The FADER Weekend Reading List

The alt-right, Equinox secrets, and the final stretch before Election Day.

November 04, 2016
The FADER Weekend Reading List Fred Morley; Illustration by Leah Mandel
Inside Equinox Gym's Perfectly Fit World (And Top-Secret Club)

Carrie Battan, GQ

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"In 2016, folks will pay almost any amount of money to achieve the level of privacy and luxury and individual attention they feel suits their life," wrote Battan in this report on the top-secret secrets of bougie sports club Equinox, "which has brought the innocent gymnasium — the ancient Greeks are either rolling or fist-pumping in their graves — to its evolutionary peak: the E club."

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How The Internet Is Loosening Our Grip On The Truth

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times

While we once thought the internet would be a force of good for humankind — free, widespread information, and all that — it's proved, especially this year, to be rife with nastiness, and, more concerning, misinformation. "The lies have also become institutionalized," wrote Manjoo. "There are now entire sites whose only mission is to publish outrageous, completely fake news online (like real news, fake news has become a business)." 😪

More from NYT this week: Witchcraft On The Campaign Trail

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Meet The Stunning Feminist Making Feel-Good Songs For Women

Liz Raiss, The FADER

Lizzo — the newest addition to the GEN F roster — has jammed with Prince, signed with Atlantic, and released a hit EP, Coconut Oil. Get to know the burgeoning rapper-slash-singer, and how she's learning to take care of herself.

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Why Is Hillary Clinton So Widely Loved?

Chimamanda Adichie, The Atlantic

Not your typical Hillary Clinton-related question! Best feminist ever Adichie penned this piece on Hill's wide appeal, which she really does have, no matter what you believe. With four days until Election Day, this might assuage your anxiety a little.

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More on election season women: 9 Women On Why They're (Still) Voting For Trump, The real Clinton email scandal is that a bullshit story has dominated the campaign.

My Journey To The Center Of The Alt-Right

Luke O'Brien, HuffingtonPost

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Because of Trump, we are in the midst of "the biggest uptick of white power activity in American politics since the Ku Klux Klan’s invisible empire in the 1920s," wrote O'Brien, who interviewed and profiled important alt-right figures in an effort to show the hateful bile the Trump campaign has unleashed and encouraged. “He’s opened up space for talking about nationalism," white nationalist Richard Spencer told O'Brien. "If you wear a Trump hat in many places, you might as well be wearing a swastika.”

Lots more fun tidbits in here, such as: "numerous Trump campaign staffers followed white nationalist accounts," "nearly half of Trump supporters believed the Japanese internment camps in WWII were a good idea," and, Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin recently wrote, "It’s better for us as a movement if [Clinton] wins. Everyone is going to be extremely angry and looking for answers and they will come directly to us.”

More on Trump's morally corrupt supporters: Meet Donald Trump’s Top FBI Fanboy.

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Potentially Life-Changing Ways To Approach Your Music

Ruth Saxelby, The FADER

A report straight from RBMA Montreal! Thundercat, Angel Deradoorian, RP Boo, and more shared the stories behind what made them the artists they are today.

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It Came In Through the Bathroom Mirror

Natasha Lennard, Real Life

Halloween is long over, but here's a beautifully written, highly intellectual ghost story: "I want to insist upon the ghost’s presence, not as a metaphor, but as a substantive reminder to believe and disbelieve differently — to believe and disbelieve simultaneously, with a commitment that goes beyond a jump in the night," wrote Lennard. "The hows, not the whats, by which he is — I aim to explain why I can allow a certain reality of the ghost, and then why I should, and you should too."

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How Jon Stewart Took Over The Daily Show and Revolutionized Late-Night TV

Vanity Fair

It's a shame Jon Stewart left The Daily Show before this insane election — we kind of needed him, like, really badly. Alas! Maybe this oral history will make up for that lack.

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The FADER Weekend Reading List