Khanna: You’ve got the DOJ releasing the names of survivors—which they are not allowed to do by law—but not releasing the FBI interview files with those same survivors. Those FBI interviews contain the names of other men: Wall Street tycoons and politicians…

There's no use in making the humanities relevant, @chatterton.bsky.social argues, because "the most useful lesson the humanities have to offer today is a profoundly countercultural one:"

Grateful to the Miami Book Fair for hosting me in conversation with one of my intellectual heroes, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The left’s embrace of moralized rhetoric might seem harmless, but to win back power, Democrats will need “precisely the kind of introspection and self-criticism that moralism precludes,” @chatterton.bsky.social argues.

»Camus hätte dieses Buch geliebt.« Mehr zu »Toxische Gerechtigkeit« von Thomas Chatterton Williams (übersetzt aus dem Englischen von Stephan Kleiner): www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buch/thomas-...

My conversation with the brilliant Coleman Hughes is now available at @thefp.com and wherever you get your podcasts. www.thefp.com/p/the-great-...

Really an extraordinary pair of lectures and public conversation on the subject of joy in dark times between Roger Berkowitz and Teju Cole at the @hannaharendtcenter.bsky.social at Bard this morning.

My conversation with Jon Haidt at the 92NY. This was one of my favorite discussions so far: youtu.be/iVDi9T5Rwj0?...

A few days ago, I finished reading #SummerOfOurDiscontent by @chatterton.bsky.social. Let’s just say that I found myself quoting C+C Music Factory in my write-up, and that is not a bad thing. Thoughts & quotes ⬇️. #books #ThomasChattertonWilliams

What does cancel culture mean in the year 2025? Michael Moynihan chats with @chatterton.bsky.social and John Wood Jr. at #freespeechsummit2025

Spoke for three hours with Anna and Dasha🎙️🍷 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

“Just as the left used [George] Floyd’s death to justify and hasten all manner of political ends, the right is invoking [Charlie] Kirk’s name to advance illiberal aims and silence opponents,” @chatterton.bsky.social argues:

I wrote about Charlie Kirk and George Floyd: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Blue sky

Search his name for yourself. Just endless examples without a single dissenting statement between them. You can scroll and see dozens and dozens of responses that all come to the same conclusion. As toxic as Twitter really is, I’ve never seen a dozen posts in a row with zero disagreement.

Very hard to understand Trump and MAGA’s animus towards Comey. He’s the decisive factor in there ever even being a president Trump. You’d think he’d never have to buy a drink for the rest of his life in MAGAland.

Excellent m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zkj...

It's easier to win an argument with a genius than an idiot.

(dark) blue sky

Ahead of the October publication of Summer Of Our Discontent (Toxische Gerechtigkeit) in Germany, thank you @zeit.de Magazin for the spread 🙏🏽: www.zeit.de/zeit-magazin...

In a nutshell

I’ve spent half of my adult life living in one foreign country or another and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so estranged from the surrounding culture as I am from the aesthetics and sensibilities of this movement. Not even a criticism, I just feel more at home in Greece than in these images.

The effort to turn Kirk into a saint is genuinely bizarre. And it should go without saying that the impulse to resist this propaganda in no way excuses or condones the horrific violence.

"25 percent of the black male vote he got. This is the least racially polarized election since the 1970s. He has a multiethnic coalition behind him." And at least some of it is driven by the toxicity of the Democratic brand and not love of Trump. @chatterton.bsky.social joins @timmiller.bsky.social

"It's one of the most hair-raising things I've heard from an elected politician, the vice president telling Americans to inform on each other....things are moving so fast." @chatterton.bsky.social joins @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast:

I'm so proud of my husband @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social, who puts up with a lot of unmerited criticism but also has moments like this. He writes the truth, which resonates with reasonable people across partisan lines. May we all one day be united again. (gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...)

We had a great evening last night with @chatterton.bsky.social and @oblongbooks.bsky.social discussing “Summer of our Discontent” with @rogerberkowitz.bsky.social Join us again at the JOY conference @bardcollege.bsky.social October 16-17! hac.bard.edu/joy-2025

JD Vance goes to Munich and the United Kingdom to lecture Europeans on free speech and then addresses Americans asking them to inform on each other: "When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out — and, hell, call their employer." The hypocrisy is the point.

Hair-raising conformity. This is reminiscent of posting the black square on Instagram circa 2020—but supercharged and with the force of state coercion behind it. nypost.com/2025/09/14/s...

Quick escalation to Soviet-style informing on neighbors now

“Barely writes” is a strange accusation. Ive got three books out and my work has appeared everywhere, from The New Yorker, NYT, to Harper’s, to the LRB, the Nation, New Republic, WSJ, WashPo, LA Times, to The Atlantic. You name it. Also internationally: I had six pieces in Le Monde this summer.

I’m a broken record on this, but — there are so many examples of famous people radicalised by midlife career/personal knockbacks. Ant Middleton was on yday’s march. He got done for tax offences and lost his TV work. Now he’s mates with Tommy Robinson.

I see them when I get a flood of random replies. That happens frequently since you post about me *a lot.* It’s flattering to count an NYT columnist as my own personal stalker. Anyone can look up just how many posts you’ve made about me. If I had a dollar for each, it would dent my mortgage payment.

Historically, lists of political enemies have a very illiberal record. This new website, which lists people who celebrated Kirk's murder, doesn't seem to be an exception.

Excellent piece www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-bluesk...

I wrote about the sudden open embrace of textbook cancel culture on the right—something they used to decry. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I was invited twice to speak at the Oxford Union. The president sends an impressively polite, formal letter of invitation. What is this? Outside of this president-elect’s abhorrent speech, I wouldn’t participate in a debate with anyone who shows such lack of respect as to arrive so slovenly dressed.

The hypocrisy here is glaring. Unlike Roxane Gay on the left (or Chris Rufo on the right), I oppose cancel culture full stop, regardless of the target. I don’t want to see people lose their livelihoods for even deeply offensive online speech.

People on Bluesky still tell me we don’t need to think about what happened in 2020 to understand what’s happening now

Everybody. Transcript of some of my recent interview with @chatterton.bsky.social for Monocle Radio. monocle.com/affairs/poli...

Grateful for this authoritative and thorough breakdown of Summer of Our Discontent by David J. Garrow' in the Washington Free Beacon. Unlike so many other "reviews," this one actually and honestly engages with the text of the book and the ideas contained within it: freebeacon.com/culture/amer...

well, but--there was an interlude of Obama. in retrospect, yes it seems miraculous; but there it was. presumably Martin Luther King, Jr. could not have predicted Obama & that era of (relative) optimism. prophets are usually more prescient about doom, for obvious reasons.

I’ve been waiting for Michael Thomas’s second book for almost 20 years. I review it here: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/b...

There’s enough ressentiment on Bluesky to fuel the whole planet, but sadly it’s not a clean energy source

Appreciated this nuanced review: www.nationalreview.com/magazine/202...

My kind of blue sky