Issue 47: Letters

Finally, some good letters. We were about to give up.

Issue 47: The Internet Speaks

If you have anything nice to say, slide into our DMs.

Organizing the Void

The new left in Europe and North America hasn’t made the transition from being a symptom of democratic crisis to offering an effective cure for it.

A Guide to Election Polling Terms

A guide to election polling terms.

Taking Back Left Parties From the Brahmins

Across Western countries, the decline in class-based voting isn’t inevitable: it results from political choices.

Debt-Trap Democracy

We talk to activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor.

The Hopeful Dystopian

On the enduring appeal of Christopher Lasch — on both the Left and Right.

Five Essential Texts on Democracy

We asked a leading political theorist for help understanding the meaning of democracy and the elite reaction to it.

Looking for Utopia, Alone

A passionate search for America’s utopian communes inadvertently reveals what’s wrong with building enclaves of progress cut off from the real world.

The Foreman

Mark E. Smith of the Fall was one of the late 20th century’s great working-class musicians, but his music suffered from his overwhelming resentment of his middle-class audience.

Broken Records

If you can’t carry a tune, you can’t take the White House. Here are some of the more memorable campaign songs in American history.

Before They Ran the Reds Out of the Studios

The screwball comedy The Devil and Miss Jones exemplifies how pro-worker Hollywood was just on the eve of McCarthyism.

Reality TV Democracy

America’s favorite television arcs toward autocracy.

From Bowling Alone to Posting Alone

Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone chronicled the growing loneliness and isolation of wealthy societies. Twenty years later, the problem is far worse than he could have imagined.

A Populism of the Left Can Realign American Politics

It’s clear that the GOP is capturing new parts of the working class. It’ll take credible appeals to workers’ frustrations and economic interests to win them back.

Chile’s Vote Was a Rebuke of the 21st-Century Left. Will We Listen?

The rejected Chilean constitution was not “too far left.” Rather, it exalted a set of identitarian outlooks that has for too long masqueraded as radical politics.

Technocrats in Suits, Not Blackshirts, Rule Europe

The fascist-inspired government in Italy, like the far-right government in Hungary, is part of European neoliberalism, not an alternative to it.

Queen Elizabeth II’s Ghosts

In between smiling, waving, and running up a $400 million annual bill, the late Queen Elizabeth II was the face of some pretty bad stuff during her seven-decade reign.

The US-Saudi Split and the Yemen War

Will Saudis’ battles with Joe Biden help end Washington’s support for their brutal war in Yemen?

Political Football

On November 20, the 2022 World Cup began in Qatar. It is the first time the event has been held in the Middle East. Over the last ten years, countless migrant workers suffered abuse and exploitation, and even died, to make it possible.

The Right-Wing Bid to Turn Kenya Into a “Hustler Nation”

A new president has a right-populist vision of transformation in East Africa’s largest economy.

Beaucoup

There have been eight coups d’état in West Africa since 2020 — a marked uptick after years on the decline. The US has trained and armed many of the responsible parties. It’s 10 PM: Do you know where your tax dollars are going?

Abe Shinzo Haunts Japan From the Casket

From the Moonies to military revanchists, Abe Shinzo was in bed with some dangerous oddballs. His funeral was a battle over their place in Japanese politics.

Trust Us, We’re Experts

For all the warnings of populism’s threat to the liberal democratic order, it might be the experts that do us in.

On failing at precalculus, failing at crack, and failing at capitalism

Are Hispanic Voters Really Switching to the GOP?

Democrats aren’t losing Hispanic voters — they’re losing the entire working class.

On Marxists abroad, domestic terrorists at home, and the terrible threat of an all-expenses-paid trip to Cuba

Ballot Blocks

Every year, it gets harder to vote. We have our elected officials to thank for that.

Effective Altruism Is No Substitute for a Better Society

The philosophy of effective altruism is catnip to well-meaning and intellectually inclined donors. But as a strategy for tackling what’s wrong with the world, it misses the mark.

On dictatorship, blood in the streets, and the deadly love of your CEO

Issue 47: Misery Index

Crunching the numbers on the class war.

Posting Cringe

Dispatches from Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post.

The Selling of “the Journalist”

The lionization of mainstream media is just sentimental marketing.

Why Equality Is Better for Everyone

More unequal societies are less trusting, more violent, less healthy, and more stressed.

Class Conscience

Whatever their professed values, when it comes to the ballot box, rich people are out for themselves.

Constitutional Calcification

The process for constitutional amendment is an uphill battle. Since 1789, almost 12,000 amendments have been proposed — but only 27 have passed. It’s been 50 years since one has made its way to the states for ratification.

Planning for a White Terror

In 1919, with the US ruling class gripped by fear of a Bolshevik-inspired revolution in America, nativist army leaders made contingency plans for a brutal crackdown. Here’s what they had in store for New York City, the epicenter of immigrant radicalism.

The Wrong Side of the Law

Legislation and case law targeting leftists is something like an American tradition.

Unions and the Political Machines

Are modern American unions doomed merely to succumb to dealmaking with business Republicans and centrist Democrats?

Proletarian Portfolios

Union revenues and assets are on the rise — union membership is not.

A Strike for All Seasons

When and where organized labor’s been on the move.

Jacobin’s Promise: a Vote for Jacobin Is a Vote for You.

Act now, before it’s too late to save America.