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Postliberalism: a brief history of a resurgent ideology
This scumbag is a "postliberal." [The following interview was published here .] Introduction : Like any “ism,” liberalism is many things,...
Feb 228 min read


The science on low-carb vs. high-carb diets
The subject of this post is pretty far afield from what I usually write about, but the book I just read is so brilliant I had to write a...
Aug 24, 20241 min read


"Journal of a Dissenter," 1996-2024
Probably unwisely, I've posted my lifelong intellectual journal online, specifically on Google Books . It's a very long document that no...
Jul 2, 20242 min read

NATO's endgame appears to be nuclear war
[This article was published at Compact .] The world is at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Back then,...
Jun 25, 20244 min read


Thoughts on the Gaza genocide, the worst crime of the 21st century (so far)
My journal helps keep me sane. From January to March I've occasionally jotted down thoughts on the horrors occurring every day in Gaza,...
Apr 17, 20246 min read


Notes on botany
I've found politics so incredibly bleak lately, and I've been so frustrated by my inability to make any kind of difference...
Apr 16, 202410 min read


Postliberalism: a dangerous “new” conservatism
[This article was published in The Philosophical Salon.] In Wilhelm von Humboldt’s book The Limits of State Action (1792), one of the...
Oct 16, 202325 min read


Postliberals against the common good
[Published at Common Dreams.] “The Republican Party is the most dangerous organization in human history,” says Noam Chomsky. It seems...
Sep 8, 20238 min read


Nikole Hannah-Jones, Frederick Douglass, and the Left
[Published at Dissident Voice and other places.] Twitter conversations with public intellectuals are rarely worthy of note, but a recent...
Sep 6, 20238 min read


Love of freedom defines the political left, not the right
[This article was published at Sublation and other venues.] Political discourse in the United States consists largely of lies and...
May 18, 20239 min read


What “security threat” does China pose?
[This article was published at Common Dreams.] Everyone who abhors war, detests imperialism, and favors cooperation between nations on...
May 2, 20239 min read


The second Cold War is more dangerous than the first
[Published in Compact magazine.] Twenty years ago, Noam Chomsky published a bestselling book called Hegemony or Survival. Since then, the...
Apr 21, 20237 min read


The left and the war in Ukraine
[Published at Common Dreams.] To be a leftist in the United States is a dispiriting experience, but in the last year one of the more...
Apr 19, 20234 min read


Dusk in Vietnam
[This is a short story I wrote twenty years ago after visiting Vietnam for a couple of weeks. It starts with a dream and ends with...
Mar 11, 202326 min read

How to rebuild the left
[Published in Dissident Voice.] One might as well state the matter clearly: given the realities of global warming, rampant environmental...
Feb 25, 20237 min read

The righteous outrage of Norman Finkelstein
[A book review published at Common Dreams.] As I was reading Norman Finkelstein’s new book, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!:...
Feb 3, 202321 min read


The Book of Joe: A Satire of Capitalist Society
Here's an insanely long post. It's actually a "literary experiment" I wrote almost twenty years ago (as the following preface says, which...
Jan 31, 202355 min read


Only class struggle can save the left
[This article was published at Sublation.] A striking paradox of the history of the left is that it is full of self-defeat. From the...
Nov 4, 202222 min read


A free copy of my book
Last summer I published the book version of my Ph.D. dissertation, bearing the ungainly title Popular Radicalism and the Unemployed in...
Sep 25, 20222 min read


"Race reductionism" threatens to doom the left
[This article was published at Sublation magazine.] The reparations debate is getting old. But it shows little sign of abating. Academic...
Aug 31, 202219 min read
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