AI is more popular than child molesters www.vox.com/politics/473...

Voters don't "hate" AI. And only a tiny share of them consider it a top-tier issue. That could change. People are definitely anxious about the technology. But some recent pieces have wildly overstated the scale and intensity of the backlash thus far www.vox.com/politics/473...

I feel like "attention hacking" is most of politics now. The Minnesota aid fraud story is becoming a perfect example. Recap: In 2022, the Biden DOJ filed the first charges against dozens of fraudsters, many of them Somali-American, who'd fleeced a state food aid program. (1/x)

Rich nations are happier than poor ones. And poor countries tend to get happier as they get richer Yet wealthy countries have been getting richer - without getting discernibly happier - for decades. I wrote about one (not totally convincing) explanation: www.vox.com/politics/472...

Degrowth proponents often suggest that America can slash its resource use by over 50% -- while still expanding the *good* sectors, such as healthcare. I think this betrays a naivety about how resource-intensive modern medicine is www.vox.com/politics/472...

Americans' incomes are 26% higher than they were in 1996 -- yet our self-reported happiness has fallen sharply since then. I wrote about one theory of The Thirty Years' Vibecession www.vox.com/politics/472...

The American electorate is historically old and getting older. Seniors' growing clout will be a defining feature of our politics in the coming decades. Already, it is leading states to shift tax burdens from the old to the young www.vox.com/politics/471...

The White House argues that drug smugglers are terrorists who've effectively launched mass casualty attacks on the US -- and thus, our military has a right to bomb civilian ships suspected of carrying drugs. There are a few problems with that argument www.vox.com/politics/471...

Trump and Hegseth have argued for years that the US should commit more war crimes Now, America is summarily executing suspected drug offenders, in defiance of myriad laws Hegseth's criminality doesn't need to be uncovered. It's right there on the surface www.vox.com/politics/471...

AI threatens to liberate the rich from their age-old dependence on ordinary people's labor -- thereby entrenching a permanent oligarchy. My essay on that grim hypothetical is now out from behind the paywall www.vox.com/the-highligh...

Price controls are (usually) a bad way to distribute scarce resources. If you're worried working-class people are getting priced out of certain markets, just give them money and tax the rich (while you work to increase the supply of the scarce good) www.vox.com/politics/470...

No, the neo-Nazism of young Republican staffers is not driven by economic anxiety www.vox.com/politics/468...

If you want to ask me questions about fully automated neofeudalism (or technically, "anything"), you can do so here at noon:

If you want a picture of a Democratic future, imagine hyper-engaged, suburban wine-moms stomping on J.D. Vance’s face — forever (or, you know, in the 2028 election) www.vox.com/politics/467...

Republicans have long worried that -- once Trump is gone -- the college graduates whom he alienated will remain Democrats, while the disengaged voters whom he mobilized will stop turning out. The 2025 election results make that scenario more plausible www.vox.com/politics/467...

Anyway, if you think Zohran is an incredible politician and Spanberger and Sherrill are boring establishment mods, then you should take last night's results as evidence in favor of the electoral power of moderation. But also who cares in a sense, give me all the protected bike lanes please.

Zohran is a generational political talent and I'm very happy he's mayor and Cuomo is not. Also Spanberger and Sherrill do not seem to be generational political talents and yet they obviously did very well and Republican turnout cratered in their elections.

Base strategies are good at turning out your base. Just one small problem.

Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara argues that past socialist societies were wrong to think they could do without markets. But he insists that modern economies *can* do without capitalists I asked him: Why take that risk? Why not stick to what definitely works (ie Sweden)? www.vox.com/politics/467...

NYC's new mayor believes in democratic socialism But how would a democratic socialist economy actually work? To @sunraysunray.bsky.social, it would mean market competition and profit-driven firms - without capitalists. We debated his vision of market socialism www.vox.com/politics/467...

Elites have always depended on ordinary people's labor. Society has became more egalitarian as workers leveraged this power. But there is a risk that AI will eventually erode elites' dependence on the masses -- and usher in a permanent oligarchy. www.vox.com/the-highligh...

Robots can now do many parts of my job better than I can This has made me a bit anxious about my own obsolescence It has also led me to contemplate the one AI dystopia that I find plausible: A world where robots free elites of all dependence on most ordinary people. www.vox.com/the-highligh...

Highly-educated Democrats have very different priorities and policy preferences than Americans writ large. This is likely even more true of politically-engaged college grads. The mood in our circles/social media feeds is not a reliable guide to public opinion www.vox.com/politics/466...

