We can’t let the poors have legal counsel! newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/nyc-once-b...

if elected this november, I promise that the number of people who think like birds, in little broken thoughts, will be greatly enlarged

Black Mirror’s pessimism porn won’t lead us to a better future | Louis Anslow www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Sometimes, historical facts really blow my mind.

The 1800s had brainrot too! newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1800s-...

We’re not going to be able to think straight about technological change if we give in to every cliche and trope technology change tends to evoke.

In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.

How any of us who've read books, comics, watched films, TV, videos, played video games, went online made it to adulthood at all is remarkable. Media moral panics are always the same.

2026: A censorious U.K. law driven by moral is easily circumvented by kids 1985: A censorious law driven by moral panic is easily circumvented by kids

Apropos of nothing...

Whatever the kids are doing, someone’s against it.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1800s-...

With alt text.

nothing ever changes

In the late 70s/early 80s my parents warned me not to read in bed because it would “ruin my eyes.” At the time I thought glasses were cool so I secretly read in bed more. It didn’t work, I didn’t need glasses until recent years due to aging.

In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.

June 13, 1926: A renowned Italian-British musician drops dead of a "nervous paroxysm" in Coney Island that is blamed on jazz. Nicola Coviello, 79, hears the din of a jazz band and grumbles, "That is not music," before collapsing. He ran a London music school and played cornet before Queen Victoria.

Nothing worse than late hours, parties, and scant clothing.

Stoking fears of mass job loss from automation is good way to tank consumer sentiment, which is good way to crash economy, which is good way to cause mass unemployment Could this self-fulfilling doomsday prophecy have been a bigger factor in Great Depression than we’ve realized?

Meet the Sad Wives of Radio Are you married to a man who’s obsessed with radio? I’m so, so sorry sorry. (1929)

140 years ago in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1886)

Every era has its boogeyman. Mine was Dungeons & Dragons and Rock and Roll.

It's the trombones (1931)

An inspiration for Ehrlich's 'The Population Bomb'? He visited India one "stinking hot night" & was grossed out by a "hellish" scene of "defecating & urinating" "beggers." Can you say neo-colonialist white saviour complex?

“Persons who listen to the radio from dawn to dusk suffer from the disease 'radio perpetuum', a slow but sure softening of the brain” - The Cincinnati Enquirer, 1943

"Wireless waves are making men more feminine and women more masculine, according to Miss Mary Strachan, a reputable psychologist, who thinks wireless induced etheric disturbances are responsible for some of the vagaries of modern youth" - El Paso Herald, September 15, 1925

Happy international women’s day

"Wireless waves are making men more feminine and women more masculine, according to Miss Mary Strachan, a reputable psychologist, who thinks wireless induced etheric disturbances are responsible for some of the vagaries of modern youth" - El Paso Herald, September 15, 1925

Feed: "Pessimists Archive Newsletter" By: Louis Anslow on Friday, March 6, 2026

What next? NYC tries to ban legal advice by radio? Turns out… newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/nyc-once-b...

Ahh, I love everything about this article from November 1999...Real journalism, folks!

100 years ago a Baltimore college banned radio sets due to impact on sleep and loss of ‘pep’ among students (SF Examiner, 1926)

1926: motors, bands and radio blamed for low church attendance

100 years ago a Baltimore college banned radio sets due to impact on sleep and loss of ‘pep’ among students (SF Examiner, 1926)

“Should the flapper, with her elaborate make-up, her daring clothes, her bold and confident carriage, be suppressed as a menace to the nation's morals, or celebrated as its chief claim to art and beauty?” - 1921

“HAVE you an automobile? If so, you probably have an automobile eye. This is the opinion of Dr. William S. White” - Chicago Tribune, 1910

1899: Minister writes to police re female cyclists, Capt. responds they "wear shorter dresses than the laws of morality and decency permit" Woman retorts he “must be very hard up for subjects. Perhaps he considers that he has conquered the devil in his own dominions.”

This won’t work and it’s not the right solution. Regulate social media, not kids.

Hello Bluesky! Let me reintroduce myself! My name is Kirby Ferguson and I'm best known for making the OG video essay series Everything is a Remix (2012-ish.) A new version of that series was completed last year and I'm very proud of it. You can watch that below. Come say hi!

Everything competes for attention, so everything is in competition with everything else.

1896 @nytimes.com article reports on book sellers blaming the bicycle boom on falling book sales

1900: Librarian says free libraries = too much reading “Great care must be exercised by parents to see that their children do not read too much” “When visiting a school recently 3 pupils in one room were noticed reading books under their desks"

1926: less radio, less reading in bed 2026: MORE please

The downsides of new things are an indictment. The downsides of old things are endearing.

In 1913 the creator of Kellogg’s corn flakes predicted what babies would look like in the 21st century…

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

2026 new year resolutions : cycle, read, play chess MORE 1926 new year resolutions: cycle, read, play chess LESS

Virtues of today were vices in the past. Did people have opposite New Year’s resolutions? (Via our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...) 2024: Read more 1924: Read less 2024: Cycle more 1924: Cycle less 2024: Play more chess 1858: Play less chess

193 years ago Henry Colburn observed: “objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”