The Baffler
@thebaffler.com
📤 25142
📥 101
📝 2131
Political and cultural criticism. Since 1988. Online and in print.
https://thebaffler.com/
pinned post!
The poptimists and sloptimists have won. Our new issue, “After Words,” describes our postliterate moment, when everything from serious criticism to literary fiction to children’s books seems on the verge of being replaced by content trash.
thebaffler.com/issues/no-81
about 2 months ago
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In the exhibit from our latest issue, Michael Oswell illustrates culture’s devolution into slop:
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Did You Know? | Michael Oswell
Press return to see results.
https://thebaffler.com/odds-and-ends/did-you-know-oswell
about 10 hours ago
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Trump officials have used Charlie Kirk’s murder as an excuse for doubling down on their own brand of McCarthyism. What is behind this grisly, carnivalesque display of self-entitlement and grievance?
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
about 12 hours ago
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This year might have been dreadful—but The Baffler published some pretty good work, if we do say so ourselves. Here are some highlights:
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Our Year of The Baffler, 2025
The Baffler looks back in anger at 2025.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/dirty-rotten-days
about 16 hours ago
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From the Archives: A.S. Hamrah on Thomas Kinkade, his branded merchandise, and the American Dream on the installment plan.
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A Cottage for Sale | A.S. Hamrah
The way Thomas Kinkade sells his paintings certainly bespeaks a desire to make people pay.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-cottage-for-sale?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
about 19 hours ago
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“With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.”
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
1 day ago
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Before the ADA, 80% of deaf students went to specialized residential schools. Afterwards, many got mainstreamed into public schools and given access to accommodations and ASL interpretation. But this could be socially—and linguistically—isolating.
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Manual Labor | Andrew Leland
How deaf artists and writers are grappling with a second Trump administration keen on dismantling the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/manual-labor-leland
1 day ago
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“I was seven or eight when I last felt the Christmas cheer, when my grandmother came to visit, by train, from this very town. She had brought along some presents. Santa had nothing on Grandma. That asshole never gave me anything in person.”
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Picture Postcards From Train Stations | Sven Popović
This is also how I confirm my theory about our skewed recollections of everything that happens.
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/picture-postcards-from-train-stations-popovic
1 day ago
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As Michael Oswell’s exhibit from our most recent issue demonstrates, the AI slurry we’re being force-fed was derived from the advertising nonsense that came before it.
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Did You Know? | Michael Oswell
Press return to see results.
https://thebaffler.com/odds-and-ends/did-you-know-oswell
1 day ago
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“‘The Christmas Cottage’ is a meta-movie like ‘Synecdoche, New York’—its alternate title could be ‘Being Thomas Kinkade’—but it’s a meta-movie for God-fearing grandparents.”
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A Cottage for Sale | A.S. Hamrah
The way Thomas Kinkade sells his paintings certainly bespeaks a desire to make people pay.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-cottage-for-sale?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
2 days ago
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“On Christmas Eve she announced that she was about to give birth, but that her guardian angel had told her she must do this completely alone to increase her suffering. She was locked in a little house; the whole convent prayed.”
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Magdalena of the Cross (Spain, 1487–1560) | Eliot Weinberger
She had visions; she fell into ecstasy. She made a lame man walk and a deaf man hear. Someone looked in her eyes when she was in a trance . . .
https://thebaffler.com/stories/magdalena-of-the-cross-weinberger
2 days ago
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It’s Christmas Eve. Join us as we revisit A. S. Hamrah’s heartwarming classic essay on the financial crisis and the direct-to-DVD Thomas Kinkade biopic, “The Christmas Cottage.”
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A Cottage for Sale | A.S. Hamrah
The way Thomas Kinkade sells his paintings certainly bespeaks a desire to make people pay.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-cottage-for-sale?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
2 days ago
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In the months since Charlie Kirk’s assasination, the pro-Trump right has accelerated its scorched earth war on the left.
@hannahgais.bsky.social
writes on the dangerous ambiguities of NSPM-7 and recent executive orders.
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
3 days ago
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In our most recent issue,
@quailty.bsky.social
considers contemporary deaf art and writing—particularly Rachel Kolb’s “Articulate” and Sara Nović’s “True Biz”—which navigates the many contradictions of deaf life in America.
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Manual Labor | Andrew Leland
How deaf artists and writers are grappling with a second Trump administration keen on dismantling the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/manual-labor-leland
3 days ago
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A year of The Baffler makes the perfect last-minute gift. Share The Baffler with your friend or relation—now for 20% off, when you use promo code YB25H2.
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Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
3 days ago
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From podcasters to passport bros, from eco-saboteurs to bodybuilders, we turned our discerning eye on a broad spectrum of human endeavor in 2025. Check out a round-up of some of our favorite work.
