Liberal Currents

"We cannot answer the question 'what should we do' before we answer 'who are we' and 'what are we for.'" www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politics...

"Brazil is different… The combination of mandatory voting and a run-off meant that spoilers were eliminated and non-voters spooked by the first round result were going to be going to the polls again either way." www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

If you want to know what kind of community we are, this week the @liberalcurrents.com Discord roasted my own essay. The worst part is they were RIGHT! I was trying to focus on the ordinary but instead picked a bunch of famous examples. They liked this part www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-i...

"Trump has left us in a sort of interregnum. Periods like this are dangerous, but only because the possibilities for change are boundless. The instability makes a new world seem possible, and invites interest in what the principles of this remade world will be."

"Providing an alternative model to populism isn’t the film’s concern. This is a film interested in uncomfortable questions, and it asks them while refusing the burden of only asking the ones for which it has clear solutions." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-anti-pop...

"Tennessee’s Blackest city, the heart of its Mississippi Delta region, looked set to be stripped of its voice in the House. "Or at least that’s what Republicans hoped would happen. Instead, they have a much bigger fight on their hands than they anticipated." www.liberalcurrents.com/better-win-a...

"So many horrors have been swept away by people with principles who believed those principles would make the world a better place. Paine was right. Liberty, equality, and brotherhood really did march across the world. "They’re still marching." www.liberalcurrents.com/we-have-it-i...

"Trump’s criminal abusiveness and the public’s ineffective response to it are Exhibit A in the case that there are deep problems with American democracy that must be dealt with. Beating Republicans at the polls in 2026 and 2028 is merely the beginning of what needs to happen."

"Liberalism is the belief in a new and better world founded on the principles of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. "Those principles in that order were most elegantly expressed in French, but as a patriotic American, I believe Jefferson beat them to the same general idea."

And just like that, Pearson’s opponent has a sexting scandal (hat tip: @evanhurst.substack.com) www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithint...

“Sorry, but the President is also holding ninety-nine other smoking guns.” www.liberalcurrents.com/donald-trump...

"Even the most technocratic bloggers have a need for respect, dignity, and recognition. This is why they spend all day fighting on Twitter." www.liberalcurrents.com/we-have-it-i...

"Tensions reached new heights following the fatal shooting of Tyrin Johnson by Tennessee National Guard troops in August. Despite claims by authorities that the guardsmen were threatened with a weapon, a subsequent autopsy showed that the twenty-year-old Johnson was shot in the back."

“Pearson is uniting outrage over the treatment of Memphis with frustration over affordability and opposition to data centers.” www.liberalcurrents.com/better-win-a...

"The key problem with run-offs (as opposed to instant runoffs, which Americans call 'ranked choice voting') is that the second round usually has lower turnout than the first. … Brazil is different here again, however. They have mandatory voting." www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

"Life under liberalism is creativity. … It is the creativity of those engaging in 'experiments of living,' as J. S. Mill memorably put it—pioneering unconventional lifestyles today that might become entirely conventional later." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-i...

"No one can know how that or the midterms will go, but there is reason to hope. And if they do go well, it will have been a very bad week or so for global fascism." www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

i know politicians are terrified of public opinion on immigration, but given how badly the other side has failed, i really think if we had a bit of courage many people would hear us out www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-g...

"People who believe their choices don't matter choose poorly." Indeed.

"We need to be able to paint a picture…to say what these abstractions mean for the people who live where the factory opens, what it means to the local kids when a library opens up where there wasn’t one before." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-i...

on the internet people will call almost anything liberalism. war with iraq, death by firing squad, npic infighting, everything. so a few weeks ago at liberal currents, we put out a challenge to all the editors: what is liberalism, actually? today we get our first essay, from lc founder adam gurri:

“What I will offer you instead is something simpler, and perhaps harder: a vision of life under liberalism, as distinct from the political project.” www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-i...

"Given our name and our mission statement, we often face the question 'what is liberalism?'" www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-i...

The weekly roundup of what we’ve done at Liberal Currents has strong criticism for antisemitism and some praise for anti-populism. www.liberalcurrents.com/weekly-round...

"America was pushed into its second nadir by a well-funded anti-democratic movement that spent several decades building the social and legal infrastructure of American fascism. Digging ourselves out of the competitive authoritarian pit will likely be a slow process."

Neon Liberalism #96: Bret Devereaux explains why we're all still obsessed with World War 2, why Hearts of Iron IV is a gateway to (mis)understanding the war, and most importantly: what fascism was and why it failed. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-lies-of-...

"The plausible techno-dystopian future we’re staring down is not one where a digital demon kills us all, but one where we... concentrate immense wealth and control of information in a small number of tech-industry figures whose personal interests do not align with the public interest."

"Too much truth, and everyone is paralyzed by guilt. Too much politics, and you end up hunting witches instead of putting out the fires consuming your world. "Given its evident skill at alienating its audience, I think it’s fair to say 'Digger' is not interested in the balance."

"Meta’s proposals for ‘fixing’ the product to address the harms done to kids do include innovation in safety features. But Meta trying to claim credit as a pioneer in making their product safe for kids is absurd and repugnant." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-techlash...

"Meta built products to be addictive to users, driving engagement through features like endless scrolling, and designed algorithms parasitic on outrage or even on mental illness, including body dysmorphia and suicidality." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-techlash...

You can now listen to the audio version of my essay for the Reconstruction Papers from @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/to-rebuild-d...

"Ramaswamy ran an attack ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s mother, saying that Acton has 'a serious problem, she is a liar… She’s lied her entire life.' But the reason for Acton’s estrangement with her mother is known: her mother married a known pedophile and enabled him to molest Acton."

“Ramaswamy’s ad embraces a woman who enabled sexual abuse—and uses the language of ‘parental estrangement’ to mobilize MAGA voters who can’t understand why their children won’t take their calls. But they know the reason. They just don’t want to accept it.” www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

“Translation, millennials are ungrateful. We just don’t care about family and loyalty and love. We see everything as transactional; we simply don’t appreciate what our parents have done for us.” www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

"As the contrast between President Trump’s first and second terms have shown so far, there’s an enormous amount of corruption and brutality and misgovernment that US voters are willing to forgive—or even vote to reinstall—if they think it’ll also bring them lower prices and higher wages."

"While it’s true that I’m less guilty of the climate catastrophe than is the head of Exxon, it’s also true…that many of us wish we could simply punish some bad guys for what is, in truth, an 'unsustainable' way of life that we all share and that only a small number of us are willing to give up."

“Anyone who is on the liberal-democratic side of the current divide between ascendant populist authoritarianism and liberalism in defensive retreat should see Digger as on their side, even (or especially?) if they don’t actually like it.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-anti-pop...

"There’s an inherent romance to a morality tale: the wicked brought low, the righteous rewarded. Iñárritu gives us not an ounce of that romance. Instead, he rubs our faces in the truth." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-anti-pop...