Weekend Reads 5/18/19

Ajit Pai’s robocall plan lets carriers charge for new call-blocking tools

But since carriers do charge for some of their current blocking services, it wouldn't be surprising if they also charge for future blocking tools or at least restrict the most useful features to a paid tier. Despite what Pai said, carriers don't base their consumer prices solely on their cost—as we've seen over the years, carriers often charge add-on fees when doing so is profitable.

Forget the hype. Here’s the state of clean energy in 6 charts.

These days politicians mostly agree that the risks of climate change are dire, but policies haven’t shifted with the rhetoric. In this snapshot, global movement toward a carbon-free energy system looks more like a tentative tiptoe than a sprint.

Revisionism Is Winning in American Politics

In one way, this is PR 101—express regret, focus on the future, set the terms of the discussion to suggest that no one can be a fair critic—but the spin cycle here is cleansing much more than bad press. This is how forgetfulness sets in.

How ‘joke religion’ turns deadly serious when the online alt-right comes to life

For adherents, the god of lulz represented both sides of their foundational ideology: a religious hunger for an imagined “meaningful” past and an obsession with irony predicated on the idea that the world is fundamentally meaningless, anyway. What did it matter who lives or who dies, who is murdered and who remains if the world is one giant troll?