Welcome PAC just released its case for Democrats to moderate. I asked the report's author my own greatest reservation about moderation on certain issues -- that the costs of such positioning feel certain, while the benefits are hypothetical. Here was his answer: www.vox.com/politics/466...

This week, Welcome PAC released its case for Democrats to moderate. I spoke with the author of its report, and pressed him on (nearly) every prominent, progressive objection to his analysis, including this one: www.vox.com/politics/466...

I think trying to deport millions of law-abiding immigrants is morally wrong. But even if you disagree, you should *still* oppose Trump's approach to enforcement -- so long as you value your own rights as a US citizen www.vox.com/politics/464...

Zohran Mamdani phasing out gifted programs for kindergarteners is fine. But in later grades, progressive opposition to "tracking" is misguided imo. Ability sorting can be beneficial for all students, when done right www.vox.com/politics/464...

When Democrats argue about whether "moderation" works, I think they often conflate two distinct questions: www.vox.com/politics/462...

This is really important. You can argue (if you want) that Kirk's alleged killer probably had syncretic political views, or that things are still "unclear." You cannot argue there is any affirmative evidence that he was a right-winger. This is not an ideological assertion. It is a statement of fact.

Trump is waging a war on American science and innovation. His $100,000 fee on H-1B visas will chase top researchers to other rich countries. In the long-term, our living standards will likely be lower as a result www.vox.com/politics/462...

The moment we deem ourselves immune to ideological chauvinism and unreason, we become more vulnerable to both. www.vox.com/politics/462...

Few people still need to hear this but: The Trump administration wants you to say that Charlie Kirk's killer was far-right www.vox.com/politics/462...

Joe Biden pressured social media companies to suppress anti-vax advocacy during the COVID pandemic. That raised legitimate free speech concerns. But Trump's attack on the First Amendment is vastly more egregious and profound. Conservatives shouldn't pretend otherwise www.vox.com/politics/462...

Trump's FCC isn't just threatening to take regulatory action against broadcasters who air criticism of the president. It has already done so. www.vox.com/politics/462...

Today would be a good day to support independent media -- ideally, the company that employs me -- but failing that, another of your choice www.vox.com/support-now

Conservatives have decided to honor Charlie Kirk's memory by embracing woke safety-ism www.vox.com/politics/461...

The right's response to Charlie Kirk's murder is nightmarishly Orwellian. Conservatives are signaling that the truth will be no obstacle to the sating of their bloodlust, nor to the exploitation of tragedy for partisan gain. www.vox.com/politics/461...

This man fomented an insurrection, then bestowed pardons and military honors on its perpetrators. Here, he praises "free speech," then attributes all political violence to his ideological foes and vows to crack down on their organizations. We're living in an Orwellian nightmare.

1) I wrote about the Democrats' "shutdown" debate. TLDR: A government shutdown aimed at imposing constraints on Trump's authoritarianism will fail. But Democrats should maybe do one, anyway. www.vox.com/politics/460...

Basically, I think @ericlevitz.bsky.social is right here in that Dems basically need to focus less on trying to lean into Abundance as a messaging theme and just hammer the left-populist messages that work *along* with doing good policy that works www.vox.com/politics/415...

I think @lioneltrolling.bsky.social is a great writer. I'm frequently jealous of his work and recommend purchasing his newsletter/book. But I also very strongly disagreed with his recent polemic against polling and wrote about why www.vox.com/politics/458...

1) The US economy is bending -- but not yet breaking -- beneath the weight of Trump's rightwing nationalism. The president's restrictive trade and immigration policies are largely responsible for the slowdown in economic growth. www.vox.com/politics/422...

The Democrats are historically unpopular. Wrote up 5 reasons to think they'll be OK anyway, and two to think the party is cooked www.vox.com/politics/421...

Donald Trump's official line on the Epstein case is that: 1) A vast Democratic conspiracy worked for years to forge documents implicating its enemies in child sex abuse. 2) He can't understand why his supporters would find that interesting. www.vox.com/politics/420...

The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case is indisputably scandalous. If nothing else, it demonstrates the White House's flagrant dishonesty and staggering incompetence www.vox.com/politics/420...

Donald Trump broke the oldest rule of politics: If you're going to publicly acknowledge that your child sex trafficker friend likes women "on the younger side," don't *also* coyly reference a "wonderful secret" in your letters to him. www.vox.com/politics/420...

@ericlevitz.bsky.social did the math and no there are not 35m people just sitting around on Medicaid -- www.vox.com/politics/419...

The Trump administration wants to mass deport farmworkers, then send Medicaid recipients to the countryside www.vox.com/politics/419...