Working-Class Men Are Not Okay
Working-class American men are getting lonelier and sicker, and their lives are getting shorter. It’s not just a sad state of affairs; it’s a full-blown crisis that demands policy solutions.
60 Articles by: Ryan Zickgraf
Page 1 of 3 Next
Ryan Zickgraf is a journalist based in Atlanta.
Justice Warriors Is Funny, but in a Way That Hurts
The indie comic Justice Warriors: Vote Harder is a heartening sign that genuinely subversive political satire remains possible, even in a world that feels like satire itself sometimes. And like the best of the genre, it hits a little too close to home.
The 2024 DNC: All Vibes, Little Substance
The DNC revealed a Democratic Party still in love with the Obamas. The fantasy is that Kamala Harris will be a reboot. Brat summer is cooling — are you ready for an Obama autumn, heavy on feeling good and light on political substance?
J. D. Vance’s “Forgotten” Ohio Hometown Is on the Upswing
J. D. Vance portrays his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, as a dying backwater with a culture of irresponsibility and laziness. It’s actually seeing a revival — thanks not to a mindset change but to massive public investment of the type the GOP opposes.
The Redneck Menace
White Rural Rage is another attempt to blame the Democratic Party’s decline in rural counties on mean and bigoted white Americans.
A Twenty-First-Century Horse Opera
Yellowstone sells a fantasy of rural America — and conservatism — no different from any other prime-time soap opera.
White Rural Rage Is Shallow Pandering to Elitist Liberals
White Rural Rage, full of tired tropes about the bigotry of rural white Americans, distorts more than it reveals about the growth of the Trumpian right. It’s a shallow exercise in pandering to the prejudices of liberals.
Airbnb Was Supposed to Save Capitalism. Instead, It Just Devolved Into Garbage.
In the early days of Airbnb, many predicted that the company and other sharing economy platforms would “disrupt” capitalism as usual, finally making it work for all stakeholders. But that’s not what happened. Instead, it got us all hooked and then got worse.
Tyler Perry’s Wealth Is Not Trickling Down to Black Residents of Atlanta
Filmmaker and entrepreneur Tyler Perry is a billionaire. His Atlanta studios receive massive tax write-offs, premised on the idea that his success will inspire others. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a liberal version of trickle-down economics.
America’s Working Class Is Struggling to Survive the Gauntlet of Middle Age
New research finds that Americans without college degrees live roughly eight and a half years fewer than their college-educated counterparts. Being working class in America means being ground down and left behind, explaining the rise of “deaths of despair.”
While Fulton County Goes After Donald Trump, It Leaves Thousands Languishing in Jail
Democrats are calling Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis a “national hero” for her high-profile case against Donald Trump. Meanwhile, thousands of incarcerated people live in squalor in Fulton County jails, some dying without a day in court.
Stop Cop City Activists Want a Democratic Process. The City of Atlanta Doesn’t.
Activists with Atlanta’s Stop Cop City movement, which seeks to prevent the construction of a massive police militarization complex, want to put the issue to a popular vote. But city officials are hostile to the democratic initiative.
Georgia Became the “Hollywood of the South” Through Massive Corporate Tax Breaks
The state of Georgia is subsidizing Hollywood CEOs to the tune of $1 billion a year. That money could go to schools, roads, health care, and good public jobs. But sure, a little peach logo in the credit sequence is cool too.
Mobile, Alabama, Just Diluted the Black Vote Through Annexation
Last week’s annexation vote in Mobile, Alabama, added thousands of white residents, reducing the black-white voter gap in the majority-minority city. It’s an effective strategy used by city elites to artificially inflate conservative political power.
The Crypto Emperor’s New Clothes
Sam Bankman-Fried fanned the flames of crypto madness. And he couldn’t have done it without his powerful friends.
The Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Protesters Are Ominous
Protesters against a massive police militarization complex in Atlanta have been slapped with domestic terrorism charges for throwing bottles and breaking windows. That should be deeply worrisome for anyone who values the right to dissent.
Robots Are Coming for White-Collar Workers, Too
In previous industrial revolutions, machines took over manual labor jobs, then repetitive assembly line work and analog office drudgery. Now they’re coming for “cognitive” work.
The World’s New Richest Man, Bernard Arnault, Is Hardly Better Than Elon Musk
Hold your applause for luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault, the billionaire who just surpassed Elon Musk as the richest man in the world. He may not be taunting the Left on social media, but he’s just as much an emblem of grotesque inequality.
The Problem With Call of Duty Isn’t That It Makes Us Violent — It’s That It Makes Us Numb
Everyone’s talking about the horrible political message of the new Call of Duty. Fair enough. But there’s no proof that video games generate real-world violence. There is proof, however, that gaming is sedating, addicting, and isolating.
On Halloween Night in 1891, Tennessee Miners Made Righteous Mayhem
The Coal Creek War was one of the largest insurrections in American labor history, with thousands of miners batting state troops to end the convict leasing system designed to extend slavery and undermine organized labor.