Join us and @dissentmag.bsky.social for America at 250, an online event with Adom Getachew, Aziz Rana, and David Waldstreicher on June 29 at 12pm ET. The panelists will discuss their recent essays in BR and Dissent on the legacies of the American Revolution. Register here: tinyurl.com/44yrhzbt

”Here Where We Live Is Our Country," by Molly Crabapple is a popular account of a fiercely secular, anti-Zionist socialist political party of the Eastern European Jewish working class. https://dissentmagazine.org/article/jewish-bund-book-review/

Join Boston Review and Dissent for an event with Adom Getachew, Aziz Rana, and David Waldstreicher on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. https://secure.givelively.org/event/boston-critic-inc/america-at-250-a-conversation-with-adom-getachew-aziz-rana-and-david-waldstreicher

Less than two years after winning one of the biggest majorities in British political history, the Labour Party is on the cusp of defenestrating its leader, Keir Starmer, and installing the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister within a decade.

Really stellar piece from @charliegoldberg.bsky.social in @dissentmag.bsky.social on Manchin, Fetterman, and the outsized and idiosyncratic influence of their personal grievances on American politics. dissentmagazine.org/article/fett...

In the new issue of @dissentmag.bsky.social, I spoke to David Bateman and Julie Suk about the kinds of systemic reforms that could bring the United States closer to being a democracy dissentmagazine.org/article/decl...

U.S. independence once stood for the idea that all people have the right to govern themselves and to fundamentally change the conditions of their own societies. But has America’s revolutionary tradition lost its global significance?

Trump’s attacks on American democracy are serious enough to represent a real institutional break. It has been 250 years. Call it the end. What next? https://dissentmagazine.org/article/summer-2026-editors-page/

The Office of Mass Engagement was a statement that the Mamdani administration’s approach to governance might differ from those of his predecessors: Instead of “I know what I’m doing,” Mayor Mamdani seemed to say, “I need your help.”

During the twentieth century, U.S. independence became a symbolic touchstone for many communities in the Global South. But has America’s revolutionary tradition lost its global significance?

In "Here Where We Live Is Our Country," Molly Crabapple elevates an important part of the democratic socialist tradition at a time when many are looking for just such a usable past.

Legalized sports gambling—not even a decade old—has quickly become a treasured American pastime; a multifaceted ideological campaign has normalized the phone as a harmless, pocket-sized casino. https://dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/sports-betting-online-gambling/

Mamdani’s first mission with Organize NYC will be to turn out thousands of New Yorkers to testify at the public hearings of the Rent Guidelines Board ahead of its June meeting to vote on whether or not to increase the cost of rent-stabilized apartments.

If Zohran wants a rent freeze, there is good reason to believe he’ll win it without much of a struggle. Why, then, mobilize renters en masse to testify ahead of the board’s final vote in June?

This article compares & contrasts two books on the Frankfurt School. One ends up inverting right wing conspiracies about them setting out to destroy western civilization, positing that they _actually_ wanted to destroy true revolutionary communism. The other book is a serious intellectual history.

More so than at any point in the last century, writes Aziz Rana, U.S. independence now seems like a parochial affair.

”Here Where We Live Is Our Country," by Molly Crabapple is a popular account of a fiercely secular, anti-Zionist socialist political party of the Eastern European Jewish working class.

Online sports gambling has been normalized at a breakneck pace. And if countless researchers, writers and legislators are to be trusted, we have a nascent public health crisis with significant economic ramifications on our hands.

New 'Know Your Enemy': Matt and Sam talk to Jasper Craven about his new book, "God Forgives, Brothers Don’t: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood."

The success of Organize NYC, Zohran Mamdani's new initiative designed to bring a grassroots base into the guts of the governing process, will have implications for the left outside the five boroughs. https://dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/mamdani-mass-engagement-office-organize-nyc/

"The Bund had not so much failed as lost to an overpowering malicious force," writes Mark Erlich. "The responsibility lies with the democratic Western world, which barely lifted a finger to stop the destruction of European Jewry."

More than a quarter of American adults have a daily gambling habit, 42 percent of bettors have said they spend more than they should, and a majority of men ages eighteen to forty-nine have an active account with an online sportsbook.

