Stuck arguing about the exact percentage of women who have a penis, Labour couldn’t talk about Britain’s housing crisis, high energy costs, crumbling infrastructure, poor economic growth, and high inflation (The Atlantic)
The Weird World of Social Media After Twitter
We are now living in the post-Twitter era, literally and metaphorically. After Musk’s rebrand, X marks the spot where a large number of people no longer want to be. (The Atlantic)
The Wrath of Goodreads
Viral campaigns target unpublished books all the time. What tends to happen is that one influential voice on Instagram or TikTok deems a book to be “problematic,” and then dozens of that person’s followers head over to Goodreads to make the writer’s offense more widely known. (The Atlantic)
Beware Of The Food That Isn’t Food
"Chris van Tulleken refuses to tell me what to have for breakfast. 'Everyone thinks that I have a strong opinion about what they should eat,' he tells me, as I hesitate between the eggs benedict and the full English. 'And I have almost no opinion.'
Now, this isn’t quite true." (The Atlantic)
Why So Many Conservatives Feel Like Losers
"As I arrived for the first day of the National Conservatism Conference in London, a protester outside shouted directions to me: 'Up the stairs—turn far right.'” (The Atlantic)
King Charles’s Absurd, Awe-Inspiring Coronation
"If the coronation proved anything, it’s that a great number of people in Britain are incredibly talented, albeit at skills that were last useful in the 18th century. Did you know, for example, that there are such things as “drum horses,” which the riders steer with reins attached to their feet? We’ve also got heraldic trumpeters, master embroiderers, and someone who can fix the suspension on a gold coach. If you need a “unicorn pursuivant” at short notice, Britain has you covered." (The Atlantic)
The Only Way Out of the Child-Gender Culture War
"I believe that these bans on child transition are unhelpful, illiberal, and in many cases disturbingly punitive—and I say that as someone with serious reservations about the most influential model of child gender care in America." (The Atlantic)