Behind MrBeast’s Cold, Dead Eyes
Twenty-five years ago, someone like Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson would have had little to offer the world. His rise to global phenomenon suggests that virality is emptier than even pessimists thought possible.
21007 Article(s) by: Opal Lee
Opal Lee is a writer.
Donald Trump Is Unpopular. That Only Matters in a Democracy.
US democracy has been degrading for years. Donald Trump has the motive, the disposition, and the political and legal infrastructure to simply circumvent it, especially with such low approval ratings and midterm elections around the corner.
Study How Zohran Mamdani Handles This Heckler
In just a few seconds, Zohran Mamdani takes a fairly sophisticated argument in political theory and translates it into a funny but substantive response to a heckler that redirects the conversation to affordability.
In Denmark, the Center Did Not Hold
Tuesday’s Danish election punished the Social Democrats as well as their center-right government partners. The result again showed voters’ distaste for managerial coalitions spanning the neoliberal center ground.
Hugh Mulzac’s Journey From Black Nationalism to the New Deal
Pioneering ship captain Hugh Mulzac’s remarkable life story reflects the maturation of black politics in the early 20th century. He began as a black nationalist but soon saw the singular promise of multiracial labor struggle to improve black workers’ lives.
A Top Pentagon AI Gatekeeper Has a Stake in Anthropic’s Rival
One of the Pentagon’s top officials driving the decision to blacklist Anthropic for refusing to allow its algorithms to be used for mass surveillance has a multimillion-dollar stake in one of the company’s competitors.
JROTC Is Preying on Poor Students
A recent string of revelations about abuses by the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps presents an opportunity to rein in the military’s presence and power in public schools.
Project Hail Mary Is the Feel-Good Dystopian Sci-fi We Need
Ryan Gosling’s new space film, Project Hail Mary, blends doomsday stakes with a surprisingly tender cross‑species friendship, offering a rare blockbuster that admits the planet is worth saving — and that solidarity might still matter.
TSA Is on a Brown-Bag Strike — and Crippling Airports
TSA agents across the country are engaged in guerrilla organizing: an illegal, partial wildcat strike in protest of the government shutdown that has left them working for weeks on end without pay.
After France’s Elections, the Left Remains Deeply Divided
France’s local elections again showed Emmanuel Macron’s weakness. With both the Socialists and France Insoumise making gains, neither party will likely recognize the other as the Left’s standard-bearer for the 2027 presidential election.
The Kathy Hochul Donors in the Jeffrey Epstein Files
A look at New York governor Kathy Hochul’s donors and the Jeffrey Epstein files reveals that some of the same billionaires who gave to her campaigns — and would benefit from her refusal to tax the rich — also were connected to the ultrawealthy pedophile.
Umberto Bossi, a Founding Father of Postmodern Italy
The late Umberto Bossi dreamed of breaking Italy’s north away from the rest of the country. Instead he helped refound Italy itself, as he forged an alliance with former fascists and the billionaire Silvio Berlusconi.
Elon Musk Represents the Right’s New Reactionary Modernism
Elon Musk is an heir to the reactionary modernists of a century ago, a man whose utopian speculations about the power of technology go hand in hand with apocalyptic doomsaying about the woke mind virus and the “great replacement.”
The Congressional Budget Game Is Rigged
Congressional Republicans are holding airport security funding hostage to get more money for ICE. The situation is possible because of the federal appropriations process, which makes some federal spending changes easier and others far more difficult.
How Texas Populists Almost Destroyed the Two-Party System
The Populists of the 1890s rose up against both capitalism and white supremacy in the heart of the Lone Star State. Their apparent defeat at the ballot box was rooted in nothing less than an all-out campaign of terror and white supremacist violence.
The Printing House of the Commune
During the Paris Commune, workers at France’s National Printing House took the same fonts once used by kings and emperors and repurposed them to print the demands of worker rule.
Hasan Piker Talks Donald Trump, ICE, and the Democrats
Streamer Hasan Piker is one of the most watched political commentators in the US, with nearly 5 million followers combined on YouTube and Twitch. We spoke with him about how he became a socialist as well as the state of the GOP and the Democratic Party.
Brad Lander Is Demanding an AIPAC-Free Congressional Race
Former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding Rep. Dan Goldman sign a “People’s Pledge” ahead of the congressional primary pitting the two against each other to limit the influence of lobbying groups like AIPAC on campaign funding and advertising.
We Aren’t All Complicit in US Warmongering
US military operations like Donald Trump’s war on Iran are carried out in all of our names. That doesn’t make us collectively to blame for them.
Trump’s Historic Blunder in Iran
Both the White House and Israel wanted swift regime change in Iran. Instead they’ve triggered a spiraling conflict with no plausible endgame.