🔒 The Warlord Internet
It’s kind of funny how the trajectory of the internet wound up following the plot of the Mad Max movies in an analogy that’s only a little bit silly.  Those movies are often used as a reference for a lawless post-apocalyptic anarchy, but the story only started off
Civil War MAGA: Why They're Fighting
Well, the most predictable thing ever has begun happening—the self-driven implosion of the Trump administration. Everyone knew it, I knew it, the only question was how many months it would be into Trump’s second term before the cracks started showing.  The answer, beating everyone’s most pessimistic estimates,
🔒 I Am Once Again Begging the Left Not to Get Baited Into Conspiracy Thinking
Among the increasingly unhinged (decreasingly hinged?) antics of our friend Elon Musk lately, one recent debacle stood out from the rest: The curious and absurd case of Adrian Dittmann.  For those with the good sense to have no idea what I’m talking about, for months the surprisingly robust community
Real Time True Crime: The Unsatisfying and Often Damaging Outcomes of Internet Sleuthing
Within an hour of Luigi Mangione’s name being released, the whole world was scouring his biography. What people found didn’t make the kind of sense they thought it would.  A wealthy heir to an Italian-American real estate fortune, Mangione looked up to figures as diverse as Sam Harris,
🔒 Civil War MAGA: Why They're Fighting
Well, the most predictable thing ever has begun happening—the self-driven implosion of the Trump administration. Everyone knew it, I knew it, the only question was how many months it would be into Trump’s second term before the cracks started showing.  The answer, beating everyone’s most pessimistic estimates,
Jester's Privilege: A 2024 Year in Review
As the sun completes another orbit around the Earth in this upside down and backward reality I find myself reaching a milestone in writing this column, or newsletter, or whatever you want to call it. For a full calendar year I’ve managed to crank out an entire essay every
Being a Writer Means Learning to Survive Platform Collapse
Late December is the time of year, I think, when people have the least interest in reading newsletters and I have the least time to write them, so let’s see out the year on a more personal note than usual.  I’ve gained a lot of subscribers this year
🔒 Real Time True Crime: The Unsatisfying and Often Damaging Outcomes of Internet Sleuthing
Within an hour of Luigi Mangione’s name being released, the whole world was scouring his biography. What people found didn’t make the kind of sense they thought it would.  A wealthy heir to an Italian-American real estate fortune, Mangione looked up to figures as diverse as Sam Harris,
🔒 Being a Writer Means Learning to Survive Platform Collapse
Late December is the time of year, I think, when people have the least interest in reading newsletters and I have the least time to write them, so let’s see out the year on a more personal note than usual.  I’ve gained a lot of subscribers this year
Meet America's Terrifying Line of Defense Against the Next Pandemic
Hard as it may be t believe, the most frightening thing about Trump’s second term isn’t Donald Trump. Shit, I don’t even know if he cracks the top five most frightening things. If history is going to repeat itself in the next four years then the sequel
The Hard Problem of Social Media: Run Rabbit Run
Well hello again, December. This is the one year anniversary of the most popular thing I’ve ever written on the Substack platform and it was about how that platform is going to be in trouble if it didn’t figure out what it wanted to be: Now we’re