Our review, by the way, is written by the grandson of the Bundist Henryk Ehrlich, killed (probably) in the Soviet Union in 1942 (probably) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_...

Winners generally write history, but sometimes history has a way of resurrecting buried legacies. In "Here Where We Live Is Our Country," Molly Crabapple has unearthed an important part of the democratic socialist tradition. https://dissentmagazine.org/article/jewish-bund-book-review/

Mark Erlich, grandson of Henryk and Sofia, shares his review of @mollycrabapple.bsky.social's wonderful Here Where We Live Is Our Country.

“Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?” builds a faulty model of the world, interprets evidence poorly in support of that model, and does so in support of a delusional political program. https://dissentmagazine.org/article/cultural-marxism-conspiracy-frankfurt-school/

There is a beautiful and inspiring interview on KYE about this book. Looking forward to reading it. dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-yo... Solidarity!

excellent politically minded explanation of @mollycrabapple.bsky.social's book about the Bund, by the grandson of one of its principle characters

In "Here Where We Live Is Our Country," @mollycrabapple.bsky.social elevates an important part of the democratic socialist tradition at a time when many are looking for just such a usable past. dissentmagazine.org/article/jewi...

"The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy" describes the networks of right-wing activists that began to rely on the conspiracy more and more. It was obvious nonsense, but that didn’t matter. What was most important was that it provided a kind of Grand Unified Theory of conservative grievance.

“We are witnesses to the hollowing out of collective achievements—from the social safety net to basic limits on how war can be conducted. These were achievements that took generations to establish but can be burned down in short order.” dissentmagazine.org/article/amer...

Which Way, Western Marxism? @dissentmag.bsky.social dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

If you read only one thing today let it be THIS:

“The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy” by @ajawoods.bsky.social is a spry genealogy of our strange reality, which traces the conspiracy from Lyndon LaRouche through the New Right to the Tea Party.

Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru called his three-week visit to the United States in 1949 “A Voyage of Discovery.” One would be hard pressed to find a visitor now describing their time in the country in this way.

In our latest issue’s special section, we approached the country's 250th anniversary from our perspective on the left. What can this anniversary mean to us?

“Conspiratorial thinking is unable to process contradiction, irony, contingency, or simple happenstance.”

Two recent books on the Frankfurt School demonstrate the difference between intellectual history and conspiratorial thinking, which makes no distinction between flimsy connections and deep ties.

Helpful summary of the worst thing about watching current MLB

During the twentieth century, U.S. independence became a symbolic touchstone for many communities in the Global South. But has America’s revolutionary tradition lost its global significance?

“It’s impossible to overstate the degree to which sports content has become gambling content.” dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

"Ultimately, cultural issues are not mere distractions: they are about the ways we live together. They too, if you wish, have a material foundation." dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

"The idea that powerful elected officials might secretly welcome having outside agitators “make them do it” is a myth. The historical record shows politicians are more often irked and offended by rowdy movements that they cannot control than pleased at the prospect of being made to do anything."

@patrickiber.bsky.social wrote this compelling joint review of The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy and rockhill’s Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? a really great read! dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

No president of the United States will ever say it, but we know it to be true: at 250, the state of the union is not good.

"The gap between these books is big enough to have been carved over millennia by the Colorado River" oh that's a good line dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

Finally, a book that asks the hard questions like "did the Rockefeller Foundation and the CIA use the Frankfurt School to destroy true Marxism as practiced in the glorious USSR?" dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

A critical review of two recent books about the Frankfurt School in the age of conspiracy theories by Patrick Iber, co-editor of the left US journal "Dissent". dissentmagazine.org/article/cult... @dissentmag.bsky.social

In the latest @dissentmag.bsky.social, Chelsea Kirk & I write about the victory of private markets in the aftermath of the Eaton & Palisades fires, instead of what could have been: housing stabilization, tenant protections & collective disaster risk reduction. dissentmagazine.org/article/los-...

“Donald Trump’s 250th will be a carnival, complete with a barker-in-chief, attempting to sell the idea that the United States is winning like never before,” writes @patrickiber.bsky.social. “Outside of MAGA-land, there will not be so much celebrating.”