Politics

Against Persuasion

Knowing takes radical collaboration: an openness to being persuaded as much as an eagerness to persuade.

Why Neoliberalism Needs Neofascists

We’re witnessing the last-ditch effort of neoliberal capitalism to rescue itself from crisis.

Lost in Space

Billionaires such as Musk, Bezos, and Branson peddle the idea that space represents a public hope, all the while reaping big private profits.

The Sounds of Struggle

The pathbreaking jazz album from Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Oscar Brown, Jr., that fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation.

What Is Infrastructure, Anyway?

The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.

Our Insurance Dystopia

Private insurance companies have long dominated the provision of social security in the United States, but resistance is growing.

What Does Europe Have Against Halal?

Food is becoming a target for anti-Islam politics.

What Isn’t Taught in Israeli Schools

A Palestinian mother’s perspective.

Beyond the Automation-Only Approach

AI doesn’t have to be a total substitution. It can be a supplement.

AI’s Future Doesn’t Have to Be Dystopian

AI can be used for good—but only if we modify our approach.

One Simple Policy to Save Welfare

Direct payments to families should replace backdoor tax breaks.

The War on Critical Race Theory

The highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.

Science Doesn’t Work That Way

Its authority derives not from unbiased scientists but from the institutions and norms that structure their work.

“Progress for People of Color Doesn’t Come at White Folks’ Expense”

A conversation with Heather C. McGhee about the zero-sum thinking that has long dominated American attitudes to race and wealth—and how to organize to secure public goods for everyone.

Employers, Not Immigrants, Hurt American Workers

Non-college-educated U.S.-born workers have every reason to be enraged by declining wages and living standards, but more restrictive immigration policies won’t solve these problems.

Polarization or Propaganda?

Two theories paint very different pictures of the sources of our democratic dysfunction. The debate won’t be settled by accusations of political convenience.

Amazon after Bessemer

Unions are just one element of a broader push to transform the company. Coalitions forged during the pandemic point the way forward—with a radical vision of worker and community control.

“The People Really Have the Power”

Noam Chomsky on the Capitol coup attempt, 2020 unrest, and the Biden administration.

Why Democracy Needs Privacy

The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.

How We Speak About the Failure of the PLO

Accounts still get the history of Palestinian diplomacy wrong.

Petra Kelly and the Radical Green Past

The Greens are on track to become Germany’s second strongest party. Was abandoning radicalism was the right choice?

Spectacle and Social Murder in Pandemic India

Narendra Modi’s government has used lockdown to force further neoliberalization and continue its assault on pro-democracy activists.

The Politics of the Anthropocene in a World After Neoliberalism

Can today’s crises inspire action at the scales required to think about planetary sustainability?

A People’s Anthology: Episode Six

On “Women in Prison: How It Is With Us” by Assata Shakur.

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