Chile Has Entered Its Thermidorian Period
The far right’s victory in elections for the Constitutional Council may be the death knell for a progressive constitution in Chile. It’s also a needed wake-up call for the Chilean left.
19064 Articles by: Alex Press
Ian Penman’s Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors Is a Love Letter to Postwar Counterculture
The music critic Ian Penman made his name during the heady days of anti-Thatcher counterculture. In Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors, he finds his match in the frenzied life and work of postwar Germany’s most iconoclastic director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
White House Plumbers Is a Hilarious Take on the Watergate Break-In
In the new series White House Plumbers, a brilliant send-up of the Watergate scandal, Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star as Richard Nixon’s bumbling covert operators. It’s approaching a Coen brothers level of satiric genius.
Influenced by Dark Money, Clarence Thomas Has Reversed His Position on a Landmark Legal Doctrine
Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has abandoned his own stated principles and changed his position on one of America’s most significant regulatory doctrines. Why? A dark money network of conservative billionaires is making his family rich.
How Britain’s Unions Took the Fight to Amazon
With the support of the GMB union, British workers at Amazon’s Coventry fulfilment center have turned a wildcat strike into a fight for a collective bargaining agreement.
Serbia’s Authoritarian President Is Exploiting School Shootings to Expand Police Control
Last week Serbia was rocked by two mass shootings. President Aleksandar Vučić has responded by announcing a vast expansion of police powers, using “war on terror” rhetoric to ramp up his assault on civil liberties.
The New York Times’ Fawning Profile of Elizabeth Holmes Did Not Need to Exist
If you find yourself having fallen from grace in the public eye because you allegedly committed colossal fraud for years, as Elizabeth Holmes did, fear not: the New York Times is ready to dedicate 5,000 fawning words to you.
Japan’s Labor Movement Is Taking Up the Demands of Part-Time and Temporary Workers
In Japan, part-time and temporary workers account for nearly 40% of the workforce but have historically been ignored by the country’s trade unions. This spring, 16 unions came together to demand a collective wage increase for nonregular workers.
The Kurdish Left Could Turn the Tide Against Erdoğan’s Authoritarian Rule
Ever since the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party made a breakthrough in Turkish politics, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has tried to hound it out of existence through repression. The party’s supporters could tip the balance against Erdoğan in Sunday’s election.
US Sanctions Are Brutal and Inhumane. And They Don’t Work.
Sanctions are a form of collective punishment. Their costs are overwhelmingly borne by innocent people rather than governments. And they are just another form of war, not an alternative to it. The US’s many sanctions across the world need to end.
Corruption Has Turned the Supreme Court Into a Weapon of the Right
Supreme Court justices often change their ideological position over time, usually becoming more liberal in their rulings as they age. The goal of right-wing billionaires and activists injecting dark money into the court is to prevent this “ideological drift.”
Israel’s Occupation Is Forcing Palestinians Underground. Literally.
Israeli military zoning in the West Bank sanctions the demolition of Palestinian structures while green-lighting settler farmsteading. As settlements grow, Palestinians are being pushed underground as they are forced to seek shelter in caves.
Right-Wing Grifters Love to Say They’re “Canceled” — but Get All the Elite Support They Want
Right-wing personalities claim that a new elite class is sidelining critics of progressive dogma. Yet such messages are broadcast by all major media: again showing how easy it is to make a grift out of pushing reactionary talking points.
Matt Walsh’s Vitriolic Anti-Trans Christianity Is Distinctly Anti-Christian
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh has made a name for himself with his relentless, religious-inflected trans-bashing. He’s a bad thinker and a bad Christian.
The Pundits Were Wrong: Corporate Greed Stoked Inflation
For the last year, media pundits have insisted that today’s inflation has nothing to do with corporate profiteering, much to the delight of the capitalist class. It is more than clear now that they were wrong.
Big Tech Is Taking Cues From Big Tobacco’s Playbook
Alongside tireless political lobbying, Big Tech has infiltrated the academic institutions studying and often promoting AI — with little regard for the potentially catastrophic downsides.
The WGA Strike Is a Fight Against Silicon Valley’s Gigification of the Entire Economy
If the ongoing film and TV writers strike is successful, the Writers Guild of America could establish a model for how service sector, app-based gig workers can take on Silicon Valley.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Is Pleasant Enough in a Vanilla Pudding Sort of Way
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. is probably a nice, worthwhile coming-of-age movie. But it comes off as a bland fantasy film about a land peopled by smiling denizens in sunny dreamscapes who have such mild problems that they aren’t actually problems.
Turkey’s Election Offers a Glimmer of Hope for the Left
In Turkey’s election, oppositionist Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu hopes to end hard-right president Erdoğan’s two decades in power. But given Kiliçdaroğlu’s inconsistent defense of the Kurdish minority, he offers no catch-all solution to Turkey’s nationalist slide.
Germany Believes in Free Speech, but Not for Palestinians
This month, Palestinians mark the Nakba, the wave of ethnic cleansing that began their decades of displacement. But in Germany, trumped-up antisemitism allegations are being used to suppress the commemorations — showing that speech isn’t free for all.