Zeynep Tufekci for The New York Times:

Creating or allowing the loss of trust in democratic institutions is a great facilitator of authoritarianism. It works though a vicious cycle: The more that you can convince people that democratic institutions aren’t working, the less that people will fight to protect and improve them — and the less that people fight to protect and improve democratic institutions, the worse they will perform…. Paradoxically, the crumbling, mismatched and patchwork nature of our electoral infrastructure makes it unlikely that we will see large-scale computerized hacking that alters the political landscape. The failure to vote because of cynicism and mistrust is the bigger threat to the integrity of our elections.

I share many of Tufekci’s concerns, but the incredibly robust early voting numbers suggest that we have avoided the worst of the cynicism which she fears – or perhaps rather the effects of cynicism and distrust don’t necessarily generate a negative feedback loop with decreasing turnout.

Quick and easy. Complete by 10/9 in order to vote this November.

Khoi Vinh:

Your time at the library comes with absolutely no expectation that you buy anything. Or even that you transact at all. And there’s certainly no implication that your data or your rights are being surrendered in return for the services you partake in.

Chris Ware on his back-to-school theme cover for The New Yorker:

It’s cliché and it’s sentimental but it’s true: parents, when your child asks, “Will you play with me?”—do. Because one day they really will stop asking, just like you did.

Amazon has so much data on so many customers, it is so willing to forgo profits, it is so aggressive and has so many advantages from its shipping and warehouse infrastructure that it exerts an influence much broader than its market share. It resembles the all-powerful railroads of the Progressive Era, Ms. Khan wrote: “The thousands of retailers and independent businesses that must ride Amazon’s rails to reach market are increasingly dependent on their biggest competitor.”

Amazon has so much data on so many customers, it is so willing to forgo profits, it is so aggressive and has so many advantages from its shipping and warehouse infrastructure that it exerts an influence much broader than its market share. It resembles the all-powerful railroads of the Progressive Era, Ms. Khan wrote: “The thousands of retailers and independent businesses that must ride Amazon’s rails to reach market are increasingly dependent on their biggest competitor.”

One of the greats.