Category Archives: Culture

Many Lies, No Coherent Plan

Commentaries and fact-checks about Trump’s speech to Congress last night. Dana Milbank on how Trump has set the country back 100 years; Fred Kaplan on Trump’s unhinged plans for the rest of the world; And Heather Digby Parton and David … Continue reading

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Stepping Outward, from Tariffs to Globalization

Rationales for tariffs against Canada and Mexico: perhaps Trump just hates Canadian decency, how his rationales keep changing, and in any case they’re foolish; With my thoughts about two possible motivations; How Trump is losing the 21st century: by alienating … Continue reading

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Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach, THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION

Subtitled “Why We Never Think Alone” (Riverhead Books, March 2017, 296pp including 30pp acknowledgements, notes, and index.) This is a book that I’ve thought of as a companion to the O’Connor/Weatherall book I just reviewed ever since they’ve been sitting … Continue reading

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Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, THE MISINFORMATION AGE

Subtitled “How False Beliefs Spread”(Yale University Press, 2019, 266pp, including 80pp of notes, bibliography, acknowledgements, and index) This is an interesting enough book that wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It seems right up my alley: why do so many … Continue reading

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What Kind of Nation Does America Want to Be?

The dichotomy revisited, today via Heather Cox Richardson: how Democrats, and Republicans, differ in their approaches to raising money, and spending it. Her distinction echoes George Lakoff’s, and the conservative inability (or refusal) to take long-term consequences into account; Why … Continue reading

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Yearning and Discontent

Why is half of American cheering for chaos? Jonathan Rauch on “patrimonialism”; DOJ deletes data on cop misconduct; Project 2025 and conspiracy theories; Kari Lake spreads the social security lie; a Trump lie about office workers; Why firing IRS workers … Continue reading

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The Roots of All This is an Unchanging Human Nature in a Changing World

Heather Cox Richardson explains why the right to vote, not the Second Amendment, is the key to maintaining our rights; Robert Reich wonders where the lawlessness of the Trump regime will end; Paul Krugman sees the end of Pax Americana; … Continue reading

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Heather Cox Richardson, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING, post 1

Subtitled “Notes on the State of America” (Viking, Sep 2023, xvii + 286pp, including 30p of notes and index) Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who has become well-known, in addition to several earlier books, for her newsletter called Letters … Continue reading

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A New Cycle of Doom: Trump’s Second Inauguration

What I said about the inaugurations 4 and 8 years ago; About Trump’s inauguration this morning, a fact-check of his speech, and how he did not place his hand on the Bible; Paul Krugman on lies, David A. Graham on … Continue reading

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For Certain Values of Great

From Facebook, a few days ago. The science fiction writer Robert Charles Wilson attempts to summarize the current condition in a single sentence. Facebook, Robert Charles Wilson, 11 Jan 2025: via David Gerrold. The concentration of wealth is driving novel … Continue reading

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