Regardless of what happens in the 2026 World Cup, a tournament presided over by war hawks and billionaires, perhaps we should all look elsewhere for heroism.

From 1980 to 2018, technological developments in the United States replaced more jobs than they generated. “AI doesn’t go on strike,” as one CEO put it. “It doesn’t ask for a pay raise.”

For all the destructive power of the Eaton and Palisades fires, it will be developers, landlords, insurance companies, and short-term rental platforms that most directly determine what kind of city emerges from this crisis.

Operation Metro Surge was never about immigration enforcement. It was about exerting power over a Muslim and Black community that has become too visible economically and politically.

Inequality in the United States has been redefined by uneven exposure to climate disaster. Yet long before the surge in dangerous weather events, private insurance reinforced the vulnerability of poor Americans by exacerbating rather than mitigating risk.

Socialists in Milwaukee achieved electoral success that was unmatched in any other U.S. city in the twentieth century. How should we look back at the history of the “sewer socialists”?

In the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires, the post-disaster housing landscape was reorganized through market mechanisms that privileged profit. The Great Los Angeles Fires, to put it another way, were a story of disaster capitalism.

'For all the destructive power of the fires, it will be developers, landlords, insurance companies, and short-term rental platforms that most directly determine what kind of city emerges from this crisis, and whether residents are able... to remain in the city they call home.'

“Within my Somali community,” writes Ibrahim Hirsi, “almost everyone I knew dreaded stepping outside. Some never left home. Others carried their passports with them at all times.”

In the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires, housing could have been stabilized and tenants could have been protected. But the private market won.

An entire industry specializing in mediation, peacekeeping, disarmament, and transitional justice has become largely obsolete. What, then, was conflict studies for?

“The suburbs dream of violence,” wrote British science fiction author J.G. Ballard in 2006, “sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a more passionate world.”

Reading Fetterman and Manchin’s memoirs, it is easy to see the ways in which the Senate’s dysfunction, downstream of this country’s claustrophobic politics, urgently needs remedying.

Operation Metro Surge achieved its intended goal: to disrupt the Somali community’s growing independence and influence in Minnesota.

“Sewer socialism” emerged as a catchy way to sum up the legacy of socialists in Milwaukee. But if used carelessly, the term can distort the history of socialist politics in the city.

The Supreme Court has made a number of interventions on voting rights in recent years. How much is left of the Voting Rights Act?

The Labour Party can no longer pretend that orthodox policies can break the United Kingdom's doom loop of collapsing living standards, political instability, and rising borrowing costs.

By knocking out key pillars of the postwar order, Trump has forced a reassessment of how the United States engages the world. The next Democratic president will need to project a different vision rooted in transnational solidarity and strategic humility.

Operation Metro Surge was never about immigration enforcement. It was about exerting power over a Muslim and Black community that has become too visible economically and politically.

If we really want to preserve democracy in this country, the electorate needs to be motivated not just to put different people into office, but to think in a long-term way about modernizing our institutions.

Why did so many fans feel betrayed by Lionel Messi’s visit to Trump’s White House? The answer goes back to the history of his country’s football culture.

The scale and depth of the left’s recent triumph in New York’s primaries cannot be dismissed. The wins make plain the leadership role Mamdani has carved out for himself in Democratic politics—one that may well extend beyond the five boroughs.

“It was never about immigration enforcement. It was about exerting power over a Muslim and Black community that has become too visible economically and politically.”

Among the lessons that a newly elected socialist mayor might more accurately glean from Milwaukee and the “sewer socialists” would be this: resist any attempt to box in your vision for the city.

87 percent of foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota are naturalized U.S. citizens, while most of the remaining 13 percent are permanent residents who entered through refugee resettlement or family reunification programs. What, then, was the point of Operation Metro Surge?

Maybe the Supreme Court’s recent opinions will make people realize that they want different institutions: A Supreme Court with less power, a president more fearful of criminal law, an electoral system where the people directly vote for the president.

How might American leftists convince our fellow citizens that we understand what has gone wrong in our country and have practical and appealing ideas for how to fix it?

Operation Metro Surge was never about immigration enforcement. Donald Trump, after years of racist and bigoted rants, had unleashed the full weight of federal power to terrorize Somalis.

"If we really want to preserve democracy in this country, the electorate needs to be motivated not just to put different people into office, but to think in a long-term way about modernizing our institutions."

Fordham Law Professor Julie C. Suk spoke with Dissent magazine about the Supreme Court’s major decisions this year—on voting rights, executive power, birthright citizenship, and more—and the kind of reforms that would be needed to democratize the judiciary.

There is no sign that any of Trump's destruction has brought Iran’s regime near collapse. Indeed, it appears stronger than before.

Interesting broadening of perspective of the Milwaukee sewer socialists. One thing I didn't know before is that Frank Zeidler identified as a liberal.

We live under a constitutional system in which a president can do a lot of things that could be flagrantly unconstitutional, but no court has the power to stop them from going into effect for the whole country immediately in every imaginable application.

Socialists in Milwaukee are largely remembered for their achievements within the city’s limits. But they also understood themselves to be international actors, as did a substantial number of the people who voted them into power.

Anthropic recently agreed to a $1.5 billion copyright settlement—the largest in U.S. history. For half a million authors, the $3,000 payout per book might look like a victory, but for Anthropic, it was simply the cost of doing business.

Operation Metro Surge was the culmination of a decades-long campaign in which conspiratorial crusaders have painted Somalis as a drain on social programs, criminals, and extremists.

The Uses and Abuses of the “Worst of the Worst”Bby @joshpage.bsky.social and Keramet Reiter via @dissentmag.bsky.social

Presidential campaigns are the moments when coalitions can redefine the terms of debate. Whoever wears the progressive mantle in 2028 will need to treat foreign policy as an extension of democratic struggle at home.

The “worst of the worst” narrative justifies racial profiling, the detention of citizens, the denial of bond hearings, third-country deportation, the shipping of immigrants to Guantanamo Bay, the detention of thousands of children, and family separation.

Every constitutional democracy should have a bulwark against constitutional abuse, but is the U.S. Supreme Court a well-designed institution for that job?

The scale and depth of the attack on our institutions means that there is no simple way for a pro-democracy coalition to flip the lights back on after Trump. We need transformative thinking.

This June, lawmakers approved an additional $69.5 billion for immigration enforcement. With this war chest, the government can build the infrastructure to combat an alleged influx of “murders and criminals of the highest order.”

After the brazenness of the Court’s major decisions this year—on voting rights, executive power, birthright citizenship, and more—what kind of reforms are needed to democratize the judiciary?

John Fetterman’s lack of serious attention to political solutions is enabled by a Democratic Party geared toward fundraising and poll-tested, sterile platforms.

If capital is rewriting the rules of work with AI, then workers must rewrite the terms of resistance.

By knocking out key pillars of the postwar order, Trump has forced a reassessment of how the United States engages the world. The next Democratic president will need to project a different vision rooted in transnational solidarity and strategic humility.

The Democratic establishment’s standard criticism of NYC-DSA is that it’s an organization of transplants and gentrifiers who don’t understand the city. But if that’s true, then how do they keep winning?

Television is rarely amicable to radical thinking. HBO’s “Hacks” toes the line between satire of Hollywood and embracing it as an indulgent, if guilty, pleasure.

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions should motivate people to think through what kind of institutions we need in the long term for representative democracy to work.

The “worst of the worst” is a tool of political demonology, evoking a sense of crisis to justify a state of exception. We must reject it.