Notes, references, & transcript: https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/dont-include-poison-pills
Here I explain and complain about the poison pill wrecking amendments included in right-to-mask bills introduced in Massachusetts, Illinois, and California. I also have a written piece on this and I discussed this on TheLetterHack youtube podcast. Links to those and links to stuff I reference are contained in the show notes. If you know of this type of bill being introduced in your state, or know people working on advocating for this type of bill, please let me know by using the contact option on chloehumbert.com
References:
The Letterhack - Streamed live on Apr 1, 2025 America is LESS AMERICAN Everyday w/ CHLOE HUMBERT! "If you get arrested, they're going to identify you one way or another."
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxMp31R8ceb_Iog14UeYVjQWez3BQllexc?si=K1Q1IiGNvJFsuQ_b
I am appalled at the news of mask bans. Rejected Letter to the Editor, October 2024. Chloe Humbert Oct 29, 2024 I am appalled at the news of mask bans popping up in various places. I ought to have a right to protect myself from the elements: viruses, pollen, pollution, wildfire smoke, or cold, by wearing a mask. Health exceptions are not sufficient because having to carry papers or explain medical status is Un-American. Anonymity should not be forbidden and we should be allowed liberty of movement, a right described in our Constitution. There are already reports of disabled and elderly being targeted with harassment.
Poison pill in a pro-mask bill. Anti mask ban legislation shouldn't undermine the entire reason for the protection, and it definitely shouldn't introduce random "Stop and Unmask" checkpoints by law enforcement. Chloe Humbert Mar 30, 2025 I've pointed out anti mask ban legislation out of Massachusetts before, favourably about the senate bill, but with the Massachusetts house bill, I'm concerned the similar legislation is going to have the opposite effect, because the house bill is very different.
PRO-MASK BILL "POISON PILL" w/ Chloe Humbert The Letterhack Apr 1, 2025
ACLU of New York - Say No to Mask Bans in New York People should not be criminalized for what they wear. Laws that criminalize someone’s attire fly in the face of free expression principles, target vulnerable communities, and threaten the foundation of our civil liberties.
Wrecking amendment - From Wikipedia In legislative debate, a wrecking amendment (also called a poison pill amendment or killer amendment) is an amendment made by a legislator who disagrees with the principles of a bill and who seeks to make it useless (by moving amendments to either make the bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent) rather than directly opposing the bill by simply voting against it.[1] An important character of wrecking amendments is that they are not moved in good faith, that is, the proposer of the amendment would not see the amended legislation as good legislation and would still not vote in favour of the legislation when it came to the final vote if the amendment were accepted. Motives for making them include allowing more debate, delaying the enactment of the legislation, or oftentimes a direct attempt to convince the bill's legislator to withdraw said bill.
Sabotage works best when it looks like incompetence. The 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual, a resource from multiple perspectives. Chloe Humbert Mar 19, 2024 The Simple Sabotage Field Manual details how one might go about deliberately messing up things in a way that would be indistinguishable from incompetence. Covert tactics include suggestions such as: “Use materials which appear to be innocent.” There are 4 instances verbatim that the saboteur “make mistakes” in various ways, and the word “accidentally” is used in scare quotes 3 times.
The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive August 20, 2011 By Dean Baker
Progressives need a fundamentally new approach to politics. They have been losing not just because conservatives have so much more money and power, but also because they have accepted the conservatives’ framing of political debates. They have accepted a framing where conservatives want market outcomes whereas liberals want the government to intervene to bring about outcomes that they consider fair. This puts liberals in the position of seeming to want to tax the winners to help the losers. This “loser liberalism” is bad policy and horrible politics. Progressives would be better off fighting battles over the structure of markets so that they don’t redistribute income upward. This book describes some of the key areas where progressives can focus their efforts in restructuring the market so that more income flows to the bulk of the working population rather than just a small elite.
Politicians are out of touch. Call them. Politicians are in info cocoons, just like we all have a tendency to be these days, and they're not listening, or maybe not hearing enough from enough of us. Chloe Humbert Feb 02, 2025 Politicians need to hear from people outside the beltway, outside the state capitals, and from somewhere besides their country clubs and their fancy parties, and their Republican colleague workplace lunch dates or prayer circles, and somewhere other than the fancy association dinners they’re invited to.
