In These Times is doing a feature issue on “The Right-Wing”, and the essay about former leftists moving rightward (Losing the Plot: The “Leftists” Who Turn Right) is getting a lot of traction. Fair enough; it’s quite good and you…
You Should Read This: Your Stuff Is Actually Worse Now
From a few months ago by Vox’ Izzie Ramirez, you should read Your stuff is actually worse now. If you’ve been wondering why the same make/model of thing you’ve been buying for years keeps not being quite the same each…
You Should Read This: In Defense Of Free Speech Pedantry
You should read this small diatribe from Ken White (aka PopeHat): In Defense Of Free Speech Pedantry. Yeah, it’s Substack, but the Internet’s in turmoil right now and sometimes even smart people make bad hosting decisions. The important part is…
You Should Read This: Authoritarian Nightmare
Back in February I posted You Need To Read This: The Authoritarians, where I suggested that book as absolutely necessary to understanding politics in the U.S. today. Today, I think you should read Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. This…
You Should Read This: SC2 Is Still Spreading In Most of America
You should put a few minutes into reading Here’s the US Death Toll From COVID-19 Not Counting New York at Mother Jones. It’s … not good. They present a graph of the 7-day rolling average (a stat that’s good for…
You Should Read This: Fantasyland
“Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire”, by Kurt Anderson, is pretty good, but a bit nuts. Much like America. He brings together a wide range of inflences in American culture, tracing each back to how it came into the country, all…
You Should Read This: Richard Epstein Is Wrong About All The Things
Isaac Chotiner at The New Yorker interviews the dude who seems to have started the “won’t someone think of the economy!” freakout amongst the current Presidential administration. It does not go well. At least, not for Epstein; it goes swimmingly…
You Should Read This: A New Use For Vacuum Cleaner Bags
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones reports on How To Make a Homemade Mask If You Absolutely Have To. The result may surprise you … … but not if you read this post’s title. (The original paper he discusses is here.)…
You Need To Read This: Dealing With American Health Insurance Is Worse Than Having Your Face Eaten By A Bear
It seems to be true though, and is being vouched for by one of the very few people who has survived both. So you should probably read this: Woman Who Had Her Face Eaten By A Bear Would Like Some…
You Need To Read This: The Authoritarians
You really can’t understand the world we live in until you do. Authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves. It happens when the followers submit too much to the leaders, trust them too much,…