Long-form pieces — publishing, politics, culture, and whatever won't stay in the margins.
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A Quarter for the Bus
A man with almost nothing gave part of it to a stranger who pretended to need help. The video has been seen tens of millions of times. The conditions that put him on the sidewalk have not changed.
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Service Guarantees Contact
The argument about Starship Troopers is whether the franchise requirement is fascist or aspirational. That’s the wrong question. Service doesn’t select for virtue — it manufactures contact with people you’d never choose. You can’t dehumanize someone who kept you alive. The polarization data after 1973 follows from there.
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The Funeral Was Last Decade
British author median income fell 60% in real terms between 2006 and 2022. The full-time professional writer population halved. The midlist collapsed. ChatGPT shipped in November 2022. One of these things did not cause the others.