolation of the pandemic. So many people feel alone, abandoned by their neighbors, their communities, and the society at large. In this context, we should view violence as a public health problem, not yet another us-versus-them problem.
Anyway, just wanted to share a few thoughts on these issues. I’ve written previously about gun violence, and if you’re interested, check out these pieces in Undark magazine and Knowable magazine.
Stay tuned for my upcoming work, including a book review on global environmental history, a piece comparing electoral systems around the world, and a deep dive into ocean-based carbon removal.
In other writing…
Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art, by Ted Chiang in the New Yorker, and Rachel Ossip wrote about similar issues in a n+1 magazine essay, Eat Poop You Cat, and here’s an illustration of AI slop being generated out there.
The state of California had the chance to follow Canada and Australia’s lead and to make an impact toward saving local journalism with new legislation to limit tech platforms from siphoning off ad revenue from journalism outlets. But Google, Governor Gavin Newsom, and a couple legislators made a backroom deal that’s more about funding AI than journalists. For more information, I recommend: A deep dive into Google’s shady California journalism deal, by Matt Pearce (president of Media Guild of the West) in his newsletter. I also recommend this newsletter by Brian Merchant (former LA Times tech columnist), How a bill meant to save journalism from big tech ended up boosting AI and bailing out Google instead. Here’s also some coverage in The Lever.
To fix climate anxiety (and also climate change), we first have to fix individualism, by Rosanna Xia in the LA Times
The Asteroid-in-Spring Hypothesis, a piece about a feud among paleontologists, by Kerry Howley in Intelligencer/New York Magazine
I’ve been disappointed seeing US and Western European policy makers shifting rightward with increasingly xenophobic immigration politics, and many journalists have followed that harmful trajectory as well. Here are two refreshing exceptions: Kamala Harris Accepted Trump’s Racist Lie That Immigration Is Bad, by Natasha Lennard in The Intercept, and Do Border, by Daniel Denvir in n+1 magazine.
Iran’s Persistent Sadness, by Kourosh Ziabari in New Lines Magazine
Protecting the Prairie, by Sarah Smarsh in Orion magazine
Power Metals, by Nicolas Niarchos, and Gold Fever in the Coup Belt, by James Pogue, both essays in Granta magazine. (The latter is behind a paywall, but Granta is a great magazine to consider subscribing to).
The Worst Magazine in America, about The Atlantic, by Nathan Robinson in Current Affairs magazine. It’s a bit harsh but includes some compelling critiques. I also recommend this episode of the Citations Needed podcast, with Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, about how The Atlantic helps launder right-wing ideas (such as about austerity economics and war) for liberal readers. That said, I’ve written for the magazine a couple times, I’m a longtime subscriber, and I have a lot of respect for some of the writers and editors there, especially on their science team.
Against Rereading, by Oscar Schwartz in The Paris Review. He makes a controversial argument, and for the most part, I agree. No offense to you rereaders out there though.
These new nonfiction books look interesting: By The Fire We Carry, by Rebecca Nagle, From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire, by Sarah Jaffe, The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World, by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, and How to Kill an Asteroid, by Robin George Andrews.
What I’m reading: James, by Percival Everett
Looking back: Seven years ago, I wrote in Slate about FEMA’s horrible flood maps, demonstrated by Hurricane Harvey. The maps still don’t account for rapid development and climate forecasts. That’s really important, as people continue building in areas prone to floods and fires or vulnerable to drought or crumbling coastlines.
More about me: I’m a science writer and journalist based in the Bay Area. I was WIRED magazine’s space writer until December 2023, and before that I worked as a freelance writer and an astrophysicist. You can find me at my website, raminskibba.net, and on Twitter and Bluesky. I’m also former president of the San Diego Science Writers Association (SANDSWA) and on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), though the opinions I express are mine alone. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you’re welcome to subscribe too.