In an op/ed in the Austin American-Statesman, Robert Jensen and Patrick Youngblood of Third Coast point out that while Texas politics is particularly reactionary, the deeper problem is a U.S. political culture that can’t face reality. We spend little time decrying the ideological fanaticism of Republicans but instead highlight differences between our work on global […]

Many well meaning Americans trying to follow foreign policy are treated to a disjointed, confusing narrative that jumps from one flashpoint to another. Every few weeks a new crisis dominates the news, the reporting adds little to our understanding of the way the world works, and the resulting debate is shallow and familiar. Current news […]

NPR rarely engages radical critics, but this week the syndicated interview show “On Point” featured Noam Chomsky for an hour. Here’s how the show introduced the interview: These seem like big troubled times and Noam Chomsky joins us to give us his take on everything from the Occupy Movement to the Arab Spring. Noam Chomsky […]

While the Occupy phenomenon has helped put inequality on the political map, it’s important not to mistake it for a political movement. Of course, “Occupy” can mean different things in different places, but Matthew Noah Smith makes an important point in his essay “Reflections on Occupy’s May Day: All Play Doesn’t Work”: I do not […]

Noam Chomsky continues to help us focus on the key political questions in this new essay on TomDispatch.com, “A Rebellious World or a New Dark Age?” As is typical for Chomsky, he doesn’t back away from an honest account of what we face: We’re really regressing back to the dark ages. It’s not a joke.  […]