november 2023 reads, watches, and listens

better late than never!

hello, sorry for my brief, unannounced hiatus. i don’t know about you guys, but november was hellish for me. i’ve been very unwell, mentally and physically, and bad things keep happening to me. i also have a loved one who has been in and out of the hospital this past month and it’s been really scary and stressful. my life has a tendency to balance out, so i’m hoping something good is around the corner, but fuck, it’s taking a lot to get there if that is the case. the few refuges from my misery have been the books i’ve read, the videos i’ve watched, and the podcasts i’ve listened to. surprisingly i didn’t listen to any music in november. don’t know what’s up with that. i meant to finish and publish this newsletter in mid- to late-november, but hey, better late than never.

indonesia’s first president, sukarno

reading: the jakarta method and if we burn

i had a Vincent Bevins-heavy month. The Jakarta Method, released back in 2020, is all about anti-communist campaigns in the third world that were carried out by the US government. the main throughline of the book is Indonesia, following the rise of President Suharto after the September 30 movement, the fall of President Sukarno, and US-backed mass murders of communists, alleged sympathizers, feminists, ethnic minorities and more. using this as a guiding light throughout the book, Bevins connects the events in Indonesia to Brazil’s 1964 coup, the 1973 Chilean coup, and more around the world, with common themes of US-involvement in the overthrow of governments they thought would threaten their capitalist project throughout the cold war.