Democratic Party strategy has been objectively bad. Trickle down economics doesn't work. And people, yes people, need to fix this, because politicians doing badly aren't going to fix themselves. There's no change without public pressure. Chloe Humbert Feb 23, 2025 When they profess that they’re going to “find common ground”7 with Trump, Musk, or Republicans, what does that mean? Finding common ground with fascism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and medical misinformation? Meeting unconstitutional in the middle halfway? They try to spin "reaching across the aisle" as a good thing. But it’s become an openly known thing that they treat this like a workplace where they make deals in order to go home early or have a long weekend.8 They want to have lunch with their break buddies who happen to be politicians who want to make their voters suffer. To us, it’s life or death, to them it’s a workplace and they have a social life around it. Explanations are floated that all this inexplicable self-defeating behaviour is actually part of the Democratic party strategy. And I think calling these things strategies is incredibly silly. They say that the Democrats try to make goodwill with Republicans to get goodwill back and make deals, and Republicans will come to their senses or something.9 But obviously those deals just sell out the people all the damn time.
Public Comments to CDC HICPAC - The only time they have to listen to us. (Maybe) Don't Wait For Everybody - Episode 003 Chloe Humbert Sep 08, 2023 It's not worth pestering civil servants or government agencies to try to change the rules because they can't. uh somebody down at your local welfare office somebody at the health department they're there to provide uh stuff but they're not capable of changing the rules because somebody calls up and says hey that doesn't make sense or hey that's not fair that's not how it works uh they take orders from above and they have to abide by the laws and the policies set forth by your lawmakers, by the governors, by the president, by Congress, by your state legislators. So going to a public employee is not going to yield results and people get frustrated with this. So there are a couple exceptions to this and it's very specific. When there's an application that you can, if you, there's a form you can fill out that can do something. If you're reporting a spotted lanternfly in Pennsylvania, there's a public form where you upload the picture of it, you tell where the spotted lanternfly is.
Seek protection from noise and spiraling gloom Chloe Humbert Feb 16, 2023
Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB3853 Section 25. Exceptions. (a) Security requirements. Protective medical equipment may be removed by the medical device wearer upon request temporarily by law enforcement under reasonable suspicion provided that reasonable accommodation is offered. (b) Operational safety. Specific types of protective medical equipment may be restricted if proven to interfere with the safe operation of machinery or hazardous environments, provided that alternative accommodation or equivalent protection is offered to the individual.
WRAL News - 'Scared to put on my mask': Cancer patient says she was intentionally coughed on in spat over mask - The Republican-led state House passed a bill Tuesday that would adjust exceptions to the state law governing masks. The bill is awaiting a decision by Gov. Roy Cooper. Posted 8:29 p.m. Jun 12 - Updated 1:43 p.m. Jun 13 2024 As she walked in, she said, she was confronted by a man who shouted expletives and called her a liberal for wearing the mask. The man identified himself as a conservative, she said, and he falsely told her that wearing a mask in public was illegal. According to Stuart, she told the man that it was dangerous for her to go into public without a mask because of her diagnosis. It’s not a political statement, she said, and she says she showed the man a medical card describing her condition. He then proceeded to approach her and feigned coughing on her repeatedly before telling her that he hopes the cancer kills her, she said. Stuart said she called Cary police but ultimately didn’t file a complaint. Cary police confirmed the call. Witnesses at the oil-change store also corroborated Stuart’s account.
Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck By Charles Rabin Updated July 21, 2016 9:39 AM Cellphone video footage obtained by Napoleon clearly shows the heavy-set autistic man sitting and playing with his toy while Kinsey, dressed in a yellow shirt and shorts, obeys police orders to lie down on his back.The video, taken before the officer fired his weapon, shows Kinsey on his back with his hands in the air telling police he didn’t have a weapon and asking them not to fire. At one point the autistic man appears to yell at Kinsey to shut up. A second brief video shows officers who are carrying rifles physically patting down Kinsey and the autistic man while they are lying on the ground. In an interview with WSVN-Channel 7, Kinsey said that after he was shot, officers approached and flipped him over and handcuffed him.
