So, what exactly is the “new right”? 🎧
Running beneath Trump 2.0 are ideological faultlines branching out in all sorts of directions, shaping the surface of our politics. Zack Beauchamp’s interview with the political theorist Laura Field about what to make of the conservative intellectual landscape in 2025 is a fascinating tour that helped give me a framework for understanding what’s going on in this confusing American moment. (If you prefer to read it, here’s the Q&A on our site.)
Is America still capitalist? 🎧
President Donald Trump may have flung the “socialist” label at Joe Biden every chance he had, but, as Today, Explained’s Noel King notes, it’s Trump who has executed “some of the most un-free market, anticapitalist moves in recent memory.” From demanding a revenue-sharing agreement with Nvidia to a so-called golden share by the US government in US Steel, Trump has been more than willing to use the presidency to intervene in the workings of the economy.
The scandalous literary classic we’ve never stopped arguing about
It was recently reported that Jeffrey Epstein had a first edition of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel, widely regarded to be the Russian author’s masterpiece. The revelation resurfaced decades-old debates people have been having about the book, which tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a man who kidnaps and traps in a sexually abusive relationship his 12-year-old step-daughter – the Lolita of the title. Constance Grady unpacks why we still argue about Nabokov’s novel. “It is about America,” she writes, “the whole vast beautiful seedy map of it.”
Are we in a crisis of rudeness?
Allie Volpe’s question in her newest piece comes to mind almost every time I go to the movies. These days, a screening uninterrupted by somebody’s cell phone or chatter is more the exception than the norm. As Allie points out, “Are people today just more rude?” is a question every generation seems to ask. But there does seem to be something different about our current epidemic of impoliteness. Perhaps it has something to do with our crisis of attention; we may or may not be ruder today, but we’re certainly less aware of one another. We can do something about this crisis and reading Allie’s piece is a good start.
The decline of drinking, explained in one chart
There may be consternation in many corners regarding the direction of our country, but it’s certainly not driving people to drink. As Bryan Walsh points out in the latest dispatch of his Good News newsletter: Do yourself a favor, brighten up your inbox, and sign up. A new Gallup poll shows that just 54 percent of Americans say they drink alcohol. That’s the lowest on record since Gallup began polling the question in 1939. And not only that: People who still drink say they’re drinking less these days. Given that alcohol’s been associated with a whole host of health issues, it’s a reassuring finding. We can all drink (our mocktails) to that.
