In Slate: “The Propaganda of Concern”

I have a piece in Slate on help-Japan products:

Of course you’re concerned about the well-being of the Japanese people in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami, and still-unfolding nuclear crisis. But do you have the tastefully designed products to prove it?

It’s an ugly question, sure, but one that’s becoming hard to avoid, given the onslaught of help-Japan posters, T-shirts, and so on and so on, popping up all over the Web.

The rest is here. Big, big thanks to all have emailed/tweeted/otherwise spread the piece!

There are even more examples out there since it went up, far too many to include. But here are a couple of things people have let me know about:

• Brian W. Jones has this pointed response.
• John Pavlus points out a bit of code that lets you put a big Donate button on your site.
• Dave A. points out RDTN.org, which is compiling radiation-level information.
• And as mentioned on the Consumed Facebook page, Paul Lukas has a typically top-notch Uni Watch about disasters affecting unis.