Police Kill Disabled People with Frightening Regularity. Keith Lamont Scott is Just the Latest Victim. September 29, 2016 A recent widely cited report on the issue estimates that up to one half of all use of force incidents involve individuals with disabilities, noting that “(d)isability is the missing word in media coverage of police misuse of force.” People with mental disabilities, especially people of color, are particularly at risk of being shot or beaten by the police. Mr. Scott’s horrific killing, captured on video, is far too typical. Just before police shot and killed Mr. Scott while he was sitting in his car, his wife shouted, “He has a TBI. He’s not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine.” A “TBI” is a traumatic brain injury, and it’s a term widely known within law enforcement and other emergency service providers.
Scary letters to the editor on mask bans from people who want us to live in a surveillance state. chloe, tumblr Aug 28th, 2024 One person wrote: “The idea is to cut down on crime by trying to foreclose anonymity.” and said that people should “get over it” if they feel “insulted or put out” for being asked: Papers, Please! by random authorities. Another person suggested: “we should start taking pictures of people wearing masks and send them to the police.” Would this person be ok with rando strangers creeping around taking pictures of their family when they walk out in public? I bet not. This person also added, “Obviously, we shouldn’t try to make any arrests.” But not because that would be criminal vigilantism - But because they claim that people who wear masks might be criminals, and that the elderly could be “in costume” and actually dangerous.
Google Search: people wearing mask inside their car
ILRC - STOP AND IDENTIFY STATUTES IN THE UNITED STATES Illinois 725 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/107–14 Sec. 107-14. Temporary questioning without arrest. (a) A peace officer, after having identified himself as a peace officer, may stop any person in a public place for a reasonable period of time when the officer reasonably infers from the circumstances that the person is committing, is about to commit or has committed an offense as defined in Section 102-15 of this Code, and may demand the name and address of the person and an explanation of his actions. Such detention and temporary questioning will be conducted in the vicinity of where the person was stopped.
TrackBill - Massachusetts H1981 - An Act relative to the right to wear personal protective medical equipment FILED ON: 1/16/2025 SECTION 1. The following, as used in this chapter, unless the text otherwise requires or a different meaning is specifically required, shall mean— ‘Protective medical equipment,’ equipment that is worn to minimize exposure to health risks, which includes, but is not limited to, face masks, respirators, gloves, face shields, protective eyewear, and gowns. SECTION 2. (a) No individual shall be discriminated against or penalized for wearing necessary personal protective medical equipment. (b) Discrimination includes, but is not limited to, denial of service, eviction from premises, termination of employment or undue pressure to refrain from wearing personal protective medical equipment. SECTION 3. The request to momentarily remove personal protective medical equipment is acceptable at security checkpoints and at the request of law enforcement for identification purposes.
ACLU Massachusetts - When do I have to give my name or address to law enforcement in Massachusetts? In Massachusetts, the only laws that require you to provide your name and address to the police are connected with being in a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle. However, it is a crime to give false identifying information to police if you are arrested. These laws are discussed in further detail below. Please note, you should not rely on the information below when you are in other states as those states may have different laws.
What is FAIR? The Insurgence: Sheriffs—Season 1, Episode 4 Cloee Cooper Political Research Associates October 24, 2024 CLOEE: This is Stefanía Arteaga, an immigrant rights leader from North Carolina. Stefania: It wasn't until spring break of my senior year of high school. I remember this vividly because I just remember crying and sobbing profusely. Stefania: I got a call from my mom... It was just.. terrible because I had seen checkpoints before, um, but I had never had an understanding until that point of what the checkpoints actually meant. CLOEE: We usually think of check-points associated with militarized zones, or border-crossings. The check-point Stefania was referring to was inside of a town -- sheriff's deputies stopping people from driving from one neighborhood to another, just for looking like an immigrant. Just think, far right sheriffs like the ones we’ve heard about, with the power to arrest and detain people they think are immigrants. Stefania: Sheriff's deputies on this two lane road right outside of a park and rec field just stopping people and asking them for identification and a driver's license... and of course, the immigrant community in East Charlotte, which is heavily Latino, nobody had those documentations.
