• ‘Under Surveillance’ Author on the Hidden Costs of Being Watched

• TCEQ Punts on Water Rights Fight on the San Saba River

The Lede
Hardly Anyone Showed up to a Brain-Melting Anti-LGBT Conference in Texas

• The #Teens4Truth conference had few teens but numerous speakers explaining how equal rights for gay and transgender people could lead “to the death of Christianity.”
   
• Christopher Hooks: "The strange thing about their misdiagnosis is that it’s easier, maybe than ever before, for disparate groups to agree that something is rotten in the culture."

• An Afghan Thanksgiving
   
• Why My East Texas Neighbors are Voting for Trump
   
• Walmart, I Can’t Quit You

• The Changing Culture of Killing for Food
   
• The Texas Legislature’s Sexist Little Secret
   
• Climate Change Could Force Native Birds to Fly the Coop

From the archives
Skeptics Gone Wild: Navigating America’s Conspiracy Theory Culture

• con·spir·a·cy the·o·ry: a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.
   
• In this story from 2013, Saul Elbein writes a nuanced examination of conspiracy theories and their devotees.
   
• From the story: "But trying to explain away anyone’s specific conspiracy belief, or conspiratorial thinking in general, misses the point—the point being that there’s no longer anything especially irrational about believing that shadowy actors are subverting American democracy."
   

What’s Happening at the Observer

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