A Database Showed Far-Right Terror on the Rise. Then Trump Defunded It.
In May 2017, Erin Kearns, an adjunct instructor at American University, gave a lecture on terrorism in the United States. Jihadists, she said, commit only a small portion of attacks on American soil,...
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What Women Want?
As titles go, How to Date Men When You Hate Men is exemplary: clear, rhyming, and conceptually precise. The first book from comedy writer Blythe Roberson (The New Yorker, The Onion, The Late Show with...
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See for Yourself
The black-and-white video looks, just for a moment, like it might be a real cooking show. The female host holds up a chalkboard displaying its title, then puts on her apron and picks up a bowl. Yet...
View ArticleGreen Leftists Prepare to Give Democratic Candidates Hell
On Tuesday, two days after Elizabeth Warren announced her candidacy for president, an aide gave a statement to Axios that suggested the Massachusetts senator intends to court the green-leftist vote:...
View ArticleWhy Aren’t Democratic Governors Pardoning More Prisoners?
Christmas is often described as the season of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption. For a handful of prisoners each year, that description has even greater meaning. Governors traditionally use the...
View ArticleThe Ugly, Illiberal, Anti-Semitic Heart of the Yellow Vest Movement
Just days before Christmas, Thibaut Chevillard, a journalist with the French newspaper 20 Minutes, observed a harrowing scene on the Paris metro. A group of drunken gilets jaunes—“yellow vests”—on...
View ArticleThe Taming of Poland’s Far Right
From London to Rome, the European Union over the past decade has served as a useful punching bag, wheeled out to unite domestic voters against a conveniently opaque and unglamorous bogeyman. The...
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The Operative
Imagine a pivotal moment in the history of the Supreme Court. A longtime partisan political operative is nominated and confirmed to the court. The party putting him forward is in the peculiar position...
View ArticleYou’re the Worst’s Brilliant, Imperfect Ending
An early episode of the acerbic sitcom You’re the Worst, which follows the misadventures of four thirtysomethings living on the east side of Los Angeles, begins with a close-up of a mimosa in a...
View ArticleJair Bolsonaro Is Not the New Trump. He’s Worse.
Scarcely a week into Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure as president of Brazil, protections for the environment and indigenous and LGBTQ populations have been removed, and both the neoliberal economic policies...
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The Painful Price of Becoming Jackie Chan
There are many ways to tell the story of Jackie Chan. He is the heir to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the comic grace of his movements leaving audiences in laughing wonder. He’s also the heir to...
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Kristen Roupenian’s Power Dynamics
When Kristen Roupenian’s New Yorker short story “Cat Person” became a five-alarm sensation late last year, critics rushed to explain its popularity in terms of its relatability and quality. In its...
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In True Detective, Mahershala Ali Plays the Moody Brooder to Perfection
The third season of HBO’s True Detective is a return to the first season’s template. This is a response to the errant season two, a much-derided foray into urban policing, corruption, and masculinity....
View ArticleJoe Biden’s Presidential Delusions
Joe Biden is yet again on the verge of announcing a presidential run. Despite twice falling far short of the Democratic nomination, in 1988 and 2008, the 76-year-old Biden is convinced not only that he...
View ArticleTrump’s Impeachment Trial Is Already Underway
Rashida Tlaib, a newly elected Democratic representative from Michigan, began her tenure in Congress by saying what most members of her party are merely thinking. “When your son looks at you and says,...
View ArticleHow About Some Candor in Middle East Policy?
Cairo seems to be the place where American administrations declare their intentions toward the Middle East. Just shy of a decade ago, President Barack Obama stood in the city, outlining a “new...
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Elwood, Illinois (Pop. 2,200), Has Become a Vital Hub of America’s Consumer...
It’s hard to find anyone who will admit to it now, but when the CenterPoint Intermodal freight terminal opened in 2002, people in Elwood, Illinois, were excited. The plan was simple: shipping...
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After South Africa’s Trump
I didn’t expect, when I first moved to South Africa in 2009, how much it would feel like America. Every place does, more and more; or every place feels increasingly like every other place, a globe of...
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A Series of Selves
Every so often a book comes along and changes the way you see a classic of literature. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, published between 1977 and 1984, came out decades after Woolf’s death in 1941, and...
View ArticleMillennials Don’t Have a Monopoly on Burnout
Several years ago, instead of getting up to go to my well-paid, secure job as a tenured college professor, I would lie in bed for hours, repeatedly watching the video to “Don’t Give Up,” Peter...
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