Legiscan - California Assembly Bill 1326 28051. An individual has the right to wear a mask on their face in a public place for the purpose of protecting their individual health or the public health, with regard to communicable disease, air quality, or other health factors, subject to any limitations described in this chapter. 28052. Section 28051 shall not be construed as limiting or otherwise modifying the application or implementation of any of the following: (a) Any requirement to temporarily remove a mask for identification purposes through facial recognition, as part of security regulations, procedures, or protocols under federal or state law, or as part of the policy of a public place if identification of an individual is required for entry into the public place and removal of the mask is necessary for that identification. (b) Any requirement to avoid obstruction of vision while operating a vehicle. It is the intent of the Legislature that a mask worn as described in this chapter is in the form of covering an individual’s mouth and nose and not an individual’s eyes. (c) Any requirement to remove a mask for purposes of a bona fide occupational qualification. (d) Any health care protocols to remove a mask as necessary to access an individual’s face in order to perform a health care treatment or procedure on an emergency basis. (e) Section 185 of the Penal Code.
‘Dazzle’ makeup won’t trick facial recognition. Here’s what experts say will By Amrita Khalid Published June 6, 2020 “Deep face recognition systems have been shown to be highly robust to facial occlusion or masking,” Dr. Christian Rathgeb, a senior researcher with the Faculty of Computer Science in Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany, told Digital Trends. If you have a clean criminal record and your local police department only runs your photo against a database of mugshots, you could get off scot-free. But if your city uses Clearview A.I., a facial recognition vendor that scrapes social media photos, it could trigger a match.
Police in a suburban New York county have made their first arrest under a new law banning face masks By PHILIP MARCELO Updated 10:33 AM EDT, August 28, 2024 They found Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo wearing black clothing and a black ski mask that covered his face, except for his eyes. The department said the 18-year-old resident displayed other suspicious behavior, including attempting to conceal a large bulge in his waistband and refusing to comply with the officers’ commands. Officers say the bulge turned out to be a 14-inch knife. Ramirez Castillo was placed under arrest without further incident, police said. He was arraigned Monday in Nassau County District Court in Hempstead on misdemeanor charges of criminal possession of a weapon and obstructing governmental administration, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention - Red Flag Alert - United States: The Proposed Autism Registry Released 27 April 2025 CBS News reported on April 22 that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was planning to create a “new disease registry … to track Americans with autism.” According to National Institute of Health director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, this database will collate private health data gathered from various private sources (apparently without the consent of individuals whose information will be accessed). Secretary Kennedy has stated that he intends to find the cause of autism “by September,” though it is unclear how the registry would achieve that goal. What can be said with absolute certainty is that whenever a state creates a list of names of people considered to be somehow unfit, we are in the danger zone for a genocidal process. According to Stat, a medical news outlet, the outcry that followed Dr. Bhattacharya’s announcement has led the Department of Health and Human Services to walk back that announcement in a “written statement” on April 24 claiming that it has no plans for an autism registry. The Lemkin Institute has been unable to locate this April 24 statement. As far as we are able to discern, it has not been posted on the HHS.gov website.
Oates L. The courts' role in decisions about medical treatment. BMJ. 2000 Nov 18;321(7271):1282-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.321.7271.1282. PMID: 11082095; PMCID: PMC1119017. Lack of capacity may arise when he or she is unconscious or has mental disability. Because there is a different test under the Mental Health Act 1983, it does not follow that in every case in which a person is detained under that act, he or she lacks the capacity to consent to the medical treatment. Guidance for Doctors and Lawyers on the Assessment of Mental Capacity, which covers the different tests to be considered, has been jointly published by the Law Society and BMA.6 Consent may have been furnished in advance. Where a patient has given an advance directive of how he or she should be treated before becoming incapable, treatment and care should normally be subject to the advance directive. If, however, there is reason to doubt the validity or applicability of the advance directive—for example, it may sensibly be thought not to apply to the particular life threatening circumstances that have arisen—an application for a declaration may be made, and the court will consider the advance directive as a part of the evidence of what is in the patient's best interests. Once lack of capacity is shown, the test is one of best interests.
