“It’s the [attention] economy, stupid.”

I do not think you can build a functional and viable Liberal State in a zero-sum political economy. If people think they're competing for scare resources with The Others, it activates every reactionary instinct they have. It's not good!

one of the strangest things about the trump administration is the aesthetic of self-conscious evil

This sort of strategic thinking is alienating Democrats from persuadable voters. Educated folk think in outcomes, but the median voter can’t draw a line between policy and their everyday lives; they heuristically seek people who act/talk like they would in this situation.

I do not like this. I do not like being ruled by sociopaths soaked in an information system divorced from reality. I do not like that my president is an aspiring tyrant who has betrayed our allies to side with Putin. I do not like waking up every day feeling a kind of dirty no shower can fix.

guy in the 1920s putting a "i bought this before he went crazy" sticker on his Model T

the thing about the meaning of the birthright citizenship clause in the constitution is that just because you can *imagine* a world where there *might have been* a debate over its scope doesn't mean there was *actually* a debate over its scope