Class Conscience
Whatever their professed values, when it comes to the ballot box, rich people are out for themselves.
19655 Articles by: Benjamin Case
Benjamin Case is a researcher, educator, and organizer living in Pittsburgh.
C. Wright Mills’s The Power Elite Still Speaks to Today’s America
Knowing that inequality and powerlessness helped produce European fascism, C. Wright Mills exposed postwar American power and warned of an authoritarian turn in The Power Elite. The book speaks to our own moment of inequality and right-wing anger.
The Story of the “Twitter Files” Is About Press Freedom, Not Twitter Personalities
Regardless of what you may think about Elon Musk or Matt Taibbi, the “Twitter Files” offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the firm embarked on an act of unprecedented press censorship — and that should make us very uneasy.
Don’t Blame Republicans. “Amtrak Joe” Biden Is the One Who Defeated the Railworkers.
Beyond the rhetoric of liberal politicians and the complexities of congressional sausage-making, one fact should not be forgotten: it was the Democratic leadership — not Republicans — who spearheaded last week’s efforts to trample on the rights of workers.
Looking for Utopia, Alone
A passionate search for America’s utopian communes inadvertently reveals what’s wrong with building enclaves of progress cut off from the real world.
Issue 47: Letters
Finally, some good letters. We were about to give up.
Why Equality Is Better for Everyone
More unequal societies are less trusting, more violent, less healthy, and more stressed.
Unions and the Political Machines
Are modern American unions doomed merely to succumb to dealmaking with business Republicans and centrist Democrats?
From Bowling Alone to Posting Alone
Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone chronicled the growing loneliness and isolation of wealthy societies. Twenty years later, the problem is far worse than he could have imagined.
Debt-Trap Democracy
We talk to activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor.
The Selling of “the Journalist”
The lionization of mainstream media is just sentimental marketing.
Are Hispanic Voters Really Switching to the GOP?
Democrats aren’t losing Hispanic voters — they’re losing the entire working class.
Trust Us, We’re Experts
For all the warnings of populism’s threat to the liberal democratic order, it might be the experts that do us in.
The US-Saudi Split and the Yemen War
Will Saudis’ battles with Joe Biden help end Washington’s support for their brutal war in Yemen?
The Right-Wing Bid to Turn Kenya Into a “Hustler Nation”
A new president has a right-populist vision of transformation in East Africa’s largest economy.
Chile’s Vote Was a Rebuke of the 21st-Century Left. Will We Listen?
The rejected Chilean constitution was not “too far left.” Rather, it exalted a set of identitarian outlooks that has for too long masqueraded as radical politics.
Effective Altruism Is No Substitute for a Better Society
The philosophy of effective altruism is catnip to well-meaning and intellectually inclined donors. But as a strategy for tackling what’s wrong with the world, it misses the mark.
Taking Back Left Parties From the Brahmins
Across Western countries, the decline in class-based voting isn’t inevitable: it results from political choices.
Five Essential Texts on Democracy
We asked a leading political theorist for help understanding the meaning of democracy and the elite reaction to it.
Jacobin’s Promise: a Vote for Jacobin Is a Vote for You.
Act now, before it’s too late to save America.