Confronting Evil: Genocide in Rwanda - Human Rights Watch Mar 28, 2014 Corinne Dufka: “When I was interviewing these these militia men from this one checkpoint I asked them and I said you know there are a lot of accounts of a lot of killing going on and of massacres going on I didn't use the word genocide but I used the word massacres – of massacres of Tutsi going on now is this true and how can you explain it and so on and so forth and you know one I got the predictable answer of you know of denial as well as explaining that in fact it was the Tutsis who were actually planning to massacre the Hutu.”
Robert van Voren, Political Abuse of Psychiatry—An Historical Overview, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages 33–35, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbp119 Time and again, human rights and mental health organizations receive reports on cases of abuse of psychiatry for political purposes. The fact that these reports come from a wide range of countries shows that there is an ongoing tension between politics and psychiatry and that the opportunity to use psychiatry as a means to stifle opponents or solve conflicts is an appealing one, not only to dictatorial regimes but also to well-established democratic societies. According to a position article of the Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP), ‘‘political abuse of psychiatry refers to the misuse of psychiatric diagnosis, treatment and detention for the purposes of obstructing the fundamental human rights of certain individuals and groups in a given society. The practice is common to but not exclusive to countries governed by totalitarian regimes. In these regimes abuses of the human rights of those politically opposed to the state are often hidden under the guise of psychiatric treatment. In democratic societies ‘whistle blowers’ on covertly illegal practices by major corporations have been subjected to the political misuse of psychiatry.’’
Adrian Schoolcraft From Wikipedia Adrian Schoolcraft (born 1976) is a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who secretly recorded police conversations from 2008 to 2009. He brought these tapes to NYPD investigators in October 2009 as evidence of corruption and wrongdoing within the department. The tapes were used as evidence of arrest quotas leading to police abuses such as wrongful arrests, and that emphasis on fighting crime sometimes resulted in under-reporting of crimes to artificially deflate CompStat numbers. After voicing his concerns, Schoolcraft was repeatedly harassed by members of the NYPD and reassigned to a desk job. After he left work early one day, an ESU unit illegally entered his apartment, physically abducted him and forcibly admitted him to a psychiatric facility, where he was held against his will for six days.[1] In 2010, he released the audio recordings to The Village Voice, leading to the reporting of a multi-part series titled The NYPD Tapes. The same year, Schoolcraft filed a lawsuit against Jamaica Hospital and the NYPD. In 2012 The Village Voice reported that a 2010 unpublished report of an internal NYPD investigation found that the 81st precinct had evidence of quotas and underreporting. Both of Schoolcraft's claims were settled in 2015, with him receiving $600,000 for the NYPD portion of the lawsuit.
“Trump derangement syndrome”: US lawmakers push to classify Trump criticism as mental illness - Critics of the bill argue it raises concerns about politicizing mental health diagnoses, which could potentially misappropriate care resources and suppress political expression and dissent. by Vira Kravchuk 17/03/2025 Euromaiden According to state documents, the bill’s co-sponsors—Senators Glenn Gruenhagen, Justin Eichorn, Nathan Wesenberg, Steve Drazkowski, and Eric Lucero—define the condition as an “acute onset of paranoia” regarding Donald Trump’s presidencies. The proposed legislation suggests symptoms include “Trump-induced general hysteria” that prevents distinguishing between “legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.” The senators claim these symptoms can manifest as intense verbal hostility toward Trump and potentially “overt acts of aggression and violence” against his supporters. The term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” has been frequently used by Trump and his communications team.
