Noah Berlatsky is a freelance writer; he lives in Chicago.
Democrats, whether politicians or pundits, constantly urge their partisans to vote as the solution to just about every possible problem. Obama famously told a crowd not to boo Donald Trump, but to vote against him. Willie Nelson campaigned for Democrats by leading a crowd in a sung chant: “Vote them
In 2005, shortly after he started blogging, Glenn Greenwald wrote an infamous and incendiary anti-immigrant post defending reactionary bigot Tom Tancredo. “Current illegal immigration—whereby unmanageably endless hordes of people pour over the border in numbers far too large to assimilate, and who consequently have no need, motivation or ability
In opposing US imperialism, progressives often emphasize US power. The logic here is straightforward; if the United States has great power to affect international events, it also has great culpability. The problem, though, is that the focus on US actions and US capacity can lead to the conclusion that the
Recently New York magazine published a long interview with Joss Whedon in which the film director and television showrunner attempted to defend himself from charges of abuse, harassment, sexism, and racism. Charisma Carpenter, an actor on Whedon’s shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in the late 1990s and
“It was a bit random,” Robbie Shilliam tells me of his decision to become a political scientist. A professor at Johns Hopkins, Shilliam returned to school in his late twenties, planning to major in history. But he happened to see a poster about the UN, and suddenly thought he could
“America is back,” anti-war and erstwhile progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald sneered on Twitter after it was announced that Democratic president Joe Biden had launched airstrikes against facilities in Syria and Iraq. Andrew Murray at Jacobin cosigned the sentiment in an article labeling Biden and British Labour leader Keir Starmer as
“I am the antichrist/I am an anarchist,” John Lydon famously snarled on the Sex Pistols’ 1976 debut single “Anarchy in the UK.” The song is an angry punk rock call for revolution and destruction—an elemental rejection of your staid, oppressive social structures. Lydon wants to destroy the Man
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer has served on the Supreme Court for almost 27 years. He is 82 years old. Right now, there is a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate. That means this is his chance to retire and be replaced with a justice who broadly shares his values, and
“Antisemitism, like racism…requires intent,” Ben Shapiro declared. Shapiro was defending his decision to hire actor Gina Carano to a movie deal, despite the fact that she had shared an ugly antisemitic meme on social media. The meme showed old men with piles of money conspiring to control the globe;
Most parents, and most adults, don’t like to think about parents as tyrants. Usually instead parents are framed as selfless and hard-working, while children are framed as entitled and needy. Kids are lovable, but also demanding and draining. Parents, we’re told in sitcoms and in parenting advice columns,
Last week following the fascist insurrection at the Capitol Building, Twitter permanently suspended Republican President Donald Trump’s account. The company explained that Trump’s constant false claims of election fraud in 2020 were inciting violence. Some First Amendment advocates, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), quickly responded with
Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court for almost a year in 2016. After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Republicans pushed through the confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett after voting in the 2020 election had already begun. In the very likely event that Amy
Liberal centrists are fond of horseshoe theory—the idea that the political spectrum is curved, so that if you go far enough left, or far enough right, you end up in the same place of totalitarianism, intolerance, and violence. Horseshoe theory is misleading though. Fascists make efforts to recruit across
Everyone hates identity politics. Leftists like Walter Benn Michaels argue that antiracism, feminism, and LGBT rights movements divide and undermine the real liberatory battles by emphasizing individual identity rather than universal working class solidarity. Liberals like Mark Lilla, meanwhile, make much the same argument, fretting that identity politics emphasizes difference
“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it,” Beatrice Evelyn Hall wrote in her 1906 biography of Voltaire. Her words conveying Voltaire’s attitude have become one of the most quoted, and most valorized, summations of liberal principles. Unfortunately, the statement