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Is It Ever OK to Mock People's Appearance? (Even If They're Bad?)

Well, Adam Conover just got himself cancelled, which is a shame. For those who don’t know, he’s a former CollegeHumor comedian who built a career off his myth-busting show Adam Ruins Everything. He’s also a prominent union activist, which is not something you typically suspect from a

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Relax, You'll Never Make a Living on Substack

As well as general politics and pop culture I like to write about the goings-on of social media, and this week's piece is about Substack Notes. As subscribers to the Ghost version of my newsletter, you might have no idea what I'm talking about. If you&

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🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: Backward Male

Paul Elam and the origins of an internet phenomenon known as the manosphere.

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Taylor Lorenz Derangement Syndrome

I stumbled into one of the most deranged and sociopathic conspiracies I’ve ever encountered in all my time writing about oligarchs and I discovered it purely because I’m having some trouble figuring out why I’m supposed to hate Taylor Lorenz.  The blockbuster article everyone was talking about

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Reactionary Scientists Whine About Woke

While researching for mah book that I’m writing, I came across a preorder listing for another book that seems right up my alley. That’s a dangerous thing to happen when I’m in the midst of a book buying spree. It’s called The War on Science, and

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The Intersection of Privilege and Cowardice

With so much to be angry about right now this might seem petty, but one of the things I’m angriest about might be Bill Maher.  I know, I know. Any energy spent thinking about Bill Maher, let alone being upset about him, is energy wasted. I’ve written about

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You Will Own Nothing, and You Will Be Miserable: Trump's Promise to America

Donald Trump did something frightening this month—stupid, absolutely, and breathtakingly irresponsible, but frightening. He gave a demonstration of the power that he unilaterally holds over the global economy. He doesn’t need weapons, just words. With an announcement on the White House lawn that he was applying absurdly high

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🔒 How Geeks Ate the World: Demons of Suspicion

Defining feminism and how its opponents began to organize around a counter-movement ostensibly dedicated to men's rights.

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Who is Running the United States?

On Wednesday, apparent president Trump did the most bizarre thing he’s done since the last bizarre thing he did and until the next even more bizarre thing which will probably happen before I publish this. He stood in the White House rose garden and gave a long, rambling, largely

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The Grift That's Smothering the Resistance

I wasn’t on Twitter during the Arab Spring. It sounds like it was a big deal. Millions of people across a continent throwing off the shackles of tyranny and demonstrating for the first time the power of online organizing. It’s widely regarded to be the least shitty thing

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Yes, Attacking Teslas is Self-Defense

I’ll say it in a way that is as legally unobjectionable as I can manage: I do not endorse violence but I understand why it’s happening.  I’m not even talking about the type of violence that harms people. When people feel politically powerless in America it’s

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🔒 How Geeks Ate the World

Defining geeks, how their relationship with masculinity formed a culture, and their culture formed an ideology.