MPR News - Updated: March 18, 2025 12:49 PM - Minnesota state Sen. Eichorn arrested on suspicion of soliciting a minor Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said in a statement, “The felony allegation against Senator Eichorn is deeply disturbing, and raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents.” (emphasis added)
Anti-mask Woke-washing. The moral distortion of social justice. Chloe Humbert Aug 31, 2023
Alarm is appropriate, the volcano is erupting Chloe Humbert Jul 06, 2022 There are countless stories of people escaping disasters and other calamities because they were “alarmists” — and also wrenching stories about people perishing because they did not or could not take timely action in a crisis. The the story of Pompeii is riveting. One may be led to think initially that the people frozen in place by the volcano were merely caught unaware. But only about 2,000 people out of around 20,000 actually stayed behind in Pompeii to get pyroclasted into a grim posterity. The vast majority were alarmists who fled the city — in abject fear of the volcano… and escaped in time and therefore lived out the rest of their lives. What led that minority to stay behind? Normalcy bias? Propaganda? I wonder if perhaps elites convinced some essential workers that they needed to stay behind and keep the economy going. Perhaps some felt they had no other good option and just hoped for the best. We will never know the exact stories. But we’re seeing ours play out. Somehow those people were convinced staying behind was okay. What we don’t ask in retrospect, notice, is why did people flee? We know why and we understand they were right to do so. We also don’t ridicule them for having been scared into leaving Pompeii - possibly with fear mongering?
Medical News Today: What is gaslighting? According to the CPTSD Foundation, medical gaslighting is when a medical professional dismisses a person’s health concerns as being the product of their imagination. They may tell the person their symptoms are “in their head” or label them a hypochondriac. According to an article in Politics, Group, and Identities, racial gaslighting is when people apply gaslighting techniques to an entire racial or ethnic group in order to discredit them. For example, a person or institution may say that an activist campaigning for change is irrational or “crazy.” Political gaslighting occurs when a political group or figure lies or manipulates information to control people, according to an article in the Buffalo Law Review. For example, the person or political party may downplay things their administration has done, discredit their opponents, imply that critics are mentally unstable, or use controversy to deflect attention away from their mistakes. Institutional gaslighting occurs within a company, organization, or institution, such as a hospital. For example, they may portray whistleblowers who report problems as irrational or incompetent, or deceive employees about their rights.
DENY, DECEIVE, DELAY Exposing New Trends in Climate Mis- and Disinformation at COP27 (Vol 2) Climate Action Against Disinformation, January 2023 High-profile protests by groups like Just Stop Oil triggered renewed attacks on climate action and activism as elitist and out of touch. This ranged from relatively mild name-calling and presenting protesters as delusional to claims that protesters are weaponising mental illness. Rhetoric on fringe platforms like 4Chan was notably graphic, with ‘mocking’ threats of sexual or other violence against such groups.
Salisbury: Defending Those on the Spectrum - Pa. House Video Apr 23, 2025 Auto-transcript - Rep Abigail Salisbury: "And in opposition to RFK Jr.'s belief that no autistic people are able to hold jobs, I paid taxes at that job, but I was being denied a raise because I was not able to maintain sufficient eye contact at my job. wanted to seek a disability accommodation. I had been told for years that I seemed like I might be on the spectrum. I seemed like I might have autism or Asperger's as it was then called. And RFK Jr. says that he would like to solve autism by fall. Well, I am excited about an investment in research on the autism spectrum."
Title: The Abolition of Work Author: Bob Black Date: 1991 The official line is that we all have rights and live in a democracy. Other unfortunates who aren’t free like we are have to live in police states. These victims obey orders or-else, no matter how arbitrary. The authorities keep them under regular surveillance. State bureaucrats control even the smaller details of everyday life. The officials who push them around are answerable only to higher-ups, public or private. Either way, dissent and disobedience are punished. Informers report regularly to the authorities. All this is supposed to be a very bad thing. And so it is, although it is nothing but a description of the modern workplace.
Bullshit Jobs From Wikipedia Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that postulates the existence of meaningless jobs and analyzes their societal harm. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless and becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth. Graeber describes five types of meaningless jobs, in which workers pretend their role is not as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history and proposes unions and universal basic income as a potential solution. The book is an extension of Graeber's 2013 popular essay, which was later translated into 12 languages and whose underlying premise became the subject of a YouGov poll. Graeber solicited hundreds of testimonials from workers with meaningless jobs and revised his essay's case into book form; Simon & Schuster published the book in May 2018.
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