In the shadow of the Cold War, the rise of creative writing programs and ‘show don’t tell’ philosophy drained fiction of its political bite.

There is a difference between political actions that are expressive and those that are tactical. We have to act on the basis of what works, not what feels noble.

As Dr. Mark Vonnegut argues in his new book, most of us are defenseless against medical care that is indifferent or carried out by burned out healthcare workers. Yet many of us receive this type of care every day.

The eminent scholar on the worsening threat of nuclear warfare, how to end the war in Ukraine, the self-justifying myths propagated by imperial powers, why the Global South finds American moralizing laughable, and more.

The paper says redistributing the wealth of the 735 richest people would “only” give every single person $14,000. But that would be amazing.

The failure of economic planning in the Soviet Union does not mean that effective socialist economic planning will never be possible.

While the world’s fastest-growing religious faith offers material benefits and psychological uplift to many people, it also pushes a reactionary political agenda aligned with dangerous far-right leaders.

Societies can carry out Nazi-level atrocities without most people noticing the moral depravity around them. We need to be more disturbed by things commonly assumed to be normal.