Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
The recent craze for Pete Buttigieg — multilingual Rhodes Scholar and all-around smart guy — is just the latest incarnation of the meritocratic cult of “smartness.” It’s social Darwinism for elite liberals.
The Spanish Civil War ended 80 years ago today with Franco’s victory. But for opponents of Spanish fascism, the brutal repression of popular culture and democracy was only beginning.
Eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, tens of thousands of Franco’s victims still lie in unmarked graves. Identifying the dead is a vital means of providing Spain with closure — and making sure fascism doesn’t rear its head again.
Blending Kierkegaard with Hegel and Marx, Martin Hägglund’s This Life offers a new generation of socialists a guide to living a life of radical political commitment.
The critics have it wrong: by reducing health care spending through efficiency gains, Medicare for All would actually make it easier to fund other government programs.
Left populism is the new idiom of radical politics worldwide. It emerged as the answer to the problem of a weak and disorganized working class — but despite its electoral successes, that class remains weak and disorganized.
In March 1919, Hungary saw the creation of a short-lived revolutionary state. We look at the significance of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, and its attempted transformation of art and culture.
In tomorrow’s Turkish elections, the leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party is putting forward a type of politics that directly challenges Erdoğan’s autocratic rule: pro-worker, anti-patriarchy, radically democratic.
Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” was a masterpiece. “Us” is a tedious drag tailored to the sensibilities of critics.
Theresa May’s handling of Brexit has been so inept she doesn’t even have enough support to resign.
Instead of championing Medicare for All, the Democratic leadership is proposing mild tweaks to Obamacare. That’s a disaster — centrist incrementalism is a gift to Trump.
Boeing’s corner-cutting likely killed hundreds of people in the recent Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes. Capitalism is to blame.
When it comes to workplace organizing, there’s no such thing as a “privileged” worker. You’re either with your coworkers or you’re against them.
The media doesn’t talk much about working-class America. But when it does, it mainly has one thing to say about it: that it’s entirely white, male, and very right-wing. All those things are lies.
Why is Trump going after Obamacare yet again? Because the modern Republican Party has one guiding purpose: to shovel as much money as possible to the rich.
Debt-stricken countries like Greece have continued repaying their creditors even though it’s hammering workers’ living standards. They should stick it to the banks and default instead.
When people think about Major League Baseball, they think about big stars and big paychecks. But today, on MLB’s Opening Day, we should remember that the game is rife with exploitation — especially in the minor leagues.
Emmanuel Macron’s decision to use the army to repress the Yellow Vests represents a desperate bid to project a tough-guy image.
The sedition charges against Catalan independence activists mark a shameful moment for Spanish democracy. Franco’s regime is long gone, but the state machine he created has not been fully broken.
The British media have turned the Labour Party’s alleged antisemitism problem into a national crusade. Meanwhile, leading Tories this week openly associated themselves with the Ku Klux Klan and the ideas of Anders Breivik — and the media shrugged.