The Crime of the Century
The mystery of Agatha Christie’s enduring popularity is rooted in a nostalgia for the certainties of the Victorian class system.
Search Result(s) for: “%s”
Spider-Noir Is Just Another Night in Noirtown
Nicolas Cage’s black-and-white Spider-Man spin-off, Spider-Noir, recycles all of the tropes of the classic 1940s film genre. But all the femme fatales and wisecracking detectives can’t keep Spider-Noir from feeling like a lifeless museum piece.
Postliberals Don’t Understand What’s Wrong With America
Frustrated with the state of America, some on the Right have come to embrace postliberalism, an ideology that seeks to invigorate conservative politics by rejecting equality.
Where Free Speech Goes to Die
The news industry isn’t a marketplace of ideas — it’s just a market. To ensure freedom of speech, we have to take on the rich.
Snowpiercer Asks Us to Imagine the End of the World — And the End of Capitalism
The Snowpiercer franchise turns 40 this year. The struggles and defeats of the climate change era have emboldened and disheartened its creators by turns, but the sleeper hit’s key dilemma — whether to smash the system or seize control — still rings true.
Bulletin: The Coming Trade Blow-Up
How a book published twenty years ago predicted Trump’s trade war with China.
Africa as Battlefield
The US is trying to win "hearts and minds" in Africa. It's not going well.
How Amsterdam’s Early Social Housing Failed Workers
In 1901, the Amsterdam city government started to replace privately owned slums with cooperatively run housing. The project attracted many innovative designers, but its aesthetic function didn’t always suit the needs of the new homes’ inhabitants.
The Online Scam Industry Is Capitalism Built on Slave Labor
Centered in the lawless region of Southeast Asia known as the Golden Triangle, the scam industry is a new kind of capitalism built on corruption, organized crime, and slave labor — and it’s growing.
There Is Finally an Alternative in Ireland
In last weekend’s election, a majority of Irish voters supported parties of the Left. That and other progressive triumphs signal a new beginning for Ireland.
Counterinsurgency’s Resurrections
No matter how many times the doctrine has proved a bloody failure, the American military keeps coming back to counterinsurgency tactics.
The Red Menace Is Real
Donald Trump is right: the biggest threat to his administration right now isn't from liberals. It's from Bernie Sanders and democratic socialists.
Game Companies Are Throwing Historic Video Games Into the Dustbin of History
Epic Games is shutting down the iconic Unreal series, continuing the games industry’s disturbing trend of turning its own history into abandonware.
Will New York Teachers Strike for Safe Schools?
In response to Mayor Bill de Blasio pushing a public schools reopening despite the serious dangers it would pose, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers is considering their first strike in almost half a century. We talked to union activist and Brooklyn teacher Jia Lee about why a school reopening isn’t safe and what teachers are willing to do to stop it.
Gerry Harvey Is an Emblem of Australia’s Corrupt Economic System
Australian retail billionaire Gerry Harvey has rightly been vilified for describing COVID-19 as an opportunity for profitmaking. But Harvey was just stating the facts: the pandemic has enabled his class to get even richer off the backs of the working class.
American Fiction Is a Scathing Satire of Representation Discourse
The 2023 film American Fiction, starring Best Actor nominee Jeffrey Wright, aims to spark discussion through a darkly comedic portrayal of a long debate about representations of black Americans on film. It’s a worthy directorial debut by Cord Jefferson.
BlackRock Promised to Be Climate-Conscious. The Joke’s on Us.
Four years ago, BlackRock promised to steer away from environmentally destructive investments. Since then, it has faced predictable backlash, gotten cold feet, and dropped the act. Let that be a lesson about pinning our climate hopes on capital.
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City Will Please His Fans and Infuriate His Skeptics
Asteroid City dials up the “Wes Anderson” to 11, leaving an emotional void in its wake.
Why Do We Even Need Private Banks?
Since Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, some commentators have been waking up to the need for a socialization of deposit-taking banking. They’re right — but the same logic leads to a more radical conclusion: a fully socialized capital market, with no private banks.
The Sharing Economy’s Dirty Laundry
Sharing economy companies like Uber and Airbnb aren't helping local economies — they're just helping themselves.