Donald Trump has resurrected the military fantasy of the “video game war,” waged mostly through high-tech, lethal air power with few US casualties. But his administration may have miscalculated the ease of what can pass as victory.
With Chuck Norris, the Meme Was the Message
Twenty years before Donald Trump was posting AI images of himself as a king, the internet learned how to meme by exaggerating the masculine superiority of Chuck Norris. What began innocently with “Chuck Norris Facts” has evolved into MAGA’s empire of slop.
Namibia’s Workers Spearheaded Its Fight for Independence
After more than a century of German and South African rule, Namibia finally gained its independence on this day in 1990. Working-class struggles and organizations played a vital role in the country’s long march to freedom.
The Inheritors of an Unfinished Revolution
Growing up after the monarchy’s fall, Nepal’s youth are confronting a republic that transformed political institutions while leaving the underlying social order intact.
How Adults Took Over YA
By treating young adult fiction as a laboratory for professional-class moralizing, the publishing industry has effectively abandoned actual teens.
If Zohran Mamdani is serious about delivering on his promises, he needs more than policies — he needs institutions that empower working people. Popular assemblies offer a way to build a new, bottom-up political culture in New York City.
Before the Punk Rockers, There Were the Working-Class Teds
British class society had a dress code: the rich could be flashy, but workers were expected to wear a drab uniform. In the 1950s, England’s working-class Teddy Boys and Girls boldly donned pompadours and velvet, giving birth to modern British subculture.
Budgeting Scolds Are Gaslighting Struggling Americans
The affluent often blame poverty on bad budgeting skills, claiming the poor just need to be taught financial literacy. But working-class people require living wages and a functioning safety net, not condescending lectures about money management.
Celebrities Can’t Save Opera. Public Funding Can.
Timothée Chalamet’s offhand jab at “dying” high culture sparked celebrity outrage. But without robust public investment and democratic ownership, opera and ballet will keep shrinking into elite pastimes instead of surviving as vibrant public art forms.
The Minecraft Marxists
The proletarian revolution is playing out on a desktop near you.
Neoliberalism didn’t win an intellectual argument — it won power. Vivek Chibber unpacks how employers and political elites in the 1970s and ’80s turned economic turmoil into an opportunity to reshape society on their terms.
Europe Is Sanctioning Critics of Israel and Militarism
Sanctions were once sold as a gentler foreign policy tool for exerting pressure on dictatorships and terrorist organizations. Yet measures like banning individuals from having bank accounts or traveling are increasingly used to chill free speech in Europe.
The US Is Spending Billions to Bomb Iran
The Trump administration has spent around $24 billion in public funds on its war against Iran so far. Here’s what that money might have been used for instead.
Christian Zionists Helped Stoke Trump’s Iran War
The Christian Zionist movement has long pushed for regime change in Iran. With allies in Donald Trump’s inner circle and its ideas seeping into the US military, it has played a key role in building support for the current war.
Julie Menin Is Protecting New York’s Ultrawealthy
Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to tax the superrich to fund universal childcare and other urgent working-class needs. The oligarchic city council Speaker Julie Menin is trying to block his agenda.