As Mass Incarceration Rose, Corporate Crime Ran Amok
We spoke to political scientist Marie Gottschalk about how corporate criminals have been let off the hook as prisons have exploded and what the path to ending mass incarceration might look like.
412 Article(s) by: Meagan Day
Meagan Day is a senior editor at Jacobin.
Romantic Love and Family Are Not the Enemy
Dating apps and sex-segregated online communities are intensifying resentment between the genders, while left-wing theorists increasingly adopt family abolition as a rallying cry. Is there a way out of our heteropessimistic moment?
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.
The Left Needs an Alternative Cosmopolitanism
While many critics view rising global chaos strictly in geopolitical terms, political philosopher Lea Ypi argues that it’s really ideological — the result of an increasingly coordinated global right. To compete, the Left must internationalize in equal measure.
Sarah Sherman, Our Socialist at SNL
We spoke to Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Sherman about doing body horror at a time of real horrors, the hope at the heart of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty, and her emergence as a top local canvasser for Bernie Sanders’s last presidential run.
Before the Punk Rockers, There Were the Working-Class Teds
British class society had a dress code: the rich could be flashy, but workers were expected to wear a drab uniform. In the 1950s, England’s working-class Teddy Boys and Girls boldly donned pompadours and velvet, giving birth to modern British subculture.
Zohran Mamdani’s Millionaire Tax Is Extremely Popular
Taxing the rich in New York, as Zohran Mamdani has proposed, isn’t just right and necessary. New polling shows a strong majority support making the wealthy pay, suggesting that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to do so is political malpractice.
Only Love Can Set the Looksmaxxer Free
For the looksmaxxer, women are irrelevant except as currency to buy rank over other men. Undoing these market logics with real love is the only way to liberate the looksmaxxer from lonely self-optimization.
Zohran Mamdani Is Trying a Fresh Tactic With Trump
Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani met for a second time on Thursday. The meeting was conciliatory, with Mamdani having apparently hypnotized Trump with charisma and overt flattery. It’s both a savvy and potentially perilous strategy.
Pay Close Attention to Trump’s Affordability Rhetoric
Donald Trump’s State of the Union was mostly lies and grievances. But his aggressive play for economic populism — borrowing progressive ideas and branding them as his own — should be a warning for Democrats to get serious about affordability.
The Working Class Can’t Be Bought Off Quite So Easily
In one email to Jeffrey Epstein, former CEO of Barclays Jes Staley explains that the reason the masses aren’t in revolt against the rich is that they’re placated by consumerism and celebrity culture. Unfortunately for them, people aren’t that easy to deceive.
Sadism Saturates Trump’s America
The White House posted an AI-altered picture of an ICE protester under arrest, made to look like she was sobbing remorsefully. The episode reveals something deeply disturbing about the unrestrained sadism of MAGA and this moment in American politics.
In Harlem, a Democratic Socialist Takes On the Dem Machine
Darializa Avila Chevalier has spent years as a grassroots organizer fighting mass incarceration, opposing ICE detention, organizing for Palestine, and knocking doors for Zohran Mamdani. Now the democratic socialist is running for Congress.
Gavin Newsom Is Backing California’s Billionaires
Governor Gavin Newsom is siding with California’s billionaires against a proposed wealth tax to fund health care. Progressives like Ro Khanna are challenging him.
ICE Has Become a Rogue Paramilitary
It’s time we see ICE as it already sees itself: a domestic army dispatched by the Trump administration to terrorize vulnerable people and violently intimidate political enemies into submission.
Zohran Mamdani Has Quickly Gotten Down to Business
In his first week as mayor, Zohran Mamdani issued 12 executive orders targeting housing, consumer protection, and democratic participation. His pace rebuts critics who have accused him of gauzy promises destined to go unfulfilled.
When the Rich Say “We’re Leaving”
Every time we want to change society to benefit average people, we have to deal with ultrawealthy crybabies.
How the Republican Party Slipped Its Leash
A strong labor movement demanded unified elites. Organized business in turn kept the GOP’s madness contained to ensure a favorable business climate. Today the Republican Party’s descent into chaos is a product of capitalist fragmentation.
Medicare for All Disappeared. Its Popularity Didn’t.
The demand for Medicare for All went from the center of the discourse to political exile in record time. But the policy's popularity never faded. A new poll finds strong majority support for the neglected idea among Americans across the political spectrum.
The Zohran Mamdani Model of Exuberant Good Cheer
The relentless negativity and performative cruelty of American politics is exhausting. Following Zohran Mamdani’s lead, leftists can distinguish ourselves with a concrete political program paired with genuine enthusiasm for ordinary people.