Blog

Capitalism

Why You’re Watching Squid Game

The extraordinary success of Netflix’s Squid Game demonstrates how many people relate to a portrayal of capitalism’s miseries — and how few feel there is any way to escape. Squid Game has been described as an allegory for capitalism more generally, but these masked VIPs suggest it refers to a particular kind of capitalism at a particular moment.

Equality

Wealth Under COVID. They Didn’t Deserve Any of It.

t’s now commonly understood that the world’s billionaires have made a killing off the pandemic, a period that has seen not only mass death on a global scale but also deep economic depression and widespread job loss. The disjuncture here is almost too obvious to need comment. “We’re all in this together!”, the general sentiment

Democracy

The Actual Human Stakes of the Reconciliation Bill Are…

The Actual Human Stakes of the Reconciliation Bill Are Being Ignored in Favor of “Left vs Moderate’ Horse Race Coverage. The public is left with vague reporting about a “$3.5 trillion” “price tag” that should be “slimmed down,” with no sense of what would actually be gutted or who would be harmed if it is.

Labor

America’s strike wave is a rare – and beautiful…

You may be forgiven for having the strange feeling this week that America has suddenly been seized by a very retro kind of labor revolution. If you don’t track these things closely, it may have snuck up on you. Better get your marching shoes. This party is just getting started. In March, 800 nurses at

Uncategorized

Colin Powell, Politely Anguished War Criminal

Some of those in the George W. Bush administration who were most responsible for starting the Iraq War were obvious sickos — the kind of operatives who can make bloodthirsty policy in a democracy, but could probably never get elected to anything because their public statements cause decent humans to cringe in horror. Defense secretary

Fascism

Today’s Evangelicalism Was Forged in the Fight Against Communism…

Outside observers and critics confronted white evangelical support for Donald Trump — not exactly a Christian-family-values figure — as a puzzle to be solved. But while many saw hypocrisy, historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez identified a number of continuities. In her book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,