50501 Iowa Coalition Newsletter Tuesday, September 16th, 2025
- Ned
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
Welcome to the First Edition of the 50501 Iowa Coalition Newsletter!
Book Reviews
by Indigo Salazar
"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame." ― Oscar Wilde
1. Dying of Whiteness by Jonathan M. Metzl – This book discusses rural, right-wing America and how right-wing policy has hurt those same voters. In particular, pro-gun laws have led to an increase in gun violence, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare have led to loss of vital healthcare, and tax cuts have caused education to suffer.
2. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder – Looks over tyrannical takeovers in the past and predicts what that might look like in the United States, step by step. This i s also a guide on how to survive a tyrannical takeover. This book is short, sweet, and to the point. Read for free: https://archive.org/details/ontyrannytwentyl0000snyd_c0g6
3. Black AF History by Michael Harriot – Teaches the correct version of American history. This book also includes the history of Haiti, which is incredibly fascinating. Written in a story telling narrative, the author makes the book hard to put down. This is the version of history they don’t want our children to learn in school.
4. Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond – This book breaks down the core of poverty and asks a challenging question, “how are you benefiting from poverty?” More than facts and figures, the author discusses in depth how the United States profits off the impoverished, despite being the richest nation in the world.
Deception of the Algorithm
By John Sousa
Algorithms: like fingerprints, each one is unique. Tailor made to your likes, tastes, and desires, to show you exactly what you want at exactly the right time. They’re found in every social media platform, video sharing app, and even Streaming apps, and are doing a lot of dictating of what we see and don’t see. They can be great things and horrible things.
One of the best things about them is if we are digging into a topic, they can continue to show things that we have positive reactions to. Those funny cat videos keep rolling, and the algorithm is seeing that you’re enjoying a laugh right now, so it keeps the funny content rolling all night and you find yourself in much higher spirits. It also knows your car just broke down and you’ve been trying to fix it. Your most recent attempt to fix it didn’t work, and it already has the next steps ready for you to look through. Now you’re looking something up for your favorite hobby, and all a sudden you’ve stumbled across a tutorial for something completely different that people with your hobby also like. And just like that, you’ve now found yourself something brand new to enjoy. It’s not always against you. It’s more of a reflection of you. Your habits, your views, your needs, your thoughts.
So, while algorithms can be very negative, manipulative, and profit seeking, maybe we need to reflect on what’s inside us. Try to gear our algorithms to work for us again, instead of against us like they have been. We may find if we start trying to change the algorithm for the better, we may change ourselves for the better too.
Photography
by Maria Anderson
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