Big Pharma’s Profiteering Led to the Omicron Variant
For months, medical experts warned that leaving large areas of the world unvaccinated would make new variants inevitable. But for Big Pharma, profits come before public health.
20407 Article(s) by: Julia Goodman
The Reconciliation Bill Gives a Huge Gift to the Gas Industry
The reconciliation bill’s clean energy rebate program sneaks in a provision that could tie homeowners’ appliances to natural gas for a long time — benefiting fossil fuel companies at the expense of the climate.
The Problem With Alice Waters and the “Slow Food” Movement
If we followed the advice of “slow food” advocates like Alice Water, we’d end up with literally billions hungry and more workers hyperexploited. There’s nothing progressive about the “slow food revolution.”
How Big-Business Lobbyists Are Protecting the Corporate Court
Big business loves the Supreme Court just how it is: on the side of big business. That’s why corporate lobbyists want to stop any possible Supreme Court reforms the Biden administration might consider.
Composer Stephen Sondheim Wasn’t Interested in Treacly Optimism or False Heroes
No lyricist and composer treated their audience more like adults — capable of wrestling with the ambiguities and tragedies of life, without needing big, dumb heroes or happy endings — than Stephen Sondheim.
“Texas Is Not a Red State. It Is an Underorganized State.”
Austin City Council member Greg Casar has passed dozens of pieces of progressive legislation in the last 7 years, from paid sick leave law to renters’ protections. Now he says he wants to take federal action on working-class issues by running for Congress.
UAW Members Have Voted for Democracy in Their Union
The United Auto Workers is one of America’s most important unions. It has long been hobbled by an autocratic internal culture and widespread corruption. The members’ vote in favor of a direct voting system to elect leadership could change that.
Niccolò Machiavelli Was the Philosopher of Left-Wing Populism
For centuries, detractors of Niccolò Machiavelli have presented him as the founding father of political cynicism. But the Italian thinker was really a republican idealist whose support for popular rule can inspire struggles against the oligarchies of today.
The Loudest Opponents of “Inflation” Are Some of Its Biggest Aiders and Abettors
Prescription drugs, hospital visits, housing, higher education, and more have all become frighteningly more expensive, far outpacing Americans’ wages. But those kinds of price increases are ignored by the politicians who are now stridently decrying inflation.
The Chris Cuomo Affair Is an Indictment of America’s Elite Media Culture
Chris Cuomo abused his platform at CNN to help his politically besieged brother. It was flagrantly unethical, but in keeping with the culture of complete unaccountability for unethical abuse that American media elites have long enjoyed.
Forty Years Later, Reds Is Still One of the Best Films Ever Made About Revolutionary Politics
In 1981, Warren Beatty directed Reds, a retelling of John Reed’s classic firsthand account of the Russian Revolution. The film still stands up today as one of the greatest and most faithful depictions of revolutionary politics.
Canadian News Media Is Dominated by Corporate Lobbyists
An investigation carried out by Ricochet in collaboration with Jacobin finds Canadian TV panels are dominated by lobbyists. These corporate pundits are treated as impartial talking heads, but they’re actually part of an effort to defend Canadian capitalists.
The French Left Is Struggling to Win Back Voters Who’ve Turned to the Far Right
Jean-Luc Mélenchon has long sought to rally blue-collar voters he labels “fed up, not fascists.” Yet his movement has faced an uphill battle countering disaffection with politics — and the growing media dominance of far-right talking points.
Will Smith Is Stunning in King Richard
Based on the true story of Venus and Serena Williams’s coach and father, King Richard shows us the toll racism took on a generation of black men — but also the fight it inspired in them.
Chile Is Still in the Midst of a Political Revolution
Three decades after Augusto Pinochet’s fall, Chile stands at the precipice of electing a socialist president and reordering its political system. But the achievement of genuine democracy in the birthplace of neoliberalism is far from guaranteed.
Ontario’s Pension Fund Managers Are Propping up the Fossil Fuel and Real Estate Industries
The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, like pension funds everywhere, engages in socially harmful speculation and investment. Pension funds should be paid for by contributions and taxes, not financialization.
Kathy Hochul Is Putting Her Real Estate Donors Over Workers
New York governor Kathy Hochul is pushing to end remote work — not to help workers, but to do the commercial real estate industry a favor.
Barbados Has Rid Itself of the Queen But Not Neocolonialism
Barbados’s decision to become a republic happily brings to an end its centuries-long formal subjection to the British Empire. But as the country has already discovered in its dealings with the IMF and World Bank, not all forms of colonialism are so easily rebuffed.
Forza Horizon 5 Is Gaming’s Gateway Drug to Dystopia
Millions of players agree that Microsoft’s Forza Horizon 5 is a beautiful, fun, and endlessly seductive video game. It’s also an eerie transitional technology that hints at the dystopian metaverse to come.
Making Health Care “Accessible and Affordable” Isn’t the Same as Making It Universal and Free
Centrist Democrats use phrases like “accessible and quality health care” to sound like they support reforming the broken US health care system while avoiding the only genuine reform: removing health care from the market altogether.