People Have Been Panicking About New Media Since Before the Printing Press
Politicians and activists claim social media is turning us into zombies. But new technologies have been greeted with skepticism since the dawn of time.
November 2021
The PATRIOT Act's Poisoned Tree
Two decades after 9/11, the government's appetite for spying has only grown.
Features
How the CDC Became America's Landlord
Pandemic bans on evictions were supposed to be a temporary measure, but politicians keep extending them.
How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball
And why stopping the subsidies can help bring it back.
Interview
A Different Approach to Anti-Racism
"If you want to fight the impulse that we human beings have to feel better than others," says Chloé Valdary, "it's a bad idea to make people so insecure."
Topics
The Unexpected, Predictable End of the War in Afghanistan
The bloody, tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a predictable disaster. It was also an incredible, surprising anti-war victory.
Public Defenders vs. Gun Control
A Supreme Court decision against New York's gun control scheme would be a victory for both criminal justice reform and the Second Amendment.
FDA Vaccine Approval Delays Are Deadly
The vaccines seem to be working well, but the FDA isn't.
Barely Legal Strippers Now Illegal in Texas
Under S.B. 315, it is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, to employ 18- to 20-year-olds at any sexually oriented business.
New York Shouldn't Treat the Unvaccinated as Second-Class Citizens
De Blasio should honor expectations of medical privacy, not threaten government retribution for those who make choices he dislikes.
Biden Reverses Trump's Showerhead Deregulation
"You have showers where I can't wash my hair properly. It's a disaster!" said Trump in 2015.
A Drone Whistleblower Goes to Prison
Too often, the government punishes citizens who reveal the state's true behavior to their fellow Americans.
The First Semiconductor Trade War
What Reagan's tariffs in the '80s can teach us about today's foreign-made semiconductors
Are Democrats Serious About Legalizing Marijuana?
Democrats need to decide whether they want to legalize marijuana or just want credit for seeming to try.
Biden, Like Trump, Uses the Pandemic To Expel Migrants
Title 42 expulsions are a cruel and indiscriminate pandemic mitigation measure.
Culture
The Kinks vs. the People in Grey
Happy 50th birthday to Muswell Hillbillies, a concept album about nostalgia, conformity, and the evils of urban renewal programs.
Books
Lockdowns' High Costs and Murky Benefits
Cato economist Ryan Bourne's new book is a much-needed rejoinder to the obtuse economic reasoning of many pandemic-era policy makers.
Reviews
Loki
Even the most powerful cosmic demigod can be foiled by the even-more-powerful machinations of bureaucracy.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living
You can finally set up a farm with crops and animals such as cows, llamas, and chickens—heedless of zoning rules!
The Innocence Files
Netflix's limited series documents how bad forensics, faulty witness testimony, and misconduct by police and prosecutors let us down.
The Industrial Revolutions
The new podcast charts the changes to society wrought by mechanization, mass production, and scientific advancement.
The Chosen
Christian media has a track record of creating hopelessly bad productions, but Dallas Jenkins' TV series is a cut above.
The Family Firm
Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.
We Are Satellites
Sci-fi novelist Sarah Pinsker's new book deals with the ways technology shapes how we conceive of the inner self.
ETC.
Ted Henken on How Internet Access Is Changing Cuba
"A key part of the control in Cuba is keeping people afraid, keeping them isolated from one another," says Henken. The internet has mitigated this.
