Babylon Is So Bad It Will Hurt Your Brain
It’s not really clear what Damien Chazelle is trying to accomplish in his latest, Babylon. The movie is so awful that he should probably be banished from Hollywood.
Blog
The Right Tried to Cancel the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Right has successfully framed “canceling” as something leftists do. But it’s the snowflakes on the Right who have typically led the charge to censor culture. Case in point: when Britain lost its mind over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Emancipation Is an Action Melodrama That Is Highly Missable
There aren’t enough films depicting runaway slaves fighting off Southern racists on the way to freedom. So when that premise is wasted on a terrible movie, as it is in Will Smith’s Emancipation, it’s a great tragedy.
Howard Brown Health Wants to Lay Off 60 New Union Members
Howard Brown Health Center is well known as an LGBTQ-focused health provider and a stalwart Chicago progressive institution. Workers say that on the heels of their recent unionization, management is laying off 60 workers.
Simone Weil Was a Saint of the Socialist Movement
Simone Weil combined a passionate commitment to socialism and anti-fascism with a heroic, Christian spirit of self-sacrifice. Her legacy continues to pose ethical and philosophical questions for the Left today.
Technocrats in Suits, Not Blackshirts, Rule Europe
The fascist-inspired government in Italy, like the far-right government in Hungary, is part of European neoliberalism, not an alternative to it.
Organizing the Void
The new left in Europe and North America hasn’t made the transition from being a symptom of democratic crisis to offering an effective cure for it.
The Hopeful Dystopian
On the enduring appeal of Christopher Lasch — on both the Left and Right.
Mikhail Lobanov Was Jailed Because Putin’s Cronies Are Afraid
Moscow-based socialist Mikhail Lobanov is a leading left-wing critic of Vladimir Putin. His jailing this Thursday reflects authorities’ determination to silence critics of the war, the disastrous effects of which are playing havoc on Russian society.
New York City’s Public Transit Is Broken. It Doesn’t Have to Be.
America’s largest public transit system is unreliable and often decrepit. Socialist state legislator Zohran Mamdani says that can change. We spoke to Mamdani about his proposal to fully fund city transit, increase service, freeze fares, and make buses free.
What You Should Have Read in 2022
We published 2,500 original essays in 2022. Here’s a recap in case you missed one or two of them.
We Don’t Want a Post-Pandemic “Return to Normal,” We Want the End of Capitalism
In 2022, we limped out of the pandemic frying pan into the fire of resumed capitalist crises. Popular yearning to “get back to normal” is a desire for the good life — and making such a desire a reality will require fighting for socialism.