Environmental activists block traffic as part of the “Shut Down DC” protests in Washington, September 23, 2019. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Intersectionality in miniature: There’s a man shutting down traffic at the #ShutdownDC rally by “twerking,” surrounded by cameras and the collective guffawing of his comrades. One of them, wearing a shirt that says “silence is death,” douses him in rainbow confetti. The other protestors are holding large signs — stop pipelines now, reads one — cheering him on as his dancing grows increasingly pornographic.


This is ostensibly supposed to make me care about climate change.

Hyperlinking to the Twitter video probably makes me an accomplice to another’s sin — there’s a quaint idea — but I’m already headed to confession this week. What’s another five hundred years in purgatory?