Elon Musk declares ‘cis’ a slur; Poll workers targeted by Trump+Giuliani exonerated; RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan say stupid things; Illinois bans book bans; Grammys are for humans; Zuckerburg vs. Musk cage match – NEWS ROUNDUP

There’s a heavy musk of Elon in this episode. He tries to redefine the word ‘cis’ to be a slur and says it will be considered harassment on his janky platform that encourages deadnaming; he inspires the CEO of Reddit to follow his lead and alienate his own users by charging for API access; and he challenges Mark Zuckerburg to an ill-advised cage match that seems like it might actually happen. RFK Jr. went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to rehash some tired old medical misinformation from 2020, then Rogan’s listeners got big mad when an actual scientist wasn’t interested in debating their nonsense. But it’s not all gloom and doom! In happier news, the two Georgia poll workers whose lives were upended by Trump and Giuliani’s baseless lies about them were finally officially exonerated. Illinois gets behind the librarians to ban book bans, and the Recording Academy takes a stand by insisting that only humans can win Grammys – not AI. 

Did you follow the Oceangate tragedy? Listen to an ad free bonus episode breaking down online discourse,  conspiracy theories and right wing grievance mongering around Oceangate: https://www.patreon.com/posts/oceangate-85029090

Listen to Bridget’s episode about Ruby and Shay Freeman on Internet Hate Machine: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-one-why-trump-targeted-two-black-election-workers/id1648497305?i=1000590820764 

Erin Reed’s piece on the history of the word cis https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/cisgender-is-no-more-a-slur-than

Anna Merlan’s Vice piece on RFK on Rogan: https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7zz9z/spotify-rogan-rfk-vaccine-misinformation-policy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.