Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
The man at the center of the crisis in Venezuela
Behind the crippling economic and political situation in Venezuela is Nicolás Maduro. After years of high inflation and a tumultuous relationship with the United States, the president of Venezuela faces a country waiting for political intervention. US President Donald Trump wants to oust Maduro, a former revolutionary turned anti-democratic leader, and recently said his “days […]
People are nicer than you think
It’s probably happened to you: A stranger starts talking to you at a party. In this moment, you’re not nearly as clever or charming as you hoped you’d be, and you struggle to volley with the anecdotes, opinions, and witticisms lobbed your way. At the end of it, you come away thinking, “They totally thought […]
There is a real chance of a US-Venezuela war — so why does it feel fake?
The post-modern philosopher Jean Baudrillard infamously argued in 1991 that the Gulf War did not take place, by which he did not mean that no fighting had actually occurred, but that the real events were something entirely separate from the carefully choreographed presentation the world saw thanks to the novel phenomenon of 24-hour cable news. […]
Older voters are gaining power. Young people are paying the price.
America is getting old. Between 1960 and 2024, the share of Americans over 65 doubled — from 9 percent to 18 percent. And the US will only grow grayer in the coming years. Within a decade, America’s seniors will outnumber its children for the first time in history, according to Census Bureau projections. By 2060, […]
This bizarre online community is a warning about where the internet is headed
Open the internet today, and you’ll find entire worlds most of us never encounter. Spaces built around practices so strange, so hyper-specific, they read like satire at first glance. One of the most unsettling of these worlds calls itself the GoonVerse. It’s a digital subculture organized around endless pornography and what can only be described […]