In New York City, a tax on superexpensive second homes is a victory for Zohran Mamdani and the socialist movement and should mark the beginning of a larger project of redistribution.
No, Western Marxism Wasn’t a CIA Plot
Gabriel Rockhill’s polemic against Western Marxism seeks to condemn a set of postwar left-wing intellectuals such as Herbert Marcuse. Heavy on innuendo but light on evidence, the result is more like a show trial than a serious political indictment.
The Hollow Crown of ChatGPT’s Head Honcho
Sam Altman may be the reigning king of the AI boom, but the story that matters isn’t his rise or fall. The sector will still demand scale, speed, and the right to run roughshod over the pesky public interest, no matter who wears the industry crown.
Outcome Is Jonah Hill’s Inept Hollywood Satire
Jonah Hill’s new Apple TV Hollywood satire, Outcome, wants to skewer celebrity culture. But even with the likable Keanu Reeves, its muddled script and self‑pitying subtext reveal more about the industry’s narcissism than the film ever intended.
What Viktor Orbán’s Downfall Hasn’t Settled
In Hungary’s election, Péter Magyar rallied urban white-collar workers, business figures excluded from state patronage networks, intellectuals, and youth. It’s much less clear that his new government can satisfy all these groups’ expectations.
Under capitalism, technological “progress” like AI systematically deskills workers, deepens managerial control, and turns the labor process into a site of conflict rather than liberation. This is by design.
Why the Rich Should Get Free Public Childcare Too
Critics see Zohran Mamdani’s inclusion of the wealthy in his new free public childcare initiative as a flaw. It’s actually an integral part of the policy’s design, rooted in the fact that universal programs are far more enduring than means-tested ones.
Will More Warehouses Burn?
A California logistics worker allegedly burned down a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in anger over low pay. The billionaire class may have to learn the hard way: you can only pack so much pressure into a deeply unequal system before it blows.
Mexico Is Going All In for Universal Health Care
Mexico’s new national health system aims to provide universal care. At a moment when US taxpayer dollars are being harnessed to destroy health care infrastructure abroad, Mexico is attempting to make a constitutional right to care into a lived reality.
It’s Okay to Like Geese
Geese are the most talked-about new rock band in years. But thanks to a recent Wired article, they’re now facing a backlash — accused of being privileged, reactionary, and even a “psyop.” It’s everything that’s wrong with music discourse today.
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.
The Landless Workers’ Movement, 30 Years After a Massacre
Thirty years after the Eldorado do Carajás massacre, Brazil’s landless poor still find themselves under the heel of Latin America’s most powerful and impudent rural oligarchy.
Hungary After Orbán
Viktor Orbán was full of contradictions: a critic of neoliberalism who gave handouts to corporations and a moralist who ended up mired in scandal. But even after his election defeat, it’s unclear how much Hungary will really change.
How Flint Sit-Down Strikers Built Their Confidence
We can’t revive labor without reviving workers’ confidence to take action on the job. In 1936 and into 1937, during a period of union weakness, Flint’s sit-down strikers in the auto industry figured out how to do just that.
Decarbonizing Housing Means Fighting Landlords
As long as housing remains a profit-driven investment for landlords, the pace and scope of decarbonization will be shaped by their financial calculations. That’s a problem.