Cuba’s Gay Rights Vote Is a Victory for Socialist Values
A referendum to end discrimination against gay couples in marriage and adoption just won big in Cuba. That’s a victory for the core values underlying the socialist project.
284 Article(s) by: Ben Burgis
Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Rashida Tlaib Is Absolutely Right About Progressives and Israel
Democratic socialist congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is under fire from the Democratic establishment for saying that support for Israel’s apartheid government is incompatible with progressive values. They’re livid that Tlaib is telling the truth.
Alex Jones Is a Symptom of a Much Larger Problem in America
After harassing and defaming grieving Sandy Hook parents, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones may finally get what’s coming to him. But as long as the nation’s most powerful institutions fail to earn the public’s trust, hucksters like Jones will always find an audience.
“Dark Brandon” Is a Symptom of Powerlessness
“Dark Brandon” memes are jokes, but they express a deeply felt wish that Joe Biden would turn out to be a firebrand progressive at heart. But Biden is Biden — at his core, he’ll always be a corporate-friendly centrist.
An Oklahoma Teacher Fought the Book-Banning Right and Lost Her Job
An Oklahoma English teacher helped students apply for library cards so they could read banned books. Now she’s out of a job, receiving a barrage of threats from the Right, and the Republican state secretary of public education wants to take away her license.
John Fetterman Is Right About Many Things — but He’s Dead Wrong on Palestine
There are many things to like about Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman. But his dismal position on Palestine is a reminder of how foreign policy is so often the weak spot of progressive politicians.
Gorbachev Couldn’t Reform the Soviet System — but a Better Socialism Is Possible
Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, who died last week, was a tragic figure. He tried to build a humane socialism on the rotten foundations of authoritarianism. Today, without the albatross of Stalinism, we can fight for an entirely different kind of socialism.
Ron DeSantis’s Voting Crackdown Is Grotesque
Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s new election cops are locking up the state’s citizens for trying to exercise their most basic political right, the right to vote — all to impress the Extremely Online right.
Hypocritical Conservatives Loved PPP Loan Forgiveness But Hate Student Loan Forgiveness
The Right wants it both ways on PPP loans and student loans, insisting it was fine for the government to forgive pandemic loans to businesses but terrible if it does the same with college loans to ordinary people. None of its arguments make any sense.
Yes, Canceling Student Loan Debt Is Justified. Canceling Medical Debt Would Be, Too.
Student loan debt shouldn’t exist. Neither should medical debt. The Biden administration's cancellation of some student loan debt is justified — and canceling medical debt would be, too.
Student Debt Relief Was Never Supposed to Happen
Student debt forgiveness is about to become official US policy by a stroke of Joe Biden’s pen. It’s a good time to remember that, just a few years ago, the idea was denounced as hopelessly utopian, a left-wing pipe dream — and that was the liberals talking.
Biden Is Canceling $10,000 of Student Loan Debt for Some Borrowers. That’s Not Good Enough.
President Biden has announced the cancellation of $10,000 of student debt for borrowers with incomes below $125,000. Even as a matter of naked political calculation, it would be better for him to just cancel it all.
Ben Shapiro Thinks “Marxism Can’t Work in America.” He’s Very Confused.
Right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro says that “Marxism can’t work in America” because we have too much income mobility. He has a basic misunderstanding of both income mobility and socialism.
Salman Rushdie’s Stabbing Should Remind Us That Free Speech Is a Nonnegotiable Progressive Value
Last weekend, British novelist Salman Rushdie was almost killed for a novel he wrote. It’s a brutal reminder of why the Left’s long tradition of embracing free speech is so vital.
Dick Cheney Was a Way More Effective “Threat to Our Republic” Than Donald Trump
In an ad for his daughter Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney denounced Trump as a “threat to our republic.” Dick seems to have forgotten that, unlike Trump, he and George W. Bush successfully stole an election.
Blake Masters Is a Pseudo-Populist Fraud
Blake Masters, the GOP’s nominee for Senate in Arizona, claims to care about the working class. Don’t believe a word of it.
The Trump-Voting Kansas Electorate Is a Better Protector of Abortion Rights Than the Supreme Court
The resounding defeat of a ballot initiative to strip abortion rights from the Kansas state constitution is a reminder that we don’t need to rely on benevolent philosopher-kings in black robes to protect our rights. We can mobilize popular majorities.
Three Years After His Žižek Debate, Jordan Peterson Somehow Knows Even Less About Marx
Jordan Peterson keeps running his mouth on Marx and Marxism, but a new conversation with Kyle Kulinski shows that the Canadian neo-reactionary has forgotten what little he ever knew about the subject.
Nancy Pelosi Is Rolling the Dice on World War III
Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan. The trip will accomplish nothing except ratcheting up tensions with one nuclear-armed superpower while the United States is already in a proxy war with another.
Dems Promised Universal Pre-K, Paid Leave, and Free Community College. Now It’s All Gone.
As progressives debate whether or not to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, let’s take a moment to remember Build Back Better: universal pre-K, paid family and medical leave, free community college. It’s all been taken away — and you should be furious.