RIP to Robert Redford, a Star Who Knew How to Play the Game
Robert Redford was a man of the Left until the end and a patron saint of independent cinema. He will be missed.
20407 Article(s) by: Jonathan Sas
Jonathan Sas has worked in senior policy and political roles in government, think tanks, and the labor movement. He is an honorary witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. His writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, the Tyee, and Maisonneuve.
Tech Capital Is Dominating American Politics
While Donald Trump assaults civil liberties and the social safety net, Democrats are lost. Capital’s continued dominance of both parties and Big Tech’s machinations in particular are key to understanding our political crisis, argues Thomas Ferguson.
The Left Needs Utopian Thinking
Conservative apologists for the status quo often stigmatize their opponents as “utopian.” But socialists and feminists shouldn’t be afraid of the term, since utopian thought can play an important role in helping us develop practical alternatives.
The Right Is Using Charlie Kirk’s Murder to Attack Free Speech
Over the past week since the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, we’ve watched conservatives unabashedly take ownership of “cancel culture” and crack down on free speech right before our eyes.
Your Therapist’s Notes Could Become Fodder For AI
Tech companies are marketing AI-based note-taking software to therapists as a new time-saving tool. But by signing up, providers may be unknowingly offering patients’ sensitive health information as data fodder to the multibillion-dollar AI therapy industry.
Spanish Cycling Protests Reject Israeli Sportswashing
The Vuelta a España, Spain’s premier cycling stage race, saw the participation of team Israel–Premier Tech, organized to promote Israel’s reputation. Thousands of protesters disrupted the race on Saturday to decry the team’s sportswashing of genocide.
Borders Books
Some recommendations from the Republic of Letters.
Orson Welles, South of the Border
After his post–Citizen Kane slump, Orson Welles teamed up with Universal for a big Hollywood comeback about corrupt police on the US-Mexico border. The executives balked at his vision — but today Touch of Evil is regarded as Welles’s final masterpiece.
Partisans on Ponies
One German’s idiosyncratic obsession with the American frontier led to an unlikely West German–Yugoslav cinematic partnership that fed the European appetite for cowboys and Indians.
Issue 59: Letters + The Internet Speaks
No border can contain our subscribers’ enthusiasm.
Building Civilization at Shenzhen Speed
Once the poorer neighbor of Hong Kong, Shenzhen has been transformed into a showcase for the speed, power, and dynamism of Chinese development — and a study in extreme inequality.
Walter Benjamin’s Graveyard
On the run from the Gestapo, Walter Benjamin committed suicide on the French-Spanish border in 1940. The place where he spent his last days now overlooks the most brutally policed border of the EU.
The Red Scare Blueprint
A 1917 effort to deport political radicals from Seattle became the model for all 20th-century deportation crusades.
How Can We Organize Immigrant Workers?
Bosses will always try to divide native-born and immigrant workers. Our response has to be unconditional solidarity.
Civic Nationalism Is Worth Defending
J. D. Vance has attacked birthright citizenship and equality before the law by claiming that “America is not an idea.” But the realization of the idea of civic nationalism has been our greatest achievement.
Issue 59: Misery Index
Crunching the numbers on the class war.
Biafra’s Back
More than 50 years after the end of the civil war, there’s a new generation of Biafran separatists in Nigeria.