Substack

• When the Cult Leader Renounces His Own Dogma

  How Trump’s Response to the Epstein Scandal Produced MAGA’s Crisis of Faith

• You Don’t Need to Have a Dick to Be One

  Wielding Big Phallic Energy in the Female MAGA-sphere

• Drill, Baby, Drill; Burn, Baby, Burn

  The Climate Nihilism of Taylor Sheridan’s "Landman" and Its Celebration of Petro-Masculinity

• A Political Swindle Becomes Scripture

  How 2020-Election Denial Morphed into the MAGA Cult’s Sacred Lie

• The Ludicrous Moral Panic Over The Pardon of Hunter Biden

  We are currently witnessing a shitstorm of pearl-clutching indignation and anguish among both the liberal and conservative commentariat over Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter.

• It’s the Fascism, Stupid

  On November 5th, MAGA voters knew what they were getting, but some pretended they didn’t want it – the violent purging of the racially “impure,” the control and punishment of women, a leader that would relieve them of freedom’s burdens, and a ruthless, sadistic, and unrestrained daddy who

• Aspirational Impunity and the MAGA Base

  Why They Love Trump for His Crimes, Corruption, and Unmodulated Hatred

• Change vs Hypocrisy

  The Interview Answer I Wish Kamala Had Given

• Weird

  The Political Adjective of the Moment and Why Republicans Hate It

• Political Anxiety in Red and Blue

  What Partisans Fear about the Upcoming Election

• King vs. Country

  How the Radically Different Tribal Moralities of Conservatives and Liberals Explain the Current Crisis of Democracy

• Hazard Ahead

  Grandpa is crossing the double-yellow line and heading for the oncoming MAGA panzer tank.

• The MAGA Pitch to People of Color

  In his ethnographic account of the culture of Trumplandia, Undertow, journalist Jeff Sharlet notes that most Trump rallies opened with a Black or Hispanic preacher.

• Why Kristi Noem Thought Puppy Murder Would Look Good on Her MAGA Resume

  When Kristi Noem first bragged about shooting her puppy, Cricket, in the face, little did she know that, politically, she was shooting herself in the foot.

• Messaging Boomerangs and the Perils of the "Pro-Palestinian" Frame

  Like many, I am overcome with bilious revulsion at the sight of the bloody and mangled remains of children strewn among the rubble in Gaza.

• The Tribe and the Tyrant

  Since completing Hatreds We Love, my book on the psychology of political tribalism, one particular set of questions has lingered in my mind: In an authoritarian movement, such as that organized around Donald Trump, how is the collective power of the tribe reconciled with the absolute power of the aspiring autocrat?

• Mass Murder Made Easy

  Hamas’ Brer Rabbit Approach to Terrorism and the Moral Myopia of the Identitarian Left

• From “Woke” to Comatose

  The Long-Term Goal of Curricular Fascism

• When Treason is Patriotism, and Betrayal is Loyalty

  Today, June 13, 2023, Donald Trump was arraigned on thirty-seven criminal counts in Florida related to mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice by refusing to return them.

• Heroes, Horses, and Real Estate at the End of the Heartland Dream

  A Close Look at What Makes Yellowstone a Red-State Fable That This Blue-State Intellectual Can’t Stop Watching, Part Six