<img decoding="async" Today’s links The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have A Point: My *Locus* column about the justifiable suspicions of the medical industry, lockdowns, license-plate cameras, and beyond. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have A Point (permalink) My latest Locus Magazine column is “The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have A Point,” about all the ways that I agree with the Right’s paranoid fringe, whom I mostly disagree with: https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/ The impetus for the article was a widely reported, bizarre protest against the plan to create a “15-minute city” in Oxford, England. A 15-minute city is a city where planning strives to ensure that you can walk or bicycle to all the things you need – shopping, leisure, school, work, healthcare – within 15 minutes. It’s been the source of unhinged conspiracy theories from the far-right fever swamp, on both sides of the Atlantic. The protest in Oxford was especially bizarre since it’s already basically a 15-minute city – not only is it a college town (most college towns are 15-minute cities), it’s a medieval college town, and olde timey people laid out their cities for the convenience of pedestrians (for obvious reasons). The protesters had a raft of objections to the plans, including a complex system for limiting cars’ access to the center of town. This plan rationed vehicular access to the narrow, clogged, medieval roads in town, allowing each resident a…Pluralistic: The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have A Point (03 May 2023)