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Our Year of The Baffler, 2025
The Baffler looks back in anger at 2025.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/dirty-rotten-days
3 days ago
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On orality, education, and the d/Deaf binary:
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Manual Labor | Andrew Leland
How deaf artists and writers are grappling with a second Trump administration keen on dismantling the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/manual-labor-leland
3 days ago
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“When Oscar Wilde wrote that ‘a sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it,’ he didn’t know that someday an American painter would find a way to make sentimentalists pay for it in monthly installments.”
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A Cottage for Sale | A.S. Hamrah
The way Thomas Kinkade sells his paintings certainly bespeaks a desire to make people pay.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-cottage-for-sale?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
3 days ago
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Cochlear implants are divisive within deaf culture. For the protagonist of Sara Nović’s “True Biz,” they are both curse and catalyst. But Rachel Kolb’s memoir maintains a more ambivalent relationship to what the technology can offer.
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Manual Labor | Andrew Leland
How deaf artists and writers are grappling with a second Trump administration keen on dismantling the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/manual-labor-leland
3 days ago
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In their tidy new hermitage, Harmony and Rapture seek to build a small, gentle life. But nature hasn’t forgotten them, and they must either unseal the poison and pollute the natural order or consent to sharing their apartment with the rats.
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
4 days ago
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A subscription to The Baffler is the gift that keeps on giving.
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Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
4 days ago
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“For civil society advocates, the broad strokes that NSPM-7 uses to describe its targets and its obvious disconnect from any clear-eyed analysis of political violence contribute to the threat it poses”
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
4 days ago
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’Tis the season to pour yourself a glass of spiked nog and revisit A.S. Hamrah’s 2010 essay on Thomas Kinkade, “The Painter of Light,” and his saccharine direct-to-DVD biopic, “The Christmas Cottage.”
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A Cottage for Sale | A.S. Hamrah
The way Thomas Kinkade sells his paintings certainly bespeaks a desire to make people pay.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-cottage-for-sale?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
4 days ago
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From labor organizing to eco-saboteurs to professional wrestlers—here’s a helpful (but by no means comprehensive) compendium of some of the sharpest criticism, reporting, and fiction we published over the course of this extremely stupid year.
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Our Year of The Baffler, 2025
The Baffler looks back in anger at 2025.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/dirty-rotten-days
4 days ago
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Under NSPM-7, “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” are all now cause for suspicion—and possible prosecution. Yet the memo has received vanishingly little press coverage.
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
4 days ago
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reposted by
The Baffler
hannah gais
5 days ago
Despite what you may hear, antifa supersoldiers are not running Portland. (Unfortunately.) For
@thebaffler.com
, I wrote about Trump's war on the left, NSPM-7, and his administration's new attempts to mobilize the ressentiment of its supporters.
thebaffler.com/latest/phant...
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
4
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“The garden is doing its job, providing a beautiful backdrop that ennobles everyone who enters: the birds that fly in from the top down, the humans in the middle with their feet on the dirt and their minds in the air, and the vermin crawling on the ground.”
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
5 days ago
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Mob nostalgia is a big industry for Chicago, where Al Capone and Mooney Giancana operated their empire of lucrative assasination and labor influence. The reality under the tommy guns and fedoras is still very much a family affair.
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
5 days ago
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According to right-wing speechifiers, antifa supersoldiers are trying to destroy America and everything you hold dear. Sometimes, they do it while dressed as Cookie Monster.
@hannahgais.bsky.social
writes on NSPM-7 and the Trump administration’s war on the left.
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Phantom Threat | Hannah Gais
With enough conspiratorial flair, just about anyone can be a fire-breathing radical.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/phantom-threat-gais
5 days ago
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Did you know The Baffler offers gift subscriptions? Share our magazine with your most intelligent friend this holiday season—for 20% off, with promo code YB25H2.
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Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
6 days ago
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“True power elites—the national politicians, the financiers of capitalism, and the ivory-tower intelligentsia—sanctioned the Outfit’s rise: kingpins were incredibly useful for disciplining the radical potential of organized labor.”
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
6 days ago
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The country is seething and the world outside is a violent one. New fiction from Ari Braverman wonders about the moral cost of keeping such forces at bay while maintaining a gentle soul.
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
6 days ago
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Watching “Plainclothes,” you might get the idea that cruising crackdowns verging on entrapment are a thing of the past. But that’s not true—as Eric Dean Wilson points out, the sting operation is alive and well.
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Cruising for Normal | Eric Dean Wilson
“Plainclothes” reinforces many of the tired and moralizing claims about cruising that queer artists and activists have worked hard to counter.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/cruising-for-normal-wilson
6 days ago
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There is something suffering in the garden, and it might have every right to be there.
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
7 days ago
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Mobster adulation reveals an American appetite for a kind of old world moralism, where a hustler could get rich and aid would be doled out to those who deserved it.
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
7 days ago
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From the Archives: James Pogue decries the degradation of longform nonfiction writing, which all too often gets commissioned, written, and edited as “intellectual property” ripe for adaptation.
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They Made a Movie Out of It | James Pogue
America’s higher echelon of long-form journalists can now expect to make more money from Hollywood than they do from the publications that print their stories.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/they-made-a-movie-out-of-it-pogue?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
7 days ago
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Avoid the hassle and expense of rush shipping. Get your loved one a gift subscription to The Baffler instead.
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Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
7 days ago
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“The androgynous Child is the color of milk and corn and roses. His fat bare feet rest upon a starry cloud. His little hands reach into the air in a gesture that encompasses the universe.”
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
7 days ago
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“We are now in the mature stage of a book-to-film boom that is quietly transforming how Americans read and tell stories—and not for the better.”
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They Made a Movie Out of It | James Pogue
America’s higher echelon of long-form journalists can now expect to make more money from Hollywood than they do from the publications that print their stories.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/they-made-a-movie-out-of-it-pogue?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
7 days ago
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Your loved one is worth more than a trifle or a trinket, so this holiday season get them something they’ll really appreciate—a year of The Baffler. Purchase a gift subscription for just $40.
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Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
8 days ago
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Growing up in Chicago where the mob once held sway, Caleb Brennan heard legends of clandestine murders. Returning to the stories of Mooney Giancana and Big Tuna Accardo, he explains why the mafia is more than a memory: it is a political reality.
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
8 days ago
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From Kenneth Anger’s “Fireworks” to William Friedkin’s “Cruising” to Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats,” there’s no shortage of movies about cruising. Eric Dean Wilson writes on this year’s “Plainclothes,” which misses the mark.
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Cruising for Normal | Eric Dean Wilson
“Plainclothes” reinforces many of the tired and moralizing claims about cruising that queer artists and activists have worked hard to counter.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/cruising-for-normal-wilson
8 days ago
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In new fiction by Ari Braverman, a young couple moves into a garden apartment, only to discover they are not alone: a colony of rats live there, too. The lovers seek a humane solution. Perhaps the Divine Child can help.
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Brodifacoum and the Divine Child | Ari Braverman
Is there such a thing as a night squirrel? Do bats land? What color are possums at night?
https://thebaffler.com/fiction/brodifacoum-and-the-divine-child-braverman
8 days ago
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“The illusion of a hustler’s meritocracy made the American Dream seem attainable, even to those without blue blood.”
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
8 days ago
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It’s easy to see why Ms. Rachel’s YouTube videos blew up during the early days of the pandemic. They offered reprieve to parents cooped up with kids all day, and allegedly had educational benefits.
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Speak and Sell | Sophie Pinkham
The siren song of Ms. Rachel cannot be understood outside of America’s ongoing impoverishment of families.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/speak-and-sell-pinkham
8 days ago
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Fans of Wong Kar-wai’s oeuvre might find “Blossoms Shanghai,” with all its shimmering materialism and capitalist ambitions, to be shocking or disappointing. But these are the forces that built and shaped modern China—and the director knows his subject.
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In the Mood for Capital | Xiao Yue Shan
What to make of a director eschewing aesthetically rebellious, groundbreaking work in favor of insipid, typical melodrama?
https://thebaffler.com/latest/in-the-mood-for-capital-shan
8 days ago
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Still seeking the perfect gift for that impossible-to-buy-for person in your life? We know just the thing. Get ’em a year of The Baffler for 20% off when you use promo code YB25H2.
loading . . .
Give the Gift of THE BAFFLER
Share the gift of The Baffler with your friend or relation this holiday season. When you purchase a gift subscription, your lucky recipient will get five print issues and complete digital access to…
https://thebaffler.com/holiday-gift-subscription-2025
9 days ago
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From the Archives: James Pogue writes on when journalism becomes little more than IP for the streaming giants.
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They Made a Movie Out of It | James Pogue
America’s higher echelon of long-form journalists can now expect to make more money from Hollywood than they do from the publications that print their stories.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/they-made-a-movie-out-of-it-pogue?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=archival
9 days ago
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“Respectability is the enemy of progressive queer politics because it rarely seeks justice for behavior perceived as criminal.”
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Cruising for Normal | Eric Dean Wilson
“Plainclothes” reinforces many of the tired and moralizing claims about cruising that queer artists and activists have worked hard to counter.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/cruising-for-normal-wilson
9 days ago
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Poetry from Baffler no. 81: “Glass Octopus” by Matthew Zapruder
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Glass Octopus | Matthew Zapruder
I turned his fortune / into a sturdy vessel / that churned through countless waves
https://thebaffler.com/poems/glass-octopus-zapruder
9 days ago
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The Chicago Outfit once controlled everything from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Coast through intimidation, bribery, and murder. These days, writes Caleb Brennan, the mob is both nowhere and everywhere.
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Mob Rules | Caleb Brennan
The decadent and gore-filled half-century that was Chicago’s mobster heyday is still a family affair.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/mob-rules-brennan